We're an eBay affiliate and may be compensated on purchases made through clicks.

Bad experience with eBay seller Bandersnark, also known as Snark on this forum.

Hi all,

here's a "nice" story about my recent experience with this person from Canada.

I bought the following The Cure cd from him:

http://www.benl.ebay.be/itm/The-Cure-signed-Pornography-autographed...?

He also listed this item at the Buy/sell group here: http://live.autographmagazine.com/group/free-autograph-buy-sell-tra...

I bought it, thought he could be trusted since he also listed here. To be sure, I asked Roger Epperson's opinion a few days later (stupid, I know) and he said: "afwul item and not even close".

I asked Snark to refund me, off course after I sent the item back to him. I did the item (even unopened) back to the post and sent it back the 9th october (I have a recipe of the shipping costs I made, but of course this has no value).
I mailed Snark and he only said: "I hope you used tracking, because otherwise there is no guarantee I will ever receive the item back". I already saw the problems coming: he immediately covered himself by asking if I used tracking. I knew that I would never get a refund.
I also asked him to refund my shipping costs because that seems logic to me. His answer: "nice try, why would I do that?".
Maybe less common but I also asked him to refund the 15 dollar I paid for Roger's opinion. To me this seems logic too, I refer to his description on eBay: "I guarantee that these autographs will pass authentication by Roger Epperson".
Seems this phrase has no value at the end.
He also states that "further details of signing will be given to the buyer". I haven't receveid any details because I'm 99,9% sure he wasn't there when the cd was signed.

I didn't answer him and let it go for a few weeks, because off course I didn't use tracking. I just posted the item the normal cheapiest way, and never ever had any problems with this way of posting in all the transactions I did (all sort of items from all over the world). 20 days later he didn't receive the item so that's impossible. I'm 99,9% it's already collecting dust in his house.
His last mail states: "let us be honest, if you are trying to get a refund, you should have used tracking".
Maybe the item is still on its way, but I don't believe in fairytales.

But in the end, he'll say shortly with a smile that it's his word against mine. It's easy to cheat on people far away from overseas. I know I'm right, I'm just a music lover searching for genuine items, nothing more, nothing less. I rely on the honesty of traders when I do transactions.
Another lesson in the autograph hunting for me, and maybe other buyers will think twice if they want to buy something from him.

Tags: bandersnark, ebay, snark

0 members like this

Replies are closed for this discussion.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Bjorn VDB on November 4, 2014 at 12:41pm

Nothing much indeed...
I got answer from PayPal that they can't refund. I gave them all the info: the mails from Roger, the ticket from the post office, link to ebay, even a link to this thread. I even phoned them and talked to a friendly Dutch person who handled my claim, he understood the situaton, said that he is really sorry but they can't refund if I don't have a tracking number.

So case closed here.

Permalink Reply by Rick Meyer on November 4, 2014 at 12:55pm

This guy already knew that. Not hard to see he ripped you off.

Permalink Reply by Null on November 4, 2014 at 1:19pm

Yup, and it's obvious it's not the first time nor will it be the last I'd bet...

Permalink Reply by JXE on November 4, 2014 at 1:00pm

You need to go through ebay... not Paypal. Ebay CS will help you.

Permalink Reply by Snark on November 4, 2014 at 8:00pm

nice try.

and the award goes to the peanut gallery.

Permalink Reply by Dan Gregory on November 5, 2014 at 12:33am

and the award for the seller scamming members of this site with forgeries is .........................................................................................................................................................................

drumroll please...........................................................................

SNARK!!!

Permalink Reply by Bjorn VDB on November 5, 2014 at 2:25am

I tried ebay too. The answer:

"We're sorry there's a problem with this purchase. Unfortunately, PayPal reports that we can't open a return for this item. You can try to work out this problem by contacting the seller".

Maybe I can contact the seller? :-)

Thx for the support guys. And Snark, keep up the good work.

Permalink Reply by JXE on November 5, 2014 at 3:17am

Unfortunately there's a glitch in the system where if you go to paypal first you cannot use ebay support. That's why we all told you to go through ebay. Their customer service is better than paypal's. Sorry this happened to you. I'm glad the purchase wasn't much greater, and we all learned an important lesson from your story.

Permalink Reply by Bjorn VDB on November 5, 2014 at 3:59am

I didn't know about a glitch, I didn't saw a warning by anybody about this in this topic, maybe I overlooked it. Of course I would have used ebay first if I knew, I saw some posts here and got private messages (wanted to ask you too in private) to file a claim on Paypal.
It was not all about the money, just the principle. But most important thing is indeed the lessons to be learned about this. Tracking is one of the keywords! :-)

Permalink Reply by wascher on November 5, 2014 at 5:29am

I didn't realize that eBay should be filed first either Bjorn. I guess that should have also been asked, which to try filing first. Also a lesson learned for me as well.

Its really sad that a person would claim YOUR the fraud, and be such a smart--- to you, when your the one out the 100.00 and they are up 100 on an item they guaranteed *which failed miserably*. They have to live with themselves, and I guess one can only hope for karma at this point.

I'll be touching base with Steve regarding this seller.

Permalink Reply by Bjorn VDB on November 5, 2014 at 8:17am

No problem W! I really appreciate your support. This won't happen to me twice (and I hope for others too who read this topic), so it wasn't useless after all!

Permalink Reply by JXE on November 5, 2014 at 5:36am

Sorry! I accepted your friend request and I assumed you were going to message me. Ebay and Paypal are officially splitting into two different companies, so hopefully they will be clearer about funneling all issues directly through ebay. Just keep it in mind in the future.

I still believe that if you call ebay and insist to speak with someone in the resolution department, someone there will help you with a one time credit or something. The key is to get someone from the resolution department on the phone. You have to be pushy to get to that point. Good luck!