# Anyone have ebay trouble?



## ADA (14 Oct 2014)

I bought a set of tmc tiles and a bar with a controller from ebay, delivered today and they don't work, out of 25 LEDs total, 5 work lol, if the seller decides not to get back to me I just wanna know if I will get my £350 back through PayPal so thought I'd ask if anyone else had this trouble?

Cheers

Steve


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## darren636 (14 Oct 2014)

You should get your money back, as long as you didn't send the money via gift.

I would be really angry .

That's unacceptable

Can you link to the eBay advert?


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## ADA (14 Oct 2014)

I know I'm so p****d off! Heres the link http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aqua-Ray-...0?pt=UK_Pet_Supplies_Fish&hash=item4d2571cd94


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## Vazkez (14 Oct 2014)

Contact Ebay they will give you money back


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## ADA (14 Oct 2014)

All I can do is open a dispute, if the seller doesn't get back to me by 22nd October I have to escalate it with ebay further.


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## darren636 (14 Oct 2014)

Says items function properly.
 Oh dear.
Unless they were packaged poorly and damaged in transit- looks like seller was taking the piss.


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## ADA (14 Oct 2014)

They were fully bubble wrapped and in 3 boxes lol


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## darren636 (14 Oct 2014)

ADA said:


> They were fully bubble wrapped and in 3 boxes lol


Are you sure its nothing to do with the controller?
Perhaps the seller had them on a funny pattern or something 
 A stab in the dark, I know.


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## Andy D (14 Oct 2014)

darren636 said:


> Are you sure its nothing to do with the controller?
> Perhaps the seller had them on a funny pattern or something
> A stab in the dark, I know.



Seems a possibility though.


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## ADA (14 Oct 2014)

Well after messing with them for a while I ended up with 14 of 25 working lol funny thing is you can't program certain ones to come on, they either all come on or all go off ramping up or down, might be the controller but I dunno, I'm thinking full refund and buy new lol.


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## MirandaB (14 Oct 2014)

It's a pain and takes time but you have to go through the hoops with ebay so if the seller doesn't contact you or doesn't sort it satisfactorily you can then open a SNAD which is item significantly not as described (if you haven't already done so).
99.9% per cent of the time ebay will side with a buyer in these cases and so long as you paid via paypal for goods and services NOT as a gift then you are protected.
You will have to send the item back to the seller by trackable post and once they have received it ebay will then refund you in full.


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## drodgers (15 Oct 2014)

I have but the seller has always taken care of it .. Partial refund once and a full refund and I kept the item.

I'm currently waiting for HQI Metal Halide bulbs from china kinda curious how this will pan out 

Can you reset the controller ?


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## EnderUK (15 Oct 2014)

Most ebay sellers will just tell you send it back and most will cover postage, if they don't then don't be cheap, pay for registered delivery then you're covered. Ebay ill sort it out and if they don't paypal will.


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## ADA (15 Oct 2014)

Thanks everyone, they got back to me and it's now on its way back then full refund, gonna get another controller from fleabay and buy the tiles new so I have a warranty, tbh I only need 2 tiles on a 120x45x45 anyway, the bar was a bit overkill.


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## ian_m (15 Oct 2014)

ADA said:


> they got back to me and it's now on its way back then full refund,


Interesting they accepted it back so quickly, no quibble, no "did you reset the controller", no "have you turned on all lights", no help in helping you debug your problem...almost as if they knew there would be an issue ????


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## ADA (15 Oct 2014)

That's what I thought lol is there a reset button on the controller? I set it up from scratch but there isn't a way of only having certain leds on anyway as far as I know, it's just percentage of brightness control


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## Zak Rafik (16 Oct 2014)

My my. It's awfully brave of you to buy lights from EBay worth £350. I rather buy from a local shop. 
I bought something also through EBay about a month ago and till now it's not delivered. You're lucky. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## ian_m (16 Oct 2014)

Zak Rafik said:


> It's awfully brave of you to buy lights from EBay worth £350


I would have gone to collect at that price.

However collect in person can work against the seller, as my mate tried to flog his old laptop, Ebay buyer paid in advance, buyer turned up then decided that the 14" screen was too small and wasn't for him, refused to take it away, filed a non delivery against my mate...all got rather nasty, PayPal tried to take a charge back of the money and failed as the linked account had no money in it, Ebay account locked out due to unpaid bill...Eventually my mate refunded the money, but spent ages getting the PayPal and Ebay fees refunded, despite asking the buyer to pay as his change of mind caused the costs.. Buyer is no longer an Ebay member, it appears every transaction he was involved in got negative feed back.


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## parotet (16 Oct 2014)

I'm not that brave buying on the internet... Just cheap items and very reliable sellers, like our sponsors or similar ones. Even with cheap things I have found problems. For example, I exchanged some plants cuttings with a guy in my town, and when we met and saw what he was bringing, he had identified wrongly all the plants! No problem if you lose your time or a few euros, but to spend above 100 I prefer to make sure I won't have any problem. Additionally I live in a medium -big town with several good lfs... So if I buy online is just for sales or items that for strange reasons are expensive locally (like co2 items). 

Jordi


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## Zak Rafik (16 Oct 2014)

parotet said:


> .. So if I buy online is just for sales or items that for strange reasons are expensive locally (like co2 items).
> 
> Jordi



I had ordered an acrylic feeding contraption which I haven't seen in the local LFS and a adjustable spray bar from Hong Kong. It has been a month now and nothing in the letter box till now. The shipping was stated as "free". Ever heard of free lunches?

The least the seller could do is to keep the buyer informed about the shipping process. After I paid via PayPal, I haven't heard a single word from the seller although he or she has 98% satisfaction rating on eBay.  


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Tim Harrison (16 Oct 2014)

I've had countless problems with eBay vendors over the years - don't use it that much these days - but I've hardly ever lost out. The dispute process is heavily waited against the seller, so all you have to do as a buyer is make sure you pay via PayPal and follow that process. Must admit though it can still be a mighty PITA in terms of wasted time and disappointment...


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## parotet (16 Oct 2014)

Zak Rafik said:


> I haven't heard a single word from the seller although he or she has 98% satisfaction rating on eBay.


Yep, I guess there might be plenty of ways to be rated as a top seller being a thief
Don't mean there are no good chinese eBay sellers of course but, as mentioned, for me it is only for cheap stuff. In a recent post, someone was asking for light recommendations. I mentioned that sometimes even the most classy stuff (for example, ADA Aquasky 361 costs around 150-200€) is not that expensive compared to chinese copies (Aquasky Chihiros 361 is 100€ not including shipping, this probably 120€)... you are saving around 50€ but if the light do not arrive or it is broken the day after at least you can have your money back without any problem. For larger models the difference is huge but... you still have the risk of paying 250€+ to who? for what? in which conditions?

Jordi


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## drodgers (16 Oct 2014)

Zak Rafik said:


> It has been a month now and nothing in the letter box till now. The shipping was stated as "free". Ever heard of free lunches?


 Im sitting in the same boat both items im waiting on shipped free? Im getting worried its been weeks


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## GreenNeedle (16 Oct 2014)

parotet said:


> Yep, I guess there might be plenty of ways to be rated as a top seller being a thief
> Jordi



Maybe lost in translation?  It is very hard to be rated as a top seller.  It relies on customers clicking on those stars.  For me to have TRS status any negatives or neutral feedback or poor ratings when you click your stars means I am very close to losing top rated seller status.  You have to be over 4.8 out of 5 on the stars to keep it.  So it is impossible for a 'thief' to get TRS.  A lot of 'non positives' would need a vast amount of positives to retain TRS status.

I have 1841 positive and 1 neutral from my 1842 feedbacks.  No negatives.  That 1 neutral annoys me 

That is one reason they managed to con everybody into doing free postage.  As a seller it is a no brainer.  If we offer free postage then it stops the buyer from being able to rate the postage charge.  It also stops people from charging silly postage to make their money without paying ebay fees.

The main problem has always been that if something costs me £2.50 to post I will charge £3.00 postage to cover the jiffy bag and the percentage paypal take of it.  The problem before the free postage was that a very high percentage (higher than 50%) would look at the postage charge and if it was more than the stamp they would put a low mark for postage cost on their feedback which was a killer.  Now that it is 'free postage' I will add £3.30 to the item cost.

So you don't pay any postage charge now..........you pay £3.30 more for the item.............and if you want more than 1 item you pay the 'free postage' for every item.  The buyer loses out.

As to the OPs problem.  Ebay is a nightmare for sellers when people are scamming.  In your case you have a valid problem and this will be pretty straight forward.  If it is not to do with the controller and the item has a problem then you will be able to get the seller to refund you the return postage as well.  Paypal will automatically do it all.  You open a case in the resolution centre if he doesn't reply to you, then just follow the procedure and you'll get what you paid plus your return postage.


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## ADA (17 Oct 2014)

Funny as I was told soon as he had the kit back I'd get refunded, it was delivered at 14:30 and I've heard nothing


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## drodgers (17 Oct 2014)

Cc refund can take up to a full day to show up .email them again if you don't see your money tommorow or a reply file it with eBay.


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## parotet (17 Oct 2014)

SuperColey1 said:


> Maybe lost in translation?  It is very hard to be rated as a top seller.  It relies on customers clicking on those stars.


Apologies for this statement that sounds too hard... Probably due to a mixture of fast typing and non accurate translation from Spanish to English (I guess it sounds harder in English). I also recognize I don't have the knowledge you have regarding ebay ratings and operations, but what really amazes me is that people reporting bad experiences here and in other forum (and especially items purchased from China, and more specifically with lily pies and LEDs) have bought from sellers that were not that bad rated. It seems obvious that if I am going to buy something and I found myself with a very bad rating, I will avoid this seller... Thus this makes me think that some bad sellers seem to have managed somehow to hide under good ratings.

Jordi


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## GreenNeedle (17 Oct 2014)

A Chinese seller may sell cheap and nasty stuff but most people add feedback very soon after receiving an item.  Most of the stuff the chinese sell is fine out of the box so people leave positive feedback.  If it breaks or falls apart a month later you have already left your feedback.

ADA - if you paid from a CC card through paypal (i.e. not from a balance) then it could take a few days more but you will get refunded.  Do it through ebay though.  The seller will be made to play ball.


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## ADA (17 Oct 2014)

After more emails finally got refunded today, gonna have to go through PP to get back the £30 postage this has cost me tho.


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## ian_m (17 Oct 2014)

ADA said:


> After more emails finally got refunded today


Result. But all seems mighty suspicious that they so easily accepted the lights back with no quibble...Good luck on postage.


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