Woes Selling on eBay

[CountrySquire]

How many eBay sellers out there are fed up with the lack of respect eBay / Pay Pal shows sellers? In the ten plus years I've been selling on eBay I've had to deal with fee increases, inaccurate shipping calculators that error in favor of the buyer, mandatory use of pay pal so eBay can charge fees a second time, and now I learn that pay pal assures no questions asked refunds [[funded by seller of course) to shady buyers.

[dfunkycity]

Yes, I had it with ebay. I liquidated all my non-sport trading cards and got ripped royally.
I sold boxes worth up to 2500 at times over the years in order to help pay the rent and what happens?
I get paid, send an immaculate box of something like unopened Planet of the apes cards or Superman tv series cards when George Reeves was king and I get an email telling me they were not as described.
Money gets swiped from my account and I either never get the item back or when I do get it back I get an identical item in bad shape so now they have my immaculate items and I have junk.

Nah, ebay can kiss my ass.
Ill buy on there since its a buyers arena but Ill never sell on there again.

[CountrySquire]

I had something similar happen. Buyer from Europe bids my items up high and then files a claim against me stating they are not as described. Pay pal tells him to ship the items back and they will gladly take the money out of my account and hand it over to him. The box shows up missing most of the items I sold him yet he promptly has all the money returned to him no questions asked, once I sign for the package. Pay pal tells me to file a police report, which I did. Now I am waiting for them to "review my appeal". Every step of this process though eBay / pay pal has treated me like I am the crook.

[Sstashmoo]

Re: No questions asked refund.

Unless it is something brand new from PayPal, this is a rumor that has been circulating for a long time. I talked to PayPal directly about this very matter. Here is how it works or worked. The buyer has 30 days to request a refund, actually up to 45 days in some cases. If the buyer receives the item, and files for a refund, PayPal seizes the money from the sellers account for the refund[[this is where the horror stories come from about PayPal freezing people's accounts), the buyer doesn't get it back until they have returned the item to the seller.

I buy from Ebay occasionally, and I have noticed in the last year or so, people more and more are not being forthright in their descriptions. Not sure if it is the economy or what, but the quality of sellers has definitely changed.

[CountrySquire]

It can work like that. If you bid on a Cadillac and return a Yugo, you will get all your money returned once seller takes confirmed delivery of the Yugo.

[dfunkycity]

It could but that is flat out theft and fraud.

I was referring to identical items that have no real way of being traced.

Say you take 2 boxes of collectors cards.

Lets say 2 identical boxes of Superman cards , the one you are selling is minty mint and someone is looking to upgrade their collection they will take your box, pick through the unopened packs for the best condition.
Sometimes they even open the packs and search for cards they need and reseal the packs diminishing the value almost completely.
Sometimes the box itself is switched for a lesser specimen.

It happens all the time in the collectibles dept on ebay.

Its left a bad taste in a lot of peoples mouths.

[CountrySquire]

"It could but that is flat out theft and fraud."

True, but the seller is still out what he sold the Cadillac for and the onus is on him to prove the buyer defrauded him. Pay Pal allows them selves 30 days + to rule on these matters. And their rulings are typically arbitrary and in the favor of their business needs [[bring in more buyers, create a safe buying environment), not the eBay Seller's business needs. I know I could not afford to be out a large sum of money for that period of time.

[CountrySquire]

"I buy from Ebay occasionally, and I have noticed in the last year or so, people more and more are not being forthright in their descriptions. "

I have been accused of that, but what buyers do not understand is that most of the old stuff people are putting out there is from estate / garage sales. It is impossible for a seller to know that vintage radio he listed was tinkered with by grampa before he passed away and had some of the components replaced with non original ones. Or one of my favorites is I list something indicating it is used and has wear and list it for a tenth of the cost it would sell for if it were mint and I still get negative FB because the buyer was expecting a mint condition item.

[Sstashmoo]

Quote: "I have been accused of that, but what buyers do not understand is that most of the old stuff people are putting out there is from estate / garage sales. It is impossible for a seller to know that vintage radio he listed was tinkered with by grampa before he passed away and had some of the components were replaced with non original ones."

That is why you use lots of pictures and if you don't know if something works or not, say that. Or "As is" usually works. But describe with the understanding this person is going to leave feedback. Using phrases like "Some parts seem to be missing" When in fact i.e. the old radio has been gutted is misleading. I bought a brass ships clock [[they usually mounted on a bulkhead and looked like a gauge) form a seller and they had a beautiful pic of the face and bezel straight on. In the ad it said that there seemed to be parts missing. Yeah, there was, the whole F'ing case. It was just a face, bezel and movement. I keep it around just for laughs. But they didn't lie about it, just presented it in a way that misled. This is the sort of thing I've noticed in the last few years. And it is becoming more common.

I'm not saying you're trying to mislead anyone, just sharing from a buyer's perspective. Some types of items are just problematic to sell in an online auction. CD's DVD's gaming components, dealing with kid buyers, bad deal.

[CountrySquire]

Quote: "I have been accused of that, but what buyers do not understand is that most of the old stuff people are putting out there is from estate / garage sales. It is impossible for a seller to know that vintage radio he listed was tinkered with by grampa before he passed away and had some of the components were replaced with non original ones."

That is why you use lots of pictures and if you don't know if something works or not, say that. Or "As is" usually works. But describe with the understanding this person is going to leave feedback. Using phrases like "Some parts seem to be missing" When in fact i.e. the old radio has been gutted is misleading. I bought a brass ships clock [[they usually mounted on a bulkhead and looked like a gauge) form a seller and they had a beautiful pic of the face and bezel straight on. In the ad it said that there seemed to be parts missing. Yeah, there was, the whole F'ing case. It was just a face, bezel and movement. I keep it around just for laughs. But they didn't lie about it, just presented it in a way that mislead. This is the sort of thing I've noticed in the last few years. And it is becoming more common.

I'm not saying you're trying to mislead anyone, just sharing from a buyer's perspective. Some types of items are just problematic to sell in an online auction. CD's DVD's gaming components, dealing with kid buyers, bad deal.

eBay charges fifteen cents for each additional pic. Which seems like a petty gripe on my part, but when you list something for $9.99 and it sells for $9.99, all those extra picture costs and pay pal / eBay fees leave you holding maybe $5 for your trouble.

Sstash do you sell on eBay or just buy mostly? Just curious as I was watching a local auction for a ship clock and wondered if that was you.

[Sstashmoo]

I buy mostly. I never sell my ebay treasures I've sold a few things on there that were too good to throw out and not worth keeping. Never a ships clock. I've been fortunate, no troubles. Other than a few purchases that were not quite as described. I bought a Detroit postcard on their once with "The city of Detroit" steamer on it and after the auction I realized the guy was in Belgium or some crazy place. he didn't speak English very well and he did not take PayPal. Had to mail him a money order for $4.95 to his address which didn't look right. It went all the way over and then came back to me. Then he was threatening to leave me a non-paying bidder. I told him to look at my feedback and I sent it, and it was not my fault it was undeliverable. He finally dropped it.

[ccbatson]

Tons of fraud goes on with Ebay...you are taking chances on both the buying and selling end.

[Ray1936]

Hmmm. Barnum was right.

[ccbatson]

Just tread carefully...usually things turn out fine.

[CountrySquire]

Pay pal contacted me this morning; they will refund me $40 for the one item the swindler kept and refund me $300 for the items that he sent back incomplete once I mail the items to them for inspection. Gee, it only took a month to get to this point, and like Sstash said they had a hold on my account since the jerk opened the claim.

[Sstashmoo]

Quote: "had a hold on my account"

Just held those funds, they didn't freeze your account entirely did they?

[CountrySquire]

Right, but the amount held was over $400, since I rely on eBay to get caught up on past due bills incurred from Furloughs it really threw a wrench in the machine.

[jiminnm]

I have been buying and selling on ebay for 10 years, but have never had any serious problems. Someone once claimed to have never received an item I mailed, but it was insured. Someone else dinged my feedback because the item was in poor condition, which is exactly what the items description said.

[CountrySquire]

"but it was insured"

Yeesh! Don't get me started on thier new policy forbidding sellers to charge buyers for insurance. Don't get me wrong, ebay is a fun and easy way to make a few bucks, they just need to realize that without people like me or Jiminnm selling items on there they would be nothing. Instead they'll kiss a zero FB buyers butt and give them the whole store, and tell the seller "if you don't like it, follow this link to close your account"

[Boo Stinking Boo]

I'm an ebay seller, I have an issue with paypal beiing so shoddy with their shipping policies via usps!

[CountrySquire]

I swore off pay pal for three years until eBay made accepting pay pal mandatory to selling on there. I shipped an item to Canada that the buyer claimed to have never recieved. Pay pal in their true buyer's advocate ways, told me I had to refund the guy's money unless I could provide a tracking #. I did have tracking # from the customs form but they kept insisting it was the wrong tracking # even though the PO assured me it was a tracking #.

On one eBay forum a seller bemoaned "If eBay is going to continue to treat me like an employee, when can I expect them to provide me health insurance?"

[ccbatson]

On balance, the system works fairly well and is responsive to changes via market principles.

[Meddle]

Re: No questions asked refund.

Unless it is something brand new from PayPal, this is a rumor

No rumor. Pure fact, and nothing new. Buyer complains, buyer gets refunded. Period.

eBay charges fifteen cents for each additional pic

True, but there are a number of free image hosting sites where you can upload your images, then use HTML tags to insert your images in listings for free. No limit, no muss, no fuss.

"but it was insured"

Yeesh! Don't get me started on thier new policy forbidding sellers to charge buyers for insurance.

First, there is no such policy. The new policy says you can't include it as a separate line item. Smart sellers include it in the base price of the item.

Second, insurance is for the seller, not the buyer. When buyer use PayPal, they don't need insurance.

I swore off pay pal for three years until eBay made accepting pay pal mandatory to selling on there.

PayPal is not mandatory for U.S. sellers. Accepting credit card payments is mandatory, but you can do that with a Merchant Account.

[CountrySquire]

"No rumor. Pure fact, and nothing new. Buyer complains, buyer gets refunded. Period."

Exactly why it is open season for fraudsters. Ebay cannot afford to continue running their business this way, treating zero feedback buyers like kings and established sellers with ten years of paying their fees [[their primary source of revenue) like peasants. Without people unloading antiques and junk from the attic on that site it would be just another Amazon. I've considered the other site picture hosting idea but from time to time I'll stumble across one of those auctions when I am surfing for goodies to buy, they are the listings where the pictures won't load. Yeah , you can add the cost of the fees, insurance and extra picture costs to an item to a point, but remember depending on what you are selling there is always someone out there willing to list the same thing for a penny. And only merchants in most cases can qualify for a merchant credit card account, not someone dabbling on there with sales less than $1000 a month.

[gazhekwe]

I use SellerSourceBook to host my pix. They have nice templates too, and so far they have never been down for more than a couple hours, very rarely. It costs something like $6.50 a month. And I agree, the whole dispute system has gotten crazy. Buyer doesn't even have to complain to seller first, just open a dispute and Whack! seller's money they were counting on to pay bills is gone. It may eventually come back, but it sure mucks up a budget.