Jessica Gaerlan , May 06, 2008; 05:06 a.m.
I bought a lightmeter from him listed as "IN THIS LOT I OFFER AN ITEM IN EXC
CONDITION .THIS IS A WORKING ITEM .THIS IS IN EXC COSMETIC CONDITION " and
he sent me a lightmeter that is not working and with a broken glass . The item was
wrapped with a thick roll of bubble wrap probably he thought for me to think that
it's been damaged while in transit. The thing is, he forgot to wrap the pieces of
broken glass with the lightmeter and the box was not deformed at all. WHAT A
SCAM!!!
He called me a liar while in fact he is the liar. He doesn't have a good reputation in
ebay world so I guess I should not be surprised. It's sad 'coz I bought a lot of stuff
from the guy and everything was fine then suddenly he sent me this useless item.
I emailed him but never replied so I filed a dispute in Paypal. Paypal wants me to
return the item through an online trackable shipping that would cost me US$59 just
to return a useless item that cost me $28. So I gave the man a negative and of
course he retaliated and called me a liar.
Steve Levine , May 06, 2008; 06:34 a.m.
As the Latin's used to say "caveat emptor". The guy sounds like a real jerk.Who would shuck someone's goobers, and ruin their own reputation for $28?
Steve Smith 
, May 06, 2008; 07:16 a.m.
I have bought a few items in the past from him with no problems at all. However, the last thing I bought was advertised as a Mamiya C330 waist level finder. It was actually from a Kiev 66.
I emailed him and he politely replied along the lines of "I'm so very sorry, please return for a full refund".
I returned it but did not receive a refund or an answer to about a dozen e-mails over about a year.
Craig Supplee , May 06, 2008; 07:25 a.m.
Everyone who has had a bad deal with this seller should send a report to Ebay letting them know the incidentals. They may not be able to do much, but at least it will be known he is not dealing fairly.
Kelly Flanigan 
, May 06, 2008; 08:16 a.m.
I have seen buyers get excited and give a neutral or negative that a Retina doesnt work; they want Ebay and Paypal to get involved; when the issue is the buyer didnt try loading film in the camera!
Subbarayan Prasanna , May 06, 2008; 08:28 a.m.
This seller has been reported earlier on PN, possibly, several times. Jessica, this seller takes umbrage under the ebay rules that say you can call someone an idiot, liar etc., but may not use any four letter words! I have had similar experience on ebay! Ebay also makes a lot of money out of such "Power Sellers" and so has little control over them. Anyway think of ebay as any open market place or Bazaar. It could happen to us in New York or in Istanbul or Kabul. It is no better or no worse than the real world!
Jerry Thirsty , May 06, 2008; 08:35 a.m.
How could anyone not trust a seller whose every lens is =OPT PERFECT= ?
;-)
The funny thing is, just last night I redid some of my saved searches to exclude him from the results because I got tired of seeing all his dubious listings cluttering up my screen week after week.
Robert Marvin , May 06, 2008; 08:48 a.m.
What is the seller's eBay ID? "446885" doesn't sound like an eBay ID and doesn't find the dealer using their advanced search function.
Subbarayan Prasanna , May 06, 2008; 08:55 a.m.
Pay Pal's guarantees work well when the item does not reach you at all. I have had a couple of occasions when overseas purchases did not arrive. When I complained to Pay Pal within the stipulated time they arranged for a full refund promptly. But when the thing arrives in Bad shape and the mailing charges are way too high for overseas shipping then we have a problem. I once got an Exakta VXIIB in excellent cosmetic condition from a reputed seller. Very happily I gave a positive feed back. When I started using it I found the Shutter curtain torn and hanging loose! I had to fix the entire shutter thingee anew at home! Since then whatever I buy overseas I buy within my "write off as loss" limit. More than that I don't bid at all.
Steve Salmons , May 06, 2008; 09:03 a.m.
Hi Jessica,
I have had dealings with this guy and it does seem to be rather pot luck. Most of the stuff I have had has been fine but I have had a couple of duff items and after the last one I just decided never to buy anything from him again. I think part of the problem is that he lists large quantities of stuff with a standard description. I do not think he checks particularly carefully before listing and has a problem managing his after-sales effectively, especially complaints.
My advice is steer clear in future and write this one off to experience. It is a downside to Ebay unfortunately that you will occasionally get stung. I think you have to accept this as the nature of the beast or avoid Ebay and use a known dealer and accept the likeliehood of a higher price.
Best of luck either way but do not expect too much from EBAY or PAYPAL complaints processing.
