Ebay Vendors Question

[StarTech]

I should have not ordered through an Ebay vendor but I wanted to try my hand at rebuilding a Haulong HQ-2 carburetor. The vendor indicated they had 10+ unit available then when I check on the order status they didn't have any. They claimed they ran out. How could it be as I am the only one that brought one? Sound like a con job or fudging on the rules by a vendor using JIT inventory.

Definitely not buying anything else through fix_my_toys IE aka TMC Marketing.

BTW I know I could buy complete carb for about the same money but I just to learn how these are repaired.

[bobodu]

They do have a 99.4 % positive feedback. I bet the pros here wish they had that....

[KE4AVB]

I should have not ordered through an Ebay vendor but I wanted to try my hand at rebuilding a Haulong HQ-2 carburetor. The vendor indicated they had 10+ unit available then when I check on the order status they didn't have any. They claimed they ran out. How could it be as I am the only one that brought one? Sound like a con job or fudging on the rules by a vendor using JIT inventory.

Definitely not buying anything else through fix_my_toys IE aka TMC Marketing.

BTW I know I could buy complete carb for about the same money but I just to learn how these are repaired.

Well if I know Star that is going to go down. They have over 33 complaints in the last month alone mostly about poor service and miss shipping deadlines. Apparently they don't care about their customers.

Now Starfire if you want to learn these cubes why don't you and Little Deer come up to my shop and I go over what you know and give you some pointers. I know I been out a lot lately but I think I got all of the tribal business done now. And I can order you the carburetor from a reliable vendor that actually have it in stock and have it here in a few days. They say that carb kit is on back order from Husqvarna for at least 3 weeks so that Ebay vendor is just jerking you around.

And for those wonder what "JIT" is it stands for "Just In Time". An inventory system that is easily broken when a distributor is out of stock that supplier orders from. It is one the reasons I try to stock what I use the most of here. Also as an Ebay seller myself I don't list items that I don't have reserved for that auction. Does a great dis-service to the customer and myself. I don't sell much on Ebay anymore as I don't have over stock like when I first started.

[bgsengine]

Sound like a con job or fudging on the rules by a vendor using JIT inventory.

Definitely not buying anything else through fix_my_toys IE aka TMC Marketing.

Just the name itself would have been my first clue. along with descriptions (how well they are written) and photos - It is easy enough to tell when a vendor is just a "copy an paste our ad to an ebay listing and you make $x on every sale and we ship the product for you" kind of seller...

That is how all those chinese companies move their products - by way of alibaba and gullible sellers like that - most of the stuff is counterfeit junk or grey market (stolen from chinese factory QC rejects pile or stolen outright from facility, for example)

What I look for if I need to buy parts or pieces on ebay is
1) check vendor feedback (typically can overlook "product review" feedback, but look carefully when you see "out of stock," or "never got it" or similar negative commentary regarding the seller's customer service)
2) does the product image look stock, the price too low to be reasonable?
3) do you find a crap ton if almost identical listings with the same image and same details?
4) if not a copy/pasted product listing, does description make sense and sound like someone who actually knows their product (or admits they don't) which can often indicates a) former dealer inventory or b) current dealer inventory and finally - does the quantity available make sense (seriously is some dealer going to have over 10 units available of a small engine short block??)
and 5) explore ALL of their listings - for example, if it just seems to be a wide array of very dis-similar product category items, they are most likely a drop-shipper that has no actual physical inventory (and thus no control of whether you get the right part on time) but if it all seems to be in related categories (or branding) then they most likely have some direct experience in that business.

[Luffydog]

sometimes if it seems to good to be real than most likely it is too good to be real!!!! had one that said the same thing but 5 days later mine came!!! with a good deal mine was the real deal and I was happy but not always the same outcome...

[KE4AVB]

While doing a search on the named vendor also found that they also have a store front on Amazon and they do look like a high volume seller only with several complaint of shipping problem ranging from no shipment to incorrect shipments.

It getting where you can't even trust the Amazon dealers. I had one vendor last year to charge me a 30% restocking fee for a defective item that they claimed to be an OEM part but in fact was an after market part. And just recently had to cancel a bulk battery cable order through Amazon because the vendor had failed to ship the item on time missing the 2 two day Prime delivery window.

EDIT: FixMyToys is the online retail division of Ball Equipment, Eastern Michigan's Outdoor and Powersports Superstore.

[KE4AVB]

Starfire, Now they got an excellent BBB rating don't they.

[StarTech]

Finally got the kit 2 weeks after ordering. I tried cancelling the order and they did an end run on me claiming they already shipped the package. They sent me the tracking number 15 minutes later and the package wasn't even picked up until 6pm that evening by the post office. Anyways I now a kit that I no longer need as I went an just ordered a complete carb and got it in 3 days and the customer is out the door before the carb repair kit even showed up.

I was looking a couple 371K carburetors that another shop destroyed and fix my toys showed up on my Google search; I just ignore them even through they were cheaper under the Husqvarna PN. Instead I had AVB to order them through his source as he is getting them from his Walbro distributor.

BTW I left feedback about it. Ebay automatically gives them 5 stars for items they wouldn't me view so that explains why they got such a high positive feedback rating.

[KE4AVB]

Sounds like some backdoor dealing on Ebay part on the ratings. I don't buy stuff off Ebay as I have burned several times myself; although, I do on occasion sell a few carb kits but I do have them on hand for that purpose; usually my surplus.

Starfire if you just bring that Haulong kit and the old carburetor over I take off your hands as I got a couple customers here that have the Husqvarna 327P4's with the that carburetor. But as you found it is better for turn around time and your bottom line to just pay the extra $5 for the carburetor itself. Husqvarna is expensive on that kit in the first place as I think they are just wanting to sell carburetor as stocking the kit is just something else to keep track of. Beside I would like to compare the metering diaphragm to the Zama versions to see if I can just replace the metering diaphragms with a Zama one.