Olympus refurbished BEWARE

Before you buy an Olympus refurbished camera please check the page below.
This is how the camera was boxed, I have not used it.
http://www.realestatensw.com/cam/

David

 

You may be blaming the wrong party. What do you know about the seller? Is
he an authorized Olympus dealer?

I've bought refurbished stuff, including an Oly camera, with no problem.
But I always bought from a reputable dealer. I don't buy on ebay because I
need to know who I buy from, whether it is online, by phone, or in a store.
I may miss great prices by avoiding ebay, but I have less worry.

 

I bought an Oly E20p refurb from an Oly dealer.
The camera,box,manuals,CDs were indistinguishable from new stuff.
I wouldn't hesitate to buy an Oly refurb again,in the future,as long as it
was from an official dealer.

 

Could it be the the seller bought a refurbished camera
for personal use, got it trashed somehow then flicked
it off on eBay?

 

From the web page above...

Get real, David. You got ripped off by an eBay seller - a seller with 121
neutral and 172 negative feedback comments in the last 12 months, many
talking about "misleading representation," "false advertising," a "different
camera than pictured," "defective" items, items with "scratches," and items
with "deep scratches." Here is the auction page you listed on the eBay
forum.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3808979115

I cannot believe Olympus, a company with an outstanding reputation over
many years, would ever send out a camera like that as a refurbished model.
Based on the pictures, I suspect the seller got a refurbished camera from
Olympus and then put a junk camera in the box to sale on eBay. You only have
that sellers word this particular camera was the one in that box. Heck, for
all we know, you may have photographed another camera next to the box of the
camera you received from that seller.

Regardless, you didn't buy the camera from Olympus or an authorized
dealer, so they're not responsible in any way. You also didn't buy the
camera from the Olympus website, so the disclaimer on that website has
nothing to do with any of this. Therefore, you never should have even
mentioned Olympus, nor should you have posted warnings to "beware" of buying
refurbished cameras from Olympus on your web page, the eBay forum listed on
your web page, this newsgroup, and perhaps elsewhere. In my opinion, by
directly linking Olympus to a failed eBay auction in such a way as to
suggest they're somehow responsible, especially in such a public manner,
you're seriously risking a libel lawsuit from the company.


Dwight Stewart

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/

 

I have updated the page and explained a few more things taking some of the
heat off Olympus.

 

What a misleading post. Don't you mean, "Ebay BEWARE"? And don't you mean,
"Before you buy a piece of electronic equipment off of Ebay..."?

It has nothing to do with Olympus, or the camera being refurbished.

Mike

 

It strikes me that EBay is a place to avoid when buying anything. I've seen
so much dodgy stuff on sale there that it seems more like a fence's
paradise. When I was managing a charity shop, I had three people coming in
to work off their community service sentences which they had been given for
selling stolen goods via ebay.

It would reduce the proceeds of crime and also quite likely funding for
terrorists if ebay was simply closed down permanantly.

--
Yours

Zebedee

(Claiming asylum in an attempt
to escape paying his debts to
Dougal and Florence)

 

On Wed, 2 Jun 2004 18:12:18 +0100
Zebedee ( [email protected] )
wrote

Caveat empore. There is always going to be a risk buying something sight
unseen from an unknown seller. Stuff is cheap on ebay because, as in any
auction, there is an element of risk. That is why Ebay has put some
measures into place to protect buyers and sellers, and by and large
those measures work. I have bought scores of things off ebay with not
one single problem, and I live on the other side of the world from most
of the people I deal with. With a common brand of camera like the one
the OP was buying, there will be a dozen on ebay at any one time. Why
did he chose the one from the guy with a string of negative feedbacks as
long as your arm?

Yeah right. Al Qaida is financing its world wide organisation by fencing
dodgy cameras on ebay. It's brilliant thinking like this which has
allowed you yanks to make such a rip roaring success of Iraq.

 

Quite honestly, anybody that believes ebay feedback can't have thought
through the way the system works. I found one easy way to get negative
feedback removed was to put obscene feedback in its place. Both sets of
comments get nuked when the guy who's had the obscene comment against them
complains. Had an obscene comment directed at me by a non-paying bidder who
I commented as "Non-paying bidder". I had more dodgy buyers/sellers than
honest ones so I abandoned ebay to the scumbags.

I'm not a Yank. But... how much criminal money is laundered through ebay?

--
Yours

Zebedee

(Claiming asylum in an attempt
to escape paying his debts to
Dougal and Florence)

 

I've made several successful purchases on ebay. It takes a lot of
time to research any particular item and watch over two or three weeks
what the good ones are selling for. That is the main problem with
buying on ebay, all the time one must put in so that when you are
ready to bid, you know what you are bidding on, what you are willing
to pay, and that you will have a good chance to win. Intelligent
shopping on ebay requires a real committment in time and energy. I
bought a Russian movie camera from a guy in Uzbekistan and I couldn't
be happier with it. He was a conscientious man who did his best to
make me happy with the purchase. There were many of them for sale and
no particular pressure to settle on any particular camera. I paid
more for mine than most of the others were going for and I'm glad I
did. It works very well. I recently bought a dry mount press in
excellent condition that does a superb job. It wasn't cheap, of
course, but much less expensive than when it was new. Somewhat less
wonderful, I spent quite a bit on a moviola table top viewer because I
was tired of losing auctions and the bidding went inordinately high.
Although it's well made and in excellent condition, I'm somewhat
disappointed in its performance. On the other hand, I bought a movie
screen that I'm very happy with, and got a great deal on a 16mm
projector. It's in mint condition and it only cost twenty bucks! If
you're willing to put the time in, ebay can be a good place to obtain
certain items, especially if you don't live in a big city and must
shop online or via catalogues for many items. Shipping is always
expensive and you have to wait, sometimes too long, to get your item.
Sellers often don't know how to deal with a person who pays them via
Paypal immediately after the auction. They are used to taking their
sweet time and it gets a bit frustrating now and then.
On the down side, I was in the market for a motorcycle and came
across a real scam artist who didn't expose his con until I'd won the
item. He had 100% positive feedback (mostly from sellers) but was a
real sneak who knew exactly what not to divulge (he claimed to be an
employee of ebay). But there was no way I was going to buy from this
guy once he'd tipped his hand. He was selling a motorcycle for his
son who was in the Navy and "out to sea," so I naturally assumed that
the bike was in his possession. No, as it turned out, his contact
information showed that he was in Utah, nowhere near the bike, which
was in Chula Vista, south of San Diego. His son wasn't in town to
transfer ownership, either, yet pop demanded that I immediately send
him a deposit and then find a way to pay his absent son another $3300
for the bike. Either he was a complete scam artist or the two of them
were Oliver and Hardy. Was I to hop a bus for Chula Vista with a
cashier's check for big bucks in my pocket and hope someone would be
there to sell me a bike? No fucking way, no matter how much negative
feedback he might give me. Struck me as a good way to end up face
down in an alley or something. As a result, he caused me a problem by
complaining that I was "a nonpaying bidder" (translation: I won't be
conned quite that easily). Ebay was giving me a hassle about it until
they'd heard the whole story and I'd threatened to close my account if
they didn't like it. At this point, I wouldn't even consider buying
any big ticket items like a motorcycle on ebay. I'd spent weeks
wasting my time looking for one and came up with nothing but a
headache. Either the reserves are set too high or there is just too
much competition in the bidding. But for smaller items, there are
good conscientious sellers and good trustworthy buyers. Communication
is the most important thing. If you get someone who won't
communicate, forget it. If they will, it is fairly easy to ask many
good questions and find out just what the item is really like. Of
course, all it takes is one thief to throw the whole trust thing into
the crapper. I won't be buying on ebay for some time to come.

 

It's easy to get burned if you're not careful, and even if you are careful.
I think Ebay is a lot better for things like collectibles than
electronics, though. When I'm looking for the childhood comic, Ebay is the
place to be. If I'm looking for a camera, it's not.

Mike

 

I took a big gamble, once, on ebay, and bought and E1 with a lens. Both
were in pristine condition, for about $800 less than I could have bought it
at a store.

I was lucky.


Patrick

 

I agree--sounds like you should blame the eBay system.
Olympus seems to have done everything right.
(My backup digital cam is an old 2020Z that still takes EXCELLENT
low-light night shots. I sent it in for cleaning once, and Olympus did
quality work on it.)
Bill

 

What on earth has the eBay _system_ to do with this?

 

If you read my message ("Olympus refurbished BEWARE <-more details"),
you'll note this discussion is about a failed eBay auction. Many feel eBay
policies (the "system") are weighted too far in favor of the seller. For
example, eBay's policy of not requiring the seller's name and verified
address to be posted on each auction invites fraud. Using fake names, a
seller can easily close accounts with bad feedback and open others using a
different fake name under a different credit card. This would not be so easy
if the auction was focused around a seller's specific name and address.

In the past, eBay claimed this policy was designed to protect sellers from
"spam bots" which collect info off web sites. Buyers immediately responded
that this could be done by providing a link on each auction page, open only
to registered eBay users, to provide this information. To this date, eBay
has done nothing to address this issue and the fraud continues.

Of course, there are complaints about other policies, but this one seems
to be the most common complaint seen on their forums.

Dwight Stewart
http://www.qsl.net/w5net/

 

Well, I wouldn't exactly blame eBay either...it's just a matter of
being careful, and understanding that when you buy things off eBay,
there are risks involved that you wouldn't incur in a transaction with
a retailer.

Mike

 

Ebay requires a valid credit card for each seller account, so the seller's
name and verified address (at least per what is listed on the credit card
account) is attached to each auction. A seller can still close down an
account and open a new one, but as you note, they will need a different
credit card. There are only so many times a person can do this, and it
seems it would be difficult to fake a name short of stealing someone else's
credit card.

Mike

 

That information (seller's actual name and address) is known only to eBay,
which does not share it with buyers (when requested, during a disputed
auction, or whatever). At the present time, the only way to get that
information from eBay is through a court order. Do you realise how difficult
it is to obtain a court order like this?

And naivety like this is exactly why con artists are so successful on
eBay. The games on eBay are nearly endless. For example, a local pawn shop
(a block from my house) has been thrown off eBay at least five times that
I'm aware of. They keep getting away with it by having employees set up
accounts under their own names, using their own credit cards. Considering
this pawn shop has eight or nine constantly changing employees, each with
one or two credit cards, they could continue this forever. And the employees
have very little to worry about - after all, it's very difficult to even
find out their real names and addresses.

Dwight Stewart
http://www.qsl.net/w5net/

 

I've bought several items off ebay and been satisfied every time.

course, i go by a few ground rules.

noone with more than 1% bad reviews

noone with any recent bad reviews

never spend more than 100 dollars.

pretty simple.