Let me start by saying that I love eBay. I mean, who does not love getting name brand products for a cheap price? This past summer, a friend turned me onto eBay, and it was an instant match made in heaven. A pair of polarized Ray Bans for $100 off? I am about it. A pair of brand new Jeffrey Campbell’s, conveniently in size 7 for $60 off? Don’t mind if I do. Over summer I never had a problem with anything I ordered. Everything came quickly and untouched in the original packaging. Most importantly, everything was just like the website claimed. The products were not knock-offs and they looked exactly like the pictures online. Turns out, I was living in eBay fantasyland. I realized that not everything off of eBay is made of rainbows and butterflies like I was misled to believe.
The story starts on Dec. 27, 2014. Being a Virginia girl living in Florida, you quickly learn that bikini season is year round, so there is no bad time to be ordering one. I, being the typical basic sorority girl I am, wanted a Triangl bathing suit, but did not want to pay $79 for it. That could buy me 11 Chipotle Burrito bowls or 15 Starbucks drinks. Priorities. So, naturally, I turned to eBay thinking I would get as lucky as I have in the past.
I was thrilled when I found a seller with "real" Push-up Triangl tops for under $10! Being a girl in a boy’s body, push-up is music to my ears. I even checked all the reviews and the seller had great ones! Looking back, I think it is safe to assume she wrote them herself. Thinking I had struck gold again, I happily took out my debit card and paid the $9.58, ordering a small light blue bathing suit. I immediately received an email confirmation which said that the transaction would appear on my bill as *99HONGKONG. That should have been a red flag, but I was naïve and thought every thing would turn out great, like it had in the past. A few days later I received another email that my order had been processed and the estimated delivery date was Jan. 8. Since it was being shipped from China, I initially thought that seemed too early to come, but I was not complaining. January 8 rolled around and there was not a package for me. Another week went by, I checked the mail every day, but was always disappointed. On Jan. 26, just as I was beginning to lose hope, a small package with a “China Mail” label came. It was much later than expected, but I was too excited it came to care. I immediately ran upstairs to put a picture of my package on my SnapChat story. As soon as I ripped it open, however, my perfect little eBay fantasyland bubble popped, and I fell back into reality, hard.
The first thing I noticed was the size. There was a huge M for medium on the little plastic bag that held the bathing suit. That’s odd, I thought, as I was sure I had ordered a small. Thinking it might run small, I opened it hoping I would try it on and look exactly like the model wearing it. The next thing I noticed was the color. It definitely was not the pretty light blue color I was expecting, but rather a dark, royal blue color. I then picked it up, only to realize that it was not bathing suit material, but instead Neoprene, the same thick material that my laptop case was made of. It also was definitely not push-up, in fact, there was no padding at all. This thing was huge. I instantly realized I was holding a huge Styrofoam diaper in my hands, and certainly not the cute, trendy bathing suit I had ordered.
I would have been a lot more upset had I paid more than $10 for it. Luckily for me, it took only $10 to teach me a life lesson. Moral of the story: do not buy things off of eBay from China. I certainly will not, ever again. I guess I just have to hope that my parents will gladly pay the $79 to buy me a real one for my birthday because of all the pain and suffering I endured.
And if you absolutely, positively need something, ask yourself, “what is the worst possible version of this product” and if you would not be happy receiving that, then, I repeat, do not buy things on eBay from China.
