Here's one for you. I once bought a snare. I won't mention make or model. I'm in Europe, seller was outside of Europe. I messaged seller and asked if they could ship international. Seller agreed and said they would look into some options for shipping. Two days later a package arrives before I could even give the seller the green light. I was never quoted a shipping price and hadn't paid for the drum yet, but there it was at my front door within a couple of days. I had to pay the delivery guy some taxes (which I had taken into consideration) No problem there. So, now I have the snare and I've paid around 100 US dollars import taxes. I still haven't paid the seller a penny yet so I email the seller and tell them the drum arrived, what's the deal?! They reply saying that they're waiting on an invoice to come through for the shipping cost and as soon as they get that they'll add it on to the cost of the snare (which was around 300 dollars) I thought this was very strange, but I told seller I would wait for them to get back to me. About a week goes by and seller replies asking for something crazy like 240 dollars shipping and 300 dollars for snare please! I refused, they freak out and threaten me, I open a case with eBay, they tell me I don't have to pay seller and I can just keep the drum. I leave seller to stew in they're own juices for a couple of weeks as we try resolve the case between ourselves. In the end I paid seller around 200 bucks total and say, let it be a lesson to you. I sell snare drum 2 days later and make a nice profit.

I mention this as my worst experience as it was an ongoing pain in the backside. I didn't lose cash, in fact, I made a nice profit, but it was an unpleasant buying experience nonetheless.

Considering all that happened, all you now glad you did purchase the drum? Years ago I purchased a car, got approved for a loan, traded in my car that I was still paying for and drove away with a new car. A week later the dealer calls me and says there was a problem and I need to come see them. They tell me that I was not actually approved for loan and they must take car, I said fine, give me my car, they said it was already shipped out and sold. They gave an old 80' s car to drive until they could figure out what to do. The car really blew, it ran, but was like driving a tank, so they let me use a Mitsubishi, which was about the same year and similar model to car I had traded in. After receiving an email from my lawyer to resolve this matter, who happens to be my sister, they called me in again to talk with the head honcho. After a few minutes of small talk, he says, we don't need any lawyers involved, how about we just give you the Mitsubishi, no charge. I walked away with a car that was similar to what I had traded in and no car payment. Was it a pain in the old a$$? Totally, but I'm glad it happened.

Of course! I flipped it over pretty fast and got my cash back. And then some. It was a whole bunch of hassle though. Nothing compared to your story with the car and your lawyer etc. The snare was a smaller scale scenario, but it was a lot of aggravation all the same. The seller was about as clear as mud in their correspondence too. Everything was like a riddle. English was clearly not their first language. I keep saying "their" OK, HIS. It was a guy. There, I said it! Doubt he's on here anyway. ;-)

I was not obliged to pay anything according to eBay. It was his error, but I decided to pay at least something. I didn't pay the full whack just so he could learn their lesson. He accepted my offer in the end with no complaints.

Several stories here are about sellers taking a long time to ship. I have always wondered how paypal works if you buy something and never get it. Do they (paypal) refund your money? And if you send money as a gift are you totaly screwed? Anyone have to file a claim with paypal?

Very good thread , I sold on the flea bay a 63 jazz fest in sky blue to a lady dealer and told her about issues and said look at pics she gets it complains demands a refund and shopping so I do it than a I sell to a guy who pays for it than before I even ship get the skinny on drum and demands refund mind you I'm only getting 375 for a 63 Ludwig 5.5 inch and so I'm so po now with the baby crys as it was really a sweet drum so 2 weeks later guy buys it for 675 plus ship and raves about it , go figure

Do you mean that the the guy who initially bought the drum from you for $375, then went cold on the deal came back at you 2 weeks later offering $675? Or that after 2 false starts you land up bagging $300 more for the drum than what the 2 fools could of bought it for?

My worst was from a reputable reseller (Brook Mays) that said they were shipping next day, but took over a month after saying it was shipping this week or next week(etc).

Then you get the folks that post a low ball price and then try to jack it up after you inquire.

Sorry ,no deal.

PayPal is very easy to work with on refunds, but if course you can't use that gift option.

A funny one: a lady across the mountain needed a snare drum stand for her son, couldn't make it over here, so I offered to ship it, which she agreed to. A Ludwig flat based stand. Sent a pretty nice one, she calls and says that neither she, not her husband or the music teacher! Could get it to work right, it kept falling or something. So I took it back, maybe I missed something... Nope, no issues with the stand whatsoever. I know some people are not mechanically inclined but this is the simplest stand in the world!

Never select the gift option when using PayPal unless you know who your dealing with really well.

Always keep all emails, as paypal always request evidence when they issue a refund.

And always use a credit card, and not a debit card as the credit card company are able to claim your money back in the event of paypal being unsuccessful.

What if you don't have any e-mail's? Say your correspondence was via a site such as this and you deleted some of the messages as maybe your inbox got too full. Or maybe you called the person from an Ad and sent the money while on the phone.