Your eBay stories
Staff writers
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Mar 5, 2008 9:48 AM
A few weeks ago we asked for your eBay stories, and we’ve received a lot of responses about bad sellers, demanding buyers and more.
A few weeks ago, we asked for your eBay stories, and we’ve received a lot of responses about bad sellers, demanding buyers and behind the scenes frustration.
A few themes crop up over and over again: misleading product descriptions, sellers leaving negative feedback in retaliation, PayPal problems and, above all, the hassle involved in solving problems that crop up. The often lengthy and involved process of getting your money back generated one of the most surprising findings to result from our collection of responses: how frequently people give up, write off the money involved in an eBay purchase and walk away both from the deal and from eBay itself.
Marcia Coventry "summed it up pretty well in her email: I've had both wonderful and outright deceptive experiences with eBay, but like most things in life it's the bad experiences we remember the most."
Here's a few of the responses we’ve received – there’s plenty more where these came from.
Stalked by a buyer: Lisa M. told us about problems she had as a result of her personal information being on eBay. She was selling a bat signed by a famous cricketer, and replied to a potential buyer who had accused her of offering a fraud to let them know that she had the certificate of authenticity. But the buyer didn’t want to leave it there. “They tracked my name down from a past purchase and started stalking me at home, on my mobile.” It’s given Lisa a sour taste in her mouth, and she now feels eBay “overcharges and does not protect sellers.”
Vicky Atkins has had similar stalking case, after selling a DVD on eBay. “I got an email abusing me saying that the dvd was wrecked and the case was all wet.” Vicky offered sent him a scan of the receipt for the item to show him it was new. He kept abusing her, though, and through eBay he was able to get her address: “He said he had my address and was going to come up to Qld to "get" me!” Fortunately, she heard nothing more from the buyer, although she’s since had a run-in with someone using a similar username. “There are some wacko's out there and you have to be very careful with people,” she warns.
Counterfeit wallet: Marcia Coventry sent us what she calls the “short version of the chain of events”, which started when her nine year old son requested a Billabong Leather wallet for Christmas 2007. Marcia bought two wallets on eBay from two different sellers using PayPal.
The ladies wallet was fine, but the men’s wallet didn’t appear genuine: “The smell escaping it made me feel ill. It smelt heavily of solvent,” says Marcia. The wallet was glued together and had no commerce label. She contacted Billabong Australia, who confirmed her suspicions that it was a fake.
Thinking she had enough information to get a refund, she lodged a dispute with PayPal, and escalated it to a claim. “Paypal asked me to return the item to the seller, after which I would be entitled to a refund.” Marcia thought this was outrageous, but Paypal said they needed proof from a third party that the item was Counterfeit.
She sent the wallet to Billabong, who gave her a written statement which she faxed to PayPal. But PayPal wanted her to send them the item within seven days in order to issue a refund. Getting the wallet back from Billabong over Christmas was tricky enough, but PayPal’s demand for the item to be sent to the US, using an online tracking system, would have cost Marcia $45, for a refund of $48.44.
“I emailed the manager of Escalation Claims and the managing Director of Paypal over this matter. Eventually my claim was denied, as neither of these people contacted me during the claim period,” she says.
Marcia didn’t give up, but continued to email not just PayPal, but also eBay, as well as contacting Fair Trading, Consumer Affairs and the police. Paypal Australia eventually gave her a refund on good faith.
To add to all the hassle, Marcia received a negative feedback score from the seller, claiming her feedback was not fair and the wallet was genuine. Marcia says eBay will not remove the negative rating, but she’s sanguine, saying, “In summary I guess I've had both wonderful and outright deceptive experiences with eBay, but like most things in life it's the bad experiences we remember the most.”
Faked out: Norbert Wong ordered a SanDisk 4gb Cruzer Micro from a seller, which he received soon after payment. However, when he checked the product he found that there was no “4.0GB” printed on the drive, instead it was printed with “4 GB”: the sign of a fake. Norbert tried to contact the seller without success, so left negative feedback. That found a quick response – the seller claimed previous emails had fallen into junk mail folders – and Norbert arranged to mail the drive back to the seller in Hong Kong, using registered mail. “He said once he confirmed the drive was a fake he would return the money to me through pay pal. I never got that.” said Norbert, “He has closed his eBay account and the email no longer exists either. In the end I ended up losing even the registered mail postage and I have no product to show for it.”
Dummy bidding: "My son's smoking habits have been enhanced by eBay," says Monica Scurlock, in an amusing little anecdote about dummy bidding, "The guy who owns the local Milk Bar puts up stuff on ebay to sell, then goes around corner to my son’s workplace and gets my son’s boss to bump up bids. My sons boss scores free smokes as a thank you, but as he doesn’t smoke he gives my son the cartons!"
Dodgy description: Amelia Rowlands sent us a short note to say that she “bought a ring. Its description said 'could be ruby' but it was totally plastic just like out of a gumball machine!”
Delays mean no refund: Monica Boucher her husband a Christmas present on eBay, from a seller in the US with 100% positive feedback. “Christmas went, but I wasn’t to worried at that point; at Christmas time the post is usually a little bit slower, and that it was coming from overseas,” recalls Monica. “The seller told me he had tracked the item and it was in London for some strange reason in transit to Australia.” When she asked for the tracking number and got no response, and noticed that his feedback rating had plummeted, she reported the incident to eBay. To Monica’s dismay, eBay said they couldn’t do anything because it was more than 60 days since the auction ended.
Monica feels ripped off: “This seller used the Christmas period to make lots of money from unsuspected buyers; he advertised super fast shipping too. By drawing out the process over 60 days, eBay couldn’t make him refund any money back. You just never know who to not to buy from, because even respected sellers can turn bad.”
These boots were made for returning: “I love eBay and have found most sellers to be very reliable and honest,” says Bronwyn Coe. A couple of years ago she won a brand new pair of motobike boots for her son. But when they arrived one was size 5, the other size 4. “We contacted the seller and found out they were left over stock from his shop,” says Bronwyn, “Some cheeky person must have put them in the wrong box and this was the last pair sold. We got our money back and also got to keep the boots with huge apologies.”
Misleading description: Daniel Egglestone bought a Samsung D500 mobile phone which was listed as new. “When the phone arrived the screen was scratched, there were photos taken on the camera on it and there were peoples phone numbers saved to the phone book of the phone,” he says, “When I contacted the seller they said the phone wasn’t new and had been advertised incorrectly but since the sale had gone through and id already left positive feedback they refused to compensate me at all. That cost me over $500.”
Blackmailed into positive feedback: Peter Prineas feels “held to ransom” by the current feedback system, “I've been an ebay member for about 5 years and the only reason I don't have any negative feedback is because I have been blackmailed. When I have been ripped off I don't leave feedback so the bad seller gets away away with it.” Peter feels there are more bad sellets on ebay than bad buyers, “Sellers get paid first, buyers take all the risks. As a buyer most of the time we are expected to put up with poor photography, ambigous descriptions and sometimes terms and conditions that are bordering on extortion.” Peter welcomes the feedback changes eBay is instigating. “As for the dispute console”, he adds, “its next to useless. The buyer receives abuse and threats from the seller on top of their loss. I will never enter into another dispute again, I would rather write off the money.”
No PayPal, more problems: Steve Silverton has some advice for eBay buyers: “If a seller only accepts direct bank deposit, leave them alone, it could be a recipe for disaster like it was for us.” Steve purchased an electronic keyboard from a Power Seller that was sold as a new item with a warranty. It arrived badly damaged and Steve objected. After several fruitless emails to the seller, Steve contacted the product’s distributor in Melbourne and was told that only authorised dealers can sell the keyboard and there was no warranty on the one he’d purchased.
Steve posted negative feedback. Immediately the seller changed the initial positive feedback given for prompt payment to negative feedback Steve contacted the eBay Trust & Safety Team but got little help, "Since you did not pay with PayPal, you are not eligible for PayPal Buyer Protection. If you payed (sic) using credit card, please contact your card issuer as you may be able to get your funds charged back to you. You also may want to contact law enforcement in your area. While eBay does not contact authorities on your behalf, we do assist in their investigations. If you do contact police, let them know that eBay may be able to help..."
Steve’s pretty unhappy with eBay overall, and thinks you can get a better result elsehwhere: “In 2008 there are so many reputable businesses with smooth on-line shopping facilities. I could have bought the keyboard for only $40 more direct from the distributor, but I thought I'd save a bit of money, buy local and help out the little bloke. I won't do it again, even if it does cost me more. I feel that eBay has a lot of ground to make up before the buyers start coming back. “
Sellers with an eye for the best offer: Len Copley won an auction for an FX Holden Grill, but after the auction had finished, the seller said he had sold it, saying, “I have this advertised elsewhere so I have the right to pull the item from auction.” Len thinks that some sellers run items for bids, but say they’ve sold it if it doesn’t reach a price they want. He’s cynical about any investigation, saying “eBay don’t inform you of the outcome of their investigations. We all doubt that they actually do an investigation.”
Misleading description: “There are some good people on eBay,” says Steve, “but there’s a lot of false advertising and fake items.” Steve found a 15” digital photo frame, and found one he thought was the right size and price, but on checking the fine print, found that “in little writing it said it came with a 10’ screen.”
Next page: more stories (click below). . .
Bad feedback
Marc Carter bought a ‘buy it now’ scooter from an eBay store for his daughter’s birthday, after he was unable to find it in retailers. Despite assurances from the store, his daughter’s birthday came and went with no scooter. The company didn’t respond to emails until a couple of weeks later; Marc was finally given a full refund.
But it didn’t end there; Marc got an invoice saying he hadn’t paid for the scooter, then increasingly irate emails chasing payment, and finally, a complaint from eBay saying that he hadn’t paid for the goods.
“I filled out the forms saying what had happened, and eBay said it was resolved. Then – the icing on the cake – I got negative feedback and a complaint as a non-payer,” says Marc, “As it was done as a complaint I had no right to reply and leave feedback myself!” The ongoing problems meant that Marc's bids were cancelled by sellers when he tried to buy Christmas presents on eBay.
Marc says he could register a new account but can’t be bothered: “eBay has had its day and is now so full of scams and bad sellers that it will drown in its own mess, and good riddance.”
Mickey Mouse tickets
Jodi Hansen purchased Mickey’s Toon Town Madness tickets for Disneyland on eBay prior to flying to the US in November 2007. “The tickets were from a seller in the US and I knew that they wouldn’t arrive in time, so I asked for them to be sent to a friend in the US,” says Jodi.
“With 2 weeks to go until to my Disneyland visit, I discovered that my friend had refused an unidentified parcel that did not cover the correct postage,” Jodi told us, “The post office told him it was a parcel and he was expecting my tickets to be a simple letter.”
Jodi had to take a one hour bus ride out from her holiday so that she could get online and contact the seller. The seller reposted the tickets to the Disneyland Hotel where Jodi and her family would be staying.
“We arrived at Disneyland to find the tickets still had not arrived. Finally, we had only one day left to use the tickets, and still no sign of them. I was disappointed and felt annoyed at myself for having spent $60 on nothing.”
As luck would have it, Jodi was offered three tickets to Mickey’s Toon Town Madness by someone who was going home early the next morning. “It was amazing that the very thing that I had purchased and not received actually ended up coming my way in the end. We had a great time at Toon Town, and wouldn’t you know it, the eBay tickets arrived that day, too late to use.”
Wholesale prices
Rob Kettle contacted us to let us know about scammers, “I can’t remember the last time I listed an electrical item and didn’t get contacted multiple times per item from fake scammers wanting to sell me electrical goods at supposed ‘wholesale’ prices."
Rob has also found that as a seller, eBay’s ability to suspend users accounts instantaneously has been a problem. “I’ve had a couple of buyers win an auction, then find that eBay has suspended their account,” he told us. Unsure what to do, his emails to eBay asking if he could receive payment and send the item out received no response. It left Rob in limbo: “All I could do was just wait and see whether the users account became active again. Luckily both users become active and they honoured the sale by sending payment.”
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Police to the rescue
Steve Rackley purchased a laptop on eBay and paid by direct deposit. When he found himself at the receiving end of a scam, he was fortunate to have the seller's home phone number, mobile number and a home address, which the seller had included in his bank details for payment. After establishing that the numbers belonged to the seller, Steve reported it to the Queensland Police. The case went to court, where Steve won a refund while the scammer ended up paying thousands. But that left Steve in a different kind of dilemma. He had been refunded by eBay, and by the scammer, and now wanted to pay eBay back: “It took months for eBay to answer emails to give me a way to send them a cheque made out by his lawyers.”
No phone
“I used to buy eBay items all the time, until I won a massager that didn’t work for $1,” reported one anonymous respondent. The dud massager wasn’t as much of a problem as the other aspects of the deal, though: “The postage was $18 even though the seller only lived a few kilometers from me.” When our reader tried to contact eBay with complaints, he again ran into problems.“It would take a week for them to get back to me and every time I would get an email from someone different, and I would have to explain all over again, and eBay won't let you phone them. I was like a dog chasing a tail.” It was enough to turn him off buying from auction sites altogether.
No dummy
Brenda Knapsley told us of her experience with dummy bidding and how grateful she is that eBay deals with shill bidding quickly. “Once we were bidding on a mobile phone and it was at a really low price. It went up to a fairly high price – just above the highest price we were willing to pay,” says Brenda. That might have been the end of it, but the seller removed the highest bid, dropping the bidding down to the inital low price. “The seller emailed us, telling us that when she removed the bidder it was meant to go to the next highest bid, not remove all bids. She expected us to pay the highest price,”
But Brenda had seen dummy bidding before – in this case, the seller had persuaded a friend to bid, not realising that removing a bidder would drop the price all the way down. Brenda forwarded the sellers details to eBay and the seller and dummy bidder were both deregistered within 24 hours.
A nice surprise
We also had some heartwarmingly positive feedback about eBay. “I bid on a Diablo steering Wheel/pedals for a PlayStation, and won the item at surprisingly low cost,” Terry Cain told PC Authority. But it was an even better deal than he realised. “When I was unpacking the parcel, I noticed the postage franking and cost involved ($36 from Moree to Darwin),” Terry told us, “I paid less than $36 for it!” Terry felt bad and did the right thing, offering the seller compensation, but the seller declined: “No thanks, I am treating that one as a learning exercise.”
Another case of generosity from sellers came from David Stemberger. “We have an old Nintendo 64 and ours packed up,” David says. “My 4yr old was so upset that my wife went hunting and found heaps on eBay.” Not only did they end up with three good deals, but one seller gave them a portion of their payment as a refund because the postage was cheaper than expected.
Next page: more stories (click below) . . .
Account closed
“The only way to be protected if the seller is a fake is by using PayPal,” says Merryl Walker. But even so, she's closed her account because of fraudulent activity. “My bank account was debited $233 and it took two weeks for the money to be returned to me,” says Merryl.
The experience wasn't a pleasant one: “I had to jump through hoops to reclaim my own money. PayPal tried to tell me my system was likely compromised,” says Merryl, unimpressed that PayPal tried to avoid paying up. “I have antivirus, a good firewall and a secure system, and I tried to point out to them that if my system was compromised, my bank accounts or other internet accounts would have been accessed too, which they weren't.” Merryl wishes that eBay still had protection for items under $400 regardless of payment option, rather than the current PayPal-only protection.
Direct deposit only
G Richards is also disillusioned with PayPal. He sold an item, which showed up on his PayPal statement then cleared as usual. He dispatched the item, registered post, and the Post Office confirmed delivery. But two days later, the PayPal deposit was reversed, and an admin charge incurred. The buyer had told PayPal that the goods had not been received. G Richards contacted PayPal by phone and email, only to be told that “It is not up to PayPal to act for any one party – if there is a dispute it should be resolved between buyer and seller. Similar to a bank, PayPal acts only as an intermediary facilitating the online payment system.” Yet by reversing the charge, PayPal couldn't help but be in the centre of the dispute already.
The buyer closed his eBay profile, leaving G Richards with nowhere to turn. ”PayPal directed me to read their terms and conditions where they clearly state that they will not get involved in disputes of this nature. Since then, I buy using PayPal, but sell using direct deposit only.”
Other feedback we’ve received
Our last transaction did go pear shaped with a buyer. (We were the seller.) They bid and won on an item; we sent them numerous emails and called them, but they refused to purchase the item because they no longer wanted it. A few weeks later we noticed more feedback with that purchaser — they had done the same thing with other people. They were new to eBay also.
David Puxty
I bid, and won, a brand new multi-station swing set just after my daughter was born ... it's been 5 years since I made that bid and we're still waiting. We have never received a reply to our emails and the seller has an unverified address with PayPal so we lost our money and decided to cut our losses — the agro just wasn't worth it.
Jennifer Ashcroft
I was bidding on a Nintendo DS from China for my daughter, and unbeknown to me, my daughter upped my bid so that it was too expensive. I emailed the seller explaining the situation and I got a reply to my hotmail account. He said that I could have the item for $130 including postage as he understood what kids are like etc, etc, and asked me to send him a bank transfer as he was going to be in Romania for business for the week. After a few emails from him and from eBay security (what I thought was eBay security) I got all the details and transferred the money to his account. Not long after I received a message in my eBay account from the (real) seller asking when he could expect payment. I was in shock and knew I'd been scammed. Because I was new to eBay I didn't know about not sending bank transfers. Anyway, the real seller was happy for me to cancel the transaction, but I lost $150 as the transaction fee was $20. I tried to contact the dodgy seller, but never received a reply. Obviously eBay couldn't cover me as this was all done via my Hotmail account, not eBay account. So the dodgy scammer had intercepted my email to the real buyer. Did it put me off eBay? Yes, for a while, but I'm back on there and generally happy. I'm very wary now tho.
Jane Keighley
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Other feedback we've received
I have had numerous transactions on eBay over the years buying and selling, and 99.9% has been positive. I have only positive feedback, pay people straight away and expect the same in return. The only time I haven’t been 100% happy was we purchased firewood last winter for $100.00 for a trailer load of redgum sleepers. The only problem when we arrived to pick them up after already paying, was that they had been in constant rain and damp place and were so rotten and damp that we couldn’t use them. They are still in our fire shed and have hopefully dried out for this winter. Other than that it’s all been wonderful.
Allison Olsen
I’ve been had as far as the feedback on eBay goes. I have always prided myself on doing the right thing both as a buyer and a seller and have somewhere around 70 pieces of feedback, two of which are negative. How did this happen? I bought two products at the same time from a Chinese seller who took several weeks to actually ship the goods, during which time the seller refused to reply to any standard eBay messages. The only time I got a response was after reporting an item not sent through the appropriate eBay tools.
When I finally got the goods the date stamp on the parcel was the day after I lodged my complaint so I felt it deserved negative feedback. In response the supplier hit me with two negative feedbacks (one for each item) saying: “This man is a liar, he is the devil.”
I have had one similar case as a buyer, where the seller deserved a negative feedback but he refused to give me feedback first – even though I paid the same day as the auction ended. It was mutually agreed that no feedback would be left by either because I knew that the same thing would have happened.
I think the seller should be forced to enter feedback before the buyer is allowed to.
Shaun Kindleysides
This story starts when I was the winning bidder of a deep fryer .The fryer was in the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne and I live in Ballarat. I made the payment and received the address of the item which was an engineering firm’s workshop. I arranged for them to call the courier when the item was packed in a box and ready for pickup .Then I waited. After 3 days and no deep fryer, I called the number I had for the workshop and got no answer whether I called morning, noon or night. I sent emails to the seller, to both his eBay and non eBay addresses, nothing at all .on the weekend about 10 days after I made payment I travelled down to the address to see if I could find out what was going on. I arrive to find the workshop locked up and an Auction sign out front telling us that the business contents were all up for sale!!! From that point onward I was screwed, the contents of the workshop were impounded and I had no way of getting MY fryer unless I won it again at the Auction when all the contents of the workshop went under the auctioneers hammer. I went to the local police station to check and see if I could/had any hope of getting the fryer and they informed me NO. SORRY :-).The Auctioneer was also unable to help me, saying that they just sell the stuff listed. THE GODS were against me on this one .... So if the eBay seller is not replying to your questions and they don't answer the phone, chances are, if your luck is like mine , the seller is now having a holiday at Her Majesties Expense. PS I did get another fryer 2 months down the track and that one was COD.
Alan Ferguson
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It’s because they don’t care about anything that goes on, There are a lot of fake items and fraud. I got ripped off and went through the possess, and they said too bad life’s like that.... a few years ago I was selling stuff and they charged me three times the usual fees, so I emailed them staying they charged me to much. They banned me for no reason or explanation. People would go back if they clean up their act, so much false advertising it would be the ACCC's wet dream.
Steve
Sellers WILL be able to leave feedback on buyers, but only positive feedback, neutral and negative feedback will no longer be possible. This means that sellers will no longer be able to discern flaky buyers from their feedback. All buyers will become perfect. eBay seems to have a need to periodically implement crazy and extremely unpopular changes, this is just another one. eBay always does what eBay wants, and no amount of protest or logic will sway them.
Karlston
eBay can suspend your account at the drop of a hat and you have to wait out that time before they will talk to you even when you have done nothing wrong. You lose all your listing with no refunds even after proving you did nothing wrong. You really don't have a chose with feedback, leave positive to get positive. I will no longer use eBay--eBay sucks
David Hibble
The recent announcement by eBay regarding it's soon to be implemented changes to seller fees and the feedback system are yet another example of the complete disregard eBay has for its sellers. These ill- conceived changes are driving many long term sellers away from eBay, making eBay's competition stronger. eBay seems bent on ignoring it's users and further weakening its own position. eBay used to be a fun, vibrant venue. It no longer is. eBay is an evil, arrogant, and monopolistic entity in its death throes.
Rick Kalada
I sell and buy on eBay, and just last week I was not impressed. I bought a purse off a seller, paid by PayPal and waited and waited. I sent the seller three emails, the last saying I was going to go to eBay about her and leave negative feedback and that she had until the weekend to contact me. Still nothing, so I filed a report with PayPal for item not received and left negative feedback. On the Tuesday after that weekend, the purse turns up in a express postbag this was 17 days after I paid for it. Then I get a letter from eBay saying the seller has requested that I withdraw my feedback as she was in hospital for a short time. Of course I felt bad and did it without checking what feedback she left me, I assumed if my feedback got withdrawn so would hers. The next day I looked at her feedback my comments were gone, I looked at my feedback and her comments were still there, so I got on to eBay’s live help and asked why, they said I could not get her feedback withdrawn and I couldn't leave a comment explaining hers. She had in capitals ‘patience please I have been in hospital’. Am I supposed to be a mind reader! Not once did I have any communication from her and eBay was on her side the whole way. It really sucks, and I told them so.
Marilyn Hyde
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I have been a loyal eBayer for a couple of years now and out of all the items I have purchased I can honestly say that I have never really had any major problems. I did have one problem where an item I purchased over Christmas last year did not turn up but when I emailed the seller she was more than happy to help and sent a replacement. I have a hundred percent positive feedback and have had a couple of neutral comments that were made because I mentioned something about quality, truth hurts, hey? Any way I will continue to buy and sell on eBay for now. Just remember people and I'm sure you have heard it a hundred times, if it’s too good to be true it probably is.
Juzza
I have never had a negative eBay buying experience
Finn Stelmach
I had a terrible experience with eBay over a year ago and have never been back since... I bought one of these MP3/4 players that was advertised as having 2Gb of storage. When it arrived, every time I tried to put more than 1Gb onto it, the last thing I wrote to it had overwritten an earlier file. I did some investigation and it turned out these had been 'hot wired' to show 2Gb of storage but actually only has 1Gb. Further investigation revealed that there were thousands of people complaining about being sold these by people all over the world. They were sourced from China/Hong Kong region. Complaints to eBay resulted in me being referred to PayPal, PayPal referred me to eBay, etc. etc... The upshot was that despite being a qualified and experienced IT technician with over 20 years direct IT experience, I was expected to fork out at least $50 to get a commercial company to certify that the item was not as advertised, then return the item to the vendor (in China — get real) and await the outcomes of PayPal’s deliberations. The PayPal promise of protecting me when I purchased an item on eBay was worthless. No matter how I tried neither PayPal nor eBay were interested in doing anything about this well known problem — my account was locked out (with hundreds of positive feedbacks) and I ended up with an item that didn't meet the sellers claims. However, both eBay and PayPal did make their little bit of profit from the transaction (and many thousand others) so they couldn't lose. Since then I will not touch EBay and will never endorse anything they, or PayPal offer.
John Hamilton
Glad you mentioned sniping, this is without doubt the one most annoying "feature" of eBay, I have bit on items that have not had another bid on them for days, and then at the last second a bid goes in for just over my bid in the last micro second. eBay should ban all software applications that support this tactic and they would probably get higher prices paid for thing's as genuine bidding wars go on.
Doctori_San
“After the auction had ended on an item I was selling, I posted it within a day of receiving the payment. I wrote positive feedback for the buyer, only to learn that a week later the buyer wrote nasty feedback for me claiming I was incredibly slow mailing out the item,” Louise White emailed us, “Lesson learnt: wait to hear the feedback left for you first!”
I was selling a Walkman CD player and someone in the USA won the bid. Quoted the price to send, as the buyer wanted it sent sea mail – taking approximately 6 weeks. Price agreed, she payed via PayPal and item was sent. Three weeks after it was sent the buyer put in a complaint to eBay saying item hadn't been sent and the money was removed from my PayPal account and repaid to buyer. So now buyer had money and Walkman! Ripped off! I felt very let down by PayPal and eBay, I appealed their decision and they said I didn't have a leg to stand on!
Deb Cameron
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I sold 577 items on eBay last year. I think the change eBay is making to their feedback system is crazy. I called eBay yesterday and the rep I talked with told me at least 3 times that eBay does not consider the sellers their customers. Since they only receive revenue from sellers, I found this stunning. With the change in the feedback system, buyers will be able to leave negative feedback and the seller will have no recourse. This system cannot work. The feedback system now works because both buyers and sellers have to think carefully before they leave comments because they will be held accountable.
Jim Carty
It is now open season on sellers. Buyers will now hold all the cards and will rort the system in their favour and hold sellers to ransom with the prospect of Negative Feedback if their ridiculous demands are not met. Not me. I've had enough. I took over the management of my employer’s eBay account last November when I noticed the person looking after that account was potentially jeopardising my employer’s eBay reputation with four negatives that could have been avoided in one month. When I took over, my employers rating was about 400 with six negatives. Today I have it to 960 with no extra negatives. As I have worked hard by means of communicating regularly with my buyers consistently and providing excellent backup support when needed. This is reflected in my feedback and by the way has taken a toll on my personal family life as I constantly have eBay on my mind. Last week we were negotiating with the manufacturer in china so that we could expand our range on eBay. That is until I was made aware of the upcoming changes. I have now informed my employer that we should take a back seat on this and adopt a wait-and-see attitude, as the last thing I need now is more threats of extortion that will rise dramatically if their unreasonable demands are now not met. You ask for experiences well here is a classic that I’m currently disputing: Customer buys a webcam off me in December and pays via PayPal, I ship the day after payment is received. Customer receives product 2 days later and leaves positive feedback but complains on how long it took to get to him. Go figure? This is where it gets interesting a few weeks ago after no further communication from this customer I get an email from PayPal informing me that the customer has gone direct to his credit card provider and requested a charge back due to an unauthorized transaction... (the customer obviously forgot he left feedback for me. Naturally PayPal are fighting this on my behalf with the evidence I have provided. So this is just one hiccup from a constant stream of never ending justifications from a trusted sellers point of view. Imagine what it’s going to be like real soon. Can’t be bothered with eBay anymore to sell my items, I’ll have to look at the alternatives or simply give it up. It’s now too one sided and I have no protection. They have lost me personally as a seller. As a buyer I will have greater control and power but believe I’ll have less to choose from as sellers will dissapear.
Kon
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I have been an eBay user for a couple of years now. I mainly buy, and must admit I have picked up some great bargains. I occasionally sell items on eBay, and the news of sellers not being able to leave feedback on buyers is a concern to me. The feedback structure is valuable for both sellers and buyers allowing them to gauge the credibility of whom they are selling to, or buying from. News of these changes, along with the high seller fees is enough to turn me off selling on eBay as I feel it won’t be worth the effort, and I do not want to be scammed by a buyer with no credibility. I have been the victim of a scam once where my item did not arrive, and communication with the seller was useless. I found it difficult to locate anyone on the eBay site to lodge a claim with, and it almost seemed that there is no tangible administrative entity (other than that which charges seller fees). Luckily my transaction was done via PayPal, and I got the bulk of my money back minus an admin fee. Despite all this I am somewhat addicted to eBay and I think I will continue using it until I become disgruntled for a reason yet unknown to me. Overall eBay implementing such changes will do so to its own demise, the internet is a fluid thing and sooner or later a newer better online auction will probably emerge, with millions switching to it.
Greg
My biggest gripe is with sellers that won't post feedback until the buyer does. If they have nothing to fear [quality of goods — time taken to deliver goods], what's their problem. I have received many emails from sellers asking me to post feedback, and they would do the same. I have paid for the goods within 48 hours of sale. My obligation is complete. Seller should post feedback at that time. When I receive my purchase, I will then, and only then, post feedback. I have never posted feedback until the seller has. That's why my numbers a pretty low, with very large gaps between transactions.
The eBay feedback system is broken at the moment and needs to be fixed but the plans described are no better. Both sellers and buyers need full opportunity to give honest feedback but the seller should be forced to give first feedback and the buyer locked out until the seller has added their feedback. Sellers have had too much opportunity for giving good buyers negative feedback as a payback that can't be justified but there's no reason to stop sellers giving feedback altogether.
Shaun
I've had a few problems with eBay Sellers over the years, but not being a heavy user I don't think it's going to change my usage. I recently had a seller default on their side of the deal, but I was left without any real options because 60 days had passed since the sale - $250 down the drain. The 60 day rule really is one of the biggest problems as far as I can tell - it means that sellers can string you along for a while (as mine did) and escape unscathed. Apart from that, there's sellers that withhold feedback until you've left yours and respond in kind (or use some sort of automatic software for the process) meaning that if you do everything right on your end but they screw something up you can't leave a negative without getting one yourself. I contacted eBay about this when it happened to me and their response was (effectively): wear it and add a response. So, I tarnish my feedback record because the seller is an arse.
Derek Jarman