The whole thing is very misleading. I saw the quote sexobon had pointed out and it was clear to me that the seller had copied and pasted the entire description from elsewhere. There are several other other sellers doing the same thing. I saw the NOT in the title, but assumed that was some indication that the poles were not included.

The item was drop shipped to me. It came directly from Amazon. If you go to Amazon and look up this tent, the whole tent is $100, the inner tent only is $40, and the rain fly only is $70. So this guy made $10 by drop shipping the tent to me for $50. And if I want to make this a whole tent, I can get the fly only from Amazon and thus wind up paying $120 for a $100 tent.

It's not so much the money that bugs me. I think this seller was extremely deceptive. You shouldn't have to read a listing like you a making a deal with Satan, looking for how he is screwing you. I think he deserves my negative feedback for that alone.

On the plus side of all this, I get to try out the tent in my living room now and see if it will work for me, and it only weighs a pound, so return shipping won't be that bad if I decide to let bygones be bygones and pay to ship it back for a refund.

Meanwhile, the seller hasn't responded to me in about 18 hours.

I appreciate everyone's input. I want to be reasonable in my response to this.

I've determined for myself that if a seller's rating is below 99.8%, that's precisely what I have to do. Additionally, I:

Determine the seller location versus the item location.

Compare the number of sales to the number of feedbacks.*

Look for feedback on recent purchases of the item I'm interested in.

Read the past 12 months of neutral and negative feedback looking in particular for cases in which buyers had to go to eBay for resolution.

EBay wants you to give the seller several business days to respond.

Keep in mind that once the seller cancels a transaction, gives a refund; or, eBay has arbitrated a case, the case is closed and you can no longer leave feedback. *That can skew the seller rating in the seller's favor.

TIP: Since sellers are allowed to change their item descriptions during the course of a listing, it behooves one to take a screenshot of the listing just before making a purchase. It serves as both a memory aid and evidence if a transaction is brought to eBay for arbitration.

FYI: When I find something of interest, that's in new condition, on eBay, I routinely look for it on Amazon and then do a general internet search to see if a listing pops up on the first results page at somewhere like wallmart.com. It's easy to get lulled into the idea that eBay will have the best deal. I've found that to be true only half the time.

If this was the whole tent as advertised, then it would have been the best deal.

Your figures say it would've been half of what others are selling it for and you know that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't.

They're out there waiting for you, thousands of them.

Yeah. Can't argue with you there. But sellers like that, if it was intentional or just ignorance of what he's selling, should be held accountable for their actions.

They can be held accountable; but, you need a strong case to do it. EBay makes their money off sellers, not buyers; so, its definitely caveat emptor. If you have a strong case, eBay will act; though, mostly to protect its own image.

If you leave negative feedback, the seller will be able to leave a response to it. You have to be prepared to be called a dunce for not reading the fine print; or worse, a shyster for trying to get something for nothing (e.g. rain fly with tent that others aren't selling together anywhere near that price point) and trying to take advantage of some poor foreigner just trying to eke out a meager living by providing a shopping convenience to rich Americans.

If you in any way, shape or form can be perceived as having contributed to a misunderstanding (e.g. assumptions on your part - you know what to assume means), leaving neutral feedback and chalking it up to experience may be a better option. The seller can petition eBay to have egregious feedback removed. It's less likely eBay will do that with neutral feedback.

A related situation exists with sellers listing items as NEW in the title; but, USED in the description. They do it as an attention grabber to get people to look at their listing. EBay turns a blind eye to it. There's no quick way to report that kind of abuse (like one would report a post in the Cellar). A prospective buyer has to jump through hoops to report that even though it's a common ploy. In an eBay survey for which I was to rate their overall service on a scale of 1-10, I gave eBay a 5 and commented that it would be the best they'd get until they implemented a one click option to report that seller behavior.

Ebay is like shopping in a second world bazaar. If you haven't done that, you're at a disadvantage.

I am pretty sure I want to return this thing after all. Hopefully it works out.

I set it up in my living room using spring clamps to stretch the floor out and clamp against furniture and stuff.


I knew it was small. That's the whole point. Small and lightweight. But it's probably too small for my 6' 2" height.

If I lie on my stomach, my feet stretch out and my toes tuck down into the corner by the floor.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...0648f5a5dc.jpg

But if I lie on my back, they push against the screen. In a sleeping bag, they would take up even more space.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...d438eee887.jpg

And on my back, my face is jammed into the screening.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...9c6b40faab.jpg

I can live with this, except if I ever do get a rain fly, the gap between the fly and tent will probably be small enough that I would be pressing against the fly too, and then condensation would get all over my face and feet.

So hopefully I can return it. If not, I am out $50. *shrug*

If not, Glattboy just inherited it!

He can save it for when he's in his 80s and has shrunk a little bit.

Get another tent for people and put beer gear under this one

It won't fly.

That's normally a great idea. My parents have an old backpacking tent with a broken zipper and the last time I went car camping with them we brought it along with us for gear. Perfect location to stash your folding chairs etc for the night so they don't get covered with dew.

Update:

The seller got back to me over the weekend. We exchanged a few communications, and he requested photos of the item that arrived. I sent them. He agreed to refund my money and sent me a prepaid label to return the item (to Amazon.)

He promises to refund me in full once it arrives. He cautioned that it may take 7 days and to please contact him first before leaving negative feedback.

I dropped the box off in my company's mail room this morning for UPS to pick up later today.
:fingerx:

He's taking advantage of Amazon's liberal return policy to chuck and jive.


I receive two books I didn't order from Amazon. I thought it was a screwup but an outside chance they were a gift. Contacted Amazon, but with no packing slip couldn't find out why I got them. No, don't return them, "consider it a gesture of good will from Amazon". I'm sure restocking would cost more than the books.

:fingerx: :fingerx: :fingerx: