Bluecold wrote:There is always buyer feedback. As a rule, steer clear of anyone with a feedback below 99% for high volume sellers (200+ sales). But the seller you were referring to has a 100% feedback, so i don't think you can go wrong with that.

Dealt with a seller (non-coffee-related item) with 100% feedback and along with two other buyers got pretty much screwed. I paid with a credit card so got my money back, but you never know. Shortly thereafter the guy closed his accounts related to that auction.

Use PayPal and specify a credit card in PayPal and be sure that the auction purchase is "100% protected" just in case.

Actually I find 100% suspicious if someone has lots of sales.

feedback in the nineties is more convincing - and it allows you to check out the negative feedback and see if it was a whiner or a genuine rip-off.

I've bought my fair share and got better and worse deals than I expected but never been ripped off.

Well, I messaged the seller and found out that they aren't accepting paypal because their account is blocked temporarily as they have outstanding issues. If mods say it's appropriate, I can post the seller's message here in Italian that partially explains.

For me generic feedback is only a guideline as sometimes people leave feedback before a sale is really complete. If someone here has dealt with a person it's much better IMO, and I suspect it's probably only a handful of the same sellers that are finding these machines and selling them but I could be wrong. But for this one unless something changes I will be looking elsewhere for a Caravel. Good luck to others that are looking as well.

I would not deal with that seller. Keep watching for Caravels, they seem pretty common on Ebay.ita. I bought a pristine one, excellent seller, no problem except the unexpected UPS duty charge.

I'm with Sweaner on that. Caravels come up too often on the Italian and German ebay sites to deal with shady sellers. When I purchased mine the orange Caravel was up for the first time. He said free shipping, but it sounded too good to be true (especially when everyone else was charging 40 euros and up for shipping) so I asked if I could pay extra for insurance. "Free shipping" became 101 euro (95 for shipping and 6 for insurance). The hilarious part was that he had wanted 180 euro with free shipping initially but then wouldn't budge on the 180 (now 281 euro with the shipping). I purchased a silver one for much less and shipping with insurance was 40 euro. Meanwhile Orange caravel dude pulled his auction after someone else won, and relisted it with 101 euro shipping to USA. At that rate one could buy a cheap round trip ticket and go pick one up in person.

also paypal has a time frame which you can open a dispute, dont let it expire cause they wont be able to help...had an issue with ebay aus where the seller told me that what i paid for 4 weeks prior, was sent the wrong color (outdoor furniture)..
had to wait another 6 weeks for another set to be sent from china, and on the 8th week opened a dispute with paypal and ebay...only to be told that my time for disputes had expired...
numerous messages and phone calls to the seller which were not replied..
luckily for me i didnt pay their full amount and the balance of $12aus was enough for me to open a dispute..
received the setting two days after paying the balance and opening a dispute...

PayPal is somewhat of a double edged sword. As both a frequent buyer, and a past long-time seller using paypal I know what it's like to have dispute happy buyers open claims with little reason. They all get sorted out eventually, but it's the time hassle and capital tie-up that is a pain...so in some ways I can understand not wanting to accept paypal.

Anywho, reputation is very important to me in the online trade/sale of anything, but at the same time I'm not convinced that this particular seller is problematic, just that for me with the language barrier and other issues perhaps it's not the right machine.

If anyone does purchase it, would be nice to have good feedback. Even starting a Caravel thread with ebay.it feedback on sellers as it seems this is the actual "source" for these old machines. Maybe sorrentinocoffee or orphanespresso can comment on their experiences and on reputable sellers. I'll still be keeping my eye out. Thanks for all the tips.

theres a couple forn sale here in aus....anyway
i also got the missed the payment, didnt check paypal acc. scenario too...ended up over paying and in the confusion didnt realise i over paid till the seller msgd me saying there was a mistake with the colours...rechecked my paypal acc. and had over paid for insurance, so in his flurry,he over credited my acc. by $12...
my point?....if you have a gut feeling , open a dispute...dont leave it too late...

Bluecold wrote:There is always buyer feedback...

The sleazeBay feedback system is a joke. When you give a negative rating to a seller, (the shady ones never rate you until you've rated them), they post horrible things about you as a buyer and then send you a message saying i'll remove my negative feedback, if you'll drop yours.

Well I haven't written off Danilo just yet. He apologized profusely for his mistake, posted glowing feedback and promised to ship the machine on Friday so hopefully it's in the air now. I'll keep y'all posted.
BTW anyone know who won the green one? It went a little high for me but would have matched my mucus green peppina very nicely. Nevermind.
Sam.