Gotta do an eBay Rant

Well, I got screwed on eBay. It was bound to happen eventually. Years ago, a grocery chain here in Canada called Super Store would put out a train set every year. Everything in it was crap, except the locomotive. These were Mehano loco's that were very good runners. I saw one of these sets on Ebay that I had wanted for quite some time now listed at $120 (Canadian $'s) or best offer. For the heck of it I offered the guy $80 and he accepted right away. I guess that should have been an indication that something wasn't right, but the description made it sound like everything was in good shape. So with an extra $15 for shipping, I pulled the trigger.

When it arrived, there was no damage to the packaging, so I got even more excited. But when I opened the box that excitement disappeared. Both the loco and tender were damaged. Plastic pieces all over in the box. It was the original box that cradled the loco and tender well, there was no damage at all to the exterior packaging, there was hole melted through the cab floor where there is nothing that would have caused enough heat to do this, a lot of the piping was missing and not in the box, and all the crap rolling stock was in perfect condition. Now the guy won't answer my message.

This leads me to only one conclusion, This was damaged before it was shipped to me. In all my years of using eBay, this is the first time this has happened to me. What do you do? I will get the unit rebuilt and use it on the layout. It just pi$$es me off that people do stuff like this. Rant over, thanks for listening. Lol Once she is rebuilt and ready to go, I will post the final result.

 

You can contact eBay and ask them for assistance. Looks like you have a strong case for a full refund.

 

YES you got taken. PLEASE don't expect FeeBay, to be much help. But you may get lucky, who can tell. But with being an HONEST Seller on FeeBay, I know that FeeBay will, almost always, side with the Buyer. Maybe the Seller was fudging about the condition of the engine, but then this engine was an OLD model, probably never ran that well from the git-go. You might get satisfaction from FeeBay, but don't hold your breath. You may have bought your self a static model. It will be positioned at the roundhouse and that is about it.

 

You're not alone unfortunately. I recently bought a Conrail SD60 described as ......

"I am selling locos I will never use and this is one ! This loco has an NCE N12A1 chip and is programmed as 9210. It's had a Conrail shell put over another chassis. The shell has been re-numbered with decals, but the numberboards have not been changed.

This loco is used but has been sitting in the box for a while. It is complete.

Please ask any questions you wish to and I will do my best to answer

I'm not the worlds' best photographer, so if you want better or more images, please ask."

The reality is it don't go and is not programmed as 9210. The DCC address was set to "0". You'll probably see something pop up in the DCC threads looking for help soon.
Couplers were missing and I could see it in the photos, that's ok but he didn't mention some sort of attempt to install MTL couplers (or something else) has resulted in the holes being badly filled with super glue.
The renumbering on the cab side was a good job, rear number boards are there but the front ones are missing so not "complete".

 

It's rather common on things like e-Bay and getting worst with those looking to get rich off of them. I'm also having an issue with WallyWorld. I ordered three items that are normally in the store in late October. I still haven't gotten them and as usual they sent a questionnaire asking how satisfied I was. You wouldn't believe the answer I got back a month ago. And then a phone call. But still haven't gotten anything.
The bank doesn't help either.

 

cant stand flea bay any more stupid prices, cant sell nothing so that some body can afford it so i quit...... got lots of stuff to sell but no where to sell.....

 

When trying sell N-Scale I'll use TRAINBOARD--N SCALE.net--THE TRAINWIRE. The site I use and like the BEST is the io group [old Yahoo group] is NSCALEYARDSALE. Moderated by several Model Railroaders and aimed at N-Scalers ONLY. A very well managed site. Never had a bad deal there.

 

The items I buy on ebay are mostly additions to my out of control HO vehicle collection. I have 2 or 3 go-to sellers that I use repeatedly so as to avoid getting ripped off.
BTW, Scott Rails featured one of those locos on his Youtube channel a while ago. I think he picked his up at a train show. Definitely a nice loco and not one I had seen before (Not too surprising on this side of the border.). The damage and the dishonesty are unfortunate.