Time to eat my words!

[SteinOnkel]

Or maybe my clothing, because I'm German and that's what we do when we are wrong*.

So the other day I was defending ebay tooth and nail, right? Well...let me tell you.

On January 4th I bought a fuel door for the Fiat, because I needed the unleaded fuel badge and the little chrome handle. Cost all of $13 plus $10 shipping. Great, right? Item is located 300 miles from my house. Should be here in less than a week, yeah? Not so.

Three weeks go by without a peep. I message the seller, hey what's the status? "In Process" is the answer I get. Strange. Another two weeks go by and today I message him again saying listen buddy, I've got patience but this is really pushing it. His response is "We are filming (???) and will be back on Friday to sort this out." Very odd, but okay I tell him I can wait. And then he CANCELS the order with the reasoning "Cancelled at buyer's request". Excuse me!? I call up ebay support and they can't really do anything either. So I leave a negative review, because those matter...he then messages me again saying something about they have to find the item in the warehouse first and this is ebay's new policy (bullshit) etc etc. Then he proceeds to hold the item hostage saying if I don't take down the negative review he won't ship. I screenshotted everything and forwarded it along to ebay support. This dude needs to be banned. Told him I already got my money back and he can get bent.

Then I googled "unleaded fuel badge fiat 124" and found "Fiat Parts and Supplies". Gave them a call, the vendor was bright enough to tell me that there are two different badges (because of course). I went to the garage to measure my fuel door, he went in his warehouse to measure the part. It matched. Also sold me a spring "Yeah, they wear out, you'll want that too" and a NOS chrome handle. Paid by cc, he said it should be at my house by friday if not I should call back. It was more expensive, but so what? Support decent vendors.

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNczjk-xLfM

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Wow, that's quite the story Steiny... But I agree with you about supporting the vendors, and all my parts have been either from AutoRicambi, Midwest-Bayless, VickAuto, or C. Obert (FiatPlus). Only very minor issues over the years, and the plus far outweighs the negative.

As for Ebay? I have emerged largely unscathed by bad experiences, and let's just hope it stays that way. However, in other forums I participate in, the stories about creepy sellers (and buyers) are numerous.

-Bryan

[RRoller123]

Yeah, it does happen. My experiences are similar. Mostly very good, but every once in awhile a real flake. I used to run a small philatelic hobby store, as a collector, on E-Bay and made hundreds upon hundreds of purchases and sales with no issues at all. I think hobbyists maybe are a little more serious about things. But shouldn't that logic also apply to us and our toy cars??