[time-nuts] Warning if buying from directly from Agilent via eBay with Paypal.

[David Kirkby]

I'm sure many on this list will have had bad experiences with eBay
and/or Paypal. I've had a fair few myself, but the following is the
single largest loss I have incurred, and was when buying directly from
Agilent - not some reseller of Agilent equipment.

The only winners are eBay and Paypal, with myself and Agilent both
losing money. I will lose £452.90 (around $720 USD). I don't know how
much Agilent have lost, but I suspect it is more than me.

As an individual buyer, not part of a large company, the £452.90 will
effect me more than it does a multi-billion dollar company like
Agilent.

The eBay seller was "agilentused", which is Agilent selling some of
their reconditioned (CertiPrime) items via eBay. Brief details are:

* On the 4th September I purchased an N9923A portable vector network
analyzer via Agilent from eBay. The purchase price was $17,736 (USD).
* The transaction was paid via Paypal. Since I live in the UK, I had
to pay Paypal  £11463.74 (GBP). Obviously Paypal charge commission in
converting my GBP to USD.
* Just over a month later the VNA arrived from Agilent. The auction
clearly stated the item would be dispatched from Malasia about 3 weeks
after payment was received, so I was not surprised by this long
shipment time.
* The VNA arrived, and I was initially very pleased with it. It was
clearly reconditioned to a high standard, with a new battery, new
power supply, new manual, new case etc. The scratches which were on
the unit were *very* minor.
* I had various issues with this VNA - both a hardware fault and
firmware bugs. The details are pretty irrelevant, but I would say the
support from Agilent, especially from Afsi Moaveni, who supports this
product, was excellent.
* Agilent advised me the VNA needed to be returned for repair, as they
suspected a system board needed replacing.
* But given my concerns over the number of firmware bugs, for what
should have been a mature product (released 2-3 years ago), I
requested a refund.
* Agilent agreed to a refund.
* Agilent arranged for the VNA to be picked up via UPS, with Agilent
paying the cost of the return shipping.
* Rather than Agilent refund me in USD, I requested Agilent cancel the
Paypal transaction, as I knew this would give me a 100% refund, not
losing any money due to Paypal currency conversion fees.
* Unfortunately, due to the time this had gone on, which was not
helped by the long shipment time from Agilent to me, this was 70 days
after I'd paid for the item. This is outside the 60-day limit for
Paypal transactions to be cancelled.
* I contacted Paypal to try to get this 60-day limit extended but was
unsuccessful. I was advised that Agilent, being a large user of
Paypal, would have had their own account manager, and that the Paypal
account manager maybe able to cancel the transaction.
* I advised Agilent of this, but Agilent were unable to cancel the
Paypal transaction, so deceided to refund money to my UK bank account.
* After various negotiations over this, in which I sent copies of my
bank statement to Agilent showing them how much it cost me, I've been
advised I will be refunded by the Agilent conversion rate for Nov’12
of 1.61078 USD = 1.00 GBP., which means I will receive £11,010.84.

Hence the result of this, is that I've had to pay Paypal £11463.74,
but will receive back £11010.84 from Agilent. Hence I will have lost
£452.90 (around $720) of my own money.

Hence let this be a warning to anyone else.

A few things have contributed to this unfortunate experience.

1) Using Paypal for a transaction which incurred currency transfer fees.
2) The fact the transaction was for a fairly large sum of money.
3) Agilent's long dispatch time, which meant the issue took a long
time to resolve.
4) Agilent's slightly unfavorable conversion rate of 1.61078 USD =
1.00 GBP, when xe.com gives 1.58840 USD = 1.00 GBP today.

Of course Agilent have lost too:

1) Agilent have paid eBay fees
2) Agilent have paid Paypal fees
3) Agilent have paid the return shipping cost from my house to Agilent UK.
4) Agilent's support staff did their best to resolve the issues, and
they obviously need to be paid.
5) A large number of Agilent staff were involved in the refund
negotiations, who again need to be paid.
6) After fixing the hardware fault, Agilent will have to recondition
the unit to sell it to someone else.

I supsect the eBay/Paypal group have made at least $1000 from all this.

Dr. David Kirkby - not a happy Paypal or Agilent customer.