Thinkpads Forum

I'm not completely certain whether this should be in the T2/3x section or the Buying/Trading section, but it was interestng information to post. Recently I decided to delve into the murky waters of ebay to buy another battery for my T23. I was down to a good T30 4400mah battery and a T2x battery that only had a 1565mah "Full Charge" one. I bid on and won a T2x battery that was listed as 80% in the ad of the seller. As it turned out, the one I was sent showed to be less than 40%! I emailed the seller about the situation and asked for a remedy. They apologized and said that they'd send a replacement. We'll.... they sent one that was new (1 cycle), and another that had 33 cycles on it. Needless to say, they charge up to new or near new condition! So for about $24 (including shipping), I ended up with 3 batteries.

The seller's ebay ID is BigKeySales from Bohnam Texas. I've gotten ThinkPad parts from them before and they've been reliable as well. So here's at least one good seller for folks to keep an eye out for.

maybe there should be a place in the forum for user buy/sell stories? and good/bad ebay buyers an sellers... i got one. stay far far away from go1234buy on ebay. i sold him a laptop, he lied about the product so i afoord refund if he sent me everything back. i ended up getting most the laptop minus ALL the accesories, negative feedback, and he filed a chargeback with his credit card that after i gave them all the proof in the world they still gave him a full refund. he ended up taking me for about 300$.

schen wrote:I bid on and won a T2x battery that was listed as 80% in the ad of the seller. As it turned out, the one I was sent showed to be less than 40%! I emailed the seller about the situation and asked for a remedy. They apologized and said that they'd send a replacement. We'll.... they sent one that was new (1 cycle), and another that had 33 cycles on it.

How you find this information out about a particular battery? I have a T2x as well, and I'd really be interested.

Do you have the battery maximiser utility installed? (If not visit IBM to get it ) Left click on the battery icon in the taskbar and select "Battery Info", then select the "Battery Health" option - very interesting info. here.

schen wrote:The seller's ebay ID is BigKeySales from Bohnam Texas. I've gotten ThinkPad parts from them before and they've been reliable as well. So here's at least one good seller for folks to keep an eye out for.

Did a search for ebay ID "BigKeySales" and came up with nothing???

You don't even need to run into a fraudolent buyer to have a bad ebay/paypal experience. If your item is stolen in an unnoticed manner, but the package is delivered, the seller can be found at fault like happened to me. Having shipped with a trackeable service didn't help; they simply assumed the item received was not as described, and refunded the buyer. EUR200+ lesson learned:

ALSO IN EBAY/PAYPAL RECCOMENDATIONS:
- use escrow. this shiftes aways the judgement from paypal into the hands of someone hopefully more rightful.
- judge the buyer and don't take risk

NOT FOUND IN EBAY/PAYPAL RECCOMENDATIONS:
- use another payment method if possible
- user paypal personal account, so payments can be sent from bank account only (there are exceptions).
- withdraw the money immediately from paypal, anyeway in case of decision against you the account remains in default and is unusable.

good luck!

I'm sorry. I think Big Key Sales is just the name of the company so that's what the paperwork says, but the actual seller ID is "salesatbigkey".

morgie wrote:Do you have the battery maximiser utility installed? (If not visit IBM to get it ) Left click on the battery icon in the taskbar and select "Battery Info", then select the "Battery Health" option - very interesting info. here.

i wish i could get this program to work on my thinkpad! *sigh*

EBAY is fraught with danger. I lost $2900 buying a t-43 from a crook. PAYPAL...a joke...yes they pay the crook quickly...when you try to determine where the money was paid i.e. to which bank and to whom...they say sorry...confidentiality...you must subpoena the records...so the criminals use PAYPAL against the honest guy....you get back $250 from PAYPAL and they deduct $25 for processing! Then they say we will pursue the person to get your money back...remove him from EBAY (big deal they change their identity).

Buy from a reputable online company like EUCLID and don't let EBAY screw you. Please, I have nothing to do with EUCLID...

Dato

Funny as I had similar experience with this seller. I won several auctions. It was a PDB 2000 for my transnote, a Ultrabay 2000 DVD drive , and UltraBay 2000 floppy. I was going to used the floppy with the PDB 2000 and asked the seller before the auction about compatibility. They confirmed that they would work together. Sure enough, they did not (the DVD was and still working ok). So I emailed them. They apologized saying it was their tech guy's mistake and and in a few days I got an IBM USB external floppy (of course for free). They even covered the shipping to Canada. And I still have that UltraBay floppy (it is working ok when plugged into a Thinkpad UltraBay 2000, not PDB2000). Apparently, they do handle their mistakes well.
Just wanted to share this info.
Thanks,
Val

morgie wrote:Do you have the battery maximiser utility installed? (If not visit IBM to get it ) Left click on the battery icon in the taskbar and select "Battery Info", then select the "Battery Health" option - very interesting info. here.

Wow, I never realized all that was there -- it just looked like a simple battery gauge. Many thanks for the pointer, much appreciated.

eBay has proven to be a real mixed bag for me:
1. Bought a replacement screen for my T23, which did indeed work, but with a couple light spots. I'm gritting my teeth and living with it.
2. I almost got taken on eBay a few weeks ago by someone ostensibly selling a number of T23's. One day I logged on to check the status and discovered to my horror that the seller was no longer registered. Fortunately I was able to stop payment on my check in time.
3. Bought a DVD burner for my T23, and that seems to work fine.

Excuse me guys, it may be too obvious to ask as these were real scam artists, but what was the feedback level of these bad ebay sellers?

Hmm ... while writing a reply I went back and discovered that the seller is a member again, with the same ID and history. Maybe it wasn't a scam after all ... but I don't regret reaching that conclusion under the circumstances. Better safe than sorry. And they have not contacted me to complain about no payment. Who knows ... but this is why I'm not a big eBay fan.

sunkssss wrote:

morgie wrote:Do you have the battery maximiser utility installed? (If not visit IBM to get it ) Left click on the battery icon in the taskbar and select "Battery Info", then select the "Battery Health" option - very interesting info. here.

i wish i could get this program to work on my thinkpad! *sigh*

What problems are you having with it? What ThinkPad are you trying to run it on? Maybe best to start a new thread somewhere for this.

pmurray63 wrote:Wow, I never realized all that was there -- it just looked like a simple battery gauge. Many thanks for the pointer, much appreciated

No problem, glad it's of use.

As for eBay - yup some mixed experiences. But then that's the real world for you - the good with the bad. Partly why a forum like this can be extremely helpful. Just to confirm I'm not a scam artist and still have some ThinkPad multiple battery chargers left - check my other post here. As well as my 100% positive eBay feedback I also have feedback on this forum - like I say, one of the really helpful features of having a forum like this.

Unfortunately it seems to logically be the higher valued (and usually electrical items) that scam artists will target. I had several problems when selling brand new mobile phones for example. One little tip for sellers is to block sellers bidding from countries that you don't ship to. This can be done via:

My eBay -> My Account -> Preferences -> Buyer Requirements

Then you should be able to select to "Block Buyers:" on various conditions, in this case those who "Are registered in countries to which I don't post".

I learnt this the hard way after a last minute fake bid from someone in the Netherlands asking me to ship a phone to their boyfriend in Nigeria. (My advert had stated postage to the UK only, but that alone is not enough to stop people from other countries bidding).

So yes, eBay is full of opportunities to be taken for a ride as both a buyer and a seller. There are a few measurements and precautions that can be taken to try and avoid this. I've had a couple of bad experiences, but also some great ones both as a buyer and a seller.

Dato2020 wrote:EBAY is fraught with danger. I lost $2900 buying a t-43 from a crook. PAYPAL...a joke...yes they pay the crook quickly...when you try to determine where the money was paid i.e. to which bank and to whom...they say sorry...confidentiality...you must subpoena the records...so the criminals use PAYPAL against the honest guy....you get back $250 from PAYPAL and they deduct $25 for processing! Then they say we will pursue the person to get your money back...remove him from EBAY (big deal they change their identity).

Buy from a reputable online company like EUCLID and don't let EBAY screw you. Please, I have nothing to do with EUCLID...

Dato

That's a sad story, but ... I would NEVER buy a big ticket item like that without using an escrow service.