www.kamera-ankauf_de

rawhead · Expire: 2014-04-29

I had a less than pleasant transaction with this seller, so just want to report.

I bid on and won a Biometar 80/2.8 from them; now, part of it is definitely my fault, because I bid on it at the last minute without paying any attention to the shipping policy to the US.

After winning the lens (for 50� or so, because it wasn't in perfect condition, and missing both lens caps), I get an invoice asking 40� for shipping. I kindly asked if they'd consider a cheaper shipping method; e.g., I knew that DHL P�ckchen would only cost 14� globally for a package up to 2kg. So perhaps I could pay 20� for shipping + handling.

They were adament that they'd only do 40�.

I wasn't happy, but I felt partially responsible for my own carelessness, so I paid.

You'd think the package would arrive in like 2 days, DHL Express or something, right?

Wrong; they shipped it the cheapest airmail they could (is that even possible?); I counted the price of the postage stamps on the box and they added up to 10� or thereabouts. To add insult to injury, there was a fairly bad looking dent on the filter ring; not so bad that it won't take a filter (but LOOKS really bad, so they could've reshaped it after a much worse dent), but was totally left out of the item description. Hey, I can't read German, but I know how to use a translator.

I emailed them and epxressed my displeasure, and negged a partial refund��not even for the item, but at least for the outrageous handling fee. Duly ignored.

So I gave them a negative feedback, which is really all I can do.

They do have a pretty good feedback percentage, so I looked into it, and interestingly, they do have a good number of negative feedback (in terms of quantity).

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=www.kamera-ankauf_de&ftab=AllFeedback&myworld=true

So, I'm like "Hmmm, strange", and I dig in more, and I find that one of their "buyers" is this guy:

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=alex-sky

who just happens to LOVE this seller so much, he's bought literally hundreds of very cheap items in the past year alone.

Now, if I remember correctly, repeat ratings in the same week don't count towards the rating, so perhaps I'm imagining things, or this isn't necessarily the two accounts colluding with each other, but it's still a little suspicious.

Anyway, 30� handling fee to ship a Biometar is just ridiculous, so at the very least, I hope the seller will get a slap on the wrist from Ebay (I just reported the item as an excessive shipping listing).