Safe shopping on Ebay

Ebay is a great place to pick up unusual items, as well as clothes and gadgets, often at bargain-basement prices.

In most cases, you will receive the item in good time and find it is of good quality, but there are some people who use the site with the sole purpose of ripping others off.

Last year 4,500 crimes committed on Ebay were reported to the police by the victims. However, this should not discourage people from using the site. By following a few simple steps it’s easy to minimise the risks when shopping on Ebay.

Do your homework
Don’t be worried about checking out a seller. The 'Meet the Seller' and 'About Me' information will let you know how long someone has been registered with Ebay. Be wary if the person has a lot of positive feedback for a large number of items, but has only been selling on Ebay a short time. This could be an indication that they are seeding their feedback ­ a trick many rogue traders use.

The feedback system is there to give the buyer a good indication of how well other buyers rate the seller. It can alert you to any possible problems. However, remember that bad feedback does not always mean a seller is a rogue trader. Read the bad feedback to see if it is fair but also check to see if the issues have been resolved amicably by the seller.

Ebay also offers what are called Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs). These are found in the feedback section and are broken down to give more information about the products and seller. Categories include ratings out of five for ‘As Described’, ‘Communication’, ‘Dispatch Time’ and ‘Shipping Charges’. If you can’t find any feedback ask yourself why the seller has hidden the comments and ratings left by their buyers.

Picture this
People are often quick to judge a book by its covers. On Ebay it is easy to base a buying decision on a cursory glance at a picture of an item. But failing to read any accompanying description is unwise. Sometimes pictures do not accurately represent an item.

A buyer can end up with a product that does not meet their expectations, whereas reading the description might have flagged something up. And although this is a rare occurrence, some buyers receive items that bear little or no relation to what they expected. For example, a picture of a Playstation 3 box could be just that ­ – a cardboard box with nothing inside.

If you want to know more about an item, use the Ask Seller a Question feature. Ebay says a responsible seller will reply within two or three days, but so will con artists. Check that your question has been answered fully and file it. If you then have a dispute, this will help your case.