Caveat Emptor -Buyers Beware-Ebay is bad

Shopping in most Indian cities can leave you exhausted, not because of the variety but because you have to be really alert to ensure that you are not taken for a ride. Very rarely you can find an honest trader and because their number is so few, I can very safely make a general statement that they are out there to make a fast buck. I learn from very reliable sources that even the opposition to VAT was because it makes a trader accountable as to where he bought the stuff from.

This propensity to cheat a customer seems to be in-built in traders. There is never a buyers’ market in India probably because the sheer numbers ensure sufficient sales to the trader that he does not mind losing a customer. Unfortunately, this trend continues on the modern method of “On-Line Shopping”. The trend is catching on and this blog is an attempt to warn potential buyers of the potential pit-falls in shopping through the Internet.

The biggest culprit is the internationally renowned site ‘ebay’. While individuals listing their used items are generally honest, the same cannot be said of dealers who display their wares on the site. The variety is tremendous and sufficient lures are offered in the form of discounts to attract customers. But what is disgusting is that it is a sellers’ market in as much as the attitude of ebay is concerned. If your purchase goes through clean, consider yourself lucky because if there is a dispute, you had it. Despite all the high sounding words and sweet talking, ebay does nothing to help the buyer. One gets a very strong feeling that ebay is supporting the seller. Every single item I have bought through ebay had some short-coming or other but nothing ever comes out of the feedback or complaints.

Ebay has earned sufficient bad reviews in mouthshut.com and I wish I had seen them before buying from this portal. Someone had commented that ebay gets its commission from the sellers and that the site needs the support of sellers, to survive. Once the sale is through they care tuppence about the buyer. Very true. This has been my experience too on more than one occasion. Couple of examples to give emphasis to my words. An item called ‘electric lighter’ was listed with a photograph showing three lighters. I felt that there is something wrong and sent a query to the seller who confirmed that the price is for three lighters. So I bought the item but before I could pay for it, I received a mail from the seller where he had indicated that the price is for one unit. So I refused to pay. Pitiably, ebay threatens me with a black mark for not paying but despite repeated mails did nothing to pull up the seller for his dishonesty. Even more maddening was that I had to repeat my story every time I sent a mail, because different persons handled the same dispute. Nothing happened and the seller Shifa-on-line continues to peddle his wares, probably cheating many more, right under the nose of ebay. I would have been satisfied with an apology from the seller saying that he made a mistake but ebay refused to entertain my request.

I paid dearly for not reading the fine print. Ebay shouts from the roof tops about its “buyer protection programme”. Do you know that the buyer gets no protection if the parcel is lost in transit? How can a buyer establish that he did not receive the goods that he paid for? How does the buyer establish that he has shipped the goods is not mentioned. Can ebay accept a booking receipt merely scribbled ‘Sundar, Hosur’ as possible proof of shipping and not compensate the buyer? Courier companies are known to leave a full book of the booking receipts with the customer if there is scope of sufficient business emanating from the organization. Romachoithani, the seller in this case, was so poor in communication and had to be prompted several times before he would reply. I have wasted a fortune on telephone calls trying to trace the shipment. Again ebay takes no action on the seller but makes me wait 30days before allowing me to file a claim and another 30 days to complete the ‘investigation’. I have seen Government offices working faster!!

Moral of the story – check twice, thrice your horoscope and luck for this week before buying anything on ebay. If you get even a whiff of negative wind from the stars, keep off ebay, because if luck doesn’t help you ebay will not.