Do companies reserve the right to say that ebay is not an approved vendor?

[Ricemarine]

Inspired by this thread...

He's really flipping out over the fact his evga video card won't be warrantied even though he bought a "new and sealed" card from EBay...

So now other forum members are getting into the action calling upon all of those ebay vendors who sell them to go against EVGA. Also, the OP of that thread wants to file a BBB complaint.

 

[LouPoir]

Lot of companies warranty stipulate you have to buy from an "approved vendor"

 

[Ricemarine]

Originally posted by: LouPoir
Lot of companies warranty stipulate you have to buy from an "approved vendor"

So... if you read the thread, is the OP in that thread right or wrong?

 

[SuperNaruto]

Company is right..

When I sell stuff with warranty, they only apply to US owners anyway.. anything leaving out of the country has no warranty..

I give my receipt to the buyer for warranty purpose....

 

[Jiggz]

Company is right. Since Ebay is not one of their approved vendors, they will not provide warranty. There are a lot of issues with Ebay. Mostly what is said to be "new and sealed" is not really as such. Instead it was just repacked, shrunk pack or heat sealed. In fact, it is not unusual to see defective products being sold in ebay, these products are actually stolen from factory "rejected" bins or from factory dumpster just before going into the "grinder".

 

[Azndude51]

This is one of the main reasons why I don't buy expensive electronics off of ebay, if there is something wrong you don't really have anyone to go to. The product most likely won't be covered under the warranty and the seller won't give return/exchange. The only computer hardware/electronics I have bought off ebay are <$50 and/or used.

 

[madmaxr6]

Yeah ok Ebay is not a approved vendor but since this been brought to the light of EVGA how come they still let the EBAY peolpe claim full warranty

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: madmaxr6
Yeah ok Ebay is not a approved vendor but since this been brought to the light of EVGA how come they still let the EBAY peolpe claim full warranty

The same reason people in the FS/T forum claim "Lifetime Warranty" for some items, when the warranty only applies to the original purchaser.
A lot of the time "Lifetime Warranty" is a sales gimmick. Many times the buyers definition of "Lifetime Warranty" and the companies are very different.

 

[Boyo]

When you buy from Ebay, you don't know what the hell you are really getting, so the company is right to say it is not an approved vendor. It has the right to list a set of approved vendors for warranties.

 

[Doom Machine]

i hate ebay anyway, i never had a problem but i dont like how most sellers hold your rating hostage untill you give them a good rating

if you do have troubles all ebay does is send the seller/buyer polite email messages for 60 days then refer you to some 3rd party who does nothing.

my question always has been, how do you sue someone from another country? even across states who has to travel to whos small claims courts?

 

[bamacre]

As an Ebay Power Seller, I highly recommend checking the seller's feedback before buying. Look for negative feedback as well as withdrawn negative feedback.

Ebay can be a great place to find almost anything, and to judge Ebay by the acts of a few bad sellers is wrong, IMO.

Here is the feedback for that seller in question...

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=electronics-store

53 Negative feedback ratings, plus 3 mutually withdrawn. That right there should have been a flag.

This is why people buy from me...

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=bamacre

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: bamacre
As an Ebay Power Seller, I highly recommend checking the seller's feedback before buying. Look for negative feedback as well as withdrawn negative feedback.

Ebay can be a great place to find almost anything, and to judge Ebay by the acts of a few bad sellers is wrong, IMO.

Checking the sellers feedback from "Buyers" seems like a no-brainer, but some people just can't resist a $1.27 lower price.
A sellers feedback rating is the first thing I check out before buying.

 

[boomerang]

I went around and around on this with a very expensive purchase of a Philips Universal Remote.

I had to threaten turning the matter over to the Attorney General in my state before things started turning around. They kept saying that my eBay purchase was not through an approved vendor and thus they did not have to warranty the item.

I had already returned the item at my expense, in the factory box with ALL the paperwork that came with it at their request. I was led to believe the item was to be repaired or replaced under warranty. The warranty certificate had been shipped so I did not have it in front of me to look over.

Well, I was able to obtain a copy and lo and behold, there was NO stipulation on where the item was purchased only a time frame. They then stated that the item was warranted from the date of manufacture and that that timeframe had expired. I then had to point out to them that their own warranty certificate stated that the warranty was one year from date of purchase. I then pointed out that regardless, this new model had started being manufactured only 90 days prior. I proved this by directing them to a press release at their own website. Hah!

This went on for 4 months. I have left out a ton of details. They are masters at deception. When I started in with the Attorney General rhetoric, they relented and replaced the remote.

The pisser of it is the problem I had was a known problem that was corrected by a new firmware release that was available all during the ordeal. Of course I found this out much later at the Remote Central forums.

I'm soured on buying anything in the future from Philips. They make tons of stuff under a lot of different brands too.

Hope you enjoyed the story, because the moral is, if they won't warranty unless purchased from an approved vendor, you are screwed.

 

[RebateMonger]

The manufacturer's position is that, if you buy from a non-authorized distributor, you are, essentially, buying the item "used". The eBay seller bought it first, "used it", and then sold it to you. Most manufacturers only warranty their products to the original owner.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: Doom Machine
i hate ebay anyway, i never had a problem but i dont like how most sellers hold your rating hostage untill you give them a good rating

There is a VERY good reason why sellers will not give positive feedback until the buyer does so first. Think about it from the sellers' point of view.

if you do have troubles all ebay does is send the seller/buyer polite email messages for 60 days then refer you to some 3rd party who does nothing.

That's why you use a CC through PayPal, and if there is a problem that the seller will not respond to, you do a charge-back.

my question always has been, how do you sue someone from another country? even across states who has to travel to whos small claims courts?

This is why I don't ship outside of the USA, period. No exceptions. However, there are companies in the USA that will purchase an item for a foreign customer then ship to them for a fee. I have had one customer who used this kind of service to purchase a server from me. It worked out well. The company in CA bought the item, I shipped it to them, and they in turn shipped it to him in Russia. He left me positive feedback as well.

 

[Doom Machine]

There is a VERY good reason why sellers will not give positive feedback until the buyer does so first. Think about it from the sellers' point of view.

no there is no excuse for that, if i pay promptly, i deserve positive, do a good job as a seller and its the same
lieing goes both ways too, seller could still give me negative feedback for prompt payment just to be an @ss as does me giving him bad for good item and shipping, but most in general arnt like that
just do a good job and dont worry about, give buyers deserved feedback as soon as its paid for, theres just no excuse for holding it hostage thats wrong

 

[Blain]

Ebay evals may be different, but I never give any heatware evals until the whole deal is done... start to finish.

 

[smthmlk]

good sellers leave feedback as soon as payment is received, I've noticed.

As an occasional seller/buyer on ebay, from the POV of a seller, the only reason to hold off on leaving feedback for the buyer until after the buyer leaves feedback is to retaliate should the buyer suddenly leave you an unexpected negative/neutral feedback and/or things generally go nasty after an item is received (or not received). If the buyer is unreasonable, well... that's the risk you take selling on ebay, just as the chance of getting a ****** item that was poorly described and/or damaged is the risk buyers take when bidding on ebay. Holding off on leaving feedback for buyers until they leave feedback for the seller is just a loophole in the feedback system that isn't easily patched.

What would be nice, however, is being able to leave 400chars worth of feedback vs. 80. It would be nice to explain how the seller operates if one desired to take the time to do so (mentioning such information as 'holds buyers feedback ransom' and other such bits that help indicate what sort of seller they are). You really can't say much with 80chars if the transaction goes bad, with all the context being left out. It makes it very hard to see if the negative feedback is merely an unreasonable retaliation or nitpicking, or if there genuinely was an issue.

Ebay for me is like going to Vegas and doing some gambling, except in vegas when you win $20 on the quarter-machine you don't slapped with $40 USPS First Class shipping on a 4oz item.

 

[Blain]

A reason I hold off on heat is that even though a buyer pays fast, the deal may still go sour after he/she gets it and says it wasn't what was promised or they found a better deal and want a refund, etc. etc. etc.
A deal isn't done until both parties say... "It's finished"

 

[Doom Machine]

Originally posted by: Blain
Ebay evals may be different, but I never give any heatware evals until the whole deal is done... start to finish.

if your a seller and they pay...it is finished

shipping and paying are 2 seperate things and is why its rated 2 seperate ways

A reason I hold off on heat is that even though a buyer pays fast, the deal may still go sour after he/she gets it and says it wasn't what was promised or they found a better deal and want a refund, etc. etc. etc.

if it wasnt as promised thats your fault. if their lieing then so what...people can lie about anything, thats out of your control, but they paid, that part is finished wether you choose to be honest or lie is all on you...has nothing to do with them

 

[Blain]

Let's just agree to disagree about when heat should be left.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: Doom Machine

There is a VERY good reason why sellers will not give positive feedback until the buyer does so first. Think about it from the sellers' point of view.

no there is no excuse for that, if i pay promptly, i deserve positive, do a good job as a seller and its the same
lieing goes both ways too, seller could still give me negative feedback for prompt payment just to be an @ss

That's not going to happen. What COULD happen is the seller leaves positive feedback, then the buyer goes and does a charge back on thier credit card. And the seller is fvcked.

I'd rather get NO feedback then leave feedback first, from my (seller's) point of view, leaving feedback first is stupid.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: smthmlk
stupid sellers leave feedback as soon as payment is received, I've noticed.

Fixed. And I didn't even bother reading the rest of your post.

Part of being a good seller on Ebay means protecting yourself from scammers, and general assholes. I don't lose money that way, so I can keep my prices competitive. I've probably hit close to $1M in sales on ebay in the past two years, and my feedback is spotless. I didn't get there by not learning the tricks of the trade, and by not protecting myself against abuse. And in turn, my customers get a quality product and even better service, before and after the sale.

 

[Tom]

Originally posted by: Doom Machine

There is a VERY good reason why sellers will not give positive feedback until the buyer does so first. Think about it from the sellers' point of view.

no there is no excuse for that, if i pay promptly, i deserve positive, do a good job as a seller and its the same
lieing goes both ways too, seller could still give me negative feedback for prompt payment just to be an @ss as does me giving him bad for good item and shipping, but most in general arnt like that
just do a good job and dont worry about, give buyers deserved feedback as soon as its paid for, theres just no excuse for holding it hostage thats wrong

The problem with your idea is the transaction isn't finished as soon as it's paid for. So there's no way for a seller to know how the sale will end up.

Your just wrong that the only opinion the seller has to express is how fast payment was made.

Of course neither party should lie or distort, but it's stupid for either party to post feedback until the deal has been completely concluded.

 

[smthmlk]

Originally posted by: bamacre

Originally posted by: smthmlk
good sellers leave feedback as soon as payment is received, I've noticed.

And I didn't even bother reading the rest of your post.

I don't think I'd buy from you with the attitude you've demonstrated on here.