{"id":154,"date":"2012-04-04T17:18:43","date_gmt":"2012-04-04T16:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cbits.co.uk\/ourblog\/?p=154"},"modified":"2014-04-01T16:01:15","modified_gmt":"2014-04-01T15:01:15","slug":"let-the-ebay-buyer-beware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cbits.co.uk\/ourblog\/index.php\/cbrelated\/let-the-ebay-buyer-beware\/","title":{"rendered":"Let the (Ebay) Buyer Beware"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have been looking for a particular size Gigabit switch, and eventually narrowed the choice down to 3 products, a Netgear, a D-Link and a Zyxel switch, then on ebay <\/em><\/strong>we found an alternative, a switch variously labelled Newlink and Pluscom.\u00a0 The Pluscom switch was being offered by several sellers and one \u201cethshop\u201d in particular was offering it at \u00a311.35 + \u00a33.99 carriage, this was the best price, even cheaper than what appears to be Pluscom\u2019s own site \u201cetradehouse\u201d (which had none in stock anyway!<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This was much cheaper than the other \u201cbranded\u201d switches and having in the past had kit branded as Pluscom and Newlink and finding it to be quite serviceable we ordered one switch on Monday 23\/3\/12 paying by card and expecting delivery in 2\/3 days<\/p>\n

The same day we got a receipt for the payment from \u201cPlusbee.com Ltd\u201d Trading as Safekom, and a separate notification the goods had been shipped.<\/p>\n

On Weds 21\/3\/12 we got a delivery via Royal Mail about 10am, (great service so far) BUT upon opening the package we were greeted with a different switch from the one we ordered. Clearly it was functionally similar but physically it was larger than we wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"one<\/a><\/td>\n\"one<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

The One We Wanted<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

The One We Got<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

We emailed the address we found on the ebay \u201cethshop\u201d ebay@ethshop.com<\/a> (as of 4\/4\/12 this address is still on the contact details on their ebay shop)\u00a0 only to get it returned \u201cno such address\u201d, a quick check reveals there is no domain ethshop.com registered, nor apparently has there ever been.<\/p>\n

In the process we find that registered at the same address as they give is etradehouse, Plus Bee.com Ltd, Safekom along with various other domains. So somewhat concerned, we try several of these along with a message through the ebay <\/strong>system.<\/em><\/p>\n

This gets a couple of responses the first of which was from Alex at Safekom support, followed by one from Mark of ethshop via the ebay system. We correspond with Safekom and get an agreement from Alex that he will put the product we want in a package along with a pre-paid retun envelope for the incorrect switch to be returned.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Whilst this has been going on we have tried to get back to Mark using the ebay messaging system, however the message are rejected by ebay for \u201cinappropriate content\u201d even a second attempt which just said hello?<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Friday 23\/3\/12, mid-morning a parcel arrives, lo & behold\u2026. its another incorrect switch (and no prepaid envelope!)<\/p>\n

We try phone calls and eventually are told that there is no stock of the switch we want, indeed if we look on etradehouse it will tell us this (strange that we thought we were dealing with ethshop at ebay, and they are still (even now) stating they have 4,926 of these available having sold 74, even stranger this switch which was \u00a311.35 is now \u00a3111.35 \u2013 why do they do that I can\u2019t figure it)<\/p>\n

At this stage we agree that we will send the two switches we now have back and that we will be reimbursed the \u00a35.66 postage, indeed we have an email from \u201cBangash\u201d at Safekom \u201cPlease do not worry, we will refund you the amount as soon as we receive the item\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Today 9 working days after we returned the switches<\/em> we are being told they haven\u2019t received them!\u00a0 Royal mail manage to deliver the two to us in two days each, and the Zyxel switch we ordered as a replacement elsewhere on Friday afternoon arrived on the Monday (26\/3\/12) but the retrun goods sent also first class Royal Mail haven\u2019t yet arrived, are we surprised ?<\/p>\n

We are now faced with a claim from Royal Mail which will take huge amounts of time, both ours and theirs, ebay <\/strong>as yet haven\u2019t even been involved but we wonder what responsibility they have for a system which allows what would seem to us to be timewasters to be given a 99.6% rating advertising goods they don\u2019t have which are priced at \u00a311.35 one day and \u00a3111.35 the next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have been looking for a particular size Gigabit switch, and eventually narrowed the choice down to 3 products, a Netgear, a D-Link and a Zyxel switch, then on ebay we found an alternative, a switch variously labelled Newlink and Pluscom.\u00a0 The Pluscom switch was being offered by several sellers and one \u201cethshop\u201d in particular […] Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12,74],"tags":[69,72,70,71],"class_list":["post-154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cbrelated","category-suppliers","tag-ebay","tag-ethshop","tag-pluscom","tag-safekom"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4tvbq-2u","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbits.co.uk\/ourblog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbits.co.uk\/ourblog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbits.co.uk\/ourblog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbits.co.uk\/ourblog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbits.co.uk\/ourblog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/cbits.co.uk\/ourblog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":404,"href":"https:\/\/cbits.co.uk\/ourblog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions\/404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbits.co.uk\/ourblog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbits.co.uk\/ourblog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbits.co.uk\/ourblog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}