Sometimes Ebay doesn't work out

[bramfrank]

So the government up here in Kweebek Kanada has decided that we must all use snow tires from November 15 to some point in (I think) April. Doesn't matter that on average, we're in a drought and that the year before last I was riding on December 20 and again on January 7.

I suppose that some government minister's brother or brother-in-law must be in the tire business.

I'm not in a position to buy a new car and I have literally brand new all-season tires. I've been driving since the times we used to get REAL snow and I've NEVER gotten stuck because with reasonable tires and a light foot it doesn't happen.

But the gubermint decided that for our own good we must have real snow tires (yet another 'tax'). M&S/ALL Season tires are not good enough, they must be 'snow rated', with the little picture of the snow covered mountain on the sidewall. So I went out shopping.

No, this isn't political.

Note that tires are considerably less expensive south of the 49th parallel.

Lo and behold I find an auction on Ebay - the seller has a +67 feedback rating from real people (rather than a whole bunch of +3s) and is selling a brand new set of tires in my size (17 inch snows are a bit expensive and somewhat rare). He's in Delaware and he's already sold a couple of sets of tires, apparently successfully in mid August and in September and something else since that - his feedback is all positive except for one negative complaining that he supposedly sold somethng advertised as new that was scratched up.

So I bid and won the auction at $350 (Tirerack wants $140 for each, so this is a deal) and his shipping is $80 (or free for local pickup), the latter being a feelgood point and the cost is only slightly more than tirerack wanted for freight.

So I pay the man using a credit card funded Paypal transaction five days ago and get my payment receipt.

Paypal identifies the seller as a verfied recipient named Edward Thayer, out of New Castle DE - still, no worries.

I then sent off a quick 'Hi I won your auction, looking forward to receiving the merchandise' and asked that I be informed on the UPS tracking numbers explaining that I have to match the goods up with other arriving merchanidise (wheels) so that timely processing is requested.

That was 5 days ago.

I have had zero response from Mr. Thayer. And a google search turned up some pretty disturbing information:

https://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:ltO8bh...;cd=1&gl=us

Now, I suppose that I shouldn't be jumping to conclusions, but I've also tried phoning the man a couple of times - I left a voice mail - without success. I have a real bad feeling about this - 9 or so years on Ebay and hundreds of transactions and this will be the first time I've bought from a deadbeat if my feelings are correct.

I suppose there's no real financial risk - if Paypal doesn't refund the money, my credit card provides insurance and will do it for me.

The only real problem is that this IS a deal and I need the tires - plus I have to cross the border to collect the used wheels I got and there is a real cost to the 150 mile round trip drive - plus there may have been some benefit to bringing the tires and wheels mounted on the vehicle.

Thanks for looking and remember that not everyone out there is honest.

I just wanted to rant a bit.

 

[fhaze]

If it IS that guy, I wouldn't exactly call him a thief or a deadbeat. Sounds like extenuating circumstances to me.

It's quite possible he had every intention of selling you the tires, it's just that some other things seem to have caught up with him.

EDIT: I checked the date on the article, Jan 2007. I thought he was in lockup. therefore unable to respond or ship tires. My fault.

 

[Murph]

Disturbing ... but it sounds like you did your due diligence to check the feedback rating, etc. One thing I do before making a big ebay purchase (I just bought something for $1400) is to communicate with the buyer prior to payment to nicely lay out the transaction expectations ... but that doesn't necessarily guarantee the seller is legit either. Still, I don't know if I would've done any different than you for $430.

I'm sorry to hear that you might be a victim here, however I'm going to keep my fingers crossed since it's only been 5 days. Maybe it's a different Ed Thayer and maybe this will work out. Please keep us posted and your head high ... this could happen to most anyone.

 

[fhaze]

Maybe he'll come though and you will have the extra bonus of a few kilo's of yeyo from Tony Montana.

Although getting them through the border might prove troublesome.

 

[Ignacio]

But the gubermint decided that for our own good we must have real snow tires (yet another 'tax'). M&S/ALL Season tires are not good enough, they must be 'snow rated', with the little picture of the snow covered mountain on the sidewall. So I went out shopping.
No, this isn't political.

Profess it isn't as much as you want, but you're talking about government policy which is the very definition of politics and it's not even motorcycle related.

Take your rant somewhere else. :angry:

Too bad you didn't confine your thread to exclusively the eBay issue. Thread closed.