Big Purchases from EBAY

So I am thinking of getting a new plasma and the prices on ebay are quite juicy. However, I am a little apprehensive about dropping such a large sum of money using ebay. Has anyone bought an item like a TV off of ebay? Was it pretty painless? Is it worth buying it up here simply for the warranty? Any information/experiences would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Phanuthier]

I don't know what your looking for exactly, but Dell has a deal right now, 42" LCD for $900

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

I don't know what your looking for exactly, but Dell has a deal right now, 42" LCD for $900

I'm not looking for a particular deal as I already know what I want, more so just info on purchasing a big ticket item from an ebay company that is thousands of miles away.

[iggypop]

Just make sure the seller has > 99% rating and use pay pal and you should be fine. My buddy's dad bought a Porsche off ebay a few years ago. Its really safe and painless.

[Devils'Advocate]

I bought an iPhone off eBay last week and now the seller has gone AWOL. So I started investigating how to get my money back from PayPal.

First off, they only insure up to $350. Second there are 1,274 exception clauses. Make sure that you read the PayPal security page before making any large purchase.

I read the eBay forums and it is full of people who have had the same experience - they purchased something, the seller ran away with their money and PayPal refuses to pay the money back.

I figure I'm out $500. Expensive lesson - I'll never use eBay ever again.

The guy I bought from has 100% on his feedback, but obviously that is not sufficient.

[gordo67]

Personally I would stay away from buying big ticket ELECTRONICS off of Ebay. So many scammers out there, the best think is to see what they have sold in the past via feedback. Alot of times these guys have great feedback but it is all from buying trinkets. If you still plan on buying a n electronic get a few pics of it (ask for specific shots) I see a lot of stock photos out the and would never buy. I buy a tonne of stuff of Ebay, I have only never recieved a item once.

[gordo67]

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

I bought an iPhone off eBay last week and now the seller has gone AWOL. So I started investigating how to get my money back from PayPal.

First off, they only insure up to $350. Second there are 1,274 exception clauses. Make sure that you read the PayPal security page before making any large purchase.

I read the eBay forums and it is full of people who have had the same experience - they purchased something, the seller ran away with their money and PayPal refuses to pay the money back.

I figure I'm out $500. Expensive lesson - I'll never use eBay ever again.

The guy I bought from has 100% on his feedback, but obviously that is not sufficient.

Patience, sometimes these guys don't respond right away especially if it has only been a week. If they sell a lot of stuff they don't have time to email every seller. Things are taking super long to get here from the States right now. How many feedback does he have, how long has he been on Ebay?? 100% feedback means nothing, has he sold 10 items or 10000. 100% feedback from 10 items I might be worried, 100% from 10000 items I wouldn't worry

[ken0042]

Well, I wouldn't. But if you do:

- Feedback of almost 100%. Not 99%, or 99.3%. Like 99.8% or higher; with at least 1000 feedbacks over at least the last year. (ie- 1000 feedbacks but the seller joined eBay in Aug 07 is potentially bad.)

- Pay with Paypal and be sure to change the funding to come from your credit card. That way if Paypal refuses to do anything you still have the option of a chargeback on the card.

- Ask the seller a question. Doesn't matter what, but ask. It will tell you what their communication is like, plus if it is a scammer they usually don't have the answer to things like "Does this have 2 or 4 HDMI inputs."

Red flags:

- Stock photos. Anybody can right click and copy an image from sony.com
- Change in Feedback. If the seller's name is "Antiques and things", or you can see in the feedback they went from selling china dolls to plasma TVs, it could be a hacked account.
- Seller outside of Canada or the USA.

[return to the red]

regarding TV's I'm actually gonna wait till the GST hits 5% and then just got to Great falls for the weekend. Been doin some online investigating and can get a 50" Panasonic 1080P plasma for the same price you can get a 42" here. Factor in the high dollar exchange and you can actually get it for cheaper. I beleive Sears had it on for ~2400. save the thousand dollars and you have a nice weekend away with the wife and friends

[photon]

Keep in mind the warranty as well; many companies do not have transferable warranties across the border. I think there are places that sell extra warranties for eBay sales as well to cover that part of it.

I agree with ken0042, make sure you fund Paypal with your credit card, then you have two levels of protection (well one, as was pointed out Paypal has tons of outs).

I've had that happen where paypal wouldn't do anything, and I reversed the charge with Mastercard, and I got my money back fine.

Regarding the AWOL iPhone seller, I agree, give him another week. In our office guys like to buy phones online a lot and we've had that a few times where a seller with 2000+ positive feedback just doesn't return emails for a bit, but they've always come through in the end. Sometimes I think these guys sell what they don't have on hand and then when it sells they scramble to find it. Which sucks, but if you funded Paypal with your credit card you should still be covered.

[Burninator]

I am going to say no. But I may be a little bias, as just over two weeks ago I had someone break into my paypal account and attempt to spend $1200. To echo what Ken and Photon said, use your credit card for the purchase, and DON'T have your bank account tied to your paypal account. I did this because I needed to make some purchases that required me to be paypal verified. In the future I won't be make those purchases. Everything seems to be resolved now (I think) but it was quite the ordeal. But paypal is very helpful with any sort of dispute. The problem I had was a seller harassing me, on the phone, at 1:30 in the morning. Anyways it's a long story that isn't related to this thread but I can tell if anyone is interested.

Now I have a low limit ($500) credit card that I use for Internet purchases and I am only going to be making small ones (Books, DVD's, CD's etc). In my mind it's tough to beat the peace of mind of being able to drive to a store to get help and knowing that the store isn't going to just close it's account and vanish expect for an email address that may or may not reply to you.

[Nikki]

Originally Posted by return to the red

regarding TV's I'm actually gonna wait till the GST hits 5% and then just got to Great falls for the weekend. Been doin some online investigating and can get a 50" Panasonic 1080P plasma for the same price you can get a 42" here. Factor in the high dollar exchange and you can actually get it for cheaper. I beleive Sears had it on for ~2400. save the thousand dollars and you have a nice weekend away with the wife and friends

What about paying duty? Would it still be cheaper to do this?

[jar_e]

I've spent a few thousand in seperate purchases on camera gear. Never had any sort of issue. Just make sure you have a reputable seller and someone who openly communicates (I seem to have troubles with the larger "store" sellers).Always read the fine print.

[FurnaceFace]

I've bought up to about $1000 before and haven't had anything really scary. I did have one incident with a camera purchase the guy backed out on but by putting some heat on him and getting PayPal and ebay on his butt got my money returned. In my experience PayPal will try and resolve these things because their rep is on the line.

[ken0042]

Just keep in mind the trend here. People are talking about specialty items like cameras, and I have sold some expensive computer parts as well without issues; nor anybody questioning my integrity.

Where the greater risk comes in (IMO) is when you have consumer electronics involved; things that not only geeks might be willing to buy but also things that your average consumer would also want; like TVs, game consoles, etc. A buddy was recently looking at buying an Xbox from eBay. He sent me no fewer than 10 auctions which had them at good prices; and all of them I veto'd the purchase. (Because it was my eBay account.)

First one was for broken Xbox's- likely ones Photon sent back. Description had that in fine print that they were broken, and "likely an easy repair."

Next one had shady feedback. Using one of my feedback tools I was able to sort through all the negs, neutrals, and "mutually withdrawn" to see there was a patern of cheap components, knock offs, etc.

Then there's the ever popular "Send us $100 and we'll send you the name of a distributor where you can buy the item for 1/2 the retail price." Except the shipping brings it back close to retail, or they don't ship to Canada, or you end up getting refurbished item from now a 3rd party.

So, my summary is if it's a big ticket item that your parents would have no clue how to operate it; then better chance of it being OK.

[FlamesKickAss]

that's a cool tool ken. I haven't had a problem yet. I have purchased 28 items on ebay, my cell phone, my irons, camera, a few xbox 360 games, sirius radio. All been good.

[604flames]

I've bought lots on ebay, the biggest items being a 360 and a couple game-worn jerseys, but as far as big-ticket electronics like a TV are concerned, I'd be more worried about something happening in transit..

[return to the red]

Originally Posted by Nikki

What about paying duty? Would it still be cheaper to do this?

hell yah, factor in ~5% duty on an exchange rate where you are making ~10% plus the savings that you are getting from the purchase yourself.

I'm thinking after Duty I will still be saving ~$1100

[corporatejay]

The nice thing about buying something from the store is that if you have any problems, it's generally pretty easy to deal with in terms of refunds or warranty. Buying it over the internet can make things complicated. I know a lot of retail electronic places have come a long way with warranty service (unlike the days when i used to work at an unamed popular canadian retail electronics store).

[return to the red]

dollar drops 1.0776