The seller said that he received a large shipment direct from the manufacturer. Now that I think about it, if it came direct from Nokia, wouldn't it come refurbed/sealed?

At any rate, mwiktowy's comment "The best defense is a good offense." Really is true. I have seen that tactic countless times especially with shoddy car salesmen.
They try and make you feel like its your problem or that you have done something wrong.
This guy is a power seller :
Lifetime Summary:
Positives: 8216
Negatives: 148
This equated to a 98.2% rating. It pays to still read the reviews with the big sellers. He has a history of doing this. Damn.

Sorry to hear of your problem. I just bought a N810 for my husband off eBay on Saturday and he got it yesterday in great shape. The back had a few minor scratches but I know from my own N810 that the back scratches very easily - so no big deal in my mind. The rest of the body & screen is pristine. We paid $363 including shipping. So I guess you never know...

As for your refund $$ issue - if you paid with PayPal and the guy has > 50 feedback (if he's a powerseller he will) and if the majority of that feedback is positive then PayPal says they will cover your purchase up to $2000 when the item you receive is significantly different from the ad. I would start there if it were me. PayPal can put a hold on the seller's fund in the case of a dispute, if the seller has any funds in their PayPal account.

I really hope this all works out for you. eBay can be an excellent place to buy items.

Hi Crabolski, sorry to hear that.
PinCushionQueen I agree with you, I had a similar experience on Ebay and I got my money back, but only after a long time period and a nasty dispute.
Ebay has changed...
Good luck!

I had a bad experience on ebay buying a used computer. From your ebay account page look for the link to the dispute console. Open a dispute. You will then correspond with the seller through ebay to try and resolve. If you can't work it out you can escallate it to a claim. This will be handled by PayPal.

I went through all of this and was refunded my money eventually by PayPal. PayPal either froze the sellers account or took the money out of his account, because the same day I finally got my refund I got an email from the seller begging me to work out a deal.

Good luck to you!

Maybe, I have seen incidents in the past here on this forum where people got units from Nokia that were highly questionable as to how Nokia was claiming to sell them as new since it was clearly apparent that they were used units.

As a rule I never buy from ebay shops if their rating is below 99.5%

It may be only a small difference, but in my experience sellers with a 98% or, eek, 97% rating are those to be avoided.

I bought my n810 new about 6 weeks ago now, from Let's Talk, the Nokia USA distributor, just at the time there was that killer discount on them that Nokia rescinded 24 hours later.
Anyway, when I got it it came in a sealed Nokia box, and looked brand new. However, when I started it up for the first time it didn't ask for any of the usual bluetooth phone pairing, nor did it require the home nor Visiting cities setting (as they were already set to London and Paris IIRC).

When I took a look in the on-board memory there were a bunch of files that were not Nokia created, and there was also an entry in File Manager for "Yoshi's Laptop". The machine also didn't seem to be working 100% browser-wise.

I complained, and returned it, got a new, new machine. Even more interesting this new, new machine came with a Nokia seal holding the box-flap closed, whereas the old-new machine had a plain seal in the same position.

eBay is substantially raising prices for sellers and driving out sincere low-volume sellers. So it's not the good deal or friendly place it used to be. I used to be an eBay fan; now I'm permanently boycotting eBay.

The best way to hurt ebay if you're unhappy with their procedures is to use one of their rivals. Rival auction sites aren't as good in terms of selection, but they would get better if more of us used them.

I'm sick of Ebay's virtual monopoly.

It's certainly disconcerting to hear that even Nokia is guilty of sending out used items as new. For crying out loud, why don't they just open up an outlet online that offers discounts for open box items. That way there's no surprises and everyone is happy.

This seller sent me the tablet in a beaten up retail box that had open box written all over it.


I think sellers like this count on bring up their rating by the shear volume of product they sell. 148 Negatives out of 8000+ is still 148 people that were really unhappy.
There are other power sellers out there that still have a 100% rating

This is a solid lessen learned by me, and I hope others reading this don't make the same mistake. The gamble to save $30-$50 sometimes just isn't worth it.

To make myself feel better about the whole situation, I whipped out the credit card last night and ordered a "new" 810 on Lets talk last night. I hope it goes well.