Buyer Beware, Learn How to Avoid Ebay Digital Camera Mistakes
Ebay is a fantastic auction site. Quite often there are some pretty great deals. However, there are definitely some do’s and don’ts when it comes to what you want to purchase. A good reputation is a good place to start when considering any purchase. Sometimes you can take a chance and buy items from sellers with less than 100% positive ratings, but you need to use caution when you decide to take that chance.
The following story is true, I know it happened to me. It is an excellent example of what “not” to do. When it comes to photography a digital camera really is an excellent choice. But there are many components to a digital camera that you must understand before you decide to buy a used digital camera on Ebay. If you are purchasing a brand new camera from a reputable seller, it should include a guarantee. In this case, it would be a wise decision to pay the extra dollar or two to get it insured.
This story is about buying a used camera on Ebay and how you can avoid making the same mistakes that I did. Well, my first mistake was letting an ebay buying rookie, who happens to be my husband, do the buying without checking on the item personally. Here’s what happened…
My husband decided to buy an Ebay canon camera. He found one up for bid that included two extra lenses, a small tripod, and a really nice bag to carry all the items in. It arrived in very poor condition. 1. One of the apertures in the lenses will not close, 2. One of the lenses will not screw into the camera properly. 3. The tripod legs will not stay down due to the plastic tighteners being warn out. 3. Not a single zipper of the 5 different zipper compartments of the bad work. So, no zipping up any of the pockets.
In addition to this I have excellent feedback. It is at 100%. I don’t want to lose my perfect feedback rating. So, the last problem with this purchase is that the seller has blackmailed us with the following statement sent to us via a note inside the camera bag:
“We will happily leave you with a 5 star feedback rating once you have left us with a 5 start feedback rating.”
In other words, “If you leave us bad feedback, we’ll do the same.”
Where did we go wrong? Here are some suggestion on how to avoid our costly mistake:
Sneaky Tactic Number 1. “We don’t know anything about these cameras… we didn’t test it…” etc… This is a really good clue that the seller knows something is wrong with the camera but wants to pass the problem on to you. Since they are forewarning you it “may” not work, you can’t say they didn’t warn you. Avoid this seller.
2. If the seller says, “Take a GOOD look at the picture and ask questions before you buy”. This is a way of making YOU come up with questions they don’t want to reveal. One of those, “If you don’t ask, we won’t tell” sort of things.
3. If you are buying a digital camera from Ebay, ask lots of questions. There is no excuse to not testing a camera before selling it. Even if it is not digital a roll of film is under $5.00 and you do not have to pay for pictures that do not come out right. If it’s digital, make sure you ask about each feature. Do the features of each lens work, do the settings of the camera work correctly. Are there any problems that the seller has not mentioned in the description.
4. If the seller has not tested the item, is he/she willing to take it back should it be broken?
My husband was so excited about getting this deal, and I was too busy to look it over, that we ended up buying something we’ll never use. It cost us $100.00 and the repair shop told us it would cost us $150.00 or more to repair the damages. It is a lessoned learned for both of us. You can avoid a bad Ebay digital camera experience, if you follow some good guidelines and suggestions like those I have included in this article.
Samsung NX-100 Digital Camera and 20-50mm Lens
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Pink Case for Sony Cybershot DSC-T100 Digital Camera $10.99 |
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