I've bought quite a bit of stuff of ebay in the past. Including a few cars, a van, a Range cooker, and quite a bit of industrial type stuff. I did all of these transactions as Cash on Collection. No problems at all. Ironically, the two cheapest items that I ever bought, both caused the most trouble.
A digital camera (paid £12 inc post and packing), got held up by my local sorting office for over two months. They wouldn't even admit they had it, untill I got the registration number from the vendor.
A CD (paid £7 inc post and packing). The seller insisted on using PayPal and nothing else. This turned out to be an absolute nightmare (the paypal site was experiencing problems at the time) It took about 6 hours to get registered, another 4 to make the payment, then another two weeks for the vendor to confirm that it had been paid. All this agro really anoyed me as, I had specifically chosen this vendor due to his home address being within 12 miles of my own home (at the time). I now check every item, to ensure that I never again, have to use payPal.
Unfortunately, I've found lateley that ebay is a victim of it's own success. Especially when looking at cars. The prices being achieved are just too high.
I once won the bidding on an immaculate Toyota Celica, less than two years old, for just 450 US Dollars. For one reason or another, this car wasn't attracting the attention of the Yanks (Possibly the concept of buying from an anonnymous foreign source and then having the agro of organising the shipping from the UK). Having the sale end at 4:30 AM (New York time) didn't help. Meanwhile, most British punters were probably ignoring it, as they assumed that it was in America. The seller backed out, claiming that "someone had stolen his ID, and the car is not for sale at all". Oh well, you can't win them all.
A digital camera (paid £12 inc post and packing), got held up by my local sorting office for over two months. They wouldn't even admit they had it, untill I got the registration number from the vendor.
A CD (paid £7 inc post and packing). The seller insisted on using PayPal and nothing else. This turned out to be an absolute nightmare (the paypal site was experiencing problems at the time) It took about 6 hours to get registered, another 4 to make the payment, then another two weeks for the vendor to confirm that it had been paid. All this agro really anoyed me as, I had specifically chosen this vendor due to his home address being within 12 miles of my own home (at the time). I now check every item, to ensure that I never again, have to use payPal.
Unfortunately, I've found lateley that ebay is a victim of it's own success. Especially when looking at cars. The prices being achieved are just too high.
I once won the bidding on an immaculate Toyota Celica, less than two years old, for just 450 US Dollars. For one reason or another, this car wasn't attracting the attention of the Yanks (Possibly the concept of buying from an anonnymous foreign source and then having the agro of organising the shipping from the UK). Having the sale end at 4:30 AM (New York time) didn't help. Meanwhile, most British punters were probably ignoring it, as they assumed that it was in America. The seller backed out, claiming that "someone had stolen his ID, and the car is not for sale at all". Oh well, you can't win them all.
