Laptop repair

October 12, 2005 12:39 PM

Can you find instructive examples of shady high-tech auctions on eBay, especially in regard to notebook computers? Can you relate things you have seen in a high-tech auction listing that set off warning bells for you? What should I watch out for?

Short story is the LCD screen just flat-out died on my 3-year old HP Omnibook XE3, and I'm having to route the video to a monitor to get work done. I'm amazed that the LCD just snuffed out like that; I opened up the computer and found no loose connections, but can't figure out how to open the screen panel (no screws). I was going to get it repaired, but having heard anecdotes about notebooks having astronomical repair costs, and seing similar models on eBay going for $300, the choice seemed obvious.

Regarding eBay, I'm a veteran of online auctions, but have never bought a high-tech item and I know that the notebook area is probably the shark tank. I know all about feedback ratings and so forth, but I'm mainly looking for warning flags unique to high-tech auctions, seller scams that are going around, and so forth.

In a brief browse of the laptops, I found some weird stuff. Like this auction -- aside from the patriotic/religious overtones, should I be concerned that they only put "God Bless America" in the item location? Or this auction, where only a bunch of manufacturer art instead of a pic of the actual computer is posted, and no specific HD size is mentioned (though I do see the high feedback total).

I figure on used notebooks there's little chance of the battery being in any decent shape; anything else I should be concerned about?

posted by rolypolyman to computers & internet (10 comments total)

Hold a flashlight up to your LCD -- if you can still see the picture faintly, only your backlight has gone out. This is typically a replacable part, google around for "backlight" and the model number of your panel.
posted by j.edwards at 12:43 PM on October 12, 2005

Holy crap, I can. Now only if I can figure out how to dismantle the panel -- wonder if it's a snap shell.
posted by rolypolyman at 12:45 PM on October 12, 2005

Someone once hijacked my eBay account (high feedback) and used it to list fraudulent high-priced auctions. The only clue that it was a scam: the listing asked buyers to email the seller at a particular email address (not the one associated with the account) before bidding.

So get the seller's contact info and find out if you're dealing with the person who owns the account.
posted by wryly at 12:49 PM on October 12, 2005

I always look for custom photographs. People using stock photos lifted from elsewhere raise a red flag, especially if they're not an ebay merchant.

Someone selling a laptop, using stock photos that aren't theirs, and a feedback under 20 == red flag.

Tons of 'small print' - disclaimers, legal notices, odd delivery mechanism, religious rants == red flag.

If you're concerned, drop them a line, ask for a odd photo of the laptop. "Can I see the bottom?" "Can I see the a close-up of the hinge?"
posted by unixrat at 12:59 PM on October 12, 2005

Make sure you pay with a credit card that's got fraud protection and you should have another layer of security.

Check the seller's feedback. If its all small ticket items then that might be a flag. If there are lots of feedbacks from the same couple of people then that's another flag. Email them with a question, see how soon they respond.

Even if you do everything right, you can still get scammed. I wish Ebay was alot more vigilant in ejecting scammers but they really don't seem to give a damn.
posted by fenriq at 1:13 PM on October 12, 2005

I saw one recently for an iPod in which the seller had been asked a question from a potential buyer, and the response was something like "this is indeed my ebay name but I did not list this... perhaps someone used my account." This part has already been mentioned, but I say this only to point out that I *know* this one was fradulent... There were other unusual things about the auction that I'll mention here.

The price was in euros, but the seller said in the description that he couldn't accept PayPal because it wasn't available to the chinese yet.

There were several different auctions, under different usernames, all of which had identical listings, pictures, descriptions, etc.

A lot of the ebay accounts that are hacked are old, unused ones. Make sure the seller has been active recently with good RECENT feedback. An active account is more likely to be tightly policed.

Also, I would make sure that some of the positive comments on the seller are from high-rating users. It's easy to fake comments to build up some positive rating, but harder to do this exponentially by building up the ratings of the fake accounts you use to rate yourself.

Lastly, if the person has a really high rating, I usually expect to see SOME negative feedback or feedback "removed by mutual agreement". Most sellers with high volume have had some complaints against them.
posted by tkolstee at 1:40 PM on October 12, 2005

Alarm bells:

- High quality stock photos lifted from tech review sites (usually drop shadowed against a plain white background.) Although be aware that a lot of high tech equipment will be auctioned by large firms that have their own online store and will use their own pro photos.

- Copy and pasted tech specs with no real human enthusiasm about the product for sale.

- Spelling and grammatical errors in the listing.

- Prices that are too good to be true (although this is rare with fake auctions)

- Any requests to email outwith eBay's communication system, or to circumvent the checkout process.

- Strange escrow or payment services, especially requests to use Western Union.

- No reply to questions, or suspicious or obnoxious replies.

- No knowledge of the product being sold

- Odd stock: selling a lot of the same expensive items using the same listing, or selling something incongruously alongside other strange things. Or selling a wide variety of unrelated expensive items (top of the range laptops with top of the range handbags.)

- Far East location.

- Strange user names (one guy selling fake Nikons was called SUKKA SUKKA DONG)


Ignore warnings over feedback etc, you can still easily be ripped off by a hijacked account with thousands of positive feedbacks. The "God bless America" thing wouldn't set off any alarms for me, lots of people use that space for promoting other things.

The seller tsyedn looks okay to me - huge stock with a lot of bids, good feedback, good listings. Not selling top of the range exclusively. 118 recently completed items of the same type, listed in the same way. Ask him a question and go by his manner. If you want to be super cautious get a phone number and call them. And use a credit card or Paypal. Good luck.
posted by fire&wings at 2:06 PM on October 12, 2005

I've heard that a red flag is sellers requesting payment only through Western Union. So yeah, use a credit card or PayPal if possible.
posted by jtron at 4:12 PM on October 12, 2005

Preferably -- as seen on a related AskMe question (regarding what happens when you don't notice red flags) -- with both. But definitely with at least a credit card. You're much more protected.
posted by SuperNova at 4:44 PM on October 12, 2005

P-P-P-Powerbook had a story about scamming a scammer...
posted by Wild_Eep at 6:20 PM on October 12, 2005