Veteran Ebay buyer/seller Monty has just come off a triple play of misrepresented auctions, each from a different seller, and has had zero luck getting things straightened out with any of them.

It seems that eBay’s latest squeeze on sellers is just the tip of the iceberg. eBay’s pressure on their sellers is, if you ask me, having a “trickle down” effect on us eBay shoppers, too. I have over 500 feedbacks and have been with eBay since pretty much they began. Thanks to a string of about three or four really bad auction experiences, however, I am starting to see this trickle-down effect.
 
It all began with a pair of refurb’d Sony wireless headphones I bought. The seller shipped them to me, but the power supply was the wrong voltage for the headphones. With them being Sony, with everything they sell proprietary, I was pretty much hooped. I called around, and wow, Sony wants $70 for an adapter that’ll power the $56 9plus $20 shipping) headphones I bought! I wrote the shipper and he was dismissive and rude to me. In the end, I ended up filing an “Item Not As Described” filing with Paypal. Check this: 45 days later, eBay tells me I can ship the item back to the shipper, at my cost, for a refund of my purchase price. So… let me get this straight, eBay: I’m going to lose a total of $40 in shipping for my $56 item??
 
I recently bought a “Brand New, Sealed” laptop from eBay. The auction clearly stated that the item had Windows XP on it, which I wanted, after hearing about all the problems with Vista. It came with Vista, not XP, which promptly crashed. nearly $300 in “Geek Squad” rescue fees later, I had a working laptop, albeit with Vista on, which I didn’t want. The Geek Squad informed me that the laptop had been “used” before, and the manufacturer refused to honour the warranty since it was not a “hardware” issue. I asked the seller to split what I’d spent to get the laptop working– money I spent due to HIS error. Naturally, he refused. I filed with eBay, and it’s been 30 days, and no word.
 
Just the other day I received a wireless mouse I’d ordered, but it’s dead. The mouse arrived in a plain envelope, with no packaging, dead. Should I even bother? I’ve learned that eBay will leave me hanging and that sellers don’t fear eBay’s totally “nerfed” so-called consumer protection assurances. It’s a load of crap, and I’m going to start shopping elsewhere.

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