Ebay ripoff

I have used ebay so many times over the years I just assume that when I buy something off there I am saving a considerable amount of money versus paying retail. Last week I decided to finally replace our spot steam cleaner. I knew the model I wanted so I jumped right on ebay and found it. 34.99 +14 bucks shipping, a little steep on the shipping cost but hey I am getting a great deal on the price so that makes up for it. So I happily paid the buy it now price and immediately paid for it with Paypal, good deal.

That evening after work while was wasting time before pickup up Ali, I was at wal-mart picking up a couple things and I happened to walk by the vacuum cleaner section and figured, “Hey I wonder if they have those cleaners, let’s see how much money I saved..” The price, $35.24….. so with tax the total would have been around 37 bucks. Instead with shipping I paid a little less than 50 to wait for it for a week. I was rather perturbed to say the least. I’ll never blindly buy off ebay again without checking conventional pricing first.

I finally got my purchase yesterday. The situation went from bad to worse. The auction had the item listed as NEW. It was in it’s original box but it had obviously been used. The manual was creased and water stained, the brushes had some hair around them, there was dirt on the casing and the liquid compartment had condensation in it. Oh well, I was angry but as long as it worked I was going to let it slide. I flip it on and the brushes spin and there is suction, great. Well then I thought I should put water in it and make sure it all works. I filled it and fired it up. I squeeze the trigger once, twice, 25 times… nothing comes out. Son of a bitch! The damn thing is used, I overpaid for it, had to wait a week and it doesn’t work right! Argh!

So I fire off an angry email to the seller accusing him of falsely representing the product and demanding a refund. His initial response was condescending and smart ass in nature saying I could return it and the would either repair it or send me another one so I quickly replied. This time I went into more detail about all the issues with the product, how I paid for a NEW one so a repaired one would not do, established I indeed knew how to work the unit and that I was not an ebay novice and indirectly hinted that he should simply refund my money or else the negative feedback would be scathing.

His second reply was more amicable and he agreed to refund the purchase price if I sent it back. I’m still out the shipping that I had to pay twice. It was lesson that I won’t forget. I’ll be going to wal-mart after work to buy a brand new unit, like I could have done a week ago and saved myself 30 bucks. Sigh….