eBay

Been using the UK & US Bay for many years now and never had any problems. I bring in on average 5-15 items per year, ranging from PC to vehicle to general items and there is duty on some and not on others.

As with any auction site, you just have to be careful - if it sounds to good to be true, then it probably is...

Also have a USA2Me account for the US Bay and all is well - reasonable shipping and no loss so far.
 
xrapidx said:
Here's an idea - lets send our parcels back to customs when they're labelled incorrectly and see if we get them back the second time with our very corrupt and dishonest postal services.
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LOL, yep. I can't control what the eBay user writes on my package. I pitch up there expecting to pay duties, taxes and what not and I get charged R30 for customs.

Don't even know if I am supposed to pay tax on it.

My RAID Card I had to wait nearly 2 hours at the post office because they "couldn't find any records of it". Had I not had a tracking number they probably would have denied ever receiving it. SAPO is so unorganized, eventually they had 4 people looking for my parcel and just when I had given up hope they "found" it and then suddenly "Ooohhh, here it is" in the log book which she had already searched 20 times (so she missed it 20 times then suddenly found it in the log book when the parcel turns up).

Ooh k. Doubt they would want to steal the parcel but goodness they are bad at organization.
 
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I dunno I'm a noob to this so it makes me very wary of it, I mean how do you know if you purchasing something from someone that isn't just gonna screw you over? Like what are the does and don'ts? What do you look for in the saler or the product to know what you doing is genuine and not a scam? Would be cool if someone could make a stick on eBay for people that have no clue and wanting to try it out, I mean some of the prices you see on eBay seem too good to be true, but I just don't have the balls to try it, does it work like cod in wow hahaha? Is PayPal like the middle man that ensures you get you product and once you get the money is released to the salesman? I know some dumb questions here.
 
xrapidx said:
Most good sellers have sold thousands - and have ratings of 98%+
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Ok cool, I'm not totally against it, like I say I have no knowledge of how things are done with eBay so I'm not gonna debate about it not being safe, I just like to know what makes it so safe, what are the security measure.
 
The rule is simple:

ALWAYS pay with PayPal using the eBay system. Never communicate outside eBay. If you follow those rules you get buyer protection which essentially insulates you from any scammers. They'll refund your original purchase price + shipping if you don't receive the item or the incorrect item. Apart from that you could even ask the credit card company to reverse the transaction.

It is also the reason PayPal and eBay require ANY and ALL sellers to only ship when a tracking number is available. Not shipping with a tracking number means a seller has no collateral and will in all likelyhood get the transaction reversed if a complaint is lodged.

If you read online you'll see a LOT of sellers complaining how they got scammed by buyer protection when a user claims they didn't get their parcel or got the incorrect parcel (regardless of their reputation or how many sales they make). However, I haven't found complaints from buyers about the buyer protection.

I would never sell using eBay but buying with eBay is a pleasure.
 
I'll complain about buyers protection...

I got a notification a while back that my account is going to be suspended because I have to many claims (probably five odd in the last 7 odd year, with 3 being last year).

And the worst part is, one was for a fake item and one was for a $9.99 item that I don't think the seller actually sent because it was worth a lot more
 
So you didn't get your money back?

When you say "going to be suspended" do you mean they said if you file more buyer protection claims they'll suspend your account or have they already suspended it?
 
Hi,

Only used it once, I bought a special cable for an HP Pavilion laptop, a cable which connects the keyboard and quick launch buttons with the motherboard, HP SA charged me R1500 for this cable as the laptop was out of warranty, bought it from Ebay for R200 including shipping etc. ...

No wonder why us POOR southafricans are well .... poor.... We are paying an arm and a leg for things here locally, and getting ripped off biiiiiig time, and yeah we are just accepting this.... even tho America is a 1st world country and the chances of them affording more expensive things are a lot higher they will in fact put their fooot down to these kinda things... about time we learn and do the same things...don't get me wrong, I'm all for LOCAL IS LEKKER, but the line has to be drawn somewhere....... and unfortunately it doesnt look good for LOCAL IS LEKKER..... coz it really isn't anymore...its like saying, RAPING IS LEKKER nowadays.
 
Gnome said:
So you didn't get your money back?

When you say "going to be suspended" do you mean they said if you file more buyer protection claims they'll suspend your account or have they already suspended it?
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Got the money back.

They plan on suspending it if I file more claims

Oh wait - I forgot, there were two more claims which arrived AFTER they'd paid out - but I then paid the sellers.
 
xrapidx said:
Got the money back.

They plan on suspending it if I file more claims

Oh wait - I forgot, there were two more claims which arrived AFTER they'd paid out - but I then paid the sellers.
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At least you got the money back ;)
 
mh348 said:
I used the Pre-paid option, paid about $8.50 for the package and $? for repackaging (can't remember how much), just to pack it into a smaller box..
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Oh okay, for one package, no consolidation that's very reasonable.
 
Can some of you maybe give me the total amount you guys have saved on purchases you have made on ebay instead of buying from sa? with delivary costs, import costs etc. Just outa Curiosity
 
Endzeut said:
Can some of you maybe give me the total amount you guys have saved on purchases you have made on ebay instead of buying from sa? with delivary costs, import costs etc. Just outa Curiosity
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One example:
H3 5000k slim ballast hid kit bought from a shop in china: R330 shipped to my door.

Same product (probably different brand) from electromann SA- R1050 excluding courier/postage.
 
Endzeut said:
Can some of you maybe give me the total amount you guys have saved on purchases you have made on ebay instead of buying from sa? with delivary costs, import costs etc. Just outa Curiosity
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Roof for my S2000 - saved around R20,000.
 
You bought a roof for an S2000 on eBay?

LOL, how much did you pay for that? How on earth do you ship something like that :o
 
Gnome said:
You bought a roof for an S2000 on eBay?

LOL, how much did you pay for that? How on earth do you ship something like that :o
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Shipping was almost the same price as the roof... landed it was only R5,500. Locally was over R20,000
 
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