Ebay Scams: A Buyers Guild to Scam Free Shopping
Ebay is a buyers dream but if you are not careful that dream can become a nightmare. Unfortunately ebay buyers new and old can sometimes fall prey to scams and dishonest sellers. There is nothing worse than getting that much awaited package only to find out that your item is not what you expected it to be, or you win an item only to do a search and find you could have payed far less. If you follow just a few simple steps you can avoid these unfortunate experiences.
The most important thing to remember when you are considering bidding is: check the sellers feedback. As a buyer this is your most powerful resource. Check the sellers score and read a few of the comments. If there is a lot of recent negative feedback you may want to reconsider. Also if there is very little feedback bid with caution. Ask questions before you bid. If you place a bid then receive information that would cause you to not want that item you cannot retract your bid just for this reason. Find out all of the information on the item up for bid. If the seller takes a very long time to respond or never responds at all take this as a warning sign.
Use common sense went placing a bid. It is very easy to get caught up in the excitement of the moment and forget this simple rule. Stop, take a brief pause, now think for a moment. Is it realistic for a solid 18k gold wedding band to be $16.99? Yes there are those rare occasion were you can find a steal like this but common sense tells us that this is not very likely. Only bid if you can afford to take the loss financial. To avoid overpaying always check the shipping. That super deal may not be so great when you find the seller is charging $30 to ship a 1/2 pound package from a few states away. It is generally accepted that all sellers ‘skim’ a little from the shipping and handling but you must again use your common sense here. It is up to you, the buyer, to decide what you are willing to pay for shipping.
One very basic rule to avoid overpaying is always do more than one search. You may think that you have found the perfect item, but if you take the first one you see you may find yourself overpaying. Check around a little more, if the auction has some time left check back in a few hours to see what is available.
Using little common sense and a few precautionary measures, you can foil the ebay scam artists.
