Have you ever been scammed on Ebay?

14 years ago

This is what happen to me:

The seller is art-with-oomp and her Ebay store is The Orchid Guild. I bid for the 2 ochids and lost with the bidding. She offered me second chace to buy at the price that I lost(total $30.10). I paid her on May 5th and after a week still no orchids and I checked her Ebay store, guess what, it closed. I still wondering if she doesn't have anything to hide, why closed the store so soon? I emailed her about the orchids which I haven't receive yet and no answer from her whatsoever. There is a Fedex's tracking number but when I clicked on that number, it said the items could not be found on the system. I contacted Paypal and filed a claim for the scam but don't know if I can get my money back.

Ps: Her Ebay store have pictures of trays of good healthy plants and it seems that different cattleya that she lists all have the same picture of that healthy looking tray of plants. I've seen those same pictures in other Ebay store in another seller name. All seem dissapear after a short time listing on Ebay. Right now some of orchid listings look almost the same with the way this seller listed before, I don't know if it's her again in diferent name.

These are the two orchids that I bid

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (9)

richardol
14 years ago
One bit of good news is that you will probably get your money back. Paypal in on your side and if the store is closed and you can't contact the seller it shouldn't take too long.

Pictures are sometimes "borrowed" from other sources. I have some Laelia anceps pictures that show up on a regular basis and OrchidSpecies.com has a big notice on its front page about not using their pictures. It is too bad, and those of us who make it a point to use pictures from the particular plant or a division are hurt by the practice.

My feeling is that while I wouldn't buy a flat screen TV on EBay, there probably is very little intentional scamming in the orchid section.
thuvucute
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks Richardol.
Related Discussions
Have you ever been so sick you thought you're going to die?
Q
Comments (56)
Well what a great report from you, pitimpinai!! The last I heard you were still very low in energy and still on a ton of medication and little appetite, and listen to you, helping the neighbor till up a lawn! LOL What a nice neighbor you were to plant tomatoes and Dahlias. :-) I am happy to hear that you've also benefited from a shorter work day. Great that you had all that time off saved up. I bet you really needed it to get your energy back. We have gotten pretty much back to what is normal for us here. The weather has been stupendous in the past month! I have never seen the cover crop in the veggie beds so high. We've also gotten all the leaves mowed and collected in bins, ours and three neighbors. [g] We have gotten somewhat cleaned up for the year in the garden, but I keep adding to my list of what I want to get done before the weather turns. Still have a small amount of bulbs to plant and three shrubs to get in the ground, some pots to clean and put away and that will just about do it. I am actually looking forward to a break from the garden. Not that we don't get outside and enjoy it, but it's nice this time of year, to focus on other things. During the gardening season, the garden seems to push out other priorities. [g] I enjoy the winter garden and by the time spring comes, I am just itching to get back to a new growing season. Glad you are able to enjoy gardening again and hope you stay well this winter! :-)
...See More
Have you ever purchase palm trees off of ebay?
Q
Comments (3)
I can't answer your legal question about confiscation (why are they being confiscated??), but I have ordered many palms on eBay--mostly with great success. I have about 8 large Canary palms--7 were started from seed (very easy from seed if you can wait a few years). My largest (about 7 feet and wide), I got on eBay as a 1 gallon. Purchased it from a grower in Miami (where summer conditions are VERY HUMID), so when it arrived it was covered in ugly black spots. I figured at the time it was related to the South Florida climate so just kept the plant and sure enough, it quickly outgrew the ugly spots.--I love canariensis palms!!
...See More
Ebay--Have you been dooped?
Q
Comments (23)
I have never sold anything on eBay, but I've been buying from eBay since 2001. My rating is 100%. I've got a feedback score of nearly 400, but it's more than 220 less than the actual number of positive feedbacks that I've received, because there are a number of sellers from whom I've purchased more than once. (You only get "credit" for the first feeback from a seller.) I would have to say that, no, I've never been duped on eBay, but I have had a few less-than-stellar experiences. Nothing that would prevent me from buying on eBay again. I disagree with Redcurls' comment about a rating of 99.5% being not very good. The percentage is determined by the total number of feedback received, so the more feedback someone has, the more negatives they have to have before their percentage goes down. I've seen more than one seller who is shown with a 100% rating, but who have received quite a few negative feedbacks -- but their total number of feedback is so huge that, in comparison, the negatives are negligible. What I do, if there is an item that I really want and the seller has any negatives, is read the negatives -- all of them -- and also check the feedback of the folks who have left those negatives. I've seen negative feedback that says, "Item is great. Thanks so much!" -- I find myself wondering what that buyer was smoking before leaving feedback. Why give someone a negative (or even a neutral), if you are writing only good comments??? I don't hold those negatives against a seller. I've also seen negative feedback where the buyer makes a comment about the item being dirty, or with some damage, etc., then the seller makes a comment in response that this was clearly described in the auction page. I look at the auction page and see that, yes, the seller was very honest about the condition of the item. If the buyer is too dumb to read the full description, or to look at the included photos, then it's the buyer's fault and I'm not going to hold that negative feedback against that seller.
...See More
Have you ever been elated to leave a job?
Q
Comments (25)
Two25, I am very happy for you being able to leave your current job situation and take a break. A long time ago, early in my career, I was very happy to leave one job. The people I worked with and the work itself were great, but the boss at the top was awful. He had staff meetings where he rambled on for an hour and a half about nothing. He would endlessly talk about himself and what HE had been doing, as he was always on the road in DC or somewhere. It was all blah, blah, blah, and none of us could ever figure out what he had said and what it had to do with what our mission was. None of us ever really knew what he was up to as he didn’t really bring us new work. We later found out he had some nefarious deals going on, along with another supervisor who was always pretty shady too. These were government employees who were ‘reassigned’ as I found out later. I was the only female engineer and it was really hard to imagine getting ahead or promoted. I started applying for jobs and sure enough, got a call one day. I didn’t realize just how really unhappy and stuck I felt until I got into my new job. Best move I ever made.
...See More
frank325
14 years ago
If you are correct that you were scammed, I'm sure you'll get your money back.
seamommy
14 years ago
I hope you do get your money back, I didn't. I never buy anything from Ebay anymore. But I do use Ebay to locate sellers in my area and will contact them directly. I won't send money to someone I never met to buy something I haven't seen. Once I see the product, the actual one I am getting, then I will pay the money.

And that's a shame on those thieves who use a good system to cheat honest people out of hard-earned money. I know you'd rather have had the plants in the pictures, but it's very likely that Ebay seller never even saw a real orchid. Cheryl
thuvucute
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks everyone. I'm just a student who unfortunately addict to orchid too soon ;). Instead of buying clothes,I save for orchids so I feel angry with people that are not honest on Ebay.
Thanks again
justplaindon
14 years ago
I'll have to jump in and say that I've been particularly lucky, but I'm usually very picky about who I buy from on ebay. It has to be something extremely unusual before I will get anything from someone with feedback only in the teens (but it has to be 100% positive). Likewise if they have thousands of feedbacks and they have a sudden track record of bad sales I will avoid them. Thanks to some mention on here, there are more than a couple of people I will avoid and likewise thanks to people on here there are several that I always check out.

Take all that for what it's worth.

L8r,
Don

Here is a link that might be useful: JustPlainOrchids website (non-commercial website)
knick-knack
14 years ago
I do hope you get your money back. I remember the items being sold by the eBay seller you mentioned --- mainly divisions of species catts that are rarely offered (definitely grabs the attention of every serious collector). This seller was using the same set of pictures of the 'divided' plants to represent the items for sale wherein it looked to me like Brassovola Nodosa hybrid (e.g. Bc Maikai) having longish/slim pbulbs and a compact size. Furthermore, several items being listed as C. Lady Spots looks bogus because the name is not found in RHS database and the flower picture was similar to C. Trianaei 'Stewart' or 'Clement Moore' :( What's more fishy is that when looking at the positive feedback prior to the time the seller started selling orchids, it was built up from scratch within 15 days buying miscellaneous cheap items in eBay that cost less than $10.
cookie_m
14 years ago
I have been lucky thus far-

I ALMOST got scammed by this person- new user name was orchid_gallery or something, had some interesting things on sale and silly me decided to bid on two things

What I noticed as suspicious, some of the pictures were borrowed, all feedback was as a buyer in timeframe of a week, also I found that this person had one or two friends who continually one-uped the bids on ALL the plants that were listed, this person said her name was jenny and was going through a divorce, so she needed to clear her collection. But the pictures of the plants were not cohesive.
I asked her to send an invoice, she sent one via google check out like 2 days ago, I told her I would only be paying via paypal- as of this evening she is no longer a listed member on ebay.

I guess the rule is, if its suspicious and the deal is too good to be true it is . better safe than sorry!

I hope you get your money back, if you paid with CC, try to call them and see if you can file a claim and get your money back that way!
thuvucute
Original Author
14 years ago
Cookie m,
orchid_gallery was the name this person used before 'orchid guild'and I read her listing from the beginning that she lost her job and struggle with morgate payments. After a few listings, the message changed with different description, I should have paid attention to this :C .
She did offer me to pay through another check out rather than Paypal. What a Scam!!!
Anyway, Paypal showed the email of the seller and her name was a Spanish name.
Good new! Paypal said that they will credit back my money, I just have to wait a few days for the statement processing.

Ps. PLEASE keep every emails and receipts if you bid on Ebay. You never know what might happen to you and Be careful!

Thanks everyone!

Have you ever been scammed on Ebay?

Comments (9)

richardol

thuvucute
Original Author

Related Discussions

frank325

seamommy

thuvucute
Original Author

justplaindon

knick-knack

cookie_m

thuvucute
Original Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Have you ever been scammed on Ebay?

Comments (9)

richardol

thuvucuteOriginal Author

Related Discussions

frank325

seamommy

thuvucuteOriginal Author

justplaindon

knick-knack

cookie_m

thuvucuteOriginal Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

thuvucute
Original Author

thuvucute
Original Author

thuvucute
Original Author