eBay is Serious Business

[Mr Yuck]

I can honestly say i've had only 2 bad experiences on eBay....and neither was that bad.
The first was a lady in her sixties trying to buy from me. She was having all kinds of trouble w/ PayPal (her problem not PayPals). She got a little irritated with me when I didn't send the item. After responding that I had yet to receive payment, she figured out her error. She became so frustrated w/ PayPal she gave up. She was afraid i'd neg her. We talked a couple times via. eMail. It was easily apparent that this lady was not malicious in any way. Just not very experienced with eBay, Paypal, etc. In the end, I actually took a check from her, which I never do. (She still wanted the item). She was very thankful. I gave her positive feedback.

The other problem just happened. I purchased a baseball card. Never came. Even with multiple e-mails back and forth requesting the card hadn't arrived, and the seller claiming he sent it. Just last week I finally just flat out requested a refund. I thought for sure i would never hear from this guy again. Not so. He refunded my money. Not gonna neg him either. He has a strong history, and communicated well with me.

[friendofjimmyk]

I found one of those old wristwatch wall clocks,

I just got the warm fuzzies! That took me back.

[wagegoth]

I've bought and sold on eBay. I'm not a store or a dealer. I've been ripped off by sellers and I've had problems with psycho buyers. I do not like the idea of not being able to rate buyers, so I'm not planning on selling on eBay anymore without serious strings attached, i.e., PayPal only, minimum ratings, etc. I feel bad, but I don't need the drama. And I only pay by PayPal with my credit card.

I've always given very thorough descriptions of the condition of the items. That's even come up in the feedback as a point in my favor.

[RedRoseSpiral]

I had a problem with a seller back in December who used some of the same tactics as yours. I bought what I thought was an henti DVD from Japan. It ended up being a recording off the computer. There were several things that weren't disclosed to me like the DVR was censored. Also, what really pissed me off, the guy charged me over $10 in shipping and handling when it had only costs him a $1.13 to send off the disk. As a seller myself, I know there's always a dollar or two tacked on for shipping materials and time taken out to send, but an extra $10? No, so not cool. I was expecting a small to medium package to deter theft, not a plastic sleeve as a package. I'm surprised the disk didn't get crushed like my cousins did when she sent out some DVRs with family pictures on them.

I left the guy a neutral rating because I didn't want to wast anymore time on him, and then he started threatening me saying he would leave negative if I didn't retract my rating in such in such days. I told him no go, that he was lucky I only left him neutral instead of the negative he deserved for lying and grossly over charging shipping and handling. He didn't like that, and now my score has suffered. I left a couple of replies to his rating, so buyers can see what an ass the guy had been since he saw me defending my score as an afront to him. :eyeroll: I haven't had any trouble from people not wanting to sell to me because I have a low 90%. Actually, because of some great sellers and buyers, my feedback score is now 96.4%.

[PepperElf]

over 2 weeks for any ebay item smells like scam to me.

granted I've only purchased on ebay twice....but the last time i made a purchase... i requested the shipping/handling price and made the payment via credit card instantly. to my surprise the item was at my parents' house maybe a day or two later.

in my opinion...if it's going to take over a week for something small... it may be a scam

Rule #2. Point out every little flaw in your item. You'll get more bids with a detailed description describing all flaws, then with a glossed over description with a vague condition statement.

good point. the purchase mentioned above was a small stieff tiger. now granted i thought it was the bigger one like what mom has, but that's ok...the smaller one actually works better for me. the buyer noted that the tiger did NOT have the infamous "button-in-the-ear" and had some stitching coming out... but neither flaw mattered to me. i liked it and i gave the seller feedback of "lightning fast delivery"

[Andara Bledin]

I left the guy a neutral rating because I didn't want to wast anymore time on him, and then he started threatening me saying he would leave negative if I didn't retract my rating in such in such days. I told him no go, that he was lucky I only left him neutral instead of the negative he deserved for lying and grossly over charging shipping and handling. He didn't like that, and now my score has suffered.

Actually, if you leave a Neutral, let the guy pay the $20 and agree to the withdrawal. But don't leave any follow-up about it.

Savvy eBayers know that mutual withdrawals are 90% of the time a sign of the evil party badgering the decent party into a withdrawal, and are usually seen as almost as bad as a full Negative. So, to educated buyers, a mutual withdrawal is worse than a neutral.

....

Regarding shipping: If they don't state the cost up front, ask. If you don't like the shipping fee, don't bid. If you don't ask before you bid, you really should take your lumps for not practicing due dilligence. I don't like it when sellers use inflated shipping fees as a form of fee avoidance, but it's really the responsibility of the buyer to determine if they agree with the shipping fee before they make the bid.

RULE #0 for doing anything on eBay. RESEARCH! As a seller, research what you're selling to determine if it's worth listing, and to figure out what information might be useful. Also, do your best to know what you're selling. As a buyer, determine if eBay is the best place to get your widget, determine if your potential seller is trustworthy, determine if you agree with the seller's policies (such as shipping fees), and determine how much you are willing to pay for your widget and stick to it.

^-.-^

[texasbelle5]

Always buy on one Ebay ID, and sell on another. Negs won't hurt you as a buyer, unless your negs are for non payment or some such.

same thing happened to me a couple years ago. Bought a cover for my Kitchenaid Stand Mixer. Paid for it immediately. And waited. And waited some more. Finally after 2 weeks and not a word from seller ( no ty for buying, no "your stuff has been shipped, nada) I emailed seller. Got an email that they had just moved and had no internet for week (gee you couldn't have mentioned that in your ad?) but that my cover had shipped.

waited another 2 weeks. emailed asking where is my cover? Nada. Finally tired of this seller and her bullshit, I contacted PP and got a refund. Negged the seller and mentioned that I fully expected a retaliatory neg. She didn't disappoint. I replied that I was proud of this neg and hoped it saved another buyer some trouble. She also picked up another 8 negs for non delivery and shortly thereafter was gone forever.

[Miffed]

Props for standing your ground and calling her on the lawyer card.


Retaliatory feedback is the reason my mom did not leave a negative on the guy who sent a product almost completely different than what he advertised. She didn't want to risk her perfect feedback. Ticked me off but eventually got over and tried to make due with the stupid cargo net I was stuck with.

Anyone curious, heres a pic (thanks google). I wanted the bottom net to hang in a tree, instead I recieved the top net, which cannot really be used in the manner I wanted. The guy tried to argue that its basically the same thing, it's a collectors item, really rare, just "cinch up the middle and walla!". He didn't understand the simple fact that it was not what he was advertising nor what I wanted.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...5-9/figD-2.gif

[wagegoth]

My rating is pushing 600 now and perfect, so I think that if I got a neg it would be hard for someone else to really blacklist me. In fact, when I had the psycho buyer threaten me, I pointed out that I had four times the ratings she did, and a much longer history, as well as all the emails she had sent to me, so go ahead and complain. She dropped it, and didn't trade for a long time. I keep track of her to see. She has bought a couple of items since, but she seems to be keeping a low profile, or she has a new ID.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

The buyer usually has to pay for their merchandise before it is even shipped out, so to me, the buyer has fulfilled their end of the bargain, leaving it up to the seller to fulfill theirs.

As a former ebay seller, this is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. If the buyer's obligation is done when they pay for an item, then the seller's obligation is done when they ship the item out. You and I both know that's untrue.

I think that's a great policy. Why should the buyer have to suffer at the hands of the seller?

Now let's reverse the words "buyer" and "seller". Why should the seller have to suffer at the hands of the buyer?

Such as a buyer who claims an item is defective or not as described and wants a full refund WITHOUT returning the item to the seller?

Or a buyer who leaves a negative feedback stating "This blue sweater is a more bluish blue than I had hoped for"?

Or a buyer who claims an item is defective and gets the seller to agree to a refund--only to send back to the seller a totally different item? (If the buyer uses DC, they automatically get their refund!)

Or a buyer who does a fraudulent credit card chargeback after they receive their item, leaving the seller without their item and their money?

Or a buyer who pays with a stolen credit card and the payment is reversed when the theft is reported?

Feedback means absolutely bupkis if you're a buyer. If you get a few negative feedbacks, you can just start a new account. All you need is a unique e-mail address which can easily be obtained through hotmail, yahoo, google, etc. If you're a seller, you can't just start fresh like that. You'll lose your entire reputation and people generally are not willing to purchase much from zero feedback sellers.

And with the new rules surrounding feedback, a few psycho buyers leaving negative feedbacks for no good reason can get your selling account suspended or cancelled, can cause Paypal to hold your funds because they see your transactions as being "high risk", and can get your items buried low in search results where nobody will see them since ebay will soon be using feedback ratings to place items in searches (if they aren't already doing this)

One more thing I forgot to mention: Sellers pay all the fees to ebay. You don't pay a dime to ebay if all you do is buy.

I don't mean to sound rude, but those new feedback rules are the reason I no longer sell on ebay or want to. It's simply too much of a risk. And I had 100% positive feedback, described all my items the best I could, and shipped items to buyers promptly--usually the same day I received payment or a day later at the latest

[Andara Bledin]

As I stated before, you can have as many Negs as you have Positives, it won't affect your ability to buy. Not if you know what you're doing.

There has never been anything to fear about retaliatory Negatives other than some manufactured feel-good issue of "perfect" feedback. Any seller that deserves a Negative should be given a Negative. As long as Feedback is just the facts and done so in a calm manner, retaliatory Negatives are obvious and look worse for the seller than the buyer.

I forgot to mention earlier that when you research a seller, check both the Feedback they have received and the Feedback they have left. Often what they have left tells a greater story than what they have received.

http://toolhaus.org/ is a great site for weeding out just the non-positives to find out exactly what the bad feedback is regarding. I've had some sellers who just have slow shippnig that I've bought from because I wasn't in a hurry.

^-.-^

[AKWalMartCartGuy]

any smart ebay seller would get the delivery confirmation

I don't have much feedback(only around 15), and have only sold a few cheap items, but I always get the delivery confirmation, and because it's an insurance to myself I don't add it to the shipping costs, am I the only one who does this? I haven't had any issues so far, but that could be from not using it much

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I added DC to the shipping cost for all my items.

DC protects you from phony Item Not Received complaints. If you don't have DC you will automatically lose an Item Not Received complaint because you can't prove the buyer received the item. Your buyer would get a full refund--even if he/she really has received the item and is just filing because they know you didn't ship with DC.

[Andara Bledin]

Re: Delivery Confirmation and PayPal. You will not automatically lose a dispute if you do not get DC. If you do get DC, however, it is likely you will automatically win. Without it, it will appear that you lose immediately because they pull the money out of the seller's account while they actually investigate. My company has won a couple of non-DC cases against scamming buyers. (I am still baffled by some of the things our eBay guy does. makes no sense)

Also, insurance is for the seller, not the buyer. If you are a seller, you should always charge insurance for anything you are not prepared to re-imburse the buyer for in case of damage or loss. You can also choose to "self insure" but if you do so, you cannot charge for "insurance" as that is regulated. You just have to add that into the handling charge.

^-.-^

[Peppergirl]

I've bought alot on Ebay and I guess I've been lucky that I've never had a major problem.

The first time I ever went to sell something it was my old Motorola Q phone, when I upgraded to my Blackberry. I was naive enough that in my return policy, I was pretty vague. I put 7 days money back and didn't elaborate on a reason or point out that shipping and insurance were non refundable.

Guy gets the phone and sends me an email that he wants to send it back because it 'reeks' of cigarette smoke. Well, I didn't specifically say it was from a non smoking home. When I pointed this out, he proceded to quote a big book of statistics of how many Americans smoke vs non-smokers. He said that I should have pointed out that it was from a smoking home. For god's sake, it was a PHONE, not an item like a purse or something made of cloth.

I finally got sick of the guy and told him to send it back and I'd refund it when I received it. I got it back about 7 days later, he sent it by pony express, I think. I refunded the what he paid for the item, less shipping and insurance.

Then he sends another email bitching about the shipping. I said shipping is assumed to be non refundable. He says I didn't SAY that in the return policy. At this point, it was easier just to give him back the 7.00 to shut him up, but I told him that there was NO WAY I was refunding the insurance, on principle.

It taught me a very valuable lesson. Next time I sold something I was very strict and specific in my return policy statement and I haven't had a bit of problem.

Guy was just an asshole, I guess.