Replacement bulbs

[van ordinaire]

There's a lot to be said about ebay's buyer protection service

BUT, is any of it good? As far as I can make out, your on your own if you don't pay by PayPal (another absurd & useless con) & it costs less than £100.

[xantiagreen]

Osram nightbreakers H1 twin pack £11.61, if you take advantage of amazon prime free trial otherwise £14.60 delivered.

You sure you've got that the right way round? Amazon "free trial" is a scam, of dubious legality, to take advantage of the unwary - I know, I made the mistake of going back to them for the 1st time since they were an on-line bookshop (with dodgy business practices) & have been paying for it ever since!

I have in the past 3 yrs taken advantave of the next day free delivery service saving on countless delivery charges and iirc on accepting the offer i would go into my account and cancel straight away, but I still had the remainder of the month or week of prime services, i have recieved another week offer in the last week but i have nothing to order atm through amazon.

[xantiagreen]

I went through a phase of just ordering thrpigh amazon for certain items for a while and clocked up 70 items i must have had 4 or so issues which amazon dealt with refunded and items were never asked to be returned by the sellet (bonus) one of the items was the driver side window clip for the xantia and recieved it with a slight stress fracture in the plastic, amazon refunded and seller never asked for item back, I took my chances and fitted the part and it lasted 2 yrs or so before replacing it with new, cannot fault Ebay, Amazon or Paypal as yet.

[xantiagreen]

My nighbreakers are still running after 5 yrs on dipped and high beam use philips extreme +100% all my lights have a faint flicker more noticeable when the interior light is on, i think its a bad earth on the gearbox but even with the constant flickering the bulbs are still running

[Gibbo2286]

There's a lot to be said about ebay's buyer protection service

BUT, is any of it good? As far as I can make out, your on your own if you don't pay by PayPal (another absurd & useless con) & it costs less than £100.

Ebay and Paypal parted company some time ago, they both operate money back systems for buyers, I've only had to make use of it a couple of times but it was a seamless process.

Not quite so good for sellers I believe, they always, I'm told, take the word of the buyer.

[white exec]

My nightbreakers are still running after 5 yrs on dipped and high beam use philips extreme +100% all my lights have a faint flicker more noticeable when the interior light is on, i think its a bad earth on the gearbox but even with the constant flickering the bulbs are still running

That will be alternator output into the system fluttering.
More noticeable on a low-wattage lamp (eg the interior one) than on a thick-filament headlight bulb.
Check alternator and engine/box earth connections (as you say).
Also check the main battery connections, especially if they are the old lead (Pb) lumps.

Some alternators are wired with an additional small wire (in addition to the main output cable), which goes back to Batt+. This is a voltage sensing connection, and if poor (at either end, or a poor battery main connection) is cannot sense the system voltage in a stable way. Some alternators do not have this extra connection.

Some slight flutter of the interior light can be normal immediately after starting and with the engine at idle speed. This is because the alternator is trying to produce a high output at relatively low revs. The light flicker should disappear is if you increase engine revs (to say 2000), and there should be no flicker after you've driven for a few miles. If it still flickers, suspect a connection (as above) or the alternator itself.

[van ordinaire]

I disliked Amazon's business methods when it was a book shop & once I'd got them to stop harassing me to increase my offer for an out-of-print book, while I was content to wait for one to come in at "my" price, I vowed to have nothing more to do with them. My resolve weakened a couple of years back & seduced by "prime" & I ordered whatever it was, I wasn't aware that I'd signed-up for life, have found no way of cancelling or, indeed, contacting them, so they plunder my account every however long it is. Not a huge amount of money so there's a limit to how much time/effort I'd be prepared to save it (which,presumably, is what they rely on) - but, as far as I'm concerned, they are utterly corrupt, the whole operation smacks of being a huge con. that's been foisted on the world in their own selfish interests: very much a demonstration of a criminal mindset.

[MikeT]

There's a lot to be said about ebay's buyer protection service

BUT, is any of it good? As far as I can make out, your on your own if you don't pay by PayPal (another absurd & useless con) & it costs less than £100.

I do buy off ebay solely through paypal, so yes it's very good for me.

[xantiagreen]

My nightbreakers are still running after 5 yrs on dipped and high beam use philips extreme +100% all my lights have a faint flicker more noticeable when the interior light is on, i think its a bad earth on the gearbox but even with the constant flickering the bulbs are still running

That will be alternator output into the system fluttering.
More noticeable on a low-wattage lamp (eg the interior one) than on a thick-filament headlight bulb.
Check alternator and engine/box earth connections (as you say).
Also check the main battery connections, especially if they are the old lead (Pb) lumps.

Some alternators are wired with an additional small wire (in addition to the main output cable), which goes back to Batt+. This is a voltage sensing connection, and if poor (at either end, or a poor battery main connection) is cannot sense the system voltage in a stable way. Some alternators do not have this extra connection.

Some slight flutter of the interior light can be normal immediately after starting and with the engine at idle speed. This is because the alternator is trying to produce a high output at relatively low revs. The light flicker should disappear is if you increase engine revs (to say 2000), and there should be no flicker after you've driven for a few miles. If it still flickers, suspect a connection (as above) or the alternator itself.

Cheers for that chris, lead connections were replaced positive around 3 yrs ago and negative a month ago, will have mechanic check the connections you mention.

[van ordinaire]

Ebay and Paypal parted company some time ago, they both operate money back systems for buyers, I've only had to make use of it a couple of times but it was a seamless process.

Not quite so good for sellers I believe, they always, I'm told, take the word of the buyer.

Really??? When I last looked for any help with a complaint, & it was only a months or so ago, my reading was that there was only support IF the purchase was by PayPal. Of course it might very well be me; I was very reluctant to get involved with eBay at all, I mean if you saw a small add for something in a paper (or a newsagent's window) you wouldn't wouldn't just send them the money & hope (a) they were telling the truth & (b) that they'd send it. When I was persuaded, it still seemed like a game of chance - with the odds heavily weighted in favour of the advertiser. Then I kept hearing about this money back guarantee, sounds good - but I've never found a way of contacting eBay, in fact, I'm by no means convinced that there actually is such an entity. With one exception I have never bought anything on-line that cost more than, come the crunch, I'd be prepared to lose.

PayPal charge vendors so much it's a good bargaining point if you can arrange to pay by another method.

[GiveMeABreak]

Both eBay and PayPal have buyer protection - if you can't get a resolution with eBay, then open a dispute with PayPal - never had an issue to date with them.

[Peter.N.]

I get practically everything from Ebay and pay by Paypal which you can also use on a lot of other firms. I am now on nearly 1000 positive feedback and haven't had any serious problems so far. Probably true that it favours the buyer and I have had several problematic items refunded in a few days and you usually get to keep the old one which is sometimes useful, but I don't make false claims although I'm sure some do.

If it wasn't for Ebay and Paypal I would have to go out to the shops and probably find they haven't got what I want or it's twice Ebay price. Ideal for 'elderly persons' like myself. The only place that matches it - sometimes is Trago Mills. Our nearest big town is Exeter about 30 miles away, you have to use fuel and pay to park.

Peter

[myglaren]

Same here and very few problems - a soldering station that was only half there replaced quickly and two of four tyre pumps with misreading gauges, also replaced very quickly.

[van ordinaire]

Still have lots of reservations about eBay, not least the amount of information they hold (like credit card details, which means you don't always have a choice which one you use) while remaining secret about itself (something to do with being Swiss, perhaps). I'm glad others have had success with dispute resolution, as I said, I've never found a way to contact them - but I didn't try very hard, as i couldn't clear the 1st hurdle I encountered because I will not use PayPal (yet another data depository). I have at my feet a printer which is almost useless, I complained long & hard to the seller (a supposedly reputable company) & - as I expected - was completely ignored! I have an ongoing dispute over a phone not properly described, have been offered a 20% refund BUT, it seems, that can only be made to a PayPal account (a snag I have hit before) & since I asked them to stop going on about revising my negative review, until the dispute was resolved, I've heard nothing more. I suppose I shot myself in the foot there BUT the end result is no more than I expected. Curiously, my auction buys have all been problem free - except once, as there was something of a language/communication difficulty when it came to arranging collection. Hoping my luck holds - because I'm hoping to get another car tomorrow!

Nor do I subscribe to the view that it being cheap is all that matters; any, indeed most, on-line shopping can be horrendously time consuming & is frustrating/irritating beyond belief.

[Gibbo2286]

I can't understand your problem Van, their resolution centre works fine and you only have to have payment back to Paypal if you use Paypal to buy, the normal procedure is to return the payment to whatever place you made it from, bank account direct or credit/debit card.

To get into the resolution centre is just a couple of clicks.

https://resolutioncentre.ebay.co.uk/