[awini]

an increasing number of sellers, especially on eBay UK are refusing to sell to India. i asked a senior seller from whom i have bought several critical items in the past, the reason why he has stopped shipping here, and if it was due to items lost in the mail, this is part of his reply.

"Hi, thanks for your question. I always post International Signed For, and its not down to lost mail, but i've had 7 people who have 'won' things from me from India, who then don't pay and then don't answer emails etc etc. I then have to re-list the items and it costs time and money etc.
Best wishes."


he is happy to ship to me because of past dealings but wont ship to a new person.
so if any of those who bid for "fun" are on this forum and reading this, please realise that you make us look bad as a people and a country, apart from making things a bit more difficult for rest of us!

[fre2bpowerless]

I know the feeling, very few guys on Ebay UK/USA agree to ship to India but even that is outside Ebay.

Another thing is that anything below Priority Mail by USPS is considered trash by our Post Office and is never delivered, I've been told this by someone from our end and I've personally seen bags of that kinda mail just lying around the sorting area. People ordering for the first time don't know this and go back to dispute the payment with Ebay or paypal.

Payments with stolen credit cards is a whole other mess, my wheels/tire guy in the US told me this. Due to this, most companies now only accept wire transfers which is not convenient and requires loads of paperwork. Not fun.

There is cart2India and ICC who can help you with parts, they buy them for you in the US, ship them to their location here pay the duties etc and they charge you 1 price which includes cost of product, shipping, duty.

Hope this helps.

[AWD]

I will take the "win bid & don't buy" statement with a pinch of salt. Last time around I checked out an item listing, buying option showed "buy now". Nowhere was it written "bid now", I clicked on buy now, received a mail quoting "you won a bid". This confused me, now it could be a fault or a deliberate attempt by ebay. Ofcourse I did not go ahead & complete the transaction because I never bid.

Then if someone doesn't buy an item for which you bid, ebay has its own set of policies about warning/de-activating the particular account. Also the return process for imported goods from ebay is tedious & ebay CC impresses buyers to drop return proceedings. Return shipping costs are also borne by the buyer. Do also consider that a lot of fake/replica stuff is sent to India.

While the "items getting lost" comment looks fine because that's in the DNA of this Country! Also packages are opened for Custom checks & not put back together later, so package loosing contents is a big possibility.

Biggest part is that courier services are not great in our Country. The service is patchy & degrades with distance from Metros. Accountability is nil & laws governing are redundant, if any.

[Guna]

Originally Posted by AWD

I will take the "win bid & don't buy" statement with a pinch of salt. Last time around I checked out an item listing, buying option showed "buy now". Nowhere was it written "bid now", I clicked on buy now, received a mail quoting "you won a bid". .

Both modes exist, some are listed with 'buy now' an some 'bid now'

[awini]

Originally Posted by AWD

Also packages are opened for Custom checks & not put back together later, so package loosing contents is a big possibility.

its not a possibility, its a fact, iv had things missing from packets sent even by family members, so there is no doubt that the items were packed but went missing during customs/international post office checks. especially vulnerable are household and children's items.

but here we are talking about people not completing transactions,
getting things insured or tracked is always an option for buyers, it costs more but things usually get to you....

a tip: get the sender to write the number of items in the package in bold letters on the package, that way when the package is opened for checking, the person knows he has to put the same number of things back

iv had my share of ebay disputes, twice from france and once from the uk where i didnt receive the item or the tracking number (they were high value items) and i was refunded the money by paypal

[esteem_lover]

Bidding on ebay as I have known for the last 13 years (since the days of bidorbuyindia.com) is a waste of time. People like us who put up stuff are the genuine ones, all these 'reputed sellers' put up their stuff at a very low price and once you start bidding, they have proxy bidders who come in at the last 1-2 mins and outbid whatever was your highest bid. So, are they playing fair ? Is ebay monitoring such things ? I have been to many real auctions and bought good stuff for a really nice price, but in ebay, I will take the 'buy it now' price instead of bidding for it. Yes, the deals on ebay and the persons selling on ebay are very very dodgy and untrustworthy.

So what exactly is this seller's problem in relisting his item ? They relist so many items even after they are sold or won and paid for ?


P.S. I buy stuff from ebay, but if I am an unsuspecting first timer, I can be ripped off by their 1 paisa auctions and stuff like that. So it is just not a safe place to buy stuff for a normal joe. So, if they have a problem with people not paying for the item they bid for, I would ask them to deal with it. It is not just in India, it is there in US too, did they stop shipping to US ?

[awini]

i dont know why this thread was moved, it was meant for the vintage car forum because ebay uk and usa are the main sources of spares for those of us who own and use vintage and classic cars. the people we deal with are specialist sellers, usually elder people who are disposing off many decades of collection of parts, not the usual wheeler dealer on ebay india. i for one have never found a reasonably or realistically priced item for a vintage car or motorcycle on ebay india....ever

[wasif]

From my experiences I have found sellers on EBay to be far more honest and helpfull than anywhere else.

Their rating system keeps a check on fraud and mis representation of item.

What does a seller gain by having his "proxy bidder" come in at the last minute and bid higher than what a genuine buyer is bidding....isnt the seller trying to see the stuff or sell it to his "proxy bidder"....?????

I dont know if ARAMEX Shop and Ship works in India but it does in the UAE. I get three PO Boxes, one in NYC, London and China where I have my purchaese shipped to and from there ARAMEX will home deliver it to me.

Never "lost" an item till date and i have a 100% positive feedback so far.

People who bid and dont buy are a serious pain for genuine sellers.

In the case mentioned by AWD I cant undeerstand why he didnt go ahead with the transactuion as he willingly hit the "buy it now" button and then when informed he was teh winner of that item he didnt go thru with it.....

[the mole]

Ebay is a wonderful community built on trust of which I have been a part of from 2000, I have bid and won more than 200 items(never sold). I have never had a single bad experience. My rating is 100% Sellers always look at your reviews and ratings before agreeing to ship to you an item, doesn't matter if your located in India or Timbuktu.

My two bits- never approach Ebay with rank casualness, like someone above has mentioned A "buy it now" or a "Bid now" means that you are serious about purchasing the item. It is like giving one's word in the real world. Ebay is a serious means of livelyhood for many sellers in America and Europe and they do not like to be messed around with. It is quite inconvenient for the seller to re-list an item. So please if you do not intend to buy do not Bid.

Now as far as postage to India goes, I have had more than 150 items shipped to India from all over the world, only one was misplaced by a seller (of questionable reputation). India Post is also incredibly good and credit should go where required. The success rate is almost 99% for me
(in Mumbai)

Ebay is an incredible medium which keeps, our old cars running. It is also an incredible medium for research for collectors of antiquities like me. So I appeal to people to kindly stop messing around if you are not serious about purchasing the item. Please also read all rules and regulations before you place a bid. Some of the quibs posted above sound more like nitpicking rather than issues with ebay.

PS: and yes people do bid at the last minute, 90% of my bids have been won by outbidding someone at the absolute last second. But then that's my strategy and well within the rules of any auction.

Happy EBAYING!!!

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by awini

i dont know why this thread was moved, it was meant for the vintage car forum because ebay uk and usa are the main sources of spares for those of us who own and use vintage and classic cars.

Ebay is used by everybody, not just vintage and classic cars owners. Nothing in the first few posts indicated any relevance to Vintage cars. Therefore, the thread was moved to the appropriate section. - Support Team

[tsk1979]

Some ebay sellers in china do not ship to India. I always find the same product with some other seller.
Even then I first mail seller to add $2 charge for "registered Airmail shipping with tracking number" and then pay.

That said, when I bought a high value item(100$), I paid 20$ extra for EMS honkong shipping with tracking number.

If you are ordering something expensive from overseas, spend a few dollars on shipping insurance.

Indian Postal service often steals packages sent through non-registered post(whether domestic or foreign)

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by wasif

What does a seller gain by having his "proxy bidder" come in at the last minute and bid higher than what a genuine buyer is bidding....isnt the seller trying to see the stuff or sell it to his "proxy bidder"....?????

A real auction is where you agree to let go off the item at whatever it is bid for or you have a reserve price and if it is not met, withdraw from the auction and relist the item if you need to. I have seen proxy bidders in real auctions too, enlisted by the auction company, not the owner of the product being auctioned. This kind of activity is not being monitoredor maybe even encouraged by ebay. I do buy some stuff from ebay, but it is not entirely a very nice experience bidding there, prefer to take the ones at "Buy it Now" price if I find the price good.

[wasif]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

A real auction is where you agree to let go off the item at whatever it is bid for or you have a reserve price and if it is not met, withdraw from the auction and relist the item if you need to. I have seen proxy bidders in real auctions too, enlisted by the auction company, not the owner of the product being auctioned. This kind of activity is not being monitoredor maybe even encouraged by ebay. I do buy some stuff from ebay, but it is not entirely a very nice experience bidding there, prefer to take the ones at "Buy it Now" price if I find the price good.

Dude I can assure you Ebay doesnt employ proxy bidders at any of its location.

What you think is a proxy bid, the bids that come in at the very last moment, actually is called sniping.....Sniping is when you wait till the last possible moment before an auction ends and then place your bid which wins.

In the US and other countries if there is an item for sale with a reserve price then the auction house has the right to bid the item up to the reserve to see if there is interest in it . This is called "chandelier bidding".

Both the above activities are legal and common practice.

What does an auction house like Ebay gain by having a proxy put in a proxy bid at the last moment defeating a genuine sale????? Do you think its in thier interest to do so ???? All they will be doing is destroying the auction. undermining their reputation and loosing the confidence of the sellers. This is not a practice Ebay employs !

There are some very innovative and interesting methods seasoned ebayers practice to ensure they win the item they are biddin on .....its all about experience

[Guite]

I had purchased an item from eBay UK but it never reached me. It was sent through non tracking mail, so can't be sure where it got lost, probably flicked by a customs official for his son (it was a toy vehicle for my son). This thread has brought up some alternate ways of securely purchasing from overseas. Will be keeping a watch for more such pointers.

[the mole]

Originally Posted by wasif

There are some very innovative and interesting methods seasoned ebayers practice to ensure they win the item they are biddin on .....its all about experience

Wasif i am in complete agreement with you, i have been sniping for the longest and it works for me. at other times i just enter the maximum value i am willing to pay for something and dont look at the auction again. That also works many times.

In the end market forces always detrmine the worth of an object. In the old days and by that i mean when i started on ebay in the year 2000 there were real treasures to be had for steal. Today its quite crowded and i land up loosing more auctions than winning, but hey theres always a next time. I treat it as game where the challenge is to get the object in your price. But i always follow the rules and i never never default or get an auction cancelled, thats a no no if you want to build a reputation. If you have a complaint against the seller always complete the transaction and then complain to ebay, this way the seller never gets an opportunity to call you a dead beat.