TheSamba.com :: View topic

Mon Apr 07, 2008 9:38 am

Bilstein does not honor their lifetime replacement policy on their products if purchased on Ebay.

I purchased a set of Bilstien HDs for my 85, and immediately they just felt strange, not as firm as I expected... and the funny lurching feeling continued and grew worse.

Upon inspection, I have a left front shock covered with oil, pretty much a non dampening unit.

The Ebay seller I bought from is now pretty non responsive (TECDeals).

So, beware of Ebay purchases that you think you will get regular treatment from the manufacturer....

Mon Apr 07, 2008 10:45 am

I almost went that route before going with Monroe (NAPA) coil overs in the rear and Bilstein HDs up front from Autozone ($99 each). I had concerns about the warranty through Ebay. I think the seller should say so, but then it may ward off customers. I wish Ebay had a better way of following up more than 90 days after purchase. Quick feedback after the purchase is no way to ensure happy customers and warn others.

Sorry to hear about that.

Mon Apr 07, 2008 10:54 am

That sucks. I wonder how many others have had trouble buying things like this through ebay. seems to me though bilstein should honor the warranty no matter where they were pusrchased from. I mean they are new units. Not like it was purchased second hand or something.

Mon Apr 07, 2008 11:37 am

Not only Bilstein, but most major companies providing all kinds of products will only honor a warranty if the item was purchased from an "authorized dealer". In fact, that's why retailers advertise that they are an "authorized dealer".... it means, yes, we will charge you more but if there's a problem the warranty is valid. eBay is full of this type of story and "buyer beware" can't be stressed enough.

Sucks but that's the way it is....

- Chester

Mon Apr 07, 2008 11:39 am

allsierra123 wrote: I mean they are new units. Not like it was purchased second hand or something.

"New In Box" or not, unless the person or company selling the item is the same person or company who made it, just about everything on ebay is "second hand" IMO.

camo westy wrote: So, beware of Ebay purchases that you think you will get regular treatment from the manufacturer....

Indeed, beware. I would.

Mon Apr 07, 2008 12:39 pm

I used to have an ebay store and I'll tell you guys my one cardinal rule about ebay. Never, repeat NEVER buy anything on ebay that you don't pay for with paypal.
Under the protection of paypal, the seller will be made to do right. It might take a while, but after you file a complaint, then escalate it to a claim, and the seller finds his paypal account AND his checking account frozen, you will usually get your money back.
Paypal is owned (now) by ebay and it's the ONLY way to fly.
P. S. I never sell anything on ebay without paypal either.

Mon Apr 07, 2008 1:09 pm

inspector58 wrote: I used to have an ebay store and I'll tell you guys my one cardinal rule about ebay. Never, repeat NEVER buy anything on ebay that you don't pay for with paypal.
Under the protection of paypal, the seller will be made to do right. It might take a while, but after you file a complaint, then escalate it to a claim, and the seller finds his paypal account AND his checking account frozen, you will usually get your money back.
Paypal is owned (now) by ebay and it's the ONLY way to fly.
P. S. I never sell anything on ebay without paypal either.

Hi

I shall respectfully disagree. I have VW some alloys I was going to sell on EBay and still might, so I inquired about PayPal protection. The only one who get 100% protection is PayPal, not the buyer or the seller. They have so many loopholes, intricate requirements that no matter what you, in my case the seller does NOT get 100% protection. Miss a comma or a iota and you'll get a charge back, PayPal is safe and you are up the stream without the proverbial oar.

In addition, you have to complain, claim, pursue, argue, email, and should you even be lucky, you'll get your money in who knows how many days or weeks.
I also believe that PayPal has a limit, perhaps $500 on how much you can withdraw in a month, unless you fulfill some other requirements and that is not even talking about their fees.

The only payment I accept is the good'Ol United States Post Office money order. I get it. Go to the Post Office, it's bad, they keep it. It's good I get my money right away. It's counterfeit ? I do not ship the goods and let the FBI worry about it.

In all honesty I shall concede that as a buyer I only had one problem with a moronic shyster who mostly sells armrests on EBay but I cannot blame PayPal on this one.

But..... this just --my-- **opinion**

Mon Apr 07, 2008 1:26 pm

Even though you do have to "jump thru paypal's hoops" to stay under their protection, in most cases it is up $2000.00.
And it's usually either that, or you takes your chances. Personally, I want to have SOME recourse.

Mon Apr 07, 2008 7:55 pm

inspector58 wrote: I used to have an ebay store and I'll tell you guys my one cardinal rule about ebay. Never, repeat NEVER buy anything on ebay that you don't pay for with paypal.
Under the protection of paypal, the seller will be made to do right. It might take a while, but after you file a complaint, then escalate it to a claim, and the seller finds his paypal account AND his checking account frozen, you will usually get your money back.
Paypal is owned (now) by ebay and it's the ONLY way to fly.
P. S. I never sell anything on ebay without paypal either.

I had an ebay experience where the seller misrepresented, I filed a complaint, and eventually got a partial refund, which allowed me to correct the misrepresentation. (Buy a replacement part for the one that was crap) I don't remember the exact details, but I think it was ebay, not Paypal, that provided the refund (I could be wrong).

It was a pain, and took a couple months, but it worked. However, the down side is I got a negative review from the seller, which I woulda had to have paid ebay $20 bucks to contest. (it's all about money, isn't it?). They did kick him off, however.

I've had much better luck on ebay with Paypal than the Samba in this regard....

Moral of story is that anyone who gets a bad seller or buyer on ebay should report and/or file a claim. It's a pain, I know, but it benefits us all. The same is also true for stuff here. Although it's more of a free market here, experiences postings do help us evaluate who to go to and who to avoid.

Mon Apr 07, 2008 8:47 pm

Negative feedback on eBay is a bitch. I have a negative feedback from someone who I got thrown off twice under two different aliases. He is probably doing business on eBay still today under yet another alias, while I live with a negative feedback from him.

I have learned to accept that not everything that I buy from eBay is going to be A-1. But it does provide a source of parts that I would not have otherwise. I try and bid with the assumption that a third or fourth of what I buy will at best be stripped for parts and maybe go straight to the trash.

Tue Apr 08, 2008 9:50 pm

I had one experience with a sale, where the buyer just flat out did not send the item(s) I paid for. This was not on Ebay, but on a board that I frequent.

I filed a dispute, then escalated it to a claim, and Paypal sided with me, but I never got any funds returned because the "seller" had a $0 paypal balance.
Basically that was their explanation.

Maybe it'd be different if it were an Ebay item, but I was soured toward the process after that.

That being said, I just purchased a set of Bilstein HD's from "thepartsladi" on Ebay! The were sealed and seem brand new. I really hope that I don't have any problems with them.

Tue Apr 08, 2008 10:50 pm

I sold a car (60's Chrysler) on Ebay. After a lot of crap with the buyer he disputed the payment with PP and they originally sided with him. I had let my listed Credit Card Expire ( A great thing to do) They took about $150.00 that I had in my account on a $4500.00 sale. I thought I had the cat in the bag until My E bay fees came due which are automatically deducted from my P/P account. Since there were no funds,they went to a second funding .My joint checking account to pay the fees and then Pay Pal followed because they found A path to get their $4350.00 from my checking account. (A good reason to close your listed Checking account as well) .
With both avenues closed there is nothing they can do until you put money in your Pay Pal account. I checked and what they did is perfectly legal. Now my Wife is pissed because they have overdrawn our checking account with an overdraft.
After a month we took the car back(partially dissasembled ) and attempted to recover our costs. No one at Pay Pal would return a call or talk to me. One day I got lucky and found a phone number into Pay Pal and actually talked to someone. They told me they were reviewing my case and asked for all of the info I could give them with dates and conversations with the buyer.
Two months later ,I had a " You've got money " from PP and they sided with me and gave me a full refund. What they didn't know is that I had they car and now the money as well. I quickly pulled the money out and called PP and asked them if they knew what they had done. They were surprised to find that out .I have never heard from them again.
So ,although I was not happy when it happened,they did do the right thing for me and I guess just wrote it off as a loss.
The crowning note to this is that I was able to NEG the guy after 91 days on Ebay and by the time he caught it,it was too late.

Tue Apr 08, 2008 11:00 pm

You can try to see if a Bilstein authorized seller will take the shocks back for you and they can get an exchange from Bilstein and send you new shocks. I bought a set of Tokico struts once on Ebay-for a different car--that turned out to be bad. The seller disappeared. Tokico wouldn't take the struts back directly from me, but told me to contact one of their authorized sellers and see if they could help me out. It took a little while, but I got the new struts. Worth a shot I suppose.