SHADY INTERNATIONAL SELLERS, GET IT TOGETHER.

(This post is not to say that national sellers never do shady things, these are just my own personal experiences with international sellers.)

I've been on eBay for a while now (as both a buyer and a seller), although I previously used a different account. The frustrating thing is that a lot of international sellers too often take advantage of the people that buy from them (and I'm not saying that all of the international sellers on this website do this), but it's happened enough for it to be frustrating. I'll list a few different occasions of this happening in this post.

1: I bought an electronic device on eBay a few years ago, but I only received a package with the electronic device's case inside of it. The electronic device was not included. To my knowledge, that was not what was advertised, but - unfortunately (for me, at the least) - I had made the payment as a guest, so there wasn't very much that I could have done about it.

2: I bought a pair of shorts on eBay, but when it arrived, it didn't really look anything like the picture. Maybe it looked a little similar, but those shorts that I received were obviously a cheap imitation of the shorts that I had "kind of" thought that I was buying. I made a complaint to the seller, and I was issued a refund. (Yes, I am aware that this frequently happens to people that buy from China. But I have received things before that actually did look like their pictures. I do understand, though, that it would be kind of wise to avoid buying certain things from China.)

3: I bought some kind of a hair band on eBay, but - apparently - it never arrived (or, at the least, it didn't arrive at the address that it was supposed to be sent to ... unless something else happened.) I tried to mention this to the seller (a few months later, I believe) after I realized this, but they didn't really do anything (besides seeming to feign ignorance).

4: I just bought three lipsticks on eBay the other day, but - after kind of regretting the purchase (for personal reasons ... but I'm not exactly sure about whether or not I would have cancelled the order if not for the next reason) and realizing that they were most likely dupes (and therefore most likely not cruelty-free), I decided to cancel the whole transaction and request a refund. The person responded back to me once, and they haven't responded back to me ever since. I've already experienced the "communication drop-out" - or, rather, the "communication drop-off" - (so to say) with international eBay sellers before. (About two months ago, I was asking some eBay sellers about expedited shipping and / or express shipping, and most of them would just stop replying to me after ONE MESSAGE ... *some* people may remember this as being the "dress situation" that I've previously mentioned before online [not on eBay, though]), and I just have a feeling that they are neither going to respond, nor are they going to issue me a refund (most likely ... they still could do so, I guess, but I'm really doubting that they will even bother now ... unless I take the issue to eBay).

This isn't to say that I haven't actually received items from international sellers before, because I have (albeit somewhat late sometimes, but some of them were actually nice enough to refund my payments due to the lateness ... but - after considering this, I guess - an item being a little bit late doesn't necessarily mean that it warrants a refund [depending on the situation, of course], because the item was still received, right? Just as the "If we don't get there in under thirty minutes, then the pizza is free!" thing *seems* to have kind of faded out. But I guess that it was still nice of them to do that). I've even had someone offer to issue me a half-refund due to a negative reaction that I had to some supplements that I purchased from them (but maybe that was more out of worry about their own reputation?).

This also isn't to say that I "always" get refunds for what I buy, by the way ... it's just that I'm mentioning those particular situations. I've made a lot of purchases on eBay. I've been refunded for *some* of them. MY aim isn't to rip people off ... unlike some people [apparently]. Especially since I know how that feels. These are examples of other people actually being able to do right by a customer ... instead of taking no responsibility and just ignoring the customer. Customers and / or sellers may not *always* be "right", but we should - all of us - at least have some common decency and not rip each other off.

These are some more positive experiences, I guess. But the negative experiences can just be frustrating.

Of course, I do realize (maybe now more than ever, and it's not that I was unaware of the potential dangers) that I'll have to be even more careful when making international purchase. The risks don't really seem worth the price anymore.

If anyone that has read and / or is reading this post is a moderator, an administrator, and / or a representative of eBay, please feel free to step in and help me out with this frustrating situation.

*This post is being and / or has been cross-posted online.*