eBay Coin Bait & Switch

Recently I was high bidder on a cheap coin on eBay. The reason I bought it is the coin is a semi-scarce (not rare) variety listed in the Cherrypicker's Guide. The coin is in AG to G condition and would be worth $12 to $15 to a variety collector. I outbid the only other bidder and got the coin for $1.50. Shipping was about double what the coin cost but I was pleased with my purchase. That is I was pleased until I received the coin.

The coin I received is not the coin shown in the auction photos. That coin is from a completely different die than the one I received. Naturally, the coin I received is the common variety and worth about what I paid for it (not counting the shipping).

I e-mailed the seller and told him that I did not receive the coin depicted in the auction and pointed out the difference in dies. I asked him to exchange the coin he shipped me for the one shown in the auction photos or refund my money. I e-mailed him tonight so I haven't gotten a response yet. I don't know if he will be a man of honor or if he will try to cause me grief.

I don't like this kind of deception but I don't want to get in a pi$$ing match over less than $5 or risk getting my first negative feedback by giving him a negative if he refuses to send me the coin I bought. How would you handle this situation?

 

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My guess is that you are sol. PayPal will not help since you cannot prove that you have not switched the coin or, at best, you will need to prove that it is significantly less valuable. i.e. pay for an appraisal. The only thing I know that you can do is publish his name so the rest of us will not get suckered also.

 

paypal will help if the dispute is opened with a grievenace that the item recieved was not as described.

at least, they have for me in the past.

aside from that, this is the risk we take buyingoff Ebay. The seller just might not care, and might already have negative feedbacks for this sort fo thing. If you do leave a negative, and he leaves on as well, post a comment below the feedback you recieved explaning the deal.

as a side note, this is close tot he reason i recieved my only negative. it upset me for weeks, but what else to do besides letting the seller get away with it.

 

Seems like this happens somewhat often with lower priced coins. A seller will use a stock photo of a coin, like a low grade Buffalo Nickel, then sell a few dozen of them.

It makes it difficult for those of us who are variety hunters to buy coins when the sellers use stock photos.

 

If he does not respond within a reasonable time frame, or if he does and refuses, I would definitely neg him. Even if he does give you a retaliatory neg, most people will be able to see that it was in fact retaliatory...if you write a good enough neg.

 

Ditto.

Ebay is just getting worse all the time. I am starting to see this same scenario posted over and over. Seller doesn't get what he feels is a good price so he just switches the coin.

 

Perfect feedback means one of two things:

1) You don't do much traffic on eBay

or

2) You are easily manipulated and pushed over.

Give him the neg with a proper explanation if he does not respond to you in the fashion you desire, and accept any retaliation he may try to give you. But, don't just stop there. Take the extra three steps and begin the process of making his online scamming life ... hard. I have posted a number of times on a number of boards that we have an extensive network of bureaucracies for a reason here in the States.

First, a good thing to do is every time you make a bid, after you confirm your bid, go back to the full listing for the item and print the page to a file. Create a specific directory on your hard drive to hold these files. I number them according to the item number. Keep this file until you are completely satisfied with your item.

I have found a number of times in the past seven years I have dealt with eBay that listings have a habit of changing or outright disappearing when things start to go the legal route, and the printed file (with the URL, Title and date headers) is sound evidence of what your contract actually was with the seller.

If things go sour, especially with bait and switch, there are a few people (bureaucracies) to contact. First, you want to submit a complaint with the regional Postal Inspector's office with an explanation of what transpired and a copy of the listing. Send the same complaint to your State's Attorney General's Consumer Protection division, the State Attorney General's Consumer Protection division of the state the seller resides/locates from, the Federal Trade Commission, and if the item was priced over $1,000 contact the regional FBI for criminal investigation.

It may seem like an overkill, especially for an under $10 item, but this is the real way of stopping these people. As more and more complaints file into these varied agencies, they'll do the math and see how much damage (not just to consumers, but to their tax revenues) these frauds are doing, and will eventually take action.

And if you get taken on a moderately priced item ($1,000+) most definitely file a claim in your Federal Circuit Court and take them for everything you can. For the smaller items, making life miserable for them is enough and takes less than just a few hours to deal with.

 

Take a vacation and show up on the guys doorstep.

 

Or 3) are just extremely lucky. (I've been lucky so far;I've only had two people that I've had to leave negative feedback for, one seller and one buyer, and neither retaliated with negative feedback of their own. I'm also not a very high volume eBayer either as a seller or buyer so #2 applies to me as well.)

Too many eBay sellers practically get away with murder because people are in fear of retalitory negative feedback, even when at worst they still have a positive rating in the high 90's. Trust me, no seller or buyer will be turned away by you have a slightly less than perfect rating... those that are concerned will actually READ your negative feedbacks (a radical notion, I know) and realize that your negatives are just retalitory and nothing to be genuinely concerned about. People who are concenred about others' negative feedback don't just look at the raw numbers. People are realistic enough to realize that 100% customer satisfaction for either sellers or buyers is unrealistic if you do high enough volumes of business; there's always somebody you just can't make happy. Don't let unjustificed paranoia about negative feedback prevent you from leaving it for those who truly deserve it.

 

...or 4) You're a smart and responsible buyer and only buy from trusted sellers with reputable business practices.
Guy~

 

When I buy anything off of ebay I always check out the seller before I bid on a item. Not only checking his or her feedback rating but when he or she gives their feedbacks (before or after the buyer give theirs). A reparable seller will always give his or her feedback before the buyers gives theirs. If the seller always waits after the buyer gives theirs then they are hiding something most of the time. :computer:

 

UPDATE

Thanks for the sage advice. It doesn't look like I will need it on this deal (but I may need it on future eBay transactions).

The seller responded and said he had 4 similar coins up on eBay at the same time and mine must have gotten sent to another auction winner. He offered to refund $5 (a bit more than I actually paid) or use the $5 as a credit at his on-line store. AND he told me to keep the coin. I replied that I would take the $5 refund. And I will very likely mail the coin to him when I receive the refund.

So it looks like it will end happily (if he follows through with his offer).

 

That's good. Glad to see it worked out.

 

FYI, this is a completely untrue statement. Over half of ebay sellers do it and I don't blame them in the least bit.

 

so are you going to leave him positive feedback?

 

I thought I would - if he follows through.

I tried to cherrypick a semi-scarce variety of a low grade and otherwise low value coin. The coin is a shield nickel and is dark and corroded. (If you have ever seen low grade shield nickels you know what I mean.) I find it entirely believable that the seller got these low grade coins mixed up and did not try to pull one over on me.

I see no need to punish a seller for an honest mistake. Do you disagree?

 

Yes accidents do happen and it could have been an honest mistake. I don't think I would leave any feedback for him. If I did it would probably be a neutral but not a positive. It is good that he will refund the $5 but the fact remains that you didn't get what you paid for. If he wants to be a volumn seller then he should know to take measures to prevent this from happening and shouldn't be rewarded for it.

 

It's my own personal policy that if I have to go out of my way to make sure a seller (or buyer) does what they're supposed to do, they lost their right to a positive feedback. If it eventually ends well I'll leave a neutral or just not leave feedback at all, but I consider a positive something only deserved by somebody who does everything right the first time. Even if it's an honest mistake, and I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt, as far as I'm concerned that's still worth a neutral at best. If they fix the problem quickly I may just not leave feedback at all, but still no positive for any less than reasonably hassle-free service the first time. Just my personal policy...

 

If it's an honest mistake and they fix it without any hassling, why on earth would that not be deserving of a positive FB?

 

agreed.