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Please visit my web page Hobbits Ebay Help Page
Hello and welcome to my "ME" page.
I have been asked to add my thread from the T&S (Trust & Safety) board, where it was locked at the top for almost a year, to my "ME" page and so here it is. If you want to go to the T & S Board you can get there using this link Ebay's Trust & Safety Board I hope you can find something here that you will be able to make use of.
Remember this was taken from my thread that was on ebays Trust & Safety board and as such please ignore the opening line that welcomes you to the Trust and Safety board. Also if you don need the part about posting and your just looking for help and info you can start at "Bidding on Auctions Part 1". There is a lot of info here for ALL ebay users! Thanks For Taking a Look!
This is a board of users helping other users, not empolyees of ebay.
Before I begin let me just say that you will read some things below that will make you think ebay is a den of scammers and crooks but that is not so. Yes there are some problems, just like in any part of society, but it is not as bad as all that. It will just seem like it because I am trying to inform you of the pitfalls and traps on ebay. It is my hope that by doing so you will be able to advoid getting into any of these things.
Before you start posting here, there are some things you should know which will help you to get more answers to your questions AND keep you from going against board rules as well. I will also include other things such as tips on what to do and what not to do when auctioning on ebay and some ebay links also.
1) Make a thread of your own. That is the most important tip I can give you to get the most answers to your questions. To do this go to the bottom of the listed threads (main board page), a thread is another name for the topics you see on the main page. the main page is the page you were just at when you saw this thread (topic). go to the bottom of the main page, click on the "Add Discussion" you will be asked to log in using your ebay id or posting id (see below for getting a posting id). after you log in it will take you to the page where you put in your title and the question in the box below the title. If you just add on to a thread started by someone else you are hurting yourself because the board members who might be able to help you will not see your post. For example if you want to ask a question about insurence but post it inside a thread asking about auction rules the users who may have info about insurence won`t see your question. Once you have made the post, click on the "add discussion" button and then either back out to the main page and hit the refresh button OR go to the top of the page you are on and click on the "Trust & safety (Safe Harbor)" link in the blueish/grey box. DO NOT keep hitting the refresh button after you have clicked the "add discussion" button because it will keep posting the thread you just made.
2) If you plan on staying around/helping the Trust & Safety Board for a prolonged time span (you won`t need it to post a few questions), get yourself a posting id. What is a posting id? It`s just like your regular id but you use it just for posting on the boards. Why do you need a posting id? Because at times there are some users who may come here just to cause trouble, OR may do so because they don`t like what you have posted about something. What I mean by trouble is that they may email you things you don`t want, sign you up for spam mail or mess around with your auctions. I know this sounds bad but believe me it does not happen often (about 5 times since I`ve been posting in 2 years) and it is better to be safe then sorry. opinions vary on weather you should or should not have a posting id because if you use one you seem to have less expierence then those who don`t use one. That`s because the posting id`s have no or low feedback. I have been on ebay for years with feedback over 300 but if you look at my id it says 0.
To get a posting id you need a second email address and a new user name. You can use an email address from your isp (internet service provider) OR get one from a free site like hotmail.com yahoo.com however if you use a free site you will need to enter a credit card with ebay to verify your info. There must be no interaction between the two accounts. To do so is against ebays rules and can get you suspended.
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3) DO NOT put users names, real names, email address, home address, phone numbers etc. etc. in the title of your thread. this may cause your thread to be deleted.
In the post itself the only things that you can`t post are accusations without evidence and personal info about other users such as names, phone number, address and emails. also unless you have been in a transaction with a user you can`t post their id or the auction number etc etc
you can ask all the questions you want and most if not all will get answered on this board, but remember YOU HAVE TO REPORT IT TO EBAY Here in order for any action to be takin on this site. however you can still file and make reports with other agencies and sites.
If we have looked (not every user will look at every post on the board) over the info and questions you post on the board and agree that things don`t look right we are happy to give you all the sites, links, and info you will need to help with your problem.
All we ask is that you don`t accuse users directly of any wrong doing due to the fact that if your post is read by a board monitor or is reported to a monitor, it can be pulled and that helps no one. if it`s pulled you don`t get the help your looking for and if the thread did contain answers to your questions, the user who posted the answers will have wasted their time.
So isn`t it better to be told what your doing wrong so that the thread doesn`t get pulled in the first place? we`re not trying to pick on anybody here, just trying to inform users.
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1) READ EVERY WORD OF THE AUCTION! I know some are very long but you need to do it as protection for yourself. There are cases where a seller will hide an important part about the item in the middle of the description hoping the bidders won`t see it. such as shipping is $25 or items has a small dent or item is good for parts only etc. etc. Also there are users out to get money from people for items the buyers thought they were bidding on which were really nothing of the sort. some of these things include URL (web site address) auctions where what is being sold is just the address of a web site and not the item it`self. The sellers of these kinds of auction try to word it so it seems as if the bidders are bidding on the real item. Ebay has since stopped allowing these kinds of auctions but ebay also relies on users like you and me to report things that are against ebays rules as the way to get these things stopped. So you can still find these kinds of auctions around. that is why you have to read every word.
2) CHECK THE SELLERS FEEDBACK! Don`t just look at the number beside the sellers name. Click on that number and it will take you to a page with all the feedback left for that seller. You will see how many positives, negatives and neutrals the user has with the actual feedback left below that. Take the time to check out the negatives because it will give you a look into what kind of user you are about to deal with. You may find they are all for late shipping, not sending items, broken items or even feedback that was left as a negative but should have been a positive except the user who left it just made a mistake. Also if your planning on bidding on an item for medium or high $`s from a low feedback seller, click on the item number to the right side of each feedback left (you can only see them for around a month, sometimes almost 2 months) for them and make sure the feedback is not all from very low $ items. Sometimes (but not always) a crook will start out buying or selling low $ items so they can build up their feedback then switch to selling high $ items and collect the $ and not ship the items. you can also go to Vrane and use the function that will seperate the neutral and negative feedback from the other feedback a user has (review negs./neutral feedback), but you have to pay for the service. it comes in handy when dealing with a user with lots of feedback.
3) BE WARY of users with private feedback. Thats feedback that says private beside their user name and where if you click on it it shows the amount of feedback but you can not read the feedback it`self. If it`s in an adult category it may be alright but if it`s not think real hard on bidding on it. Make sure they have a VERY LOW amount of neutral or negative feedbacks.
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4) DO NOT bid on items for high $ amounts where the user has low feedback or no feedback. I understand that everyone has to start out somewhere sometime, but most honest ones don`t start out by selling high priced items. This is specially true around the holidays and in some groups of items more then others, such as electronics, cameras and game systems.
5) Also DO NOT BID in auction where the seller is selling high priced items and is from the Ukraine, Australia, Russia ect. specially if they only take western union wire transfers. these are some of the biggest scams out there. I`m not saying don`t deal with users from those countries. I`m saying if the user is from one of them AND it`s a high priced item AND they only take wire transfers. Just be careful.
6) If you do want to buy a high priced item contact the seller before you bid and ask if they will agree to use escrow as long as you pay for it. It may cost you a little bit more to use the escrow but it`s the safest way to go about it. Hey if it`s expensive isn`t it worth a couple of bucks to make sure you get what you wanted?
7) If something you want to know about an item is not in the auction description email the seller and ask BEFORE BIDDING ON IT! If you don`t see an amount for shipping cost, ask. If you don`t see a warrenty, ask. If it doesn`t say new, ask. If it doesn`t say it works, ask. If it doesn`t say they take checks, ask I think you get the picture, don`t wait till the auction is over or after you get the item to ask, that is WAY to late. Once the auction is over you are required to go through with it!
8) After all is said and done leave feedback that the deal calls for, even if by doing so it means you may get a negative in response to what you left as feedback. That is the only way the feedback system will work! otherwise you have no idea what the other person is really like when looking at their feedback. You can always respond to the feedback a person leaves for you and if you get a negative do so. As long as you respond with just the facts, no swears, no flames, no threats 99% of all ebayers will be able to tell who was right and who was in the wrong.
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Another thing to look out for is shilling. Shilling is when you have a seller who, by using another id of his own or a friends/familys id, bid on their own auctions trying to make a bidder bid higher, thereby making more money for themselves. This is against ebays rules and in alot of states it is against the law! Things to look for are:
1) A user with low feedback or 0 feedback who just bids up a little at a time till they just outbid you then cancels the bid and bids again just under your top $ amount.
2) A user who just bids up a little at a time, however, my not be shilling. a lot of new users do this untill they learn how to use a proxy bid (where you bid the most you would pay for an item and then the system will place bids for you based on the amount you entered) so if you think this may be happening go here http://pages.ebay.com/search/items/search_bidder.html enter the other bidders user name and chose yes for the "include completed items" and yes for "even if not the high bidder". by doing this you will be able to tell if the bidder just bids on the sellers auctions and no one elses or if they bid on a lot of sellers auctions.
***PLEASE NOTE*** there are a lot of users who buy a lot of things from 1 seller, I have done so myself, So that in and of it`self doesn`t mean the seller is doing the bidding (shilling). however if you do see these things or are not certain about a seller come back here and ask for help. while we can not tell for sure 100% we can dig a little deeper and give you our OPINIONS. there are a lot of other things we can look for that may give us an idea. in the end if it looks like it could be shilling we can tell you how to contact ebay and have them look at it and give you the final answer on it.
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Request Information - Ebay Support
Rules and Policies The right place if you want to learn more about policies and SafeHarbor, eBay's safety resources. Find out how you can help protect yourself and what you should do when something goes wrong.
Apply for non-paying bidder and final value fees here
To check/see all the auctions you have not left feedback for in the past 90 days go here . Go down to and click on Leave feedback about an eBay user - see all pending comments at once (you may be asked to sign in after clicking on it).
Block a user from bidding on your auction here
I have many more ebay and non-ebay links on my help page here. Hobbits Ebay Help Page
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1) Your bid is a contract. Bidding is not a game. If you do not intend to buy, don't bid.
2) Do not bid on the first item you see. Do a little research. Someone else might have it listed for less or with a lower BIN. However, if you DO bid on the first item you see, keep in mind that retracting a bid because you found it cheaper elsewhere is against Ebay's rules.
3) Do not put all your trust in the picture alone. Read the description carefully. Make sure it does not say "design may vary." Check for size and color. Make sure to check if it's new or used. Look to see if the description says the item will be drop shipped, which means the seller does not have the merchandise in stock. Look for descriptions of flaws, imperfections and/or damage.
4) Read the terms. Do not assume you can combine shipping or dictate your own shipping preferences. Find out which forms of payment are accepted and that you qualify for them. Many sellers do not take checks from buyers with a low feedback rating. Make sure you are eligible to bid on the auction. Some sellers will not take bids from someone with no feedback or minus rating. Some sellers will not ship Internationally. Find out how much the seller charges for shipping and if the item will be shipped immediately. Be patient, but be mindfull of the time limits on the forms you MAY need to file. The mail system has slowed down in many areas since the terrible events of 9/11/01 so it may take longer than you expect for your payment to reach your seller if mailed. If you are paying by check, that means it will take longer for your check to be received by the seller and deposited, and therefore take longer before the standard ten day clearance wait can begin. Also, if the holidays are nearing this too will slow down the mail. And lets not forget that the mail doesn`t run on Sunday or holidays. So keep these things in mind before emailing the seller and yelling because your item hasn`t arrived yet. If any of the above things are in place it's going to take your merchandise longer to get where it's going. One more thing, in many states the seller has 30 days to get your item to you. However in most cases on ebay and other auction sites you will have your item in much less time. On ebay you can`t even file the fraud form until 30 days after the auction is over (but within 60 days after the auction end), I believe thats because of the law I just told you about. As long as your seller is keeping in contact with you and updateing you give them the 30 days to get the item to you, and always check the auction for information on shipping times before bidding.
5) Check the seller's feedback. Do not buy big ticket items from sellers with excessive negatives or who have no feedback. Check the feedback for an overall pattern. Do a lot of the complaints say the same thing? For instance, if a seller has a lot of complaints about the quality of his packaging, you might want to purchase insurance. Remember, a lot of sellers get retaliation feedback from deadbeats, so be sure to keep that in mind and look for patterns.
6) Contact the seller within three days, business days - weekends don`t count. Most sellers will contact you, again weekends don`t count, but if they don't, send an e-mail to them through Ebay's "Ask Seller A Question" feature. Remember the three days is just a recommendation from ebay but is not a rule!
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7) Read the seller's confirmation e-mail. Even experienced buyers are guilty of not doing this one. Do not assume that every confirmation e-mail is alike. Sellers usually include information that is necessary for you to complete the transaction. A lot of times they also ask for some information from you. Don't just send your payment with PayPal and ignore the confirmation e-mail. That's how a lot of problems get started.
8) Buy insurance. Too many buyers spend $160 on an item, but won't cough up the extra $3 to insure it. Believe me, you will kick yourself if something happens. If you're not sure if you want insurance, ask yourself this question. "Will I be upset if this item arrives damaged or doesn't get here at all?" If your answer is yes, BUY insurance. If the seller does not offer it, ask for it.
9) Ask, do not threaten. If you want to check on the status of your order, send a polite e-mail to your seller asking for the information you need. Do not send ten e-mails over a weekend and then get angry when you get no reply. Many people do not work on weekends, so your mail will not be read until Monday. Do not threaten your seller with negative feedback if they do not respond as quickly as you would like them to.
10) If there is a problem, stay calm and friendly. Most sellers are not brick and morter stores, but individual people working from home. They have not been trained to deal with angry customers and will likely become angry themselves and unwilling to work with you. Again, do not threaten negative feedback if things are not worked out
11) Leave appropriate feedback. Do not blame the seller for something that was outside of his control. It's unfair to give him a negative, because he would not combine shipping when his listing says he won't combine shipping.
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12) Avoid misleading feedback. A positive that states something took a long time to get to you (when the postmark clearly proves the item was shipped immediately) is misleading, and therefore not really a positive. It's not the seller's fault it took a long time to get to you.
13) Do not use feedback to warn customers about mistakes that were your fault. For instance, do not leave a neutral telling people to get insurance even on low cost or supposedly unbreakable items. Yes, people should buy insurance, but if they don't, that's not the seller's fault and his feedback should not reflect your personal regrets at your own short sightedness.
14) Do not harass a seller for feedback. Many sellers are busy and leave feedback in batches. Feedback is optional so bugging your partner in the transaction may get them mad instead of getting them to leave the feedback. The best way to go about it, in my opinion, is to send them an email when you get your item and tell them it arrived and that your happy (if you are) about how the deal went. in the email also say something like "I have left feedback and if your also happy how it went please do the same for me" or "if you are happy with how I handled my part please leave feedback for me and I will do the same, thanks". I have found that to be enough to get the feedback rolling. remember giving feedback is not a rule so not every user is going to leave it.
15) Do not be afraid of retaliation feedback. Sellers investigate feedback. They know when someone has left you a negative out of revenge, and they will not hold it against you. Feedback is the primary means of protecting buyers from fraudulent (or just bad) sellers. If you withhold a neg out of fear, you've allowed that seller to get away with it, not just to you, but to the next guy that wasn't warned off by your feedback.
16) If you have a question about the item, the seller, feedback, shipping, terms or anything else, ask BEFORE you bid.
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1) Ok so you followed the advice above but your seller will not return your emails after you paid and you haven`t received your item. First thing to do is to pull their contact info from ebay, there is a link for that above in the links section, and give them a call. If the phone number is not in service or is incorrect notify ebay using the web form, it`s the first ebay link in the links section above. Click member problems > contact information / identity offenses > a user is registered with false or missing contact information, click continue. Then go to the bottom of that page and click contact support. there you will be able to write to ebay about the sellers info and if they find that the sellers information is wrong they will suspend them.
2) After 30 days is up (from the end of the auction) file the fraud form with ebay and if you qualify file the insurence claim, THESE ARE NOT THE SAME THING. To qualify for the insurence your purchase needs to be over $25. Why is that? It`s because ebay has a $200 limit minus a $25 deductable. So with the deductable it has to be over $25. File the fraud report either way so that it will be in the users file.
3) If you paid using an online site such as paypal or with ebay`s billpoint you can also file with them to get your money back. If you used your credit card to pay on these sites you can also contact the credit card company to have them do a charge back. Now here is where it gets tricky! ebay wants you to try to get it from your credit card (if you used one) company first, paypal wants you to try and get it from ebay first BUT they also want you to contact them (paypal) BEFORE you contact the credit card company. So my advice is: If you used a credit card, contact paypal (even if they want you to go through ebay first) just after the 30 days is up (if you haven`t heard from your seller since you made payment and it has been a couple of weeks then don`t wait for the 30 days) and while going through their process let them know that if they can`t help you you will be contacting your credit card company. If they turn you down contact your credit card company and if they are no help file with ebay, but remember you can`t file with ebay until 30 days has passed from the end of the auction and no later then 60 days. If you do contact your credit card company make sure to empty your paypal account of any funds you may have sitting in there. the reason is that paypal, once they hear from your credit card compnay about a charge back, likes to put a hold on your account untill the credit card company is done.
If you used one of the above payment sites but used money that was in your account or with money from a bank account: File with both ebay (as long as it has been at least 30 days from the auctions end but not longer then 60) and paypal at the same time. There is a link above for ebay`s fraud/insurence information/forms.
If you sent a check or money order: File with the USPS, either online or at any post office. There is a link for it on my help page. They take online fraud VERY SERIOUS!! They will send the seller a letter informing them that someone has filed a fraud form with them and in most cases this is enough to make the seller either send your item or refund your money. If not, they will continue to go after the seller. However it takes a lot of time because they seem to be getting backlogged with many complaints. You can also file with the FBI`s internet fraud site (there is a link on my help page for this a well) but I would only do this for large amounts or big time scammers otherwise it just ties up the system on little things.
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1) If a buyer doesn`t contact you right away don`t assume they are deadbeats right away. sometimes the buyers and sellers email servers don`t jive together. so try emailing them from the auction page with the "email this to a friend" link if that doesn`t work pull their contact info and give them a call.
2) Just because you have to wait 10 days from the time you file the NPB (non paying bidder) report to file to get your FVF`s (final value fees) back, it doesn`t mean you can`t relist your item. you can relist it at any time because you will still be able to get your FVF`s back for the auction where the bidder didn`t pay. The only drawback would be if the buyer did contact you after the NPB was filed and wants to complete the deal. then you could still tell them that you no longer want to complete the deal because of all the trouble they put you through, in which case you may not be able to get the final value fees back because they did want to complete the deal.. If you have more then one of the item that is not a problem.
3) If you do get a NPB, ALWAYS file the NPB alert reminder AND the FVF`s it`s the only way to help get these users off ebay, even if it only makes them take the time to get another id it`s still worth it. any 3 filings for FVF`s on the same user will get them suspended.
4) I realize this was already said by me above but I feel very strongly that it needs to be remembered. Don`t be afraid to take a retaliatory negative for giving a bad user the negative they deserve. It`s the ONLY way we as ebay members can help stop the bad users from winning!! if you get a negative you can always respond to it and when you do, just give the facts, no emotions, just facts. By doing so 99% of ebay users will be able to see just who was right and who was wrong. Feedback is OUR only way to judge other members and if everyone is afraid to leave a negative when the deal calls for it, then the system is no good!! we could all be dealing with users who, if they received the negatives they deserved, should have been suspended.
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1) Try emailing them through the auction page so that it goes through ebays servers. A lot of times email servers just don`t work well together AOL is one that seems to have a lot of problems due to their anti-spam software.
2) If your so inclined pull the bidders contact information using the link above in the links section. If the phone number is not in service or is incorrect notify ebay using the web form, it`s the first ebay link in the links section above. Click member problems > contact information / identity offenses > a user is registered with false or missing contact information, click continue. Then go to the bottom of that page and click contact support. there you will be able to write to ebay about the sellers info and if they find that the sellers information is wrong they will suspend them.
3) If the above has not worked after say around 2 weeks of emails and such then file the NPB (non paying bidder) form. It has to be done after 7 days but no later then 45 days from the auctions end. That will send a payment reminder to the buyer and give them 10 day to pay. If after the 10 days they still have not payed file the FVF (final value fees) form. This step is the step that is most important because it does 2 things. 1st this step is what will get you the refund from ebay for any final value fees you had to pay as a result of the auction ending with a winner, and 2nd it will give the buyer a non-paying bidder warning mark on their record, 3 of these and the buyer will get suspended.
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Please remember that if your problem has been resolved, close any complaints that you might have started against the other party
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