Ebay Feedback . . . what would you do?

"Hi this is a Porter Cable Paint Remover. It appears to have no usage. My grandfather was a collector that bought many tools and never used them. I am helping my grandmaother sell them. New these go for $300.00. I am starting the bid at $100.00. Good Luck!"

I won for $164 . . the cheapest they sell is $229 on Amazon. It arrived a little over a week. I was a little annoyed that the guy never contacted me, even after I emailed him, to confirm it was shipped. Nevertheless, when it arrived, it was well packed, looked exactly as pictured on ebay, and did look like it had had little or no use. And it seems to run fine, at least by sound. However, I was surprised to find a bright orange sticker on the handle which read "Reconditioned Tool". I sent the seller another email asking about the label, but haven"t heard from him.

No point in sending it back, but I haven"t filled out the feedback message yet. What would you do?

Donovan from Wisconsin

Donovan from Wisconsin

Again thanks for all of your help, and to you scottnj for the encouragement and for taking the time to type out hints for using the tool.

If it works and was the one pictured, Who cares if it was reconditioned. I buy a lot of tools on ebay and have been stuck only once and the person recieved a Negative feedback. When you leave your feedback state only ther facts and let everyone draw thier own conclusion.

Good luck and happy bidding
Merle

An OPTION is to wait 89 days, 23 hours, and 55 seconds, then leave whatever feedback you feel is appropriate.

He will have NO time to retaliate. A bit NASTY, perhaps, but EFFECTIVE.

• Look here

You're getting very good advice on the specifics of your situation so I'll limit my remarks to general issues about eBay.

Reading the comments that go along with an individual's feedback, I've noticed that sellers who have received negative feedback often complain that the dissatisfied buyer didn't give them a chance to correct the situation first. If you have trouble getting satisfaction from this seller (in the somewhat unlikely event that the transaction doesn't turn out to be acceptable as it now stands) you'll want to estimate how much this person might wish to avoid negative feedback from you. His number of transactions is only part of the story. What makes more difference is how many of the transactions are sales because only the sales indicate how he has previously handled problems in the same situation you're in with him, and the number of sales he has made will give you a way to estimate how important a high positive feedback score might be to him. Sellers who sell thousands of items on eBay won't be hurt so much numerically by a negative feedback, and those who sell few items might find it easier than serious sellers to drop eBay altogether in response to negative publicity.

Negative feedback is never going to be totally avoidable as long as unreasonable people buy things on eBay. I often feel sorry for a seller with a high number of transactions who complains that he or she wasn't given an opportunity to correct a problem, or that it was impossible to satisfy the buyer, in response to negative feedback from a buyer with a very low number of transactions. The negative feedback that sets off my personal alarm bells is when there is a pattern to the complaints: Seller wouldn't respond to buyers' e-mails; seller very slow to ship items; goods exhibit damage which was concealed in photos; seller misrepresented condition of goods, etc.

I predict you'll wind up feeling okay about this transaction.

All the best, Stan

The Sellers Grandfather appears to be a collector of reconditioned tools.

Hopefully the Sellers Grandmother will give her Grandson a little spank on the rear-end before their next auction.

I've used EBAY for about 8 years now. Something like this has happened a few times to me. I'd review the pics to ensure the sticker is not legible in the add first. If it's not, I'd ask the guy for the difference in what you paid and what a reconditioned one costs, saying that you really don't want to leave negative F/B, and this will make the deal more fair".

As to the tool you purchased - Nice tool! I went back and forth years ago trying to decide if I should buy it or the "paint shaver" made by another company. Bought the PC, and it did a good job for me. Pulled all the paint of the exterior of my 1902 victorian. Have used it for hundreds of hours without any problems. Even dropped it a few times. Now I use it occasionally to rough shape wood in my business as a custom cabinetmaker. One, or a few tips - Keep the tool moving, or the paint will glaze onto the disc. It will still glaze when you keep it moving, but not nearly as much. Heat is the enemy. Keep a little lacquer thinner or paint remover in a coffee can to soak discs in for a while to help picking off the glaze from the used discs go easier. You'll need goggles, respirator (the paper masks don't keep the stuff out) and hearing protection. If you have any signigficant amount to do, you'll want more discs. They're a bit pricy at about $7 each, but last a long time. I know the aggragate on the discs is tungstun carbide, but keep it away from nail heads or paint removal performance drops pretty fast.

Enjoy

But that does not excuse him from accurately describing the item.

HOWEVER, if the reconditioned price is more than what you paid, then I would just give him positive feedback to escape the retaliatory neg. feedback. (been there, done that)

If you paid more than a recon cost.. see if the seller will at least match the recon price.. go from there..

Soundguy