ebay.. or should I say Scambay…

[stevefitzwater]

I know there has been talk about this before, but I need to let a little frustration out.. I have been trying to get Waltham movements from the 1800’s, the following models specicfically, 1857, 1877, 1883 all from with in the decade their model refers to, they have been far a few between, most of the time they are so over priced, I do not give them a second look, but every once in awhile I find one that is in good shape, the jewel count is good, and the price is reasonable, you contact the seller to as more questions, like have you taken the watch apart, etc… You take all that information and spent a couple hundred dollars on what you feel is a great movement, only to find it needs a new balance staff (they did say they thought the balance staff was bad, not a biggie), but both the upper and lower pivot jewels are cracked, the lower pallet jewel is cracked, and the lower third wheel jewel is GONE.

Then you contact the seller about the other issues, and he response is “it was listed as a parts movement”, but what about the conversations we had, his response is, “you never asked about those specific issues, so I did not tell you about them”, I mean “WHAT!”. I asked, besides the balance staff issue, what other problems did you see? His response was “it looks like that is the only issue I know of”, I asked if he had taken the dial off and his response was yes, so I asked did you not see the missing and cracked jewels???

So now I need to source the replacement jewels… any suggestions?

[david pierce]

Steve,
It sounds like the seller was deceptive. It looks like negative feedback would be in order.
david

[bernie weishapl]

You won’t get much satisfaction out of ebay. I had the same problem with a watch i bought. It was missing the mainspring inside the barrel, the forks, and a couple of jewels. I asked the seller the same thing you did. He gave me the run around and all kinds of excuses with the last one being I listed is a parts watch. When I went to ebay they said he listed it as a parts movement so they couldn’t do anything. It is a joke. It is buyer beware period and ebay did tell me negative feedback was probably my only course of action. So my advice is leave neg feedback if needed and just beware of what you are buying. These idiots are also putting high prices on pieces of well you know.

[stevefitzwater]

Yeah, I have disputed the sale with eBay as outright fraud, so we will see where it goes, I am just tired of people intentionally scamming people..

This is not the first and I am sure it will not be the last bad watch buy I have made…

[stevefitzwater]

Well eBay has spoken, and even went as far as to disallow my feedback, the seller used the words “parts” movement, so in their eyes it is acceptable and I was forewarned, regardless of the sellers emails, the auction trumps them. So be forewarned, if you buy anything on ebay that has the words “for parts” you might only get an expensive paper weight when you thought you hand a restoreable watch.

I guess I should not be upset with eBay, but more with the fact that our society embraces this type of behavior as acceptable.. I miss the old days, when people did this stuff, and ended up in jail, todays society attitude is buyer beware, a scammers paradise!

[bernie weishapl]

Oh yea I hear ya. No accountablity and no taking responsibility. I remember when I bought my first car way, way, way back when. I went to Denver found my car and called the banker. He said the money was in my account so go ahead and get it. He said when you find time you can come down and see me. Today it takes a lawyer just to read the paperwork anymore. I remember my dad would go see the banker for 80 or 90 thousand dollars to buy cattle. It was a hand shake. Sheessshhh. Try that today.

I read everything I can get can before I look at anything on ebay. I e-mail them with questions and if the answers aren’t to my satisfaction or I don’t like the answer I just don’t buy. I have become pretty wary about ebay anymore. Sucks that a persons word and integrity isn’t there anymore and doesn’t count for anything. 👿

[Author]

Posts