My close ebay call

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Dryglove

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Location
Central CA, Now Christchurch New Zealand
It all started when i decided to take a plunge into the world of underwater digital cameras. I did a lot of reading on the board and talked to a few members(thanks dee:D) about the set up i wanted to use. I decided to go with a olympus pt-015 housing, olympus 5050 camera, sea and sea ys-90dx strobe and fisheye tray.

I picked up my housing from newegg for a really good price. I ordered my strobe, FO kit and fish eye tray from yuzo in japan for a really god deal.

Now comes the close call. I have been a member of ebay and paypal since 2000. I did my homework and checked out the cameras at ebay. I came across a seller who seemed ok. He had been registered since 2000 and had a total of 88 feedback all positive. He had a handful of recent feedback all of which were great and sounded like he delivered as promised. The camera i bid and won from him was 560.00 including a 256mb compact flash card and free fed ex overnight shipping. Not to shabby for a brand new camera.

I sent the seller payment by paypal the same day i won the auction. For some reason i had a gut feeling that something wasnt right from the start but ignored it and bid the camera anyways. I noticed he had sold quite a few cameras in the last month and had quite a few listed. Not really nothing out of the ordinary compared to the other camera sellers.

So a few days later i still have not received my camera or a tracking number as promised. I start keeping a close eye on his feedback and notice that someone left him a bad feedback claiming paypal wont let him accept payment. Right away the red flags go up and sure enough paypal wont let him accpet anymore payments. Then it goes all downhill from there and he receives about 10 negative feedbacks in two days from previous winners who never received their cameras.

I requested the sellers user information from ebay and sent him several emails and tried calling him several times with no luck. Almost immediately he is converted to a non registered user on ebay and all his auctions are cancelled. Now im thinking to myself this totally sucks. Just three days ago this person looked like a solid seller.

I was pretty convinced i wasnt going to get my camera and filed a complaint form with paypal. Lucky for me his auctions were covered by paypal buyer protection program. Paypal notified me that night they had launched an investigation into my complaint and would keep me advised of any updates. I am automatically thinking i am not gonna see my money for several months if am lucky enough to get any money back at all.

Imagine my surprise the next morning when i received a email from paypal saying that they had concluded their investigation and my entire 560.00 had been refunded to my paypal account. Man, talk about relief!!

Not one to learn the easy way i looked through ebay and purchased a factory refurbished unit as the seller could have it to me by this week so i could still dive my new set up this weekend. I dont know why but it seems like everyone that offers a decent price for cameras are all out of new york. I guess us west coasters dont get any love on this side when it comes to cameras.

Anyways to get back on track i picked a seller with 1500 feedback with 99.8 positive feedbacks and emailed him beforehand. He also had paypal buyer protection just in case. The seller was really cool and said he could send it out asap so i would have it by this weekend and charged me a really good shipping price to boot. I am very satisfied as long as the camera shows up :D

So to sum it up be very careful buying high priced fast moving electrical items from ebay and choose your sellers wisely. I should have gone with my gut instinct and chose someone else to buy from but greed and free overnight shipping got the best of me:D This was my first problem have since i have been a member of ebay.

Now if the weather holds out and everything arrives ill get to try out digital photography this weekend :D
 
Glad everything worked out okay for you. Good luck with the new camera and good advice for those of us who shop Ebay.
 
You almost gave me a heart attack! I know how much you've been looking forward to this new venture. Sure am glad it all worked out!

So we can expect some pictures next Monday, huh??? :D
 
Good Luck! Will be very interested to see how those shots come out from a newbie. I have given alot of thought to that unit as well so lets see those prize winning shots!
 
Ahhhh, those NY camera houses. I bought both my Oly refurbs from them and luckily had no problems.
Glad it all worked out for you.
And now lets talk about this bridge in Brooklyn I can make you a good deal on and I accept PayPal.
:tease:
(I can say all of this cause I was born and raised there a long time ago)
:bang:
 
5615mike once bubbled...
Good Luck! Will be very interested to see how those shots come out from a newbie. I have given alot of thought to that unit as well so lets see those prize winning shots!
I dont know about prize winning but i am sure there will be shots :D Just the amount of buttons and knobs on the housing has me scratching my head not to mention the 230 page 5050 instuction booklet i downloaded from olympus. Its gonna be an adventure, thats for sure.
 
I saw a great article a few months ago (no idea where though now), that had a journalist pose as a camera shopper buying the same camera from half a dozen different shops in NY, both online and in person. Some were scrupulous traders, but others were outright crooks. A number of different trading names turned out to be the same office, etc, some did bait and switch, grey market cameras being sold in place of US models, some took the money and disappeared, only for a "new" camera shop to open the following week in the same office with the same staff, etc.

Shop wisely!
 
but I saw the same EBay listing and the same negative comment when I was window shopping. Caveat emptor!

Glad things turned out for you, lal.
 

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