Giving up on eBay

I used to use eBay for just about everything. Recently though it all seems to have gone to pot. The same can be said for Walmart online ordering. I have no idea why that should be but let me walk you through my latest online purchases.

Walmart

• 2 different screen protectors for a tablet. Both were supposed to fit. Neither did.
• A backup camera monitor. This arrived but was defective. Now I'm waiting for the replacement. I expect that will also be defective. I'll have to send the original back and fully expect to have to send both back.
• A batch of USB connectors - the first package was "lost" by Fedex. They claimed to have delivered but never came down the driveway.

eBay

• A plug for my bus power cable. Supposedly coming from "USA" with no indication as to where. I placed the order and it didn't go through. I immediately got a call from the bank asking if I'd ordered from Hong Kong. Well the answer to that was no. The price was the same but the origin was wrong. I flagged that as fraud.
• Two battery holders - these have yet to arrive - assuming they do. They've been "in the post" for a month. If they don't turn up soon I'll have to flag them as fraud.
• A backup camera monitor. This arrived but took a month and was defective. I did get a refund.
• A WiFi camera that I was going to use as a security camera. It arrived but the wireless is so weak in it that it can't talk to my router unless it's really close.
• A wireless receiving module that I could connect a standard webcam to in order to have a wireless security camera. This was partially functional - it would not connect to the camera.
• 4 x 18650 batteries that were supposed to have protection circuitry built in. They did not. Totally unsafe and unusable as was the charger that came with them.

Now I did have a few things from eBay that actually worked.

• A batch of micro USB connectors
• A batch of RCA connectors
• SAE quick connect mounts.
• A cover for my phone 
• A cover for my tablet

I didn't buy anything else from Walmart online. I think we can all agree that my online shopping experience has been mostly pretty miserable of late. I've not bought anything out of the ordinary either. Nothing particularly exotic.

It's not possible just to condemn eBay and Walmart without mentioning Amazon. The last time I purchased anything from Amazon I had a problem with them trying to shove Prime down my throat. I cancelled the order because of that. The time before I ordered a switch amongst other things and it took forever to arrive. It came from China and there I was thinking Amazon was an American company selling goods they actually had rather than drop shipping goods they don't actually have.

Given that the various assorted states have recently decided tax must be paid on all online purchases the advantage of eBay and Amazon has largely vanished.

Out of curiosity I pulled the screen apart that came from eBay. No chance at all of returning that. Postage to China would be more expensive than the actual item.

It pulled apart easily with no need for tools. That pretty much says it all - built very cheaply out of very cheap components. The "quality control" sticker must have been some kind of joke as this thing had never been tested.

Looking at the back of the LCD screen I saw the driving circuit. An electronics guru could probably tell you more about what's going on there but frankly it doesn't look as if it's all that well built or designed. It looks like something that's been designed by prison labor and built by prison labor. I was surprised not to find a note in it begging for help from a political dissident whose "crime" had been to burp as he passed by a portrait of Chairman Mao.

I've mentioned this before. It really does not matter where electronics are purchased. They are all made in China - from the computer/tablet/phone you're using to read this to the components that go into that device. Indeed I see the same things I can get for a few dollars on eBay in some of the stores for very much higher prices. That price difference since the origin is the same must be to cover the store actually testing the products before packaging for sale. They must have something like an 80% rejection rate.

Fortunately I don't need much in the way of electronics now. I need that monitor so I can test my camera recorder system. Aside from that I'm pretty good - assuming the two C-DVRs actually work. I have my doubts about one of them.

Yesterday I cut some more steel for the lower window on the back door, just in case. I had a thought that the way I was going to put the steel in, there would be a hollow in which water could collect. Silly me - I forgot about filling it with foam or fibreglass body filler.

In order to weld on the back door I have to move the bus. The existing cable for the welder is too short to reach. The alternative would be to use both my cables though the problem there is the wrong kind of connector on one cable. That was why I was on eBay looking for a quick delivery connector.

The cable I have is rated at 20A. The welder is 20A but the bus is set up for 30A. The 120v breaker in the bus is currently 20A but I do have a 30A breaker. What I might be best doing is to take the 30A connector off the 20A cable and put a 20A connector on so I can connect both cables together to enable welding then to buy a 30A cable and put a TT30 connector on one end and my existing 30A connector on the other end. I'll have to see.