Good advice.

Alan

Sorry to hear of your bad experience. eBay can be a crap shoot when it comes to most things, seeds included.

FWIW, there is a Forum here on GW called "Rate and Review Vendors". On that Forum, there is a thread for rating eBay sellers (link below). You may want to add your comments there as well.

Just an FYI.

Rick

Here is a link that might be useful: rate eBay sellers thread

Thanks Karen

Hey, at least you didn't buy plants that turned out to have the wrong color blossoms 3 years later when they finally bloomed. Yup, I did it, LOL.

Hello,
Just another word of warning.

The PayPal dispute proccess heavily favors the seller. PayPal closed my dispute case without researching my side of the issue and found in favor of the seller. My comments did not even appear in the dispute comments. Only the sellers appeared. They refused to even consider that the tracking number did not show that my order ever shipped.
Frankflynn said he shipped it, so that was that. PayPal Buyer Protection seems to be a myth.
Karen

I have a problem with him right now 4 orders and would not put 40 little seeds in one envolpe guys out to lunch thats how I ended up with the ptairie Fire seeds he sent me the wrong thing last year. Paid for bolvin seeds really nice looking and got the other instead. Says he sends extras but doesn't I have not left my feedback

I personally have never had trouble with the paypal dispute process. I've had to use it a couple of times and received a refund every time. I'm sure it is case dependant, but if you haven't already filed a paypal dispute, you've got nothing to lose by trying.

Good luck....Heather

Anyone who buys chile seeds on EBay without doing some research (almost universal negatives) is asking for trouble.

New chile growers have no idea what to expect and unethical sellers exploit this.

Buy chile seeds from reputable seed purveyors.

Seems lately it doesn't matter what you buy on e-bay, you may or may not get it, you may or may not get what you order. They just convicted some big famous singer for selling stuff that didn't exist. I've pretty much given up on e-bay over the past couple of years.
Tally HO!

gm folks ,
sorry to hear so many people are not happy with ebay .

karen , i am an ebay sellers and not sure why you did not get refund . you are very protected with paypal and ebay . did you respond to ebay within required time limit after the dispute started? if you did not see any of your comments, i think something may have not been filled out properly . i personally would contact paypal and ebay again , and i would also call the office . again sorry to see this happen to anyone .

i do grow and collect a few seeds from peppers and would gladly share some for your garden this coming year . cayenne, pablamo jalapeno .

in no way i'm i trying to promote my ebay , but think there is several good vendors out there . i do not buy wholesale and actually grow everything i sell. i mainly buy brugmansia seeds on ebay so it may not be exactly the same as veggies.

rick , thank you for posting the ebay rating thread !!! i will pass this threat to the brugmansia forum on here .

willard , you are so right about doing research .

thanks to all the people that post on these threads . i'm a lurker and read allot in gardenweb forums, i just love them .

happy gardening
eddie

I've taken the chance and purchased seeds from eBay a few times. I guess I've been lucky as the plants have grown true so far. But I don't just look at the feedback score, I go back and read the feedback comments, and sometimes contact the vendor with questions before I purchase. If it's taking too long to get an item, I send a polite inquiry to remind them and to see what's up. Most of them appreciate it. Also, you need to read every line in the plant description(many are wrong)and beware of the word "rare", for it's usually not(this also applies to other online vendors)!
So far, the only seeds I didn't receive were popped out of the envelope from being packaged poorly(although I still had plenty that were left), but that happened with a GW trade before too.
Do your research as Willard says, and know exactly what it is your looking for.

Hello,
Well,I finally received my purchase from frankyflynn. That little so and so sent me a completely empty bubble mailer. Unbelievable! I have been ebaying for 10 years and I have never encountered something like this before. Yes, there are reasonable and ethical sellers on Ebay, but this guy isn't one of them.
The good news is that when I called PayPal they redirected my call to ebay and they are issuing me a refund. They must of heard the tone of utter shock in my voice, and then knew I was telling the truth. Ebay also admitted that they mishandled my original dispute and that they should have found in my favor the first time.
Karen

The problem with ordering seeds even from what appears to be a reputable Ebay seller is that it takes 5 months or more to determine if the seeds are true or not. By that time, it's way too late to post your findings in the Ebay feedback (or plant what you really wanted for that season).

I almost bought seeds from e-bay. I thought about it and then searched "best place for hot pepper seeds". Found a supplier that was recommended by many growers and bought seeds from her. Received them 4 days later, along with a catalog. We'll have to see if I got what I bought in a few months, but she was highly recommended.

As far as paypal is concerned, I've only had to dispute a purchase once, for an $800.00 set of speakers. They kept telling me to give the guy a chance to make it right, so I did, for a month. I finally pushed it, and contacted my credit card company. Within 48 hours of contacting Visa, my money was back in my account.

I've ordered seeds from four differnet vendors on Ebay and all have been great transactions and all seeds so far have been true to type.

http://stores.ebay.com/AndeanCropSeeds
http://stores.ebay.com/The-Chilli-Man
http://myworld.ebay.com/rochahara/
http://stores.ebay.com/pepperseedsterratimetide

Aside from the fraud, buying seeds from an eBay seller is risky. You cannot be sure what them may turn out to be until it is too late. Those home gardeners may not have taken precausion to prevent cross pollination and seed may not be mature enough to germinate.

The important lesson to be learned here is:

Never buy chile seeds on EBay, buy from a reputable seed purveyor.

I bought some datil seeds about 3 years ago from an ebay seller but I got just what I asked for, he was very helpful. I know there are a lot of sellers who are less than honest but some of the ebayers are good guys. You just have to check them out. Better off buying from real seed sellers to be safe. The bad experiences seem to be outnumbering the good ones lately for some reason...ebay is changing like everything else.

I buy and sell thousands of dollars of stuff on ebay but I would never buy seeds and plants they are to easy to get elsewhere I find if you buy used on ebay it is almost always a good deal on a quality product that somebody didn't need Stuff that is new can be ordered elswere usually for less and with warrenty

frankflynn is still selling Maxi-Jala seeds on Ebay but now in subdued print he is calling the seeds a F2 Hybrid!!! United Genetics developed the Maxi-Jala variety as an F1 hybrid. So in a round about way, he is admitting that he is not selling true Maxi-Jala seeds. Unfortunately, most folks won't notice the "fine print" or know what it really means.

Wish i would have saw this earlier, just order from him. Will let everyone know how it goes.

I also sell on ebay, its not all bad. Its like anything in this world, it how some people abuse the site, its not everyone. Its just the negative seems to speak louder than the positive.

You know, I've never really heard any positives......

Ok, Just stating some facts, I am in the middle of a dispute with him.
It has been a week since I paid for the seeds and there still in Arizona today, it will be at least another 3 till i get them according to usps.

When i Complained that he held my seeds for a week before shipping this is what I received back.

"I did not hold the seeds. as my policy clearly states, IT TAKES ONE DAY PER ITEM FOR PROCESSING. 12 days processing, and it took my 7. Sounds like I'm ahead of the curve there. If you read MYWORLD or the ME policy on seeds sales, it also clearly states that the items will be shipped on the FOLLOWING BUSINESS DAY following the weekend. So if anything, your payment on Monday was processed by Friday, and shipped Monday. I also sent you an email updating you on the package status.Secondly, your item has been sent. If you would like a refund, RETURN THE ITEMS. NO REFUND WILL BE GIVEN UNLESS ITEMS ARE SHIPPED BACK AND SEED COUNT IS ACCURATE. ( I packaged them myself, I know how many seeds are there.)FF"

I know I will not be dealing with him again after this mess is straighten out.

I've ordered a lot of things from people on ebay & have had no problems with anybody. I don't buy ONLY peppers, though.. I often buy complete garden sets, tomatoes, flowers, etc.. I've bought some peppers recently, but not from the guy mentioned- frank something or other.

I've bought seeds on ebay for years & had no problems..

Sorry that a few of you have had bad experiences.. Maybe you just found the bad apples out of all the sellers... That's sad. :(