eBay - What's my opinion about them

Since my newly-found interest in photography started last April or so, I had used eBay to buy several things for my camera collection. Most of those purchases went just fine, the items were exactly as described, they were shipped quickly and the sellers seem to be honest people. Even in one case where there was a problem with a camera (a Nikon F4) the seller was honest enough to cover my expenses to locally repair the camera. I also used eBay to sell some items too, again without any issues.

There was one case though which really proved to me the deficiencies in eBay's operations and rules. A little while ago, I purchased a second Nikon SB-800 speedlight. The price was OK, and the seller was willing to ship to Greece (where I live, he was in UK). He told me that he would ship the light with Parcel Force, for which I should pay 25 GBP, to which I agreed, since Parcel Force meant that the item would be in my hands sooner and hopefully safer.

As always, I paid the seller immediately and was waiting for him to send me the Parcel Force tracking number. After a week had passed with no information about the shipping of this item, I contacted him to ask what's happening. No reply. Two or three more messages were sent, before I reported this to eBay and to Paypal. Eventually the seller answered saying that he had some personal issues with a very sick ex-wife and having to take care of his two kids etc. His attitude was not apologetic at all, instead it appeared that I was over-pushing him. More than 15 days have passed since the day I paid for the item. Now usually, I am a very understanding person, so I asked him when he planned to ship my flash. He said he would do it the next day.

Indeed, next day I received an email with a tracking number, but that was no Parcel Force tracking number, my flash was shipped with Royal Mail International Signed-for. Of course, the cost to the seller, for this service was almost half of what I had paid him for the shipment.

Now, I am not the person who would make a whole fuss about 12 GBP (about 16 US$) but when the flash arrived, it was not what it was shown in his auction page. The picture used in the auction page was a generic picture of the SB-800 and not the item sold. There were some items missing from the item I received compared to the item shown in the auction page. I updated my complaint with eBay and Paypal, explaining the issue. However, it seems that the only alternative I had left (according to Paypal and eBay rules) was to send the item back (at my expense) and get a refund. In other words, I had originally paid 243 GBP for the flash and the shipping, I would have to pay another 12 GBP to send it back, to get a refund of 218 GBP which was the item cost. How logical does that sound? And the flash was working OK, why should I spend more money to send it back?

In this particular case, neither eBay nor Paypal were willing to do anything to refund me the additional money I was charged for the shipping, let alone a refund for the missing items (a cover for the external power plug of the flash). Their suggestion was to solve the problem by amicably discussing the issue with the seller, who was not answering my messages.

So in this particular case, it is evident that eBay can't help you much, if you fall victim to a fraudulent seller. What I suggest to do in such cases? I wish I knew what you can do about such an issue. All I did personally, was to leave a very negative feedback for this seller and call it a day.

Any other ideas are welcome.

So, what's my overall opinion about eBay? Will I used them again for things I want to buy?

I think I will, my overall experience with eBay and the sellers in it (eBay UK) is quite positive. However, I will make sure that the seller's feedback is always above 98%, if not 100%. And I'll make sure I ask for a full description of the sold item, before I commit my money to buying it.