BWARE WHEN SELLING ON EBAY - BIASED AGAINST SELLERS

Bassamatic · #1 01-18-2009, 09:17 PM

I don't know if this is the right thread - but it is important to know that eBay is now heavily biased towards buyers and DOES NOT support the sellers.

You can see an example of this very easily - - you can no longer leave negative feedback for buyers, only for sellers. The buyers can be as much of a jerk as they want and no recourse.

I sold a brand new cell phone to a buyer on ebay, and he claimed it was defective - the touch screen didn't work right. I told him that if it was defective I would provide a full refund. I also said that if he simply didn't like it, I would still take it back and give a reduced refund because it would no longer be new and because of the re-listing fees.

The buyer became very abusive and told me that if I would not provide a full refund including the shipping costs he would leave negative feedback for me. It was obvious that there was nothing wrong, he just changed his mind but would not admit it. I tried over 2 weeks to get this guy to return the phone so I could check it and give him a refund. He never returned it and gave me negative feedback (my ONLY one in 500+ deals) stating that I do not stand behind my auctions.

eBay refuses to do anything about it. They say that it does not meet their criteria for removing feedback, and won't tell me what that criteria is, and also that feedback is designed to represent the buyer-seller experience. How can it when we cannot leave negative feedback to warn other sellers?? I would have handled it differently if I had know he was a flake.

eBay no longer cares to protect their private sellers. Most of them are now "stores" - fewer and fewer auctions, and they are just touting buyers to pump up their fees.

BE CAREFUL IF YOU DECIDE TO SELL ON EBAY!

kevinmoore73 · #2 01-18-2009, 09:19 PM

Yeah. I think eBay has really gone downhill the last few years. If it's bass-related stuff I'll sell it here. If it's something else, Craigslist has worked well for me.

armywalaby · #3 01-18-2009, 10:41 PM

The death is coming?

bongomania · #4 01-18-2009, 11:00 PM

On the one hand you're right, Ebay sucks for sellers, and has done for at least a year, and getting worse all the time. OTOH if you read all the fine print and follow their procedures exactly you can almost totally avoid the types of problem you described. I've had a few bogus buyer situations, but I had covered my butt by complying with all the fine-print rules, so I didn't lose anything or get any bad feedback.

I'm not saying Ebay is great, but I am saying whenever I see one of these threads railing against them it almost always turns out the poster did not read the fine print.

"Caveat venditor".

hbarcat · #5 01-18-2009, 11:00 PM

I agree 100% ebay is obviously doing this because they figure they can make more money by abandoning their old way of keeping balance between the buyers' and sellers' needs by simply kissing up to the buyers.

It's backfiring big time because now sellers are making a point of discriminating against buyers whom they feel might leave them negative feedback and the whole "mutual respect" system is gone. I know sellers who are DONE with ebay because they're tired of getting hosed from spiteful or just stupid buyers, and buyers who are also leaving ebay because the environment there sucks so bad, now.

This was a really bad decision of their part.

hbarcat · #6 01-18-2009, 11:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bongomania

On the one hand you're right, Ebay sucks for sellers, and has done for at least a year, and getting worse all the time. OTOH if you read all the fine print and follow their procedures exactly you can almost totally avoid the types of problem you described. I've had a few bogus buyer situations, but I had covered my butt by complying with all the fine-print rules, so I didn't lose anything.

I'm not saying Ebay is great, but I am saying whenever I see one of these threads railing against them it almost always turns out the poster did not read the fine print.

"Caveat venditor".

That's only partly correct. Following the rules and the fine print might keep you from getting screwed money-wise, but there is really nothing that can be done about some jerkwad buyer who wants to leave negative feedback for a sellor who has done everything right and even gone out of his way to see the seller is satisfied.

Negative feedback really hurts sellers and the whole feedback system only works when it goes both ways. If the buyer can just lie about a seller and get away with it, then the feedback system is a sham.

bongomania · #7 01-18-2009, 11:09 PM

No, if you jump through all the hoops you can actually force the buyer to retract their feedback. It's an annoying and time-consuming process, but there really is something that can be done- if you take action quickly and dot the i's and cross the t's.

Whether it's worth all that trouble, well... probably not. I avoid selling on Ebay these days, even though I "know the game".

hbarcat · #8 01-18-2009, 11:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bongomania

No, if you jump through all the hoops you can actually force the buyer to retract their feedback. It's an annoying and time-consuming process, but there really is something that can be done- if you take action quickly and dot the i's and cross the t's.

Whether it's worth all that trouble, well... probably not. I avoid selling on Ebay these days, even though I "know the game".

I didn't know that.

Stumbo · #9 01-19-2009, 02:46 AM

Before the new rules went into place, I bought an old Sunn amp once on eBay. It seemed to be in reasonable condition according to the pics. Sold "as is". The guy put it in a box with no padding. Transformer broke loose and destroyed all the tubes.

Since it was sold "as is", the guy said he couldn't do anything for me.

On my part, if I had given him negative feed back, he would have done the same to me.

Other crappy seller stuff like that happened and I always just let it slide, especially for anything under $100. I mean, if didn't ask the exact right question, since the descriptions/pics were skimpy/not clear, you really didn't know what you were buying.

I think a lot junk was being sent out to buyers (like me) and the buyer having no recourse because the seller would just issue a retaliatory "negative" feed back to a buyer who would state the truth as to exactly how the transaction went down.

Whether the balance has swung to the buyers, mmmm.....I don't know....I think the sellers brought in upon themselves.

Mark Latimour · #10 01-19-2009, 03:38 AM

Wait, so you mean that eBay is now exactly like every other normal retail business in the world? I'm shocked.

Relic · #11 01-19-2009, 05:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bongomania

No, if you jump through all the hoops you can actually force the buyer to retract their feedback. It's an annoying and time-consuming process, but there really is something that can be done- if you take action quickly and dot the i's and cross the t's.

Whether it's worth all that trouble, well... probably not. I avoid selling on Ebay these days, even though I "know the game".

Bongo's right. A buyer does have recourse, it's just a thousand times more difficult to get anything done should there be a problem.

RWP · #12 01-19-2009, 08:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Latimour

Wait, so you mean that eBay is now exactly like every other normal retail business in the world? I'm shocked.

LOL very true. Although I believe dishonest buyers can take advantage of sellers, there was more of the opposite going on and they had to address the problem. As a buyer I would not leave negative feedback to a bad seller for fear of getting negative retaliation feedback. The changes they made will weed out the crappy sellers.

EagleMoon · #13 01-19-2009, 10:23 AM

Now would be the ideal time for someone to set up another Ebay-type business that works like Ebay used to work. I have a feeling people would be leaving there in droves.

bongomania · #14 01-19-2009, 10:36 AM

A bunch of people have tried actually, but they all failed due to Ebay's solid establishment as the one place buyers go look. I've seen no less than a dozen other auction sites go up and then go down, as there just wasn't anywhere near the same kind of traffic, so it wasn't worth it to sellers. With that low exposure, might as well sell on CL for free.

The only solution would be a massively expensive ad campaign, worldwide, over a significant period of time.

AlembicPlayer · #15 01-19-2009, 10:49 AM

I've been a ebay member since 2001, 100% feedback about 75 or so deals.
My last ebay transaction as a seller, PayPal HELD MY FUNDS until I proved shipment of the item and then the buyer had to leave positive feedback as well before they would release my money in 21 business days.
In this case the buyer went out of town right after our deal and he didn't leave me any feedback. I had to wait and complain to paypal until I proved shipment was made. Lucky for me I had a delivery confirmation on the package.

I'm looking for other ways of doing online biz

BaldBass · #16 01-19-2009, 11:16 AM

I'm in the same situation, sold a Hofner Icon on January 2nd and haven't had any communication with the buyer since it shipped. PayPal is holding the funds for 21 days. I'm assuming I will get it eventually. Checked out the guy's 100% rating and discovered he hasn't sent any feedback on his last 4 purchases. Something I will check on future buyers

Jumbotron · #17 01-19-2009, 11:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlembicPlayer

I've been a ebay member since 2001, 100% feedback about 75 or so deals.
My last ebay transaction as a seller, PayPal HELD MY FUNDS until I proved shipment of the item and then the buyer had to leave positive feedback as well before they would release my money in 21 business days.
In this case the buyer went out of town right after our deal and he didn't leave me any feedback. I had to wait and complain to paypal until I proved shipment was made. Lucky for me I had a delivery confirmation on the package.

I'm looking for other ways of doing online biz

This happened to me, too. It's really, really annoying.

hamertek98 · #18 01-19-2009, 11:53 AM

I always hated the "I'll leave you feedback after you leave me positive feedback".

Nino Valenti · #19 01-19-2009, 12:17 PM

I used to sell a lot of personal stuff on eBay all the time but lately, the more I read their policy changes, the less I wanna sell there.

**baba** · #20 01-19-2009, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlembicPlayer

I've been a ebay member since 2001, 100% feedback about 75 or so deals.
My last ebay transaction as a seller, PayPal HELD MY FUNDS until I proved shipment of the item and then the buyer had to leave positive feedback as well before they would release my money in 21 business days.
In this case the buyer went out of town right after our deal and he didn't leave me any feedback. I had to wait and complain to paypal until I proved shipment was made. Lucky for me I had a delivery confirmation on the package.

I'm looking for other ways of doing online biz

This is my story. Similar start date and transactions with 100% positive. I was and still am pissed.