“I’ve been taken too many times on Ebay/Paypal. I simply will not go back.
Now buy from Amazon, never been taken by their sellers yet. They let me pay with a credit card. It’s just too simple and quick to buy from them. Just no hassles.”
Ditto. I used to buy tons of stuff from ebay, but have had to deal with a much higher percentage of shady sellers than in the past, so have become extremely wary with ebay. Use it mostly for small engine parts and such that I can’t find elsewhere. Have shifted to buying most stuff from amazon sellers because if there’s any kind of problem (which is actually pretty rare as amazon nukes bad sellers pretty quickly), the awesome return/refund amazon infrastructure is always available, and even very helpful humans on the phone if things get really complicated.
With ebay, the buyer is pretty much on their own other than enlisting the aid of their CC company, which I’ve had to do more and more lately. (BTW, NEVER EVER use ebay’s “problem resolution” process: ALWAYS go straight to your CC company at the first hint a seller is crooked. Oh, and NEVER EVER fund an ebay payment with anything but a CC.)
re small engines
I’ve been buying from
http://www.jackssmallengines.com/
for years now. Fast service, have almost anything that can be bought. Great return service and phone help too.