WARNING: Buying gear online, please be aware!!!

[Tom Winters]

I had a similar mixup happen to me on eBay. The guy just mixed up the packages but made it all right. I've had to reopen a package to figure out what was in it myself when I had a bunch of stuff stacked up waiting to go out. It happens - no big deal.
One way to deal with the PayPal stuff is to just have a dedicated debit card account that services PayPal and nothing else. You can strip the balance out while you're between transactions. A dedicated email account just for eBay and Paypal goes along with this.

 

[midwestscubadiver]

Did you try to contact the seller? I have been doing business on ebay for years, thousands of transactions both buying and selling. Most scams are very evident. I looked at the seller of your item and some of their auctions, they have an ebay store, lots of items listed, and their auctions are very well put together. At first look, it doesn't look like a scam. Could have been an honest mistake. If you have tried contacting them without a response, I would start worrying. If you haven't tried contacting them directly, you need to do so. Chances are "midwestscubadiver" is one part of a larger organization selling many other things. They probably have a UPS shipping account under another name (which I do as well) that they use for all their businesses. It could have been as simple as the wrong shipping label being put on your box and someone who ordered 2 rolls of string getting a scuba mask. Give them a chance to correct the mistake. If the don't, leave them some nasty feedback and file a complaint.

Thanks for the defense. I am the seller and I think that the packages may have gotten mis labled at the shipping center by the girls putting the shipping tickets on them as the boxes were marked with whom they should go to in black marker, so we knew exactly which went where. Now hopefully if that is the case the guy who paid $100 for a couple of wreck reels (not balls of twine) will be honest enough to return the $$800 mask. Thanks again

 

[midwestscubadiver]

I had a similar mixup happen to me on eBay. The guy just mixed up the packages but made it all right. I've had to reopen a package to figure out what was in it myself when I had a bunch of stuff stacked up waiting to go out. It happens - no big deal.
One way to deal with the PayPal stuff is to just have a dedicated debit card account that services PayPal and nothing else. You can strip the balance out while you're between transactions. A dedicated email account just for eBay and Paypal goes along with this.

Tom, thanks for the encouragement. You don't by chance have any experience with the wrong package being delivered to the wrong person, or have dealt with trying to reconcile anything like that with the person on the plus side (the guy who got the mantis that paid for 2 wreck reels, what a bargain). Just curious as to what the options would be if you had dealt with that before. Thanks again

 

[Tom Winters]

What does "As is" really mean ?

You're buying a piece of junk that the seller never wants to see again.

Does it mean if you bid and win (and pay) it's yours period ?

Yeppers.

What if it arrives and you don't like it, or it isn't quite what was presented (say a 2 gauge console and loose compass sold as a 3 gauge console, or a gauge which looks much better online due to the flash of the seller's camera) ?

This is a gray area. I offer returns in 7 days if they're not happy with it. Any flaws should be clearly described and detailed. What you are posing sounds almost like misrepresentation on the seller's part.

What about condition (my VERY GOOD means just short of like new - what does yours mean) ?

Again, ask questions. I get a lot of questions even with detailed descriptions. It helps avoid problems at the end.

Do you just take a deep breath and live with it ?

This I have done.

Do you leave bad feedback to the seller who does not respond to your emails ?

You need to research the seller. Less than 50 feedbacks and I'm a little suspect of them.

Do you turn around and put the same item back up for bid yourself (hot potatoe) ?

I have done this, but I detail every flaw, blemish as well highlight the good stuff.

 

[Tom Winters]

Tom, thanks for the encouragement. You don't by chance have any experience with the wrong package being delivered to the wrong person, or have dealt with trying to reconcile anything like that with the person on the plus side (the guy who got the mantis that paid for 2 wreck reels, what a bargain). Just curious as to what the options would be if you had dealt with that before. Thanks again

I forget what I received by mistake, but it was a lot more valuable than the weight belt that I thought I had won. Once the guy realized what had happened - after my email, he probably got a real zinger from the other buyer who got a lousy weight belt instead of a Ferrari or whatever it was - I sent the package back to him. He refunded my shipping AND the price of the auction I won. I didn't ask for this - just reimbursing me for the return postage would have been enough.
Let's face it - life is not perfect, not even on the Scubaboard.

 

[H2Andy]

Let's face it - life is not perfect, not even on the Scubaboard.

get out of here!

 

[toodive4]

I have bought and sold on Ebay since 1998. As a seller I have lost money on more than one occassion when a buyer claimed they did not receive the item. On each and every occassion I packed the item, I shipped the item, I provided tracking numbers (if UPS) or delivery confirmation numbers (if USPS) and copies of the receipts to Paypal proving the packages were shipped. Each and every time the lying sack of crap buyer ended up with both the item and - get this - Paypal deducted money from my checking account and gave them that back too!

Now I'm an honest seller (believe it or not) and I was so pissed off at the buyers and PayPal that I was ready to kick some *****. Finally , just recently I had enough and shut down my PayPal account. I know from first hand experience that the system is stacked in the buyers favor. I even had my lawyer send a letter to PayPal threatening to file suit, but this would in the end have been more headache and more money than I lost... so I didn't follow through. While it does take a while for a lying buyer to get the item - and their money back - in the end that is what happens.

While there are certainly fraudulent sellers... there are even more fraudulent buyers... so sellers beware...

Ken

Ken, hate to disagree with you, but I will anyway, and STRONGLY.
The system is not at all stacked in the buyer favor, the opposite is true. You say in your post that you have been using ebay for years and never had a problem with any sellers. If that is true then you would have no idea what it is like from a buyers perspective and dealing with a seller that ripped you off. So how exactly do you know that the system is set up in the buyers favor?
I won something on ebay for the first time last year. It was a 250 dollar item, and the seller had hundreds of positive feedback with only 1 negative (for something very minor), and the seller was friendly and communicative before the end of the auction, and never tried to sell me or get me to buy something else.
When I won, I contacted the seller and paid immediately via paypal.... Item never came. This started months of dealing with a lying dirtbag of a human being, claiming he mailed it, then later saying he forgot, then giving me a tracking number for the shipment that was bogus, then claiming it got returned because I didn't give him my real address. I faxed and emailed him a copy of my phone bill and another bill with my address on it to prove it was correct, then he sent again via USPS with tracking, when it didn't arrive I when to the PO and gave them the tracking number and they said it wasn't even a valid number... back and forth, you get the idea.
So I filed a complaint with PayPal, and some very unhelpful people from that organization got in touch with me, got the tracking numbers he gave me, etc.
(you see, it is not on the seller to prove he sent the item, the onus was on me as the buyer to prove that I did not get the item, which is harder to do). They took several weeks to investigate and did find that the seller was completely at fault and that the tracking numbers he provided was bogus. BUT, of course, they could only refund the money that was left in the sellers account, and by that time he had already taken the money out, so I got awarded exactly 2 dollars back of my 250 dollar purchase.
Nothing about the system is in the buyers favor. Especially since it takes sooooo long for them to investigate, while they are investigating the seller still has access to his account to keep doing the same thing to other people, and the seller is notified that he/she is being investigated which gives them plenty of time to drain their account and take off (which is what happened to me).
So, from someone who has never gone through this, tell me how things were stacked in my favor?

 

[Archer_Pensacola]

I am the seller and was just made aware that there was a problem by the buyer filing a compaint with ebay, he had not contacted me. I in turn, after being alerted by someone that read this post on ebay was made aware. I just shipped another Mantis mask to another buyer recently and he left good feedback and recieved the mask just fine, check my feedback report on ebay. I am researching this dispute to make sure its valid and will be contacting DHL to make sure the package was indeed delivered.

I think what might have happened is that another person who ordered 2 270ft wreck reels got the wrong tag on it at the shipping center, so someone else who should have gotten the reels, which are not balls of twine but black and yellow dive reels, but instead received the Mantis mask instead. I am contacting the other person to see if that was indeed the case. I ask the buyer to please contact me directly about any errors so that I may address them before posting nastygrams all over the internet. I assure you that we will get to the bottom of this and resolve the situation. If you did recieive the reels then you will need to ship them back to us, and we will get you another mantis out to you or provide you a refund. Thanks, and I will let you all know how this pans out.

Midwestscubadiver

As an occasional ebayer who has been stung once too often, I appreciate seeing someone stand up and admit that a mistake was made, and further, take steps to make it right with all parties. I tip my mask to you sir.

 

[cummings66]

Reading this thread it seems as if the buyer was too quick to believe the negative things they hear about ebay.

It's common sense to contact the seller and explain things and see how they handle it before jumping to conclusions, that apparently didn't happen here.

I've run into this myself when I bought something and got a broken item instead. I contacted the seller expecting to be given the run a round, but instead found to my pleasure that they would refund my money and just wanted the item back. Better than what I thought, but the first step is to always contact the seller and try to work it out.

PS, my LDS sells things by ebay and I find it easy to buy things from them that way.

 

[Rick Inman]

Let's face it - life is not perfect, not even on the Scubaboard.

True dat.

I made what I thought was a straight trade with a ScubaBoard member. He posted that he wanted to trade his AL30 for a AL13. I PM'd him, sure, I'd do the straight trade.

You send yours first, then I'll send mine, he said.

Sure, I said, being the trusting sole I am.

So I sent him the 13.

And he sent me the 30 - without the valve.

I Pm'd him, hey, you forgot the valve.

He Pm'd me, well, it was a piece of junk (he used another word) so I took it off, but I'll send it to you if you want.

I said, no thanks, I have enough gear like that.

Then I spent 50.00 on a new valve. I figured, any transaction on the internet is a gamble.