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Guidelines for Buying from Online Vendors
TeamSpeed
Registered Users Posts: 261 Major grins
I posted this over on POTN, and think it is great info for folks here too. There is a POTN link in this, so I hope that is not bad, a little cross pollination probably isn't bad. If this is great info, maybe it can be a sticky.
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Since it comes up quite a bit, here is a compilation of steps you can take to check before you buy from a place that has prices that "seem to good to be true", as well as questioning an Ebay feedback result. If there is any use for this long-term, maybe the mods can find it in their hearts to sticky it. I am happy to keep it updated as time allows.
Online Vendors
1) Check this POTN thread for the URL in question, see if they are on the watch list. This list changes often, so don't think "if I don't see it, they must be okay".
2) Check www.resellersratings.com for the online website for a community view on that seller
3) Google the website and add "scam" or "bait" and "switch" to the search, for instance, priceritephoto.com scam or priceritephoto.com bait switch and check out the results.
Ebay
1) Create separate buy accounts and sell accounts (you need two separate email accounts). This protects your negative feedback from retaliatory feedback hurting your sell account, and frees you up to leave honest to goodness feedback for a seller.
2) Check the seller's withdrawn feedback count on their feedback page. If more than a few, question that seller's integrity, there is almost no reason for large numbers of withdrawn feedback, you can count on those to be negative, nobody withdraws positive feedback.
3) Use www.toolhaus.org and put in the seller's id, check the negative feedback and also check how much positive they leave, and the content of both types of feedback to get a feel for the character of the seller.
4) Check the seller's historical offerings by clicking any of the item links that are still active, get a feel for whether the seller has sold big items or many small items. If all small, and now they are selling a large item, beware.
5) If no activity for a long period of time, then there is a rash of large items for sale, beware, it might be a hijacked account.
6) Contact the seller for the item you are interested in, build a dialog to see how you feel about that person, ask some very technical questions about the item to see if they know anything about it.
7) Google the seller ID and add "scam" and "ebay" to the search, for instance, barclaysphoto scam ebay, and check out the results. Do the same for "bait" and "switch", for instance barclaysphoto bait switch ebay.
8) Here is a little known fact. If you go to the Ebay site for Hong Kong (www.ebay.com.hk), and maneuver to your feedback link (bring up English version next to Japanese version to maneuver), you can leave feedback for a seller using 125 characters instead of 80. This gives you more space for a better description of feedback. ALSO, do not place any web urls into your feedback, as it gives the seller grounds to remove your feedback due to breaking the rules. Just provide the facts as is, even though you would like to do more.
==================================================
Since it comes up quite a bit, here is a compilation of steps you can take to check before you buy from a place that has prices that "seem to good to be true", as well as questioning an Ebay feedback result. If there is any use for this long-term, maybe the mods can find it in their hearts to sticky it. I am happy to keep it updated as time allows.
Online Vendors
1) Check this POTN thread for the URL in question, see if they are on the watch list. This list changes often, so don't think "if I don't see it, they must be okay".
2) Check www.resellersratings.com for the online website for a community view on that seller
3) Google the website and add "scam" or "bait" and "switch" to the search, for instance, priceritephoto.com scam or priceritephoto.com bait switch and check out the results.
Ebay
1) Create separate buy accounts and sell accounts (you need two separate email accounts). This protects your negative feedback from retaliatory feedback hurting your sell account, and frees you up to leave honest to goodness feedback for a seller.
2) Check the seller's withdrawn feedback count on their feedback page. If more than a few, question that seller's integrity, there is almost no reason for large numbers of withdrawn feedback, you can count on those to be negative, nobody withdraws positive feedback.
3) Use www.toolhaus.org and put in the seller's id, check the negative feedback and also check how much positive they leave, and the content of both types of feedback to get a feel for the character of the seller.
4) Check the seller's historical offerings by clicking any of the item links that are still active, get a feel for whether the seller has sold big items or many small items. If all small, and now they are selling a large item, beware.
5) If no activity for a long period of time, then there is a rash of large items for sale, beware, it might be a hijacked account.
6) Contact the seller for the item you are interested in, build a dialog to see how you feel about that person, ask some very technical questions about the item to see if they know anything about it.
7) Google the seller ID and add "scam" and "ebay" to the search, for instance, barclaysphoto scam ebay, and check out the results. Do the same for "bait" and "switch", for instance barclaysphoto bait switch ebay.
8) Here is a little known fact. If you go to the Ebay site for Hong Kong (www.ebay.com.hk), and maneuver to your feedback link (bring up English version next to Japanese version to maneuver), you can leave feedback for a seller using 125 characters instead of 80. This gives you more space for a better description of feedback. ALSO, do not place any web urls into your feedback, as it gives the seller grounds to remove your feedback due to breaking the rules. Just provide the facts as is, even though you would like to do more.
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Comments
Just realize that if a vendor is not listed or has very few ratings, that does not mean they're OK. It may in fact mean that it's an old scammer that was "found out" and has recently popped up with a brand new name ... but the same old scam.
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