I've had all good experiences buying on Ebay but I've found selling to be a bit more stressful. Right now I'm trying to get a buyer to send me pictures of anitem that she claims arrived damaged, so I can start the insurance claim process. And one guy wouldn't pay me for what he won so when I left him a negative, he left me one, too. That clenched my jaw.

I don't blame you for being upset about the sheets, Ninos. That is a huge error. How did the feedback go on that?

I have bought and sold many things on ebay and only once when I bought did I have trouble. I had a seller that ended up being kicked off ebay despite having a lot of positive feedbacks being a power seller. What she was doing was sending things to all her customers in the States but not sending to her International customers. A friend of mine and I both bought from her and my friend never got her parcel. I did get mine eventually but it took a lot of writing and complaining to ebay before I finally did receive it. I didn't neg her but my friend did which is why I think I got my parcel in the end. She was so full of lies it was almost comical. When we investigated the negs, it was only international people that didn't get her products and there were many from different countries. Funny, about a year later we saw that she was back on ebay only using a different seller name and she was up to her old habits of screwing International bidders. She got kicked off ebay once again.

As a seller, we had one incident that made me laugh. We were selling computer program Yearbooks for each year. They were listed under computer programs, a picture of the CD was posted in each listing, I gave the computer requirements for the CD. I got a neutral feedback saying the purchaser thought he was buying a book. DUH! He is no longer a registered user either.

We did find that sending to apartment buildings or university dorms meant that sometimes people did not get their items and we had to resend. Often these places would just leave things out on counters and anyone could take them. Here in our city, the post office makes people in apartment buildings go to the post office to pick up their parcels but I guess that is not done everywhere. Fortunately that only happened a few times when we were selling some VHS tapes and we did have replacements. Once we got something returned to us months later by the post office and it was completely mangled. Funny that buyer never did write us to say they hadn't received it. Fortunately we had kept complete records, names and addresses, all dates so we were able to make amends.

I lost money on some Beanie Babies (about $20.) when the seller didn't deliver. Lots of other people lost out too and the seller was NARUed. Once I bought some books for my DD and only got them about 6 months later after I'd left the guy a negative (I think eBay had threatened him). I've bought a couple things that were listed as new, but weren't - like a swimsuit (with tags attached) that smelled very much like chlorine! I had other sellers send extra things though - like the guy who broke a plate in the vintage lot I had won and instead sent a very nice (and more expensive) sugar bowl in it's place.

As a seller I've had a lot of non-payers (I gave them all negatives, only got 1 negative in return).

I think the good experiences have definately outweighed the bad.

I bought a blender, and although the post office said they delivered it to my front door, I never saw it or got it. I seriously doubt it was stolen from my front porch as we live in a safe area and have not had a problem in 30+ yrs., but I do not know why I never got it. Even though I bought insurance, it didn't help because they said they delivered it. So I lost about $20.

But the more serious problem came in the form of a e-mail asking a question about some item I had listed to sell. The fact was, I had NO item to sell, so in replying to the sender to let him/her know that I had NO item to sell, they had my actual e-mail address. Shortly after that I had an e-mail from e-bay that the security of my acct. had been compromised, and they put me through some steps to clear my account of breaches, make new password, etc. I'm probably not relating all this quite accurately as it has been over a year, but if you receive a confusing e-mail, think twice about replying. Hope this make some sense.

No, but haven't bought a lot on Ebay. Have only sold at Half.com: books. I'm hoping to start selling this year on my vacation though. I had planned to sell years ago but never did get to do it.

Just this last October, for the first time ever. I bought my DH a leather driving cap as a birthday present from a power seller. The only communication I got from him was a positive response to my request to send the hat to my office rather than the house for obvious reasons. Then, I never heard from him again, and the cap never came. I emailed him several times with no response, then requested his info from ebay and called him. Had to leave a message, and he never responded to that. I finally contacted PayPal about a refund. Had to wait several weeks to allow him time to respond to them, which he also didn't do. Done deal. Got my money back. The whole process took more than a month, but I was pleased with the outcome.

I've been buying and selling on Ebay since 1999 and almost all my experiences have been great.

I did buy a book that never got to me. The seller sent me an e-mail saying that there was a death or sickness in the family and that's why it hadn't been mailed. I found out that it happened to many of his buyers. I finally decided to forget about it. I left him a neutral feedback just to give him the benefit of the doubt.

I sold an item one time that I had stated was machine washable. The buyer washed it and it started raveling. She e-mailed me and I immediately e-mailed her back and apologized and told her to keep the item and I would send her a new one and change my ad on Ebay. She sent me back such a nice e-mail telling me that she had read my response to her 10 year old son and told him that there were some good people in the world. That really made me feel good that I had done the right thing.

I've never sold anything, only bought. Never bought anything expensive Only buy from people with at least 99.5%. Never had a problem.

I too have been an ebayer since 1999. When I started doing it there was only one other man in the town I lived in that was an ebayer, most people didn't even know what ebay was about. I made very good money back then. My house was constantly over run with miscellaneous crap in various stages of listing.
Ebay has changed a lot over the years, it was such a novelty at first that anything would sell. Today, anything will still sell, but not for much in many cases. I don't list anymore, but in all the years that I did I had mostly positive experiences.
Once a gal tried to tell me she never got her super nintendo system - when I emailed her the info from Canada Post that showed her picking up the item at such and such a time, she backed off.
The funniest thing (although not at the time) was when I first started for some reason my email would default to Outlook Express which I don't use and don't check. I was getting phone calls from people who would ask why the heck don't I answer my emails, to which I would say I didn't get any from them - one gal sent me a copy of the emails she had sent me and I noticed the outlook email address - had over 50 emails sitting there without action. That was a mess, but eventually got that all straightened out and everyone happy.
Some of the best things I sold over the years was an uncut emerald about the size of a baby finger nail that I bought at a live auction for $10 - sold it for $600 after having it authenticated.
A Rocket model I bought at the goodwill for $3 sold for $85 and went to Spain, apparently quite rare and the buyer was thrilled to get it.
Miscellaneous pieces of old china with a black lace and rose pattern - I bought the lot for $100 but realized it would take me years to find completer pieces as there aren't that many around - sold the pieces individually for over $800 - and luckily had a friend who worked for Purolator who delivered every piece without a nick or scratch.
Anyone that is an active ebayer now - beware of the scam emails mentioned above - they seem to come out in force at this time of year with new scam artists trying to find a way to scam your information.
Even though I have nothing listed I just went through that too where someone emailed me and said they would report me to the police if I didn't send the laptop tomorrow - lol, if I had a laptop I would not be ebaying it! I just forward stuff like that to ebay and they deal with it. The next day I had to change all my sign in info and passwords and my account was temporarily frozen to protect me. Ebay is very good that way and acts quickly on any scam threats.
I had a great run, these days I am listing a few things on Etsy that I have made, otherwise I still buy on ebay, but have no intentions of selling again in the near future.
My biggest pet peeve with ebay is people that make their money through the shipping fees - i think that's really low.
Speaking of which, I must go and check how much I got charged for the JAG set I bought my brother for Christmas - seems to me I paid more than the $4.99 it cost the seller to get it to me.
Suzan J

Twice I've bought things on Ebay, paid thru Paypal but never got anything delivered. One was a bunch of Avon samples. The othger I forgot. I tried to get refunds but the sellers ignored me, Ebay and Paypal wouldn't get involved becvause the prices were low (under $20 each). I gave up. I consider Ebay like gambling-an addiction, and it doesn't always pay off. Though I have got some good deals on nice things through Ebay.

DS has had a running arguement with EBay on their policies that harm the seller. He stopped listing for a while He has listed a few things recenty through an EBay store in town who do all the work and get all the feedback - if any - they get a commission.

I've bought and sold hundreds of times (not recently) with almost NO bad experiences! One buyer claimed her items were broken (S/P shakers) so I just refundered her money - it was only $10 or $15. Another time, someone bought and paid for merchandise (about $50) but told me to "hold it" until he sent me his email address. That was about six years ago, and I've long since sold his stuff in a garage sale.

I have been selling for sometime and buying too...I don't sell a lot but my feedback is 100% and I work hard to get it that way and keep it that way...Usually if I have trouble it is with some looney that starts acting like a looney back as far as the bidding process...I once got and email from a woman that said...

Where's my book...two months later...I had positive feedback that she had received the book and that she was happy with it... now she is claiming she didn't get the book...I refunded her money...just didn't want to deal with her..It wasn't worth the hassle...I sell doll clothes, mostly for Barbie and I wasn't going to ruin my reputation for one nut case...

I think it is an injustice to all buyers and sellers though not to give the correct feedback...If you don't, then you just turn them lose on someone else.

I had a lady say that one of the two chalk dogs I mailed her was broken. I had insured them (but did not tell her that) and told her to take them to the post office. I really think she was lying top get some money back from me.
I would rather buy than sell. Selling is stressful and I listed a whole lot of jewelry once and sold one item. Lost money on that deal.
Kathy

Jannie, I once paid for a website for $5.00 where I was supposed to be allowed to download certain pictures and got no satisfaction. I had paid through paypal, so I contested the charge. I had to wait for the response from the website, which they ignored and paypal did give me my money back after a month or so.

I have had mostly good experiences. A few times, the buyer just never paid and one time two people were bidding on the same thing and it ran quite high. After it was paid and I sent it they filed a unauthorized use of a credit card and I lost both the item and the money. I don't really know what happened there, but I am sure it was a scam. They didn't last long before they were both kicked off. I have sold quite a lot of breakables and had really good luck there. I can only think of one time that it did arrive broken. It was a small item and I just refunded. I haven't bought too many things, but received everything I bought in the condition described.

I have had my share of good and bad experiences. I keep going back because most of the experiences have been good and can't beat the prices on ebay. I just bought some factory keys for my Jeep. The dealer was selling them for 5 times the price that they were listed on ebay.

I have mainly sold big ticket items like cars and electronic equipment. I am not sure if it is worth selling the small stuff that doesn't sell for much. Too much hassel.

The only really bad experience I had was buying a bracelet listed as 14k and it was 10K. It was even stamped that. The seller was very very nasty and said I substituted another bracelet. I am talking crazy person here. He never did give me a refund and I reported him and stopped payment on my credit card. I think he got kicked off for fraud.
Clare

I tried to sell something once on Ebay, a rather expensive item, and it didn't even get one bid, and not much traffic. It was buried in its category by a lot of commercial ads. Ebay told me they would list it again for free, and they did, and again, it got only about 2 hits, and no bids. They wanted to charge me over $100 for the auction listing, and I told them no, I would not pay them that much for something that wasn't even viewed or bid on. I did offer to pay them half that much, but they refused, and closed my account. They sent me threatening collection letters, to which I replied that I would still pay them half that amount to clear my account, but they still refused. I bet they spent more trying to collect than I owed them to begin with. It was so stupid, I just never went back until about a year ago, looking for a certain kind of bible for a friend. I got it, then bought a couple of videos. One of the videos wasn't what I had thought I was buying, and the seller was very nice. I sent it back, and she refunded my money, even though it was really my fault for not reading the ad well enough.

I also had a dispute with PayPal about freezing my account, and when they unfroze it, $200 was missing! The customer service was horrible, so I don't use them either. If a seller only accepts PayPal, I will write to them explaining my problem, and they usually accept a money order.

I don't shop much online at all, really, unless it's something I can't find in the stores or thrift stores.

No problems (and all but a couple of my 347 positive feedbacks are for things I've BOUGHT) but I'm really picky. I only buy if the feedback is 99.7 positive or higher. I consider 99.5 NOT very good, but then I'll check the numbers and the feedback given to see if there seems to be a problem. I also learn a LOT from the feedback the seller has left or from their response to negative feedback left by others.

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.

I've bought a lo t on ebay through the years...only had one bad time that I remember.Won and paid for an item and didn't get it.Her feedback was excellent.Then all at once nobody got anything from her.Don't know if something happened to her or what.But all at once she got numerous negatives about not receiving stuff.
I just bought something on ebay,got it last week.Just got an email to leave feedback,then they will leave me feedback.Ummmm...no...I did my part,paid right away ....they can leave me feedback first!

Several years ago I bought an item from someone local. After I won the item I asked if I could just drive over and get it and save myself the $6 shipping. She said no.

A couple days later there's a knock on the door and when I opened it, the seller was there with the item in her hand.

I did not ask for a personal, hand carried delivery, I asked if I could pick it up or meet her somewhere neutral. $6 was a pretty steep shipping charge for a small item that was only going aross town and then to have her show up at my doorstep unannounced really burned me.

To make matters worse, the item was a piece of junk. I left no feedback at all because I was just starting out with under 10 feedback, I didn't need a retaliation negative from her to blow ratings.

I've since done many, many eBay transactions as a buyer and had no trouble at all.

Jodi-

I have done alot of selling on ebay. I have never had a bad experience from a buyer. But I sell to a pretty exclusive group. I design and sell childrens custom boutique clothes.
My buyers tend spend quite freely and pay immediately.
It always amazes me what some people are willing to spend on clothes for their kids because it is something they won't see on anyone else.
As a buyer I haven't really had any bad experiences either.
Ebay for me has been fun and profitable with no downside.