Recently, I have had two instances of buying from ebay where the picture/description was not what I purchased.
The first one, was from China, I ordered a white circular plush rug. I got a yellow circular piece of garbage (sorry no other way to say it)... To get a refund, I had to send the item back to China with tracking at my expense -- that is the buyer protection from ebay. The seller would then refund me back the postage $30 ... the rug only cost $10. Then I was reading all these horror stories of ways they say they did not receive the item, they leave it the post office and don't pick it up, or it gets "lost" in China. Seller then had it ruled in their favor. I lost out money & just threw the piece of junk away. I should have purchased on a credit card, not paypal.
I just recently bought a small bug zapper by a certain brand -- I had had one before so I know what they should be. What I got, was a China knockoff not even the same company name -- the item was junk, if smelled strongly of chemicals AND in the end the bulb burnt out in 2 days. This seller was in New Jersey, but they are a Chinese bulk seller in America... apparently they have warehouses they stock & sell out of, so even if you buy in America, think you are getting a certain brand, you still can't be sure. I had a tough time getting a refund, they get on trying to bargain the return price. These sellers have 100's of thousands of feedbacks.... it is pathetic. They are selling knock offs.
I am very hesitant to buy off ebay, esp if I can buy off Amazon. No hassle in returning.
Presently, I need to buy an ipad power cord, they have cheap Apple OEM on ebay, but I am almost sure they are fake even though they say Apple OEM -- I'm going to buy it directly from Apple Store as I need to be sure it won't catch fire of break my ipad. It is worth the extra $15 dollars for peace of mind.
Ebay needs to get rid of all their fakes. It used to be great to shop on ebay, I miss that. They used to have some hard to find items now they are like the dollar store. I still get my printing ink from ebay, that is a great deal... some good deals to be had, just got to be vigilant in checking out the seller.