Picture says it all ;)
If you do end up with an actual drive, its very likely to be a much smaller capacity. Even if the seller has positive feedback. Who actually does a read/write test on the whole capacity before leaving feedback, after all?
(except us...)
Comments
Looks like a failed 3rd year project.
I've never bought anything of ebay. Not even got an account, but the more i read the more I find myself less inclined to bother trying.
You only hear about the exceptional cases. eBay would not be making millions if it was just filled with charlatans.
I've done 2 transactions on eBay... I bought a festival ticket, and it arrived next day, and I sold my motorbike, again with flawless results. Very good buyer, would use again A+++++.
The same rules apply as with anything else...if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. I wouldn't import anything via it, as you're asking for trouble.
I've only ever had good experiences with eBay.
Except one cable that I had to raise a paypal complaint about to get the guy to actually send to me. But that's well under 10% of my transactions, which also include a laptop and my xbox 360 (I was quite nervous about those two, but both turned out great.)
I don't doubt that there are millions of fantastic deals and that the cons are in the minority. It just seems that there is the lack of ability to punish someone who does you over.
If a shop doesn't deliver the goods I can take them to court. They are an identifiable entity that can be targeted. If I buy a car off someone then I can make sure I perform checks to safe guard myself against things. Of if I am selling my car I can ensure they pay me in a form that means they can't not pay me ie cash, bankers draft, not a cheque.
Paypal appears to be the method of choice and appears to have issues around people witholding payment.
Maybe I dont trust it enough to risk cash on it and that my trust level is different to the millions of people that do use it. ???
Obviously so. Kate and I got our wedding clothing from eBay without a problem.
I ordered Bloodbowl from there and it was excellent.
There is no real difference between Paypal and Visa/Mastercard when you work in an online environment. I've had the joy of working with both systems at work (Visa and Mastercard share a lot of their technical infrastructure, whereas Paypal employ a super-gay method which always includes a transaction journey to their site).
Pretty much every method of payment you can think of has a "guarantee" attached to it, whereby if the buyer is mis-sold, they can in theory get their money back. In practice, however, this is rarely easy, and requires epic persistance, as well as a fairly decent knowledge of the regulations of the relevant payment method. Most times, any attempt to use the money-back promise will result in stone-walling and questioning (after all, once you have your money back the payment issuer then has the job of recovering the money from the person who has just screwed you over...hardly a job they want). I'm in a fortunate situation where I have both pre-requisites, so have once, when needed, successfully used a guarantee. It involved 3 phone calls, including one explaining banking regulations to a manager at HSBC, as well as certain obligations the bank had agreed to as part of joining the UK BACS network.
I'm pretty certain that with a small initial outlay, and a base of operations overseas I could cheerfully screw people out of money using most major credit cards, without ever touching Paypal. I'm also fairly confident those screwed over would never see their money again.
I only ever order stuff off ebay if I can't get it anywhere else since usually the price is not usually any better for the sorts of stuff I've looked at.
Look a list of people telling me that they have had a fantastic experience on it is all well and good, but to be honest I have taken that arguement for granted. I know there are millions of happy people out there. I question this not.
A few more people telling me they had no issues with it doesn't help too much even if they are from trusted friends.
The "I've been dicked over by people telling Paypal I sold them the wrong thing, when I didn't and they've now cancelled the payment, meaning I effectively gave away my expensive gadget" and the "I've been sold something shit and can't do much to get my money back" stories are the ones that make me think, "Is this really something worth trying?".
I am aware that these even seem contradictory.
But
"include a laptop and my xbox 360 (I was quite nervous about those two, but both turned out great.)"
You were nervous? I'm not nervous if I order something from amazon or similar. I'm not nervous if I go to Dixons. I'm not even nervous if I buy a car from Bob down the road, because I'll have checked the thing out before I buy and that fucker will be giving me a set of keys as I give him my bankers draft.
Ebay just seems too open to fraud and I'm not even talking about the comedy like air guitars or x-box boxes.
My trust-o-meter says there is little recourse available to me if this goes wrong and there will be few clues that it will go wrong until it does.
I've bought a fair few things, large and small, on ebay
(I know this sounds like the rest of above, bear with me)
In the past I have bought big things on there. A laptop and some processors were the big ticket items, although I got in contact with the laptop guy and made the transaction outside ebay (yes, this is against their rules. Its also throwing away some protection. Fuck it though, it was cheaper and meant I didn't have to wait for someone to snipe. Anyway...). The processors were a total of £600 and yes I was nervous.
I then got ripped off to the tune of £40 or so. Ebay, paypal and I couldn't get hold of the seller. Not good.
I have a new policy: I never bid on anything on there that I can't write off if it all goes to shit. Don't get me wrong: if it does I will chase them with a big stick and I will not be happy. But I will know that I can afford it.
Not exactly sparkling praise, but its what I do.
Ebay is very good for small stuff, obscure stuff and second hand stuff that you have researched throroughly. I've got some pretty good deals on stuff on there in the past...