When you buy stuff, what do you do?

Alright you buyers out there, I want to see what the rest of you guys do.

Honestly, who here "asks" for insurance/registered on items they buy?

Now, the reason on why am am asking this is because of 2 reasons mainly:

1. How does insurance help a buyer, if the seller runs off.

2. It's clear e-bay doesn't give a damn whether a buyer tries to do the right thing, and pays the huge prices for this sort of protection.


With these 2 in mind, and what I have gone through (and currently) going through, I can't help be feel that I have done nothing but waste all my money over the past years in shipping and insurance costs for absolutely no reason at all. And I am the only silly person on e-bay that does this sort of stupid thing. And everything I have been lead to beleive, has been nothing but a crock of ####.

There's no protection for buyers, because buyers don't pay money to eBay compared to sellers..who pay more money anyways....

if sellers run away, it results in run away...
i just consider eBay for fun... not 100% trust on buying things i need.
so, for me, i will buy some stuff for fun, if i need to buy seriously, i will inspect all by myself and never think about insurnace, because insurance is another step of pull techqnie because if they are decent enough, i am pretty sure things will work out the way it is...

just my point of view....

Use auctionsniper instead to place your bids and choose to add insurance from their end. They cover you for a smaller fee ;-) You then have a third party to deal with thats not eBay, paypal or the seller.

And if your sellers are ripping you off like that for high end stuff then maybe you arn't checking out their feedback enough. If they have done it to you then they have probably done it to others as well.

What about paypal chargebacks??

I've never had this problem in buying off eBay in nearly 8 years or so. I use insurance on high end and just global express on lower stuff.

nandalinnaung - Mmmmmmm, I guess that's a no for insurance.

chadjaja® - O.k, so if I use auction sniper, are they any better at protecting buyers than what e-bay, Paypal etc do?
Right now, I am pretty sure that I am going to forgo all future insurance registered type mail on my items. Because, with what I have expereinced lately, really makes me think that it is all a useless thing to have.

Well, here's the thing. I always do check the feeback of sellers, and I reckon I deal with sellers who have a feedback rating of 98% or higher in just about every single case. And trust me, Gold Power sellers can rip you off just as easily as a newbie with Zero feedback. To be honest, I have not (touch wood) had a problem with a newbie seller, it always seems to be the "big" sellers on e-bay.

Well, heres the thing, I'll give you the example on what has happened to me recently and why the Paypal chargeback isn't going to help me right now.
O.k, I bought like an item at the beginning of November, paid staright away, tracking, insurnace, you name it.
4 weeks or so later, I get an e-mail from her, saying "Sorry, I sent your item to the wrong place, and it just got returned, will send out tomorrow". O.k, fine, what was I going to say? No. I want my money back, and not the item I won.
Anyway, another 4 weeks go by, and still no cards. So I e-mail, and e-mail, and e-mail, this went of for like another 2 weeks. Before it sunk in to me, crap, she ripped me off. So, by the time I logde a complaint, sorry, outside of 45 days (or whatever it is) and you are eligible for a $6 refund.
Now, the problem for me is, and I could be wrong here, if you pay for insurance etc etc Wouln't it make sense, for me to get the full amount of the item back, and then the seller cliam back the lsot item?
I don't know, maybe it's just me, but that's what I thought would happen.

This is the reason on why I am thinking that all this money I wasted in getting these items to OZ, has all been for nothing and I would have been better off to just get regular maill all the time and my claim would be absolutely no differnt, to someone who had paid insruance, tracking etc.

That's tuff, I've been in the same place as you are now. Got myself 3 high end boxes from a "reputable" seller. They tell me they sent them and got them sent back for some reason. Then they sent 1 box out (the cheapest) eventually after a huge wait.
They were fine and friendly with contact the whole time until about a month and a half later. Still no boxes arrived. Eventually they stopped answering my emails and removed themselves from eBay, probably getting another ID. I ended up paying with bidpay for the boxes after much stuffing around because their paypal had problems. So I had no idea what to do to re-coop my money. I do have their address though so if anyone knows who can help with that

With the insurance etc etc. I usually only ask for USPS Airmail Letter Post (4-7 days) with any card from the US now. If they're happy to send that way and happy to take my un-confirmed paypal payment, then I know I'm covered if it doesn't arrive. If it doesn't arrive within paypals complaint period (45 days?) I file a complaint anyway until the items arrives or I get the money back and re-pay if it does arrive. That's my own "Insurance"
Whenever I get a parcel sent, I do the same, USPS Airmail Parcel Post (4-7 days). If I want it in a certain time period, or if it's an expensive purchase, I ask for Insurance on it aswell which is pretty cheap and it will more than likely arrive within 3-4 days exactly with the insurance on it everytime. Cheaper and faster than the more expensive methods of Global Priority and even Global Express.
Those are my methods and they have worked well for me so far. I have only lost out on a situation like yours when I didn't know enough about the systems I was using. So hopefully that will help some people.

The Truth said:

That's tuff, I've been in the same place as you are now. Got myself 3 high end boxes from a "reputable" seller. They tell me they sent them and got them sent back for some reason. Then they sent 1 box out (the cheapest) eventually after a huge wait.
They were fine and friendly with contact the whole time until about a month and a half later. Still no boxes arrived. Eventually they stopped answering my emails and removed themselves from eBay, probably getting another ID. I ended up paying with bidpay for the boxes after much stuffing around because their paypal had problems. So I had no idea what to do to re-coop my money. I do have their address though so if anyone knows who can help with that

With the insurance etc etc. I usually only ask for USPS Airmail Letter Post (4-7 days) with any card from the US now. If they're happy to send that way and happy to take my un-confirmed paypal payment, then I know I'm covered if it doesn't arrive. If it doesn't arrive within paypals complaint period (45 days?) I file a complaint anyway until the items arrives or I get the money back and re-pay if it does arrive. That's my own "Insurance"
Whenever I get a parcel sent, I do the same, USPS Airmail Parcel Post (4-7 days). If I want it in a certain time period, or if it's an expensive purchase, I ask for Insurance on it aswell which is pretty cheap and it will more than likely arrive within 3-4 days exactly with the insurance on it everytime. Cheaper and faster than the more expensive methods of Global Priority and even Global Express.
Those are my methods and they have worked well for me so far. I have only lost out on a situation like yours when I didn't know enough about the systems I was using. So hopefully that will help some people.

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Geez, that seems to be the favoured key in knowing you are about to be scammed. The whole, talk to the buyer thing and then silent treatment after the 45 days is up.

Thanks for all the details, I think I will persure your train of thought.

Thanks bud.