The Guitar Players Club

I made my first purchase through eBay many years ago. I guess it was not long after the site started to gain in popularity. I don't consider myself an expert on selling or buying from eBay. The account I use now has only (15) sells associated with it. After many computer upgrades, hard drive crashes and the like, I've long

forgotten my original account information. Anyway, although I don't have a huge number of items that I've sold, I have bought many more.

BEWARE -

Although I do believe that the majority of eBay sellers are honest, respectful, nice, and helpful people, there are those that are less than ideal business people. I, like many people that have made more than a few purchases via eBay, have had a few problems. I should note here that I believe eBay does a fantastic job of making doing business on their site as good as it can be expected to be. Will it ever be perfect ? Obviously not...you're dealing with Humans, so there's always plenty of room for honest mistakes, and the greedy, low-life, criminal types.

Do Your Part -

Although I have had a few problems buying on eBay, looking back, I didn't do my part to try and make things better. I'd often leave much higher feedback than the seller deserved, in fear of getting negative feedback in retaliation. I've even received broken items and never reported it because the cost was minimal, and not worth my time...at the time.

I guess I've changed my operating procedures a little now though. I used to very seldom email the seller questions. Now I don't hesitate to ask anything that isn't covered in the description of the item. I've come to notice that although most people won't flat out lie about the item, they will neglect to mention any problems with the item being sold. So...ASK QUESTIONS!!

One other thing comes to mind, photos. If there's even the slightest doubt, ask if the photos in the ad are of the actual item being sold. Occasionally, I've seen sellers use a stock photo of their listed item because their item was 'less than visually appealing'. Of course most will use stock photos if they sell new, or many of the same items. Again, the best advice to be given is, ask questions, give honest feedback and use common sense. If you ask the seller a question and it takes (3) days to get a reply, there's a good chance that maybe that's not the person you want to do business with.

Personally, I've only bought one amp that had to be shipped. It was packaged professionally, delivered undamaged, and still works perfectly to this day. I have had more experience with guitars, and in every instance, there has never been a problem. I've only shipped one instrument out myself, a violin, and again, I packaged it with great care, and it was delivered in perfect condition. I even honored the buyers somewhat specific shipping terms and received the best feedback comments a seller could hope for.

In closing, I guess I should just mention the 'use common sense' idea again. If a seller has poor feedback, seems vague in wanting to answer any questions specifically, or maybe you just feel any communications have a negative 'tone', by all means, don't bid. One of eBays great points is the sheer volume of items being listed. If you don't feel comfortable with one seller...keep looking, there's probably several more (at least) of the same item being listed by other sellers.

And remember, eBay is is a top-notch, very respected, and extremely successful company for a reason. They do, I believe, everything that they can, in order to provide a safe, valuable, reliable, and entertaining site on which to conduct business. I'd say they have done a great job, and with the help and support of the users, it will always continue to improve.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 8th, 2008 at 2:54 pm and is filed under General.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.