EBay for Dummies (67 page)

For the latest information on this program, go to

pages.ebay.com/help/buy/paypal-buyer

Several types of protection are available to eBay buyers, as shown in Table 16-1.

BuySAFE bond

BuySAFE helps make online auctions safer. The “BuySAFE with the Hartford” program offers one of the highest levels of protection available to online auction participants. It’s the only program that enables sellers to present a credibility seal and financially protect their online auction transactions with surety bonds.

BuySAFE comprehensively qualifies sellers to display the BuySAFE seal. When a buyer sees the BuySAFE seal on an auction or fixed-price listing, the transaction is 100% guaranteed to be exactly as listed.

SquareTrade warranties

Granted, a SquareTrade warranty is designed to help you
after
you’ve received the product as described, but that’s when most items break for me. You can buy these highly discounted (40% lower than most retailers) warranties from SquareTrade on almost any electronic item you purchase on eBay against breakage. The warranty is simple and straightforward.

To purchase a warranty after you’ve bought a qualifying product on eBay, go to

www.squaretrade.com

Launching a Fraud Report

The second that you complain about a seller who’s taken money but hasn’t delivered the goods, a Trust & Safety investigation automatically starts. The Resolution Center is where you can go to file a formal complaint when you run into trouble with a transaction.

To get to the Resolution Center, click the Help link in the eBay navigation bar and choose Resolution Center, or click the Resolution Center link, which appears at the bottom of most eBay pages. You can get to the Resolution Center also from your listing in My eBay, in which case your item number will be filled in on the form for you:

1. Go to your My eBay page.

2. In the Buy area, click the link to take you to the items you’ve won.

3. Scroll down the page to find the item in question and choose Resolve a Problem from the pull-down menu.

The Resolution Center’s Resolve a Problem form appears

4. Choose the problem you are having in your transaction and click Continue.

Now you get to the Report an Item Not Received or Not as Described form. If you arrived at the Resolution Center from your item listing, your item number is already filled in. If you got there from the link in the navigation bar, you have to enter the item number.

5. Click Continue.

6. Tell eBay how you paid for this item.

If you paid by PayPal you are sent to the Resolution page.

7. Review your case details, and then click Open Case.

The Your Case Is Now Open page appears and tells you that your trading partner has been notified and has 10 days to respond. From here on, you can continue your dealings in the Resolution Center.

To file a claim with eBay, you must initiate the complaint process no sooner than 7 days and no later than 45 days after the close of the listing. Be careful not to jump the gun and register a complaint too soon. I suggest waiting about two or three weeks before you register your complaint about an Item Not Received (an item lost in the mail can often take as long as 30 days to arrive); double-check first to make sure that your e-mail is working and that you have the correct contact information of the person with whom you’re having difficulties. After all, neither eBay nor your ISP is infallible.

After you register a complaint, eBay informs the other party that you’re making a claim. eBay says it will try to contact both parties and help reach a resolution.
Registering
the complaint is not the same thing as
filing
an insurance complaint. Registering starts the process; filing for a refund comes after a month-long grace period if the situation isn’t resolved by then.

If you’ve clearly been ripped off, use the Item Not Received or Significantly Not as Described process to file a complaint. Just scroll to the Links area at the bottom of the page and click the Security & Resolution Center link.

A shortcut to file for an Item Not Received or Significantly Not as Described,
go directly to the form at
feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?InrCreateDispute
.

If the accusation you’re registering is a clear violation, eBay gives you information on the kind of third-party assistance you can get to help resolve the problem. If eBay deems the problem a violation of the law, it reports the crime to the appropriate law-enforcement agency.

Getting the Real Deal? Authentication and Appraising

Despite eBay’s attempts to keep the buying and selling community honest, some people just refuse to play nice. After the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs launched an investigation into counterfeit sports memorabilia sold on the Web site, errant eBay outlaws experienced some anxious moments. I can always hope they mend their ways, while at the same time advising
Don’t bet on it.
Fortunately, eBay offers a proactive approach to preventing such occurrences from happening again.

Topmost among the countermeasures is easy member access to several services that can authenticate specific types of merchandise. The good news here is that you know what kind of item you’re getting; the bad news is that, as does everything else in life, it costs you money.

Have a good working knowledge of what you’re buying or selling. Before you bid, do some homework and get more information. And check the seller’s or bidder’s feedback. (Does this advice sound familiar?) See Chapters 5 and 9 for more information about conducting research.

Before you spend the money to have your item appraised and authenticated, ask yourself a few practical questions (regardless of whether you’re buying or selling):

Is this item quality merchandise?
Am I selling or buying merchandise whose condition is subjective but important to its value — as in,
Is it really well-loved or just busted?
Is this item graded by some professionally accepted standard that I need to know?

Is this item the real thing?
Am I sure that I’m selling or buying a genuine item? Do I need an expert to tell me whether it’s the real McCoy?

Do I know the value of the merchandise?
Do I have a good understanding of what this item’s worth in the marketplace at this time, considering its condition?

Is the merchandise worth the price?
Is the risk of selling or buying a counterfeit, a fake, or an item I don’t completely understand worth the cost of an appraisal?

If you answer “yes” to any of these questions, consider calling in a professional appraiser.

As for
selling
a counterfeit item — otherwise known as a knock-off, phony, or five-finger-discount item — that’s a no-brainer: No way. Don’t do it.

If you need items appraised, consider using an appraisal agency. You can access several agencies by going to the overview page at
pages.ebay.com/help/buy/authentication.html
. eBay offers links to various appraising agencies that offer their services at a discount to eBay members:

The
PCGS
(Professional Coin Grading Service) and
NGC
(Numismatic Guaranty Corporation) serve coin collectors. Visit
www.pcgs.com/cobrands/index.chtml?cobrandid=24
and
www.ngccoin.com/ebay_ngcvalue.cfm
.

PSA/DNA
(a service of Professional Sports Authenticators) and
Online Authentics.com
authenticate your autographs. Both keep online databases of thousands of certified autographs for you to compare your purchases against. Their respective online addresses are
www.psacard.com
and
www.onlineauthentics.com
.

Global Authentication, Inc.
are specialists in authenticating autographs and memorabilia from the sports world. See
www.globalauth.com
.

PSE
(Professional Stamp Experts) authenticates your postal stamps:
www.psestamp.com
.