And even if they bought on the Internet they could pay $3.50 plus shipping for a power cable, and about $3 plus shipping for a generic mouse.

Although we normally try to run HelpingTulsa without either making any money (we don't sell machines donated to us) or spending any money (we don't ship computers, and we try to repair them using parts salvaged from computers that we could not get to work, and therefore had to strip for their parts), I decided to check into eBay to see if I could find some serial mice and power cords.

I found one lot of 25 Computer Power Cords that had an logo which let me buy them immediately (not wait for the auction to end) for $6.99 (plus shipping). Shipping on the 25 cords was going to be $27.32, for a total cost of $34.31 (a little more than $1 each) but since the vendor was willing to sell 25 on a PayItNow basis for $6.99, I sent the seller an email and asked if he had more at that price, and if so what would my cost be (including shipping) for 100 cords. The vendor told me he would provide 100 cords, including shipping, for $55.00. That lowered the cost per cord to just a little over 50 cents. I had him ship me the full 100.

That would have been enough, at least for a long while, but I had entered bids for other lots of power cords before I found that one, and when those auctions all completed, I ended up with 154 power cords at a cost of $120.56. Obviously I would have been better off by just buying more from the first dealer, but I did not know it at the time, and I still ended up with plenty of power cords, and paid less than $1 each.

I also ended up with 57 Serial Mice (for $60.59 including shipping) and 134 PS/2 Mice (for $219.62 including shipping). I actually paid less for serial mice than PS/2 mice (because I bought them in larger lots, and hence had less shipping cost), but both were much less than people would have to pay in local stores.

I also bought a nice George Forman Grill for myself for $26.50 (including shipping).

Warning to members!!!!

I won the second auction for $44, and had not gotten a response back from the first email so I sent another.

They did not respond to that email either. I waited a few days and then started looking at their page more closely, to try to figure out how to pay them, and was very glad I had not paid when I saw:

The hard drive is DEFECTIVE?????. I am expected to just use it for PARTS or REPAIRS?????. You've got to be kidding. Defective hard drives can't be repaired. It would require a very elaborate Clean Room environment, with everyone wearing garb that looks like a space suit (sometimes called a bunny suit) to even open one up to look at the insides, with any hope of it working when reassembled, and even under those conditions repair is very unlikely.

This guy is selling garbage, and just hoping that some buyers will be foolish like I was, and not look at the detail page, and is trying to cover himself with disclaimers on the detail page. If he had used PayPal I would have been out $124, because I would have just clicked on PayPal when the auction closed. I am not certain of this, but I suspect that the reason he did not use PayPal, is that they might have reversed the charges when I complained after receiving two bad disk drives.

I really should have checked out the detail page before bidding on the hard drives, but I certainly did not intent to pay $56 or even $44 for a defective hard drive. But since they had not responded to my email messages I figured I had a good case, so I sent them the following email.

Date: Thursday, March 25, 2004 9:32 AM
To: surplusdealz05@ubid-it.com
Subject Ebay Items 2795724108 and 2795689538

I have sent you several emails regarding Ebay Items 2795724108 and 2795689538 and have received no response I am not interested in doing business with companies that do not respond promptly to email. I have discontinued bidding on items from your company, and I have bought hard drives from another source which I have done business with before. You may relist 2795724108 and 2795689538

I thought that would be enough, but then eBay sent me two messages, one for each hard drive:

From: aw-confirm@ebay.com
Date: Tuesday, March 30, 2004 4:43 PM
Subject: Reminder to pay your eBay seller

Dear donsingleton: Congratulations on your winning bid for eBay item 2795724108, WESTERN DIGITAL 80GB 80 GB HARD DISK DRIVE HD. Your seller, surplusdealz05, has informed eBay that your payment hasn't been received yet. If you have already sent payment or intend to pay soon, please contact surplusdealz05 at surplusdealz05@ubid-it.com immediately. Simple misunderstandings are often resolved through direct communication. ** Do not reply to this email. All you need to do is contact your seller.** If you have been unsuccessful contacting the seller via email, you are welcome to contact them by phone if needed. eBay allows all members involved in a transaction to request each others' contact information, including phone numbers. This feature can be accessed through the following URL: http://cgi3.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?MemberSearchShow You and your seller are encouraged to work things out in the next 10 days. If this situation is resolved during this time, the matter is dropped and you do not need to take any further action. If, however, your seller is still unsatisfied after this period, you may receive a Non-Paying Bidder (NPB) warning from eBay. Once you obtain three warnings on your record your account will be suspended indefinitely. For additional details about eBay's Non-Paying Bidder Policy go to: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/bidders_overview.html Please note that eBay does not take the side of the buyer or seller -- understand that we are only trying to help you and your seller trade successfully. Remember: Your seller is under no obligation to "hold" your item since much time has already passed. Regards, eBay Safeharbor Team

I replied to eBay:

The seller failed to respond to two emails asking how to pay, and asking about shipping charges. After a number of days of not responding, I sent him two emails, one directly and one through eBay informing him I purchased disk drives from another source and that I no longer wanted either 2795724108 or 2795689538 and that he should relist them. Subsequently I have discovered even more reasons why I should not be dealing with this vendor, and I have no intention of ever dealing with him. I am planning on publishing an article related to this situation. I will delay that for two weeks until I see how to describe eBay's actions in this matter.

I later received two more emails from eBay:

From: aw-confirm@ebay.com
Subject: Saturday, April 10, 2004 3:42 PM
Subject: eBay Non-Paying Bidder Warning #1

Hello donsingleton: You were the high bidder on eBay item #2795689538, "WESTERN DIGITAL 80GB 80 GB HARD DISK DRIVE HD." This email is to notify you that the seller of this item, surplusdealz05, has requested a credit for the final value fee ("FVF"), indicating that payment has not been received for this item. As a result of this seller's FVF credit request (Non-Paying Bidder claim), you are receiving your first Non-Paying Bidder("NPB") Warning. If you receive a 3rd NPB Warning, your account will be suspended indefinitely. As our User Agreement explains, if you are the high bidder on any item, you are expected to honor your bid and are obligated to complete the transaction. Our Non-Paying Bidder Policy exists to help us enforce our User Agreement with respect to non-paying bidders. For details about eBay's NPB Policy, go to: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/bidders_overview.html If you believe you have received this NPB Warning in error, please review the Non-Paying Bidder appeals instructions within our online Help desk at: http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/appeal-npb.html If this transaction has been completed, please ask the seller to contact us, using the NPB Warning Removal form, located at: http://cgi3.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?RemoveNPBWarningShow Regards, eBay SafeHarbor Team

I responded to them twice (once to each message):

I attempted several times to contact the vendor by email, regarding how to make payment, and never got an answer. I finally bought drives from another vendor, and informed this vendor to relist the items I subsequently discovered other reasons why I do not ever want to do business with this vendor (he is trying to fool people into buying defective merchandise), and anticipate publishing an article on this subject warning my readers about dealing with this vendor through eBay. The only reason I have not done anything so far is I am waiting to see what, if any, support I get from eBay on this matter (or whether my article should indicate eBay is an accessory to the fraud this seller is seeking to run). I will not deal with the seller under any conditions, but if it will clean up my relationship with eBay, I am willing to pay the insertion fee for his insertion of items 2795724108 and 2795689538 which I have absolutely no intention of buying.

I don't know whether my eBay account has two strikes against it, and if I am just one complaint away from being barred from doing business through eBay, or whether they were bright enough to recognize that I had a good reason for not doing business with this vendor, but I have waited the length of time I promised, and I am now writing this article to let our members know to be very very careful if you ever buy something on eBay.

When you buy somethine on eBay, you are encouraged to post a comment, either Positive, Neutral, or Negative, describing your experiences dealing with this seller, and the seller also posts one about you.

If you look at the responses the sellers that I did business with posted, I had 14 positive responses, and 1 negative response.

The one negative response came from a seller that I posted a neutral response about (neither positive nor negative). eBay wanted to make sure I really wanted to post a neutral response, but since I had a complaint about the seller, I felt I could not post a Positive response. My problem with him was minor enough that I did not feel it deserved a negative response:

Apparently he did not like my neutral response (I guess he thought he should have had more than 10 days to respond to my email), because he posted a Negative about me.

If you want to see what each of the vendors I dealt with had to say about dealing with me, click here

I am not sure whether I will do any more business on eBay or not. I am disappointed in them for trying to pressure me into buying the two defective hard drives, and for not responding to either of my emails about them, but if I do, you can be very certain I will check the detail page before bidding.

If you want to see the detail page I failed to look at click here

When you do a search, you will notice each item is described by a short string, but that string is a link to a more detailed page, and you need to check that more detailed page before bidding. The next columns show the highest bid cast for the item, the number of bids cast for the item, and how long it will be before the bidding ends.

If you are curious, this listing is for items which surplusdealz05 (the dealer I had problems with) regarding the defective hard drives, currently has open (so obviously eBay has not suspended him from selling items through eBay).

You saw my "score" of 93.3 by the sellers I did business with. Let us look at the "score" from surplusdealz05, both now

and when I had the problem with him.

1123 negative reports (601 when I was dealing with him)!!! Apparently he represents a liquidation company, and sells many many different things, many of which work fine (hence the positive responses), but apparently he auctions off everything he has, regardless of whether it works or not, and covers himself by saying in the the detail page that the product may or may not work. He obviously has had some complaints, as you can see if you compare his "Condition" when I had problems, and now:

Then

Now

He certainly does have positive comments, and if you want to see a representative list click here, but here are some of the negative ones:

So in conclusion, if you decide to buy on eBay, very carefully read the detail page before bidding, and check the seller's Feedback score, and if there are very many negative feedback items posted about him Caveat emptor! (Let the Buyer Beware).

For more information on the Tulsa Computer Society click here