Everything eBay! Scams, questions, etc...

[MetalJedi]

First class just takes longer is all. I was only bitching about it due to the fact it shouldn't cost 10 bucks to ship out two games.

[jedi_master_sal]

I just wish the Post Office would do away with Parcel Post and First class altogether. There's barely a price difference, so I usually opt for First class when shipping something. Heck, most of the postal employees I've talked to want the two to be merged into one.

It should be merged and called "Standard Post." Keeping it "First Class" implies there is a lesser class postage.

So then if someone REALLY wants to send it faster, they can choose Priority Mail.

[JACKOFTRADZE]

I am sick to my stomach about feedback 3.0, the stupid stars were bad enough back in May.

The new ebay feedback is the biggest bunch of BS and it leave sellers like me too vunerable. Like this site, I have a killer rating of 710+(Actually 1469) 99.9%, a 4.8 DSR and learned along time ago not to leave feedback for buyers until they leave it for you. That's when the transaction is truly over. I have been blackmailed a few times over the years, thus I adopted that strategy as many sellers do. It worked out just fine and 99% of buyers never complained. I have always shipped promply, answered questions and left feedback after it was received by the buyer. eBay wants Buyers to leave feedback in 3 days after the transaction?? How in the hell can you ship something in 3 days? Will the buyer screw you shipping rating or leave you a negative because you did not drive to his house to deliver the **** within 3 days after they paid?

This really scares me and turns me off to selling, I worked really hard to build my business/feedback up. On top of that they raised prices through the roof as MJ pointed out which is the real foot up sellers you know what. And this new system is suppose to help their slumping sales and encoourage buyers? It's going to encourage scammers!

This is really going to dent my custom biz and hurt sellers. It's too discouraging and will erode feedback's meaning. After awhile every seller will have several negatives when they did not deserve them. There are too many bad buyers out there who do not read auction details. Many are hot headed and react out of anger, want it cheaper than they bid, take forever to pay then whine about the item shipping late when they paid 2 days before. I have had buyers complain on $4.00 shipping for a custom figure, my standard charge that is clearly noted. I ship first class which ranges from $1.63-$1.87 for one then I have to buy a $2 bubble wrap envelope, regular bubble wrap, then take it to the PO. I even state handling fees are included..the whole .13-.30 worth! My shipping is more than fair.

Most of my buyers a great, but now ebay sellers are left with no line of defense, it's destroying the foundation of ebay's roots of Buyer/Seller trust. ebay never punishes bad buyers, just sellers, paypal is far worse. The Buyer is not always right, I know there are bad sellers too but this idea of Socailism on ebay is sickening, why should good sellers be made to suffer? Not everyone is equal why do I have to pay for idiots on both sides?

In the end Buyers will be the ones to pay because now I will have to raise my shipping by a buck & raise the merchandise price to pay the whacked out ebay fees and demand tracking money for every package to protect myself. I use to have DC/tracking as optional to keep shipping low as can be.

My rant is done now.......

[Jeff]

eBay wants Buyers to leave feedback in 3 days after the transaction??

Where did you see that?  The only change for buyers I saw is that they have to wait at least 3 days to post negative feedback.  I don't see anything that says they have to leave feedback within 3 days...

[Phrubruh]

Well they say, Buyers must wait 3 days before leaving negative or neutral Feedback for sellers with an established track record, to encourage communication.

Now it doesn't say when the 3 days begin. Does that begin at auction close?

[Phrubruh]

By the way, if buyers can only receive positive feedback how does the seller report nonpaying and problem making buyers? No negative feedback makes the buyer's rating completely worthless. Every buyer is now completely suspect.

[JACKOFTRADZE]

By the way, if buyers can only receive positive feedback how does the seller report nonpaying and problem making buyers? No negative feedback makes the buyer's rating completely worthless. Every buyer is now completely suspect.

EXACTLY!

If a buyer can wait only 3 days before he can leave negative/neutral feedback, who is to stop him from leaving it anyway if he does not get the item in 3 days from the time the auction ends or pays. What happens if he takes 3 days to pay? And what if you ship after he pays and he gets impatient leaving a negative because he felt you should have shipped before he paid?
Sellers can now get tons of unwarranted negatives with unrealistic expectations from the new crop of buyers. We are too unprotected from all angles and we also have to pay more...great change ebay, way to go! I am sure this will be great for business!

This is a F@#king disaster.

[Phrubruh]

If you look at it from the buyer's point of view, the buyer can now be totally honest about the seller without fear of getting their own rating dinged. (since they don't have a real rating anymore)

For example, the seller completely botches the deal. The buyer puts down that the seller was slow to ship. In reality he was slow to ship. It took the seller a month to go to the post office and ship the item after receiving payment. The seller then can lie and put negative feedback on the buyer saying payment was late when in reality payment was made within minutes of the close of auction. There is no way to prove the seller wrong and ebay won't retract the negative feedback.

This is exactly what happen to me when I bought from one person and why my percentage is 99.7% instead of 100%. Ebay doesn't retract feedback without alot of red tape and phone calls. If the seller never ships the item, paypal will do absolutely nothing about it even after registring the complaint.

The only defense the buyer has on a bad seller is to call their credit card company and do a charge back on the seller. This messes up the seller's credit rating. If the credit card company won't do the charge back, the buyer can close their credit card account. This instantly gets the problem elevated at the credit card company and they will do the charge back since they don't want to lose a customer. Now Paypal has to accept the charge back by trying to get proof of shipment from the seller. I think the credit card company can force the charge back on paypal even if they don't accept it. I could be wrong though.

Basically, I'm trying to say their is nothing ebay or paypal will do in a dispute. The seller is always going to lose if the buyer goes to the credit card company. Seller ratings only scare away potential customers.

[bamaker]

If you look at it from the buyer's point of view, the buyer can now be totally honest about the seller without fear of getting their own rating dinged. (since they don't have a real rating anymore).

The only thing I would point out is that this goes against eBay's business model, and advertising slogan that people are honest and trustworthy and you have nothing to worry about when you use eBay.  Meaning, there's no need to fear getting your rating dinged; go ahead and be totally honest about the seller; he/she will be totally honest about you, too -- and there should be no worries because both parties are trustworthy.  (We all know there are dishonest folks on eBay, but if you assume they're all dishonest then the whole system falls apart, so let's not pursue that any further.)  The system is based on trust.  Period.  But now eBay is saying, okay some people are dishonest, and by swaying the favor so heavily towards the buyer eBay is implying that the only dishonest people are the sellers, and should be treated with caution. 

I've been selling on eBay for about 8 years now and have had my fair share of shifty buyers, but I've never once thought the whole system needs to be "fixed" to protect me from the "evil Buyer".  I understand there are a few bad seeds, but by and large the vast majority of the buyers are honest, average people, and I had no qualms about selling on eBay.  As a seller, I would hope the buyers would see me the same way and trust my decency.

But eBay is now implying all sellers are out to ding your rating, they're a shady lot -- WATCH OUT!  That they're all dishonest.  (And now the system will start to fall apart.)

I am now seriously looking for other options for moving the vast majority of my Star Wars items (you'll probably soon see listings on this and many other collecting forums).

Just my two-cents...

[JACKOFTRADZE]

If you look at it from the buyer's point of view, the buyer can now be totally honest about the seller without fear of getting their own rating dinged. (since they don't have a real rating anymore)

For example, the seller completely botches the deal. The buyer puts down that the seller was slow to ship. In reality he was slow to ship. It took the seller a month to go to the post office and ship the item after receiving payment. The seller then can lie and put negative feedback on the buyer saying payment was late when in reality payment was made within minutes of the close of auction. There is no way to prove the seller wrong and ebay won't retract the negative feedback.

MP,
with all due respect, I heard this argument from the buyers side before and I will tell you why I do not buy it for a minute. For starters, that's why the DSR rating was created in the first place, to give more detailed honest info about how the seller handled the transaction without fear of feedback retaliation.

If the seller is that slow with shipping and has very low star ratings you would know that off the bat. Sometimes honest mistakes happen and any good seller would/should compensate the buyer should that happen. But when mistakes from UPS & USPS occur that you have no control over, do you deserve low ratings? Or a negative?

Say for instance you are a seller who charges insurance separately from the base shipping price and clearly state all of this in the auction. The lsting reads clear as day that "it's up to the buyer to elect & pay for the insurance". If they do not elect to get it they take the full risk/responsibility of the item getting lost or damaged - it's on them.
Say the buyer takes the risk not getting the insurance and the item is lost in transit. They then turn around threatening you to return their money or they will leave you a negative if you do not. It becomes a game of EXTORTION when they opted out of your clear auction terms in the first palce and did not want to pay the extra charge. The seller is stuck!

This is exactly what happen to me when I bought from one person and why my percentage is 99.7% instead of 100%. Ebay doesn't retract feedback without alot of red tape and phone calls. If the seller never ships the item, paypal will do absolutely nothing about it even after registring the complaint.

This is incorrect if you pay with paypal as a buyer, you are 100% covered. Paypal sides with buyers 99.9% of the time and would give the buyer back his money. I just went through this with a used laptop I sold. I spelled out every flaw on it, marked it as used condition and took large clear pics of it. When the buyer got the laptop, he stated item not as received because it had some scratches which were noted in the auction & pictures. Paypal with held the funds and gave them back to the buyer. I was scammed, as are many other sellers. If you paid with a MO or check that's a different story but if you are a buyer paying with paypal you can do no wrong.
You are correct if a buyer pays with a credit card, the seller would lose. Feedback was the only minor defense sellers had against and to warn against bad buyers.

Buyers should have their own star ratings as well but as I said before they can do no wrong more so than ever. I see so many buyers with 40% below feedback and they are still allowed to buy. It's insane and the risk is no greater than ever for sellers with added costs to boot. They will drive sellers away.

The playing field was even before, with more on the buyers side but it was doable and worked out fine.Now sellers are really handicapped and the floodgates of scams are opened and so many hardworking sellers years of feedback are going to be raped. It will happen.

[JACKOFTRADZE]

But eBay is now implying all sellers are out to ding your rating, they're a shady lot -- WATCH OUT!  That they're all dishonest.  (And now the system will start to fall apart.)

I am now seriously looking for other options for moving the vast majority of my Star Wars items (you'll probably soon see listings on this and many other collecting forums).

Just my two-cents...

I will buy you two-cents, well said.

[jedi_master_sal]

...This is incorrect if you pay with paypal as a buyer, you are 100% covered. Paypal sides with buyers 99.9% of the time and would give the buyer back his money....

No offense Jack, but that's a load of bunk from my experience.

I've been screwed over by three sellers before. In one instance I got NOTHING back from eBay/Paypal. In the other two I was lucky to get half the eBay auction amount and NONE of the shipping amount back, yet eBay OWNS Paypal and it was Paypal I filed the grievance with.

One problem I had with one of the sellers is that their auction stated they get tracking and delivery confirmation on all packages. It was going on 4 weeks after I paid for the auction (it was a BIN, so I paid for it immediately) and I still hadn't recieved my item. When I asked for a scan of the receipt (to confirm to me that they indeed paid for tracking and delivery confirmation), they made all kinds of excuses. Hell, I know personal info like credit card info may be on the receipt, that's fine, black it out, but send the scan after that. This would have allayed my fears that the guy was lying to me. He kept giving me excuses so I had no choice but to put in a claim. Of course he went ballistic but never offered proof of shipping. He even went so far as to track my number down and called me to bitch me out for reporting him. So I included that to with a screen shot of my cell phone minutes proving his phone call to me to Paypal, to show his now harrassment. I didn't get word bacl from Paypal other than the standard "We are looking into it" reply for a week, so I told the seller I was reversing my charge. Again he went nuts and said I should get it in three days. Of course I didn't believe him. Lo' and behold I DID finally get it at the three day mark after all of this. This wasn't a screw up with UPSP or UPS. It was a seller trying to screw me of my money.

Now I ask you, (anyone, not just Jack) what sort of feedback would you have left? Again, no proof of shipping ever sent when requested, longer than 4 weeks to recieve, a harrassing call to me for reporting him...
Regardless that I eventually got the item, the promise of the auction was that the winner was to recieve the item within 10 days of receipt of payment. My paypal invoice proved my payment date, which again was immediately after clicking the BIN.

Sorry, but sellers still have buyers by the nads in most cases. It's buyers who have to jump through hoops to either get their FULL money back or the item for which we paid for. It's one reason I almost always never give feedback first as a buyer. You the seller have my money, I fulfilled my end of the deal, so post positive feedback.

With these new changes, it seems much of this will either be moot or changed drastically. I can see this having an overall negative affect on eBay. Which to be quite frank might not be a bad thing if we as consumers (buyers AND sellers alike) can have another auction site avaiable. I'd like to see eBay have some competition. It might whip them into shape about dealing with errant deals.

[Phrubruh]

It sounds like in your case Jedi_master_sal, that if you left negative feedback, the seller would do exactly that to you. That way you both suffer. Of course the guy with the lower number of positive feedback suffers more than the one with 1000 auctions in a month.

In my experience complaints to ebay and paypal are never taken care of both on the buyer and seller sides. It takes both so long to respond that its just easier to deal with the credit card company before your options expire with them.

[DSJ™]

Well they say, Buyers must wait 3 days before leaving negative or neutral Feedback for sellers with an established track record, to encourage communication.

Now it doesn't say when the 3 days begin. Does that begin at auction close?

Yup.

buyers will be prevented from leaving a public negative or neutral Feedback within 3 days of a listing’s end for sellers with an established track record

eBay Discussion Forum:A letter from Matt Halprin on Feedback

...This is incorrect if you pay with paypal as a buyer, you are 100% covered. Paypal sides with buyers 99.9% of the time and would give the buyer back his money....

Not all the time & at times good luck getting the funds back.

If the seller does not have the funds in his/her account then Paypal cannot refund, a lot of sellers pull the funds as soon as they get it. Paypal cannot pull funds from your bank account without your authorization, if they did boy someones gonna be rich! 

If a buyer pays via credit card, you can bypass Paypal & call the credit card company that you deal with & request a chargeback. Any CC company overrules Paypal. 

[DSJ™]

If anyone really cares & like eBay will listen. 

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