To think eBay is a load of rubbish

[yesterdayschild]

I have been buying vintage china for my daughters up coming wedding so have been buying on eBay. Sorry I ever did now. In the last 3 weeks I have had 7 tea sets described as perfect arrive with chips and cracks, 5 teapots arrived smashed, 7 cake stands arrived smashed. All arrived filthy dirty wrapped in some disgusting packing such as, a filthy dribble stained pillow, a stinking duvet, pizza boxes still with food on them, a pair of old ladies trousers, filthy foam rubber and horrible broken up polystyrene. What is the matter with people! When I ask to return I have been accused of breaking them myself, called a filthy liar, a skank and a bitch!

I would use e bay with reasonable confidence, even for delicate items- many sellers are at pains to tell you how they will pack.

Having said that I once received a lovely old clock, at least 50 years old in a simple large envelope, the casing of the clock totally smashed- it was so sad, the mechanism was still ticking.

Was refunded btw.

It is! My most infuriating moments have been selling high value items which mysteriously disappear in the post, despite being sent tracked no signature then buyer disputes receiving the item a few days later, eBay refunds no questions asked. Most recently a buyer who got into a bidding war for a high value item, wins but doesn’t pay. Now upon relisting the item, I end up looking like a dodgy seller who’s been shill bidding to inflate the price of the item. It all becomes so tedious.

I have to say I have yet to have no items arrive in bad condition or not arrive at all and I have about 16,000 feedback on eBay. I think I have maybe been lucky.

I buy vintage items for my home like antique bamboo furniture, woven wall baskets, lamps and crochet blankets and I never buy from anyone where the item has not been photographed at every angle. You can always tell the chancers though from the listings eg saying they don’t do refunds or accept returns, unreasonable postage charges, descriptions.

Latest from ebay is from a seller who I had to return a broken teapot. They messaged me and said they would make sure everyone knows I am a F***g liar ( I am not!) and that they will be sending "lovely things in the post" to me. I am quite worried now. Good grief why are people so horrible?

And a lot of stuff on ebay is either stolen or a fake : been caught too many times with that so I try and only buy stuff if I can collect in person and pay in cash. That way I get to see the goods before hand which is why I find it highly suspicous when the vendor refuses to offer collection. I've also started looking around and found I can buy a lot of stuff at the same price, or even cheaper, from an established retailer. That said, sometimes you can find a real bargainand and I've bought stuff for pennies and sold them on again for a healthy profit - I made £1500 that way last christmas. But yes, you need to be street smart and careful.

I'm sorry OP.

I wouldn't send stuff like that. Sounds like you have been unlucky

I have to say I have yet to have no items arrive in bad condition or not arrive at all and I have about 16,000 feedback on eBay. I think I have maybe been lucky

I sold some clothing recently and the buyer was delighted. It's a good way to sell barely used things on.

I've even sold china wrapping it carefully

@WorkinWomansBlues

Oh nooooo!

I’ve just started listing all my beautiful vintage summer dresses/ cocktail dresses etc that I’ll never fit in again...

Am I in for a horror?!

No, of course not.

1. Make sure they are clean, aired and all loose buttons reinforced, loose threads snipped off and check all zips/press studs work.

1. Take a photo of any small holes, marks or other defects. Mention them in both the 'Condition' field and the item description.

1. Include these measurements: Shoulder to hem, underarm to underarm, waist, sleeve length.

1. Familiarise yourself with postage costs before you list.

I've got over 1k 100% positive feedback from buyers so I must be doing something right.

We used tea cups as our favours at our wedding last year. We skipped ebay and used charity shops and car boots. None of them matched but we loved it! 😊

I collect vintage China and rarely use eBay unless I can collect the items, as others have said use charity shops. If you buy the special diamond tipped drill bits you can make your own cake stands quite cheaply.

@yesterdayschild

Latest from ebay is from a seller who I had to return a broken teapot. They messaged me and said they would make sure everyone knows I am a F***g liar ( I am not!) and that they will be sending "lovely things in the post" to me. I am quite worried now. Good grief why are people so horrible?

Report the message to ebay customer service. You can use the chat function.

I’m another one saying go to charity shops. I volunteer in one and we get loads of China when people sort out deceased relatives house.
A lot of it is good quality China and sells for about 50p a plate.

My dh had a horrible time with a seller , accused him of all sorts and how he '
Should feel ashamed! ' when it wasn't even his fault!
It Seems that they all hang out on there waiting to piss people off. I'm glad I've never got involved with any of it myself.
When you wanted to sell years ago you had to show up in person or go to a boot sale for the bigger bargains.
Antique markers are much more reputable. We have a nice one near us , although it's not really my thing , they do some nice bits for collectors and it's nice to go and look round for a few hours walk around and a cup of tea.

Latest from ebay is from a seller who I had to return a broken teapot. They messaged me and said they would make sure everyone knows I am a Fg liar ( I am not!) and that they will be sending "lovely things in the post" to me. I am quite worried now. Good grief why are people so horrible?

Report them to eBay op. I encountered an absolute nutcase buyer once who took exception to me opening an unpaid item case when she didn't pay or reply to messages. It was years ago and (unknown to me) there was an option whereby if you had been in a recent transaction with someone you, or they, could request all the contact details including phone number. She requested them, eBay gave them to her, and then armed with my home phone number and address she started threatening me. eBay took copies of all the messages and investigated it.

I've had generally very positive experiences of both buying and selling on eBay over several years. It's a huge site used by lots of people and companies, you just have to do what you can to be careful.

@yesterdayschild

Latest from ebay is from a seller who I had to return a broken teapot. They messaged me and said they would make sure everyone knows I am a F***g liar ( I am not!) and that they will be sending "lovely things in the post" to me. I am quite worried now. Good grief why are people so horrible?

Report it to ebay, they can view all the messages between sellers and buyers through eBay’s message system.

I am sorry OP, this seller sounds like an absolute nightmare. You are right to be concerned. I think the personal threats are beyond excessive. I would be wanting a refund at the very least but please let ebay know you have been affected by the personal threats (especially considering the seller has your home address and telephone number). If they don’t do anything to your satisfaction then report it to the police.

You have been very unlucky OP.
If I were you I would report everyone who has been rude and threatening to eBay. They really should do something about sellers like this.
Give them all negative feedback too.

Clearly, you have not been buying from my ebay shop!!!! One way to avoid dodgy sellers is to look at the feedback - ours has lots of comments praising our packing for instance. You also get what you pay for us. It costs us about £8.00 to send a teapot. A cost price of anything less than this and we lose money even disregarding the cost of the item. If someone is not going to make much money then they are likely to take less care. And, we would never, ever respond to a customer like the above - prompt refund is more our policy and lots of apologies!

Too be honest, the cheapest way to acquire vintage china is at auction. Not the antique auctions but the household and later effects ones. Sometimes they're called general sales. I'm an antiques and vintage dealer and I source quite a bit of my vintage stuff this way.

I meant to say, if you do buy on eBay ask about return policies before you buy. A decent seller will have a policy. Mine is, if you change your mind you can send it back and I'll refund minus shipping. If it's a single item and it breaks in transit, I'll refund but I want photographs first and if its just a chip then I want the item back or if they prefer they can keep it and I'll just refund a proportion of the cost. If its part of a set I give the buyer a choice of sending the set back and I'll refund the lot including shipping, providing it reaches me in good condition or they can keep it and I'll just refund for the actual item broken.

I gave up on it years ago. There are decent sellers on there but they are getting harder and harder to find as time goes on. Frankly I give it another 10 years at most unless they do something.

It’s about ten years since I bought china on EBay, but I only had positive experiences. But I was very careful to check the seller’s feedback before bidding, and I expected to pay a reasonable postage charge.

I still use EBay a lot (mostly for clothes) and it’s been almost entire problem free - and the few problems have been sorted out quickly.

Honestly, there may be a few arsehole sellers, but it’s definitely a buyers’ market and most sellers are great. If you’re having lots of difficulties you need to rethink some aspect of your approach.

We did the vintage china thing for mine and ex’s wedding. It’s going back a bit but I got all mine from charity shops and house clearance auctions. We had a big wedding so we needed a lot but it was pretty cheap. Great for other bits like candelabras too.

The person who sent me abusive messages does have 100% feedback, but, one checking more closely this is as a buyer not a seller. I will report them to ebay as I am now getting all manner of nasty horrible messages and can not block them until the item goes off eBay.