I recently bought two items from this company after keeping my eye on them for quite a while, considering all of the negative feedback I got from the Ebay site.

I'm pleased to report that I recieved my orders promptly and pretty quickly, but still I can't help to think that these guys are either irresponsible or just plain dishonest.

The items I ordered were for my brand new Motorola V600 phone and I will admit that I have thought about ordering from Eforcity before. There are times I feel not too comfortable giving any information to companies you know nothing about, so I called Eforcity, finding out that they were a fairly local company here in Southern California, in Temple City. (I live in North Orange County, about 25 minutes away) they informed me that they didn't allow for pick-up at their facilities, which made me even more skeptical, but being interested in some of the items they have on their website, I wanted more to check out the quality knowing that much of this stuff might not work if its overseas and from the Pacific Rim countries. They would not accomdate me with this in any regard, so it was off back to Ebay and to find a place that was local and if they would.

This is when I came across the names itrimming and EveryDaySource. They both carried the same items and all said they were in Los Angeles. I researched further, and found out that the prices were drastically reduced when compared to the Eforcity website. We aren't just talking about a few dollars less here or there, we are talking in some places as much as 80% difference! (an guesstimate, but its close!) Knowing that many companies strike deals with Fed Ex and UPS for mass shipping, and this is how they make their money on these items is by the excess shipping costs. For instance, my items though light in weight and only 25 minutes away cost me around $8.00 in shipping and handling. When I got the items in the mail, it was sent by US Mail and not Fed Ex or UPS, and it only cost them like just under $2.00. No biggie, I still saved big-time.

Still, my suspicions of the company(s) remain. Further research turned this up. I couldn't get the address from the guy on the phone, which I thought was weird. but going back to the Eforcity website, I noticed a link to ask about wholesale sales. They instantly with-in minutes got back to me by email and explained that their wholesale division is called, Ascend Distribution. It ws then I found out that they were located in Temple City, but still no address was provided.

Jumping back a step, I made the mistake during my surfing for my items and how the Ebay site worked so I woldn't get charged for extra shipping, of getting charged for the "Buy It Now!" of the two items I sought. I simply emailed the seller--in this case, itrimming--and told them of my mistake and that they should keep the items up for sale or bid.

Three days later, I got not one, but two messages from itrimming stating that if I could go to the items and post a positive feedback for them, they would wave the items for sale. Not only do I find this odd, but its dishonest, and while people can question that my purchase of the items was made, it was because they don't exactly make it clear or inform you like other purchases giving you the final choice of purchasing the items, yea or nae. Its pretty confusing, and frankly, I think its intended to be that way.

So I'll leave off here, no matter how many times I email itrimming telling them I purchased the items in quesiton originally from Eforcity, I'm not buying them again on itrimming. They can't seem to comprehend this!

Why Ebay does nothing about this company or at least issue a warning to them or even simply placing a watch list of bad Ebay offenders is beyond me. (Maybe they do have one and I haven't seen it?) While my items got here and are in good condition, I still can't help to feel for those who have been ripped-off by the company.

First off, thanks for joining pdaPhoneHome. I'm not sure that your post pertains to pdaPhones, but the eBay experience is something that pdaPhone shoppers might run across. Hopefully I can shed some light on some of your comments.

There are thousands of "companies" on eBay, so the odds of someone else actually coming across the same companies is probably remote, but this thread will get Googled at some point, so it surely might get read by prospective buyers.

A lot of online companies are essentially virtual companies. They might operate out of a home, and rely on distribution partners that could be located all over the country. So, it is not unsual for any online company to "not allow local pickup". We don't allow local pickup from our online store here, because we don't have a brick and mortar storefront.

Secondly, on the shipping... anything you buy on eBay has the shipping charges identified before you buy. So, a buyer should factor this into their purchase price... what's the total cost? In some cases, a buyer might in fact inflate the shipping charges, but you know that going in, so you certainly have the choice to not buy from them. We charge the same thing for shipping on anything you buy from our online store. This is because the current state of our shopping cart doesn't handle the complexities of different ship-from locations easily. In most cases, the actual shipping charges are pretty close to what is paid by the customer, but in some cases it is more... some it is less. So, if you ordered a very small item by itself, you might conclude that the shipping was a lot for that item. But, if you ordered 10 of something big, then you'd think it was a deal. But, you know this before you buy. Always factor shipping charges into your price comparisons.

With regard to giving out an address, I am not sure why they wouldn't want to do that, since you can actually get it from the eBay system I believe... and when you receive your package it would have the shipped from location on the box. Without knowing the details of the dialog, I don't know on that one.

Finally, the "Buy it Now" option on eBay is controlled by eBay. I have used it many times and didn't find it confusing. In fact, all of the information on eBay's terms and conditions says that the buyer is contractually obligated to pay, if they place a bid (or use Buy it Now). Once you submit, you are obligated. The fact that you made a mistake, is really not consistent with the terms of the eBay service. My wife and I have sold a lot of items on eBay, and the time and effort to go through a situation like that, as a seller, is a pain. You have to submit a lot of information to get a refund on the eBay sellers fees, then keep an eye on it to make sure it gets refunded. We would usually sell a group of things at the same time, because there is a cycle you go through of listing, monitoring, and shipping. When you go back and relist, you have one item that requires special attention and you lose all the benefit of grouping things together. So, when a buyer backs out of a purchase, it is extremely frustrating for the seller. The fact that they let you out of the purchase without reporting you, is absolutely reason to give them positive feedback. I would gladly do that if a seller was kind enough to let me off the hook. As a seller, I will tell you that you get every story in the book about why people are unable to complete a purchase. When we were selling a lot of stuff, it was amazing how many people who bid on our stuff would either suddenly have a death in the family, or a catastrophic illness. I was thinking of putting a warning on our auction listings.... "warning, placing a bid may lead to a death in your family... bid with caution". The sellers go in assuming that the buyers are going to follow the well documented rules and warnings that are in eBay... that is, "if you bid on it, you bought it".

I have tried to give you some of the perspective of a seller, and the rules of eBay. Don't know if you will agree with it, but hopefully it will help you see the other side.

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Mike - Been Converged?