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ONLINE SECURITY TIPS I have been buying and selling on Ebay since 2001. I have have almost no problems online, and consider online shopping to be as safe as shopping on the High Street or by Mail Order.
Unfortunately there are a few villains out there, so you need to be aware of potential problems.
There are a few tips below that you can use to make sure your shopping experience does not turn bad.
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SHOPPING SAFELY ONLINEDuring my time as a seller on Ebay I have had a few emails from people concerned about other sellers that they think may have ripped them off.
Usually this involves a high value item such as a mobile phone, which never turns up after the buyer has sent money to the seller.
There are just four main things to remember when buying items on Ebay
BEFORE YOU BID
- Check the seller's feedback
You can see how previous transactions have gone, and may spot a dodgy seller before you bid. Zero or low feedback for sellers of high value items is a big warning sign.
- Check the listing carefully
If there is a photo, has it been taken by the seller? If a picture has been lifted off a manufacturers site it will look professionally shot - but remember, many sellers approach Ebay as a business and have good photos - look particularly for a mismatch between photo quality and listing style.
A genuine seller should be convincing about why they are selling an item - and asking questions can stop you from buying a lemon or a bogus item.
AFTER YOU BID
- Use a safe method of payment
NEVER pay with cash - it is untraceable, and if it gets lost in the post you don't get compensation!
Remember that Postal Orders are like cash too - if you cross them they become like cheques, and can only be paid into the named persons bank account - the main problem with Postal Orders is that unlike cheques, the sender can't cancel them, so if they go missing in the post the money is gone.
If possible pay by credit card - you can do this through PayPal - this will give you more protection as your contract is then with the payment provider.
- Commmunicate with the seller
Always make sure that you email the seller with your details - address, method of payment- occasionally PayPal emails will not get through and the seller may not pick up on your payment - or your cheque payment may not have arrived - this has happened two or three times with buyers on my Ebay listings.
Help out other buyers and sellers by leaving accurate feedback about your transaction - it could help someone avoid a bad experience, and it makes great Ebayers more obvious to buyers and sellers.
Don't leave Negative feedback before you contact your buyer or seller - there could be a problem that you don't know about, that can be easily resolved by email.
More on Feedback
Ebay uses the feedback system so that you can make a decision as a buyer whether to trust a seller or not - it also works the other way - sellers need to be able to trust buyers too.
Feedback can help you see how a seller or buyer behaves.
If you buy or sell on Ebay you can give feedback on how that transaction went - Positive
 - Neutral
 - or Negative
Generally speaking negative feedback is not necessarily a problem.
Everyone on Ebay if they have a big enough volume of transactions will get some negative feedback. I have four - three down to lack of communication from the buyers, and one (the most recent) due to a parcel I thought I had sent out and hadn't.
Check the feedback records of anyone who has given your seller bad feedback, they may be dealing with problems the wrong way, or may be malicious.
The background to my first negative feedback is that I received payment from the buyer as he stated, then heard no more until he gave me negative feedback. I immediately emailed him, and re-sent the item. A week later I got the original parcel back - delivery had been attempted, he was not in and never picked up the parcel from his local depot.
The buyer never contacted me at any stage, even to say that he had received the second parcel safely.
The next two negatives were given after one buyer had not received her goods - I hadn't received her payment. Another buyer negged me by mistake - she thought she was giving a negative to someone else - and I hadn't even received payment from her - and still haven't!
As you can see negative feedback is not necessarily an indicator of a bad seller or buyer - it can show you how each party deals with problems - how does the seller respond to negatives? - and why has the buyer given one?
I respond politely to negatives and do what I can to close the transaction successfully for both sides, stating my side of it in my response to the feedback- some sellers respond by firing off a negative in retaliation, and by responding with insults in their feedback response.
What you should look for is patterns in the buyer or sellers feedback.
What would ring warning bells for me?
- Sudden appearance of a lot of negatives
This could indicate that a seller or buyer is having trouble with volume of sales, or is ill - it could also indicate that they have set up some positive feedback in order to con buyers, and are now in full swing making fraudulent transactions, or have hijacked another users account.
- Unusual pattern of items for sale
Although many sellers change what they are selling from time to time, I would be suspicious if someone suddenly started selling very high value items - particularly if their listing style changed dramatically, for example, misspellings when there were none before - many people tend to stick to the same listing style for a long time, and make the same spelling mistakes time after time.
It is possible that an Ebay account has been hijacked and that the hacker has started to offer bogus items, relying on a lot of genuine good feedback from the real owner of the account as a cover.
In spite of these cautionary words - most buyers and sellers on Ebay are genuine.
I have bought high value items from other Ebayers, and have never been disappointed yet.
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