Sellers Can’t Leave Negative Feedback on eBay

Great going eBay! You have found a new low in screwing over consumers! (Not limited to them I mean in general) I want to know who was the genius who thought this up…he obviously has no idea how corrupt people can be:\

What alternatives can there be? I’m hopeful most sellers don’t leave since ebay is still a good place…

i think it’s about time. if a buyer pays on time, they have done their job. they don’t need feedback to show this. i’ve had countless times when a seller has said ‘we leave the same feedback you leave us.’ and what if they’ve been crap? you dare not complain and no other buyers know.
if a buyer doesn’t pay or something, the seller can just complain to ebay authorities (as you’d do in real life like a shop does).

EBAY SELLERS UNITE!!! SLAM THE BAD BUYERS!! I just went through a bad experience with a buyer who took my cell phone, used it for a MONTH, complained to ebay it didnt work, left me HORRIBLE feedback that ebay REFUSED to remove, and then gave her her money back after she sent me my phone back.

I left ebay selling awhile ago and now I come back to find I cannot leave a neg even to a bad buyer! hilarious! Do you know how many times I had threats from bad buyers years ago to leave an unfair neg (“give me a partial refund and I keep the item to since it was 2 days late!”) only to be prevented by the fear I could do the same neg on them?

I just finished talking to ebay staff and its all true! Soooo I have decided to take my newly discovered horde of collectible toys and comics from my attic and find other auction sites and methods to sell it NOT by ebay. It seems that ebay is good to stay on only as a buyer.

I have founda few sites any ideas out there?

PS ebay’s new tactic will be felt over the next few years as honest but smaller sellers who feel an unfair neg harder then the power seller who can bury it with masses of sales, leave ebay. This will favor bigger sellers who sell less collectible more available general retail stuff. In other words the Walmartizing of ebay.

Eg. I have some rare toys why sell them on ebay and take an unfair neg hit when some power seller can sell thousands of current easily available toys, take the occasional unfair hit, and keep going.

If you are a smaller seller even a few negs stands out on your account. And you cant just become a ‘big seller’ if you are selling rare stuff (ie not readily available) and you dont have a retail licnese to sell the new stuff (which every other seller would sell).

So eventually WalMart mindset will overtake Ebay and ebay stock will plunge. Right now its too early to see it but believe u me it will trickle down to the small honest sellers and they will leave in droves.

PS of COURSE most buyers are good guys and I would always leave pos feedback as soon as they paid and then shipped fast to them but if you think that there are no buyers who will not take advantage of this new policy and use it to extort more stuff or unfair refunds from honest buyers you are in dreamland. The guy I referred to abo ve later apologized to me and said “The only reason I didnt leave a neg was because you could have done the same. Your item arrived in great shape I wanted to keep it and get a partial refund from you because I saw somebody else sell it at a smaller price so I wanted to get the difference from you. sorry”—this was over the phone he obviously did not want to email it because I could have forwarded it to ebay staff.

NOW if this happened today he would have been able to hold my account ‘hostage’ in a matter of speaking. As a small seller or rare stuff I cant take a neg hit like a power seller of new generic crappy stuff…..

I guess if ebay continues to do this kind of crap than it will shutdown soon.

I HAVE STOPPED SELLING ON EBAY BECAUSE OF THEIR HIGH FEES.

1: EBAY LISTING FEES
2: FINAL AMOUNT FEES
3: PAYPAL FEES

AFTER PAYING ALL THIS I WAS NOT ABLE TO EARN ANYTHING. SO I STOPPED SELLING.

EBAY SUX!

sold an item on ebay listing stated it was region psp game.stupid buyer bought it and would not work put in a paypal complaint anf they are refunding the price even though the auction stated region 1.cant beleive that if they leave me negative,which they will i wont beable to fight it due to the stupid seller not reading the auction correct.ebay you are going to go down the tube if you carry on.money money money not ebay you should be called.

I just had a buyer purchase my Ps3. I sent it the next day to his adress which was texas. He had it sent from there to Guatalajara, and then messaged me that it was broken. He wanted his money back, and he wasn’t going to ship it back. He made the mistake of emailing me that he shipped it out of the country without checking if it was in working condition or leaving feedback upon arrival in Texas, so I got my money. He left me negative feedback anyways which was my first negative of 32, and gave me a horrible 50% rating (I don’t know how ebay does math but 1/32 is NOT 50%). Too bad I can’t tell the rest of the story he forgot to mention eh? Goodbye Ebay.

I advertised a car on ebay with “buy it now” or “best offer”. I accepted an offer of £600 and that obviously ended the listing. The buyer arranged to come the next day to pay in full by cash – he did not pay a deposit as stipulated.Didn’t come and after a credit for the final value fee I was left £59 out of pocket (enhanced listing fees). I can’t leave him negative fb – had to leave positive with a negative comment. He is now free to leave me retaliatory negative fb if he wishes and there’s bugger-all I can do about it. He’s gone down as a non-paying bidder but ebay still profits by £59 in addition to the £79 they made when a legitimite buyer purchased after re-listing. I ended up getting £550 for the car of which ebay took £138.

My buyer backed out after prices fell and I’m not even allowed to leave negative feedback??!? How stupid is this site now after 7 years of being an avocate I now tell people not too bother its crap

Sold 2 PS2 games on Ebay. Buyer left me positive feedback after he received his games but he reversed his credit card charges and kept the games. When I contacted Ebay and Paypal about this they refused to help. So I was screwed out of 36.00 for the games. So I have this to say “SCREW YOU EBAY, YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY AUCTION SITE OUT THERE.”

I have found craigslist to be a good alternative site to buy/sell or in my case trade things on. Like for instance my boys have games they don’t want anymore and want others so I either post them for sale or trade. I have sold some games on their and I may have sold them for $5 less than I would of got on ebay, but when you factor in the listing fees, final value fees, and paypal fees, there is no loss. Craigslist is not the best alternative but you can buy things off there pretty cheap. The POSITIVE to craigslist is, you can inspect the item before you buy, no fees of anykind, your usually dealing with people that are local, you can negotiate the price, and no taxes. The NEGATIVE is thre is not a place to make a complaint about something you brought, and you can’t reach as many people as you can on ebay.

Does this re enforce the cliche “the customer (buyer) is always right”? does it f***. sellers themselves are customers of ebay who are being discriminated against. if sellers leave for other auction sites this could be a good thing in the long run- more competition and more incentives (eg lower costs to trade elsewhere) for sellers AND buyers.

So when I get a buyer who is the winning bidder, and a complete a** who leaves negative feedback because they believe shipping is too slow even after my auction listed two days handling time before the item will be shipped I have no way to let other sellers know how much of a complete a** this guy is. I have 2 neutral feedback comments, and 1 negative in the last 6 months because the winning bidder did not read my shipping and handling policy, and they expected the item to ship sooner than it did. If I say it is going to take 2 handling before the item is shipped, and I don’t take longer than that I should not have to deal with winning bidders leaving negative feedback because of their own stupidity!

Lawrence – As for craigslist… it would be great if every other email from a “potential buyer” wasn’t someone trying to scam me sending me fake checks, or fake PayPal emails.

Really hope they do shut down! they suck! with all the changes and everything. I’ve just had a horrible buyer, she abused me when I asked if she could pay via Bank deposit, and told me I HAD TO accept paypal as a payment method, and if i didn’t she would report me to ebay. Excuse me, but why do ebay offer direct deposit, if paypal is a MUST? She has now put a claim in against me because her items arrived broken, and after all the issues i’ve had with her I just want her to go away. She got her items, I got my money. it is not my fault that the items arrived broken, and now for a lousy $13 she has left me negative feedback – and now i find i can’t even so much as alert ebayers that she is a horrible person to deal with! I won’t be selling anything on ebay in th future, and knowing my luck – even though I’ve never been able to get a refund from a seller for good that have arrived broken – I’m sure that I will be further effed over, because paypal will probably rule in her favor.

I have had more auction winners just decide they didn’t want the item, and not pay in the last 4 months than ever before. Sure I can file a dispute, and get my final value fee back, but that isn’t the point… if a buyer can leave negative feedback on me because UPS took too long to get a package to them, than why can’t I complain on their feedback when they blatantly refuse to pay for an item “I just don’t want the item anymore, so don’t expect a payment.”

wow i never knew seller cant leave neg,….bought stuff on ebay by sometimes blatant liars saying bnwt but didnt have it when it arrived… just kinda swallowed it but ……thanks guys!!!

o yeah and with out tag it was also stained etc..yup you got the picture. thanks

I used to think this is bad… until now. Just dealt w/ a seller who severely misrepresented an item. They were really hostile when I sent communication. I purchased a used item described as “good” condition. I already had the exact same one at home, also used. The one from this seller was much much worse. I offered comparison pictures. They threw personal attacks. I had no choice but to leave bad ratings (not doing so would be a disservice to other sellers). I was glad I could do so w/o retaliation on ebay… but they now have my email & address, which is a bit concerning.

i had a time waster buy my car, and they never showed up, i cant even leave negative feedback.

im not using ebay again

i’m dealing with a woman who clearly had “buyers remorse” after bidding on and winning one of my auctions. i sent her several invoices before she actually paid the money. the next day after payment, she responded with a very snooty, pissed off email about needing it to be sent ASAP, which was great because i had already sent the damn thing. she also said, “YOU NEED TO SEND ME THE TRACKING NUMBER AND INSURANCE INFORMATION RIGHT AWAY!” which was bullshit because she never paid for either of those things, and the package had been shipped the day before. i had physical proof in the form of a receipt that the box (containing expensive antique jewelry) had been shipped. sure enough, a few days later she was complaining about not receiving the package. i phoned my post office, even HER post office in MA (i am in louisiana). they told me she needed to physically go to the office and pick up the package. when i told her this, she responded with an email telling me she “did have the time to waste” on a package without tracking or insurance. she just wanted her money back asap. she filed a complaint with ebay, and of course ebay gave her the money back. now my package is sitting in a MA post office.. i can’t touch it because it technically no longer belongs to me, and she has my money. for all i know, she has picked up the package as well. i even contacted ebay several times and of course no response from them, and no way of warning other sellers about this ridiculous buyer.

oh, i meant *** “DIDNT have the time to waste”

I just removed every standing auction I had posted on e bay, Called the hotline and told them I am done as of now! never to use thier services to buy or sell! I have been a member for 10 years and I have 100% feedback, my complaint is that e bay has buyer protection but where is the seller protection? I have had e bay hold my money in thier dumb little claim department with some newbie with a feedback score of 10!!! and lean on thier side of the complaint. Now they will not let me leave neg. feedback on a non paying bidder with a feedback score of 17 to warn other honest good sellers?? DONE, all done! then Pay Pal, what a joke that is (wont even get started on that) I would say in a nutshell new people to e bay, just get out now and go about your peaceful life and dont get mixed up in the annoying e bay scams.

yes, i had an extremely bad buyer and vcannot leave feedback. he sure left a nasty one for me, the seller, though!
i have bought also expensive items ion ebay that were broken and there is no recourse accept for to sue the buyer outside of ebay!!! ebay is somehow illegal.

What a crock! Ebay has got to be the most expensive way to sell anything. They own paypal too, and now insist on paypal payments. Seller’s can’t leave neg. feedback for useless buyers that will complain about any shipping cost that isn’t free…. it’s all a joke …very upset I went back to ebay after a few years off. I’m going to create my own online store (seriously!).. just to get away from their BS. I left it 3 years ago because of their consistant fee hikes. Contact customer service for a dispute??? HA HA .. what a Fing joke! Sure give me a number to call..oh? what? no phones at Ebay? I’m sure they’ll get it all settled in the buyer’s favor after 3-4 months has gone by. Ebay sucks period!!!!!!!!

Sold a car, buyer didn’t pay, ebay don’t refund the listing fee – can’t leave any negative feedback and have to wait a week before re-list. Shit experience.

Unreal, I can think of many words for eBay, none of which I’d utter in polite company!!!
I’ve been clearing out the house, as a consequence of which I listed and sold and plate for 2 bucks, which was, I hasten to add, worth much more! I even stated in my listing that the plate had been sitting in a box unloved for years. Buyer took an age to pay. I packed it really well and posted the day after payment. The buyer never contacted me, but then left negative feedback becuase the plate was ‘a little dusty and had fingerprints on it’!!!! WTF????? It’s a plate. Wash it you lazy f**k! What do these idiots want. It’s a USED plate, get it?
Why do we all take s**t like that for eBaystards to take all your money in fees and then not allow you to deal with idiots that leave you bad feedback just becuase they are mental!!!
Go figure. No sorry. Ebay go F*** yourselves

I too have had it with the “no negative feedback” policy. I have been stuck with two unpaid purchases in the last few months and I only sell a few dozen items a month. The latest buyer clearly tried to scam me by waiting 5 days to make a payment using Echeck and then canceled the check 3 days later hoping I would ship the item out on good faith. Well, I am stuck with the original insertion fees and I need to go through the headache of resolution and relisting. Both buyers maintain a perfect ebay rating but clearly are not deserving of same. I am done with Ebay as a seller as well. I agree with the earlier comments left on the board with respect to Ebay losing the sellers that truely offer unique items. And if I am going to buy from a power seller, I will attempt to contact them directly and help him/her save on rediculous Paypal and other fees seller fees. Ebay is going down the toilet.

Ebay customer service always stand on the buyers side! If sellers are not allowed to leave negative feedback for buyers, at least they should make it such that non-paying buyers should not be able to leave negative feedback for us!

I’m gonna go against the flow here and say that this policy has some merit(with exception) For many years as a buyer I was reluctant to leave negative feedback on ANY seller, even, on some occasions, being sent broken or grossly mis-represented CRAP out of fear of retalitory neg feedback and destruction of my perfect score. I feel that this policy forces sellers to consistently provide great customer service. As a seller I’m BRUTALLY honest in my listings, ship LIGHTNING fast, refund bid price and shipping(both ways if I have to) AND ship all items over $50 with tracking(plus require signature on more expensive items) to avoid 99% of negative feedback. I only communicate in email, never telephone so I will have proof of any blackmail attempts/unreasonable demands. If all that fails then I’ll take the hit. I figure it’s gone in a year and I know my pos’s far outnumber it (if it happens and it hasn’t). The exception in my opinion is for the non-payer. I think that when that’s proven Ebay should give the deadbeat a negative feedback themselves and automatically remove any feedback that the non-payer gave. Ebay may not be the only auction in town, but it’s still by far the biggest and I am (still) able adjust my strategy be competitive even with a few added hurdles! Thank you for your time, I know I ran on a little here. Regards!

I am also fed up with Ebay. I am a small time seller who managed to take advantage of their no fee on 99p auctions if item does not sell. Now they are going to charge listing fee on all 99p items whether they sell or not.

This is c*** for me as I may only sell 10/100 items and they go for 99p.So no longer worth me listing.

Also the same here peeed off with not being able to respond to poor or cheating buyers. When I have been working hard to list items. Quite a few people very impatient even when I state a longer delivery time to compensate for the fact I work FULL time as well as having to sort out and mail 100s of items.

Recently I had someone claim I had not responded to them in feedback when they said item had not been received I had in ‘my messages’. They did not even ask for refund or send another mail. Now I am left with negative and my 100% I worked for has gone. My feedback is in the 2000s theres is not even 200.

For all I know they could be lieing and have the item and I then have to offer refund and try and get this mutually withdrawn. But of course they could be a rival seller for all I know trying to get my feedback down.

I was considering going business /powerseller but now I may not qualify because of this impatient and possibly dishonest buyer.

They I got someone in Australia complaing item not received (they are on other side of Globe) we have also had ash cloud from Iceland delaying flights including mail!!!!!

I had made an error and not posted item out straight away, but this buyer just straight away was very rude and said ‘NEVER again’ as regards trading with me without first waiting for a reply. Some very rude customers (and impatient) are making me thik of quitting ALL selling.

All the weight is against the smaller seller, and they still screw you for more and more charges 99p start price/PAYPAL/END of listing fee etc…..

No recourse for reply to buyers negative feedback.

Sellers should also be protected. We are not. There is no way to show our negative comments or instantly see a poor buyer as they do not have negative scores unless poor seller too.

Only thing we can do is leave neg comment under + feedback on buyer score.

Ebay is out of touch with their bread and butter sellers.

Does any one else know that on high value items, when signature is required, if the buyer changes their mind while the package is in transit and decides they don’t want it when it arrives or if they don’t want to pay the customs fees, that they can just refuse the package so it is returned to the sender that PayPal will ALWAYS rule in the buyers favor and make you refund even though you state “no refunds” in your item policy description and the item is perfect. There must be a way to fight this BS, sellers have NO rights at all; I’m not a business, people can’t just return an item for no reason when I state that there are no returns and the item is perfect!.
Wayyyyy toooo frustrated!!!!

I just had someone leave negative feedback. I havent gotten paid and the guy held payment 3 days after shipment. I havent recieve my part back. ebay is trying to destroy their business. maybe craigslist can do a bid /auction biz that is fair to sellers. I ‘ve been screwed for $250 Plus some. thanks ebay. see the finger!

I am glad I left ebay some years ago,I used to pay my fee’s via cheque and the last one I sent them was cashed but they were still asking for the fee and suspended my account so I could’nt be arsed and just left it,as for buying cars on ebay I would’nt waste my time there all crap with rocket ship miles and whats all the bull about advertised else where,and the one’s that say selling for someone else?or they write a six page story and at the end car is a cat D like thats not an issue.better to buy from a car auction where at least you can see what your bidding on.as for ebay not allowing sellers to leave neg f.b well there should be a mass revolt where thousands of sellers stop all listings for a month,if you get enogh support and hit them in the pocket they’ll soon change it back.rant over.

There’s a very simple reason for this. Buyers know that any sort of negative feedback will almost certainly result in revenge feedback from the seller. That’s why there are so many falsely inflated ratings from sellers who suck. It’s a little game you play with the seller – every auction I’ve won has been paid via PayPal bank account debit within an hour. But almost every one of the sellers WAITED until I’d received the product and left positive feedback before they replied with the same. That’s complete bullshit – Bravo E-bay. Now maybe we’ll have a more accurate picture of how things really are.

As a buyer i have been ripped off too but was not willing to leave bad feedback for fear of tit for tat repucusions. I have only 107 points, going against a power seller with a gazzilion points is totally out of balance and as a seller i’m glad ebay levelled out the playing field.

Shouldn’t the seller have just as much right to say what they think of the buyer, as the buyer does the seller?

If you recieve negative/neutral feedback from a buyer for something that, in many cases, was a massive misunderstanding or something to just try to earn a discount, return, credit, or refund, shouldn’t you be able to say something back and stand your ground with your opinion as they did theirs?

This is another way another big business is trying to cut down on the freedom of all people.
It’s simply ridiculous.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see in internet a large number of sellers search to open abuse case in EU court against ebay .

Ebay doesn’t seem to be affected by any seller complaints at all. They are even making seller policies STRICTER. I bet they have some malfunctioned robot running the company.

I only sell there for the exposure. No other site comes close to the popularity of ebay.

I have had enough of ebay, i have been buying and selling for the past 3 years, i am only a private seller and usually sell clothes and bits now and again, i had 100% feedback until today! i sold some military issued unused goggles on my partners behalf, we checked them ourselves to see if they were in perfect condition and they were, anyway they were posted to the buyer the same day they paid and that was it, however i recieved a message yesterday (10 days later) saying that as soon as the buyer put the goggles on they snapped and that she wanted a refund! well i stated no refunds in my listing and emailed back assuring her they were perfect when they left and offered her £5 as a good will gesture, well she replied with an abusive message telling me to give her the £5 ‘now’ and that she was then going to give me neg feedback to warn buyers i sell faulty goods, talk about slander! it was obvious she had broke them and then decided after 10 days that she would try rip me off and use the good old neg feedback against me, so in the end i told her i wasnt even going to give her the £5 since she had been so rude! so i am now left with a rubbish feedback score even though i have done nothing wrong, she practically tried to use the feedback system to bribe me, i have contacted ebay but they won’t do anything unless the feedback says anything bad about ebay, racist or discrimatory. Oh and did i mention i paid £55 in fees this month when i only made about £105! there is zero seller protection, ebay is a load of rubbish used by buyers who want to play the system.

Leaving Ebay after 5 years, WTG ebay, no wonder your loosing your data base, I was a loyal buyer and seller, and this new feedback thing rewards the scammers, and punishes the seller. I lost about 200.00 and called a agent, they said they couldnt do anything about the negative feedback, i could reply. After 890 positive feedbacks at 100% one joker decides to scam, he gets busted and i get the loss. The hell with ebay, moving my company fast. BEWARE OF THE NEW EBAY….

I say we as sellers should get a class action law suit against ebay!!! I also know a very nice older man who sold on ebay for years, but has been screwed over a few months ago by ebay and paypal (who by the way ebay owns). I also sold items for a friend of mine and the buyers were ahole scammers!!

If someone out there knows how to get a class action law suit started let us sellers know, ebay needs to by sued big time for being scammers themselves.

eBay is losing relatively a lot sellers because of the new feedback policy, Obviously eBay will take a new measure regarding this problem. Also, It’s against the US low and the US Government Freedom of speech. Put it this way, eBay is not being reciprocal If sellers are not allowed to leave negative feedback for buyers, Buyers also should not be allowed to leave negative for Sellers. The rights has to be equal! eBay will be in trouble for that, Sooner or Later eBay will come up with new policies regarding feedback history and misuse! They are talking about that in the forum already… Let’s see what comes next…

I cant believe how stupid Ebay is. I recently sold a Nintendo Wii on there. My listing stated that i only ship in the united states. Customer buys it and want it shipped overseas. He has an international address and phone number. I refuse to do it and offer a second chance to the second highest bidder. Customer throws a fit and threatens me. He leaves me negative feedback. I contacted ebay and they said “he has the right to do that” are you kidding me???? Of all the money Ebay has made off of me! And to make it worse i cannot leave negative feedback for him. only positive. why even list the percentage for buyers when its always gonna be 100%?? Seriously can someone not start a new auction site without all of this crap? i would join in a second and i think alot of other people would too!!!

I sold a book on eBay and the buyer rec’d it and claimed she received the wrong book. It was her fault for not looking at the ISBN and the description. I was still willing to give her a refund if she ships the book and I sent her several e-mails telling her to just ship the book back and I will refund her ASAP. I NEVER RECEIVED AN ANSWER TO ANY OF MY E-MAILS. A few days later, I received a negative feedback from her, bringing my 100% feedback down to 70+%. It was so frustrating! Ebay should be protecting its sellers too!

it sucks because a seller should be allowed to put negative feedback if the buyer doesnt pay.. theyre allowed to put negative feedback towards a seller why cant it be vice versa?

it just doesnt make sense..

We are gonna cancel our Ebay account. They freeze your account and then you are subject to whatever they decide. They just ruled in favor of a buyer with no feedback who said an item we sold didn’t work. We received the item and it works perfectly. Ebay stinks.

I am a long time eBay user

I used to love eBay. I had fun listing, and it was exciting to see what would happen. I started EVERYTHING I sold at 99 cents. Sometimes Id get a low selling price, but most of the time it was good and even better than it should be. And I enjoyed researching the stuff I had. I ended up doing ebay full time, due to my disability (long term diabetic) it was perfect for me.

Then, about 7 or 8 years ago, eBay began to change, slowly but surely. First off, I never liked how eBay would charge little amounts for small changes, like 10 cents to start your listing later or move a picture. But that was never a huge deal or anything.

It all began with PayPal. I remember back when paypal was free, and an AWESOME service. They had the best Bill-Pay feature Ive ever seen, among many other great features. Well eBay bought them out, and made changes, eventually leading to PayPal charging for the service, and taking away all the features, including the Bill Pay. So essentially there message was “you now pay more, and get less”

Then PayPal wanted a dollar for using ATM’s or for getting a check. They found ways to pick out little bits here and there.

Then the changes moved to eBay and things got ugly. First they redesigned their page for no reason. They just did it again too – but the ORIGINAL eBay look was the best. IT was the easiest to use, and you didnt get all those “recommendations” – now, if I look at ONE item, I get emails, I get redirected, and I get non-stop advertising shoved in my face, just because I looked at one item, ebay thinks I want to buy 200 of them.

And why advertise? eBay actually has Ad banners on their page. Why? eBay’s rev. is over 7 Billion, is that not enough?

Well obviously not, because up next was the price changes. Ever since Whitman took over eBay, it become a nightmare. And the guy who replaced her recently is even worse.

eBay sent me an email a LONG time ago, informing me of the EXCITING news that eBay was going to be lowering fees, thus helping te “little guy” and made promises that eBay would no longer be about the super-seller who lists 5000 items a day (and those people are the worst sellers of all, no personal service, they may have 500,000 positives but they also get 1000 negatives a month, they sell junk too) but anyways, eBay said it was time for the little guy. Buy it Now fees would go way down, Gallery would go from 35 cents to free – it all seemed so awesome

Then… i noticed what they did. They masked the raising of the SELLING fees by lowering the listing fees. But that is almost like a slap in the face. Does eBay really think we are that stupid? What – we arent going to notice? Or we are supposed to be grateful that yeah, we save 50 cents on our listing fee, but pay an extra 8% on the selling fee.

I used to sell a little over 3000 dollars worth of stuff per month. My fees were usually around $150 to $180 at the most.

Now I sell about 1200 a month, and last month my fee was $123. That is INSANE.

Also – you have to love how eBay tries to make it appear that there is a distinction between them and PayPal, but don’t be fooled, eBay IS Paypal. They bought them for $400 Million. eBay and PayPal are the same company – and when eBay started charging for use of PayPal, I switched to Money Orders instead. I dont see why I should give eBay money 4 times – Once to list, Once to sell, Once to get Payment, and Once to remove money from acctount. Thats insanity.

How does eBay counter this? Disallowing ALL payments except PayPal and merchant Credit Cards. That seems illegal – but since they allow the Credit Cards it wasnt, but who out there who is just a regular guy like me has an active working credit card terminal in their home?

eBay’s customer service is non-existent. There is nothing they will ever do for you. You can chat online but its a 40 minute wait, and eBay NEVER answers your questions anyway. But their resolution service sure is LIGHTNING FAST. When a buyer complains, eBay is all over it.

I have had probably 20 things go to claims in my long ebay history. About 5 of them, I was wrong – and if the buyer would have just contacted me, it never would have needed to go to claims. I understand that things happen, and I am always willing to work with everyone. In my whole history of thousands of feedbacks, I had around 6 or 7 nuetrals, and 5 negatives. I am a very fair person. But anyways, the other 15 claims, the buyer was wrong, dead wrong. But eBay has NEVER once awarded a case in my favor. My son has been on eBay for 6 years now, and he has never won a claim either.

I take photos before shipping for EVERY item i sell. I show it just before it goes out from every angle. Then I show the packing materials I use, and I take photos during the stages of shipment, and finally one more when its packed and sealed. I told this to eBay every time, but in every case, eBay has never allowed me to show them the photos. Many of the cases I deal with is BUYER NEGLECT AND STUPIDITY.

I pack extremely well – and I know certain things do not get damaged in shipping. They buyer himself ruins it, and wants me to pay because he knows he can get away with it. But eBay doesnt care, they dont want to see my photos.

eBay changed the rule about shipping insurance – it used to be the buyers responsibility to pay. Now its ALL on the seller. Why?

If I buy something from walmart.com and they send it to me, if I want it insured its on me. Why the hell would Walmart be responsibile for insurance?

Then the DSR’s came in. The 1′s and 2′s policy, No negative for buyers, even ones who DONT pay. And those ones who DONT pay can still give you a negative.

Any ANY BUYER WHO SAYS THAT ONCE THEY PAY THEY DESERVE A POSITIVE AND THATS THAT IS THE STUPIDEST, MOST PATHETIC LOSER HUMAN SCUM ON EARTH.

There is more to a transaction than payment. How about speed of payment, communication? how about professionalism, and handling of the situation when the package arrives. What about their handling of any problems that arise. Say the product I sell is am iPod new in the box. During shipping, the box gets dented but the ipod is 100% fine

So even tho thats nothing – my Ad did say box was mint. So for the $90 ipod I just sold, I offer the buyer $10 back in partial refund for the trouble.

Buyer says no, he wants $40 back. Calls me an asshole, says Im getting a negative unless I am fair with him – opens a claim, demands a refund, I give it, sends me the ipod back in a million pieces.

I tell eBay, they do nothing for me. I end up with a negative, out 90 bucks.

I have to stop here – I Wanted to say more but I can just go on and on forever.

eBay sucks – they totally cater to the buyers. They advertise, the protect buyers, they are unfairly awarding to buyers, buyer feedback means NN OO TT HH II NN GG ABSOLUTELY nOtHiNg

Buyers now KNOW They own us, so they take advantage making bullshit claims and demanding money back.

I write some of the best ads on eBay, not too long but very clear. I take DETAILED pics – its so obvious that 90% of ALL buyers do not read the Ad. WHY!? then when they get item and see that it is scratched up they flip out on me. But it was ALL in my Ad AND in the pics. Doesnt matter.

eBay gets away with this, do you know why?

One simple answer

There is no reputible competition.

Its THAT simple. They bought out EVERY competitor. eBay is most certainly a Monopoly, but they dont lose in court due to them being a website, and due to things like ubid – which are usless and tiny, but still – and the main reason – Auction Houses. Things like that allow ebay to get around being a monopoly but they def. are

If you are like me and a seller who HATES ebay (ps – many sellers hate it now, and tons and tons of HONEST buyers tell me, and comment on ebays forums all the time, saying that although they know the changes on eBay benifit them, they think eBays policies are highly unfair – but thats only the honest buyers, most buyers act like ebays rules ARE fair, because they are too stubborn to admit its not fair, but in their favor. Buyers on ebay are some of the worst human scum alive)

But anyways, if you hate eBay – where will you go? I am disabled, I have all my income on eBay. So what is my option?

eBay has no competitor – thats why they suck buyer-weenie and screw sellers. They know that as long as there is NO where else to go, Sellers will keep coming. But buyers can get their merch. anywhere, so eBay needs to baby them, to breastfeed them, tuck them in at night, tell them a story and give them a kissy-kiss goodnight.

One quick story, I bet its the worst youll ever hear

I sold a cell phone for 60 bucks. After the sale and shipment, I found out there was a hold on the money. I called paypal. They said that sometimes they “randomly” hold money to ensure their ability to check on transactions and make sure everything is going smooth.

Well suddenly an eBay AND a PayPal claim magically opened. Not by the buyer – just opened up. eBay takes the money away perminantly, and writes on the claim page that the money is refunded. No explaination

I call up paypal again – they say that the buyer never got the phone. But the buyer never said a word. Not to me, not in the claim… nothing

PayPal says “well youll have to talk to eBay”. I Said YOU ARE EBAY! and of course they said well yeah but ebay has differnt reps.

eBay has no cust. service. Last I checked only powersellers can call ebay. Everyone can call – but powersellers can talk to a live person. maybe that changed recently but thats how it was for a long time.

Anyways – Im out the 60 bucks, and Im waiting and waiting, and my phone never gets back to me.

I go to the post office and check with them, because their website said my tracking showed it was there, but I wanted to double check. Post office said it WAS delivered to the address.

I sent this news over to PayPal and eBay – no response. So I Called PayPal again.

Sorry Sir, but it doesnt matter. You lost the case.

WHAT CASE!?

well, finally, about a month later I talk to someone and THIS time I pretend like I dont know anything. I pretend like I DID get the phone back – and I just asked the PayPal rep – why did the buyer file a claim.

The rep says this – and this is going to blow your mind.

“That buyer has been suspended. He made 7 fraudulent purchases uses a stolen credit card. PayPal and eBay shut his accounts down.”

Then I told the Rep the truth – I NEVER got my phone, paypal told me it was just a “random hold”, and that ebay told me the Buyer opened a claim about not getting the package.

The Rep said no – it was from fraud, and the hold was placed so that the stolen credit card wouldnt get money taken off.

So where does eBay get the money from… ME. The multibillion dollar company took a disabled mans money, KNOWING i would never get that phone back, and then LIED To me calling it a hold and saying it never got there.

I have Proof of ALL of this by the way.

Anyways – The buyer got through THEIR defenses, fooled them, scammed them… and eBay had ME pay for it

How unbelievable is that.

Someday – some smart kid with a drive will start a new auction site. And all he needs to do is have his own feedback system, but better… and allow people on eBay to transfer at least SOME of their feedback over to his site.

When some smart kid does this, he will become a millionaire overnight. I bet more than half of eBay’s long term sellers would jump ship. Especially people who have been there sinec the beginning like me. I’ve been on eBay since 1998

Hope you all learned more about ebay.

Want even more info? Contact me at joeyo14@gmail.com

Well that has put the shits up me… I have been on eBay over a year, but only recently started using it regularly to sell; I have 12 feedback. So I routinely put an old phone on eBay, three in fact. But this particular phone is a menace. I have also sold my laptop TWICE due to a “Removed user”. Anyway… I sold my phone over a week ago, coming up to two. Still no payment. I sent the buyer three messages asking for payment and telling him he would be reported if he did not pay by a certain date. I received no replies. I have now opened an unpaid item case, which is preventing the sale of the phone a second time, despite interest. Best of all, no negative feedback can be left. Thank you eBay. Congratulations on being SHIT.

Screw ebay. I just sold a computer to a a$$hole buyer who is not going to pay and only entered in a high bid so that they could win the auction. Now I have to go through the process of putting in an upaid item complaint and waiting GOd knows how long to get my final value fee credited back.

If ebay allows this type of shit to happen, then I am going to bid on items and not pay for them.

TO HELL WITH EBAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ebay is setting its own fate by disregarding the critical mass that made it what it is today.

A buyer just gave my account it’s first negative in 10 years with just under 2000 positive feedbacks.

The buyer wanted other games in other auctions.

Listing clearly said “combined shipping with “X” game and “Y” game and controller.

Title had only one name in it. Bottom of the listing also clearly said, “Auction is only for “Z” game”

With ebay’s new policy, i can NOT leave a negative for the buyer. So, the buyer can basically buy and buy and buy without actually reading and when they don’t get what they want…destroy Perfect Sellers.

thanks ebay.

i have an extortion claim in now with Ebay..but, i am not expecting much…

eBay has done a Great job of advertising their Buyer Protection Program. You see, the new game on eBay is to get FREE ITEMS and it’s very easy to do.

All you do is:

1. Find a cool item on eBay, it can be ANY ITEM for any price because your going to get it for FREE!!

2. Win the item, The Price is irreverent because you’ll get all your $$$ back anyway so bid it up and win.

3. Pay the seller right away through PayPal.

4. Wait for the item to arrive from the seller with tracking or even signature confirmation.

5. When you receive the item in perfect condition, just make us some story about how it’s NOT AS DESCRIBED and file a dispute with eBay for Item Not As Described. Say the item was described as Blue but you received a RED item, etc. just say something and keep your story consistent and say you WANT TO RETURN THE ITEM FOR A REFUND.

6. eBay Seller Protection will force the seller to accept your return and you’ll be required to ship the item back at your cost WITH TRACKING or Signature Confirmation for high priced items.

7. Now it gets sneaky… Instead of shipping the item back, Package up a ROCK or a Phone Book and ship that to the seller with TRACKING or SIGNATURE CONFIRMATION.

8. Once the TRACKING shows the “Package” as been returned to the seller, eBay will issue the BUYER a FULL REFUND!!!

Enjoy your FREE ITEM at the sellers expense!

There is NOTHING the seller can do, they can’t even leave the buyer a NEGATIVE FEEDBACK!!

Welcome to FreeBay 2011.

The Simple solution that will fix eBay is as follows:

1. Go back to the OLD way of doing things on eBay where the site was simply a VENUE and eBay should stay out of the transaction and payment process. All eBay needs to do is provide a Website Venue where people can list items for sale. It’s up to the BUYER to educate themselves about buying from good sellers, etc. If you not skilled enough to find good sellers and protect yourself from fraud then you should not be using eBay.

2. Return feedback to an equal and FAIR system where buyers and sellers can leave feedback.

3. Do Away with the stupid Seller Performance Star System. Feedback is all you need to see how the deals go down. No need for STARS indicating details about the shipping speed and other nonsense.

4. Allow the SELLERS to decide how they want to accept payment. This includes Money Orders or Personal Checks if the seller chooses to accept them. The whole nonsense about Fake Money Orders is just that, nonsense. It’s very easy to verify if a money order is REAL by taking it by the USPS and having them check it in their system before you ship anything.

5. Drop the eBay fees BACK to reasonable rates. eBay is making BILLIONS of dollars, there is no need to be so greedy!!! Just charge a small listing fee and a small final value fee and eBay will still make MILLIONS of dollars per year.

6. GET RID Of the “Best Match” crap!!!! Just show items based on Ending Soonest or Newly Listed, etc. That Best Match is BULL!!!

If you sell on ebay once in a blue moon or have a few items you need to get rid off, use a credit or debit card to register a new account, list your items and then report your card lost so ebay can’t charge you anything.

I recently sold a car for £2000, used the gallery plus, picture size, superpack, subtitles, reserve price etc. Winning bidder came and paid cash for the car. I kept the full £2000 and not a penny went to ebay, I also did the same when I sold a phone and a subwoofer. Had no problems at all. I did put cash on collection so buyer was aware of payment method. Why pay ebay £70 odd quid for listing your car

I’ve done this 3-4 times and theres not a thing ebay can do about it.

Give it a try…good luck

i have a question
what if a buyer doesn’t pay for the item he has bought and then kind of forced to pay cause otherwise ebay will suspend his account.
what if this same buyer will leave you a neg feedback to take revenge on you??
iam afraid to ask for my money..

Buyer just put in ” Buyer Protection” claim against us. We shipped on a Friday and he received on a Sat. and claimed item was Wet and stained. We emailed HIM to send item back if he did not have time to put in shipping claim. . He gave us NEGATIVE feed back saying we are “SCAM Sellers” E-BAY sent us form e-mail to respond to his request for full refund. . .E-bay form letter says decision can take 7 to 10 business days. . . and we may have to pay for item and shipping upon receipt of return from buyer. . .5 SECONDS AFTER I RESPOND I GET -AUTOMATIC FORM LETTER SAYING THEY HAVE REVIEWED CASE AND SIDED WITH BUYER AND GIVEN HIM 100 % Refund. . .Now we are out Item and shipping and $payment. . . THIS IS TRIPLE PENALTY ! ! ! E-bay favors buyer at Seller’s expense. . .we can not warn other sellers of this scam. . . E-bay policy encourages scams to grow unchecked ! ! ! There is no person to complain to on E-bay only e-mail in box with Automatic answer robot. . .We hope a Class Action law-suit gets started to get all of our money back and grief. . .Where are the lawyers ?

You have their address and name. Spend the extra money, go to their house, and beat em up like Jay and Silent Bob! Haha

eBay has gone over the edge! We are a company selling on eBay (2006) for a large clientele in Oklahoma. We have accumulated over 3,000 positive feedbacks, 11 negative feedbacks and no open disputes since inception. At the time we opened our store, there were 5 or 6 other eBay stores all of which are out of business leaving us the only one of its kind in this area. With their new rule of not allowing sellers to respond to negative feedback, it has caused us great angst and money, not to mention the mental anguish. THEY SHUT US DOWN PERMANENTLY due to those negative feedbacks, a few given during a major snowstorm here that shut down all transportation and the airport which made delivery IMPOSSIBLE!!!! eBay didn’t want to hear anything from anyone, simply based their decision entirely on those negative feedbacks. (Has it not occcurred to them that people LIE?) There MUST be opportunity for sellers to respond! We would like to know if anyone else has had such horrific experiences with eBay. We are ready to join a class action suit. I don’t know how, nor have I been able to find a way to contact any of the people above complaining. I welcome any and all comments or suggestions on how to contact people and/or attorneys interested in a class action suit against eBay. WE’VE HAD IT!

eBay has gone completely barking mad! I had a perfect 100% feedback rating of over 1500 and had been using eBay for years but I am no longer willing to pay them a penny.

Simply put eBay has declared war on sellers! Yes, the people who bankroll eBay are being treated with utter contempt by the idiotic management and staff.

1. Buyers can leave positive, neutral or negative feedback, but sellers can only leave positive! WTF? It would be shocking if a deranged adolescent spider monkey had dreamt this one up but its actually true!

2. Detailed Seller Ratings are beyond ridiculous. Of course buyers are going to think they should have paid less for postage & packaging – the vast majority probably have very little experience of posting anything other than standard stamped letter – so they have no idea of what packaging material costs, or how much things cost to post, and of course they don’t even consider the time and cost of driving to the post office!

3. eBay is doing nothing to differentiate in buyer’s minds the different costs that small and medium sellers have to cover compared with the massive corporate sellers who can offer free postage etc due to their economies of scale.

The sad thing is that eBay’s success was due to the small and medium sellers it is now being so hostile to; and I do believe that they have gone so far that they will never be able to regain the lost faith and trust.

eBay will sink into the abyss soon and it thoroughly deserves every bit of pain it suffers….

I sold a top on eBay recently, the top was brand new & I mean brand new, fresh in the cellophane packaging. The buyer sent me loads of volatile messages demanding a refund because it was wasn’t new & was covered in stains, this is not true. They get a refund and my top is returned in the most disgusting state I have ever seen with rips the lot, obviously had a good time in it and then thought oh I will send it back, I’m left completely out of pocket with a top only suitable for the bin and the one thing I could use to make the situation easier to swallow (leaving feedback) has been taken away, absolutely ridiculous!!!

I am fed-up with the blackmailing Ebay feedback system. I have had a store there for 5 years and I am gradually closing it up. I am very sensitive to negative feedback as I worked hard for years for a 100% score and then some ass hole from Australia came along and gave me an unfair negative! It was an un-completed auction! He did not pay for 4 days and when I wrote him he wanted only to pay if I gave him 1/2 shippig to Australia from California. After I sold the item to someone else he wanted it and said he would pay the lousy high shipping cost! I make no money on shipping and will ony ship international express with a tracking number. Anyone who wants to know who he is he is: derekcollectswatches. Of course I spammed him from ever buying or sending me messages. I had also agreed for the sale to be cancelled and it went through as one but Ebay let him do it anyhow. I called them and talked to some low private in the command office and got no results. I am finiahed and closing out my store for good! I ABSOLUTELY HATE EBAY NOW!

I had a deadbeat buyer for a Blackberry, quoth he: “I got one from ebay seller already sorry i want to cancel this deal.” I told him, no, I won’t cancel and expect an unpaid item claim shortly. And I whipped a little feedback on him too, said I was positive he’s a putz. Thanks to whoever suggested that little gem above, by the way. It’s amazing what the sellers on Ebay have to put up with and how little we can do to fight back. I’m tempted to get this little creep’s email address and hack it like a logger in a forest. I’m tempted to start a rival site, one where the seller and the buyer are evenly matched and able to fight things out properly.

even buyers aren’t really protected from being ripped off
i have bought many items that never arrive – i open a dispute and for some stupid reason ebay cancels it – as though i wouldn’t notice
i have literally paid for items that never arrive
items that are fake
sellers that dont tell you everything about the item so if one of three of them is fake they dont state it – they can hide behind the fact that it wasnt stated they were original
i can suggest registered mail but for everything?
its a little stupid really

I have not sold anything on Ebay for a while………

Lately – (May 2011)I had one guy who did not pay. Tried to leave negative feedback for a deadbeat buyer and, well, we all know how that went. I also asked one women win an item, pay, keep the item for five days, and then said she wanted her money back.

For the life of me I can’t understand who the moron over at EBay was who thought of this. You can ruin a seller’s reputation very easy despite the fact that Ebay will, as they say, will “go to bat for you if you are exploited or blackmailed”. Good luck with all that…

Personal anecdotes aside – I am just wondering what is the competing auction site that some of you are using? I know there are specialty sites like the one mentioned here. But, I wondering where the next Ebay is – or might be up and coming…..

Regards..
Robert….

Here’s how eBay works today:

A good honest seller list an item for sale that is very rare, expensive and collectable or impossible to replace. It’s worth around $500 or more.

The auction will run or someone will use Buy It Now and purchase the item, pay right away through PayPal.

Once the seller receives the payment they ship the item in perfect condition to the buyer.

When the buyer receives the item in perfect condition and exactly as described, they go to eBay and file a FALSE Claim that the item is damaged or not as described, etc.

PayPal will IMMEDIATELY FREEZE the $$$$ in the sellers account OR make the sellers account go NEGATIVE.

Whenever someone files a claim with eBay they will FORCE the seller to refund the buyer if the buyer “ships” the item back to the seller.

The buyer simply puts a brick into a box and then ships it back to the seller with a tracking number.

Once the tracking shows the BRICK has arrived, then the money is refunded to the buyer.

There is absolutely NOTHING the seller can do to protect themselves from this type of fraud and it happens ALL THE TIME on eBay now.

eBay is DEAD.

After 14 years of perfect positive feedback, a buyer buys a braille typewriter from me in excellent condition. They receive it and claim it is broken, but poor blind Peter needs a brailler right away, so in good faith, I refund their money immediately on the promise that they will ship the brailler back to me., They send back a different, broken one. Ebay does not care, I receive a negative feedback.
Ebay, how did you think up this new policy? Is there a monkey in charge in there or what?

Just this WEEK alone in listing 10 laptops on Ebay…. FOUR people did not pay.

“Oh, I accidentally bid on the wrong one”

“I DID NOT BID ON THIS, STOP ASKING ME FOR MONEY!!!”

“I’m sorry i was in the hospital and couldn’t pay”

..The other, never said a word.

All the transactions were canceled… Ebay refunded the listing fees automatically, ect. Point is these people now know they can get away with bidding on SEVERAL items at once… and pay for the best deal they get… then don’t pay for the others. Then make up some lie as to why they haven’t paid you.

And it appears that these non-payers…even after auctions have been canceled for non-payment…. can still leave me (the seller) negative feedback.

So much of my time has been wasted because of these people. I’ve been listing some items as “buy it now” with “Make Offer”. I haven’t had a non-payer with that method yet.

It’s very easy. Despite Ebay closes a non-payment case and you cannot leave any feedback anymore, you can still see the buyer’s name and address on your ‘leave feedback’ list (click ‘order details’ after name of item). So just sign him/her up for every possible junk mail you can find on the internet. Might not be a Christian-like behaviour but justice must be done. They waste seller’s time, let’s waste theirs…

strange, i wrote one negative yesterday for ARGOS – they make me to wait a week for a delivery of item wich supposed to be “next working day” delivery :(

Don’t get me started. I’m a stay at home mum and I like to list things as the kids grow out of them etc. I have found the following:

a) the market just really isn’t there anymore. I’ve actually been questioning whether I would have been better off getting a stall at the local markets and selling there.

b) the fees I’ve had to pay are extortionate!

c) I have had 3 NPB this week alone. After delving into one’s feedback, I find she has a history of not paying until day 3 of the NBP and then claims sellers are stalking her! FFS!

d) Putting up with idiots. I said pick up only for a reason – no, I will not post – please don’t bid on it. Bid – wait? wtf?

I could go on and on about people wanting to do back yard deals, cancel auctions, just give them the item because they wanted it more than that person who won it, whine about postage (I always overquote on postage in my auctions), people whine about the postage costs but then equally complain about the method used to get cheaper postage… it’s never ending.

I’m looking into other sites now like QuickSales (formerly Oztion) and I may still yet head to the markets and sell there. Also, I’m thinking of Etsy and just plain old facebook.

*sigh* – it’s beyond annoying and I feel right royally screwed :\

CAN WE HAVE A TOP-20 WINNERS CIRCLE – ‘eBay STINKS CONTEST’: THE WINNER CAN GO TO THEIR OFFICES AND BE PHOTOGRAPHED CAMPING IN A TENT OUTSIDE THEIR FRONT DOORS WAITING TO MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN HIMSELF, THE ALLEGED eBay BOSS OF BOSSES: THIS IS ENTRY NUMBER ONE IN THE eBay STINKS CONTEST SENT FROM LEEDS ENGLAND. 25-08-2011.

ENTRY: My wife wanted to join eBay, we completed the forms together and pressed submit. This attempt was rejected, so we completed the form again using we thought the exact same details and clicked submit. It was accepted. On the second attempt we had made a slight alteration in our preferred trading name, which contained a hyphen. We had tried to register Grafton Warehouses and Grafton-Warehouses. eBay opened both accounts although we knew of only the one account ‘Grafton Warehouses’. My wife then offered four domestic items for sale and they duly appeared on eBay pages.

About two days later she got an email from eBay saying ‘her account had been suspended because fraud was suspected”. My wife is age 66, of good character, an ex-bookkeeper who pays-her-bus fares and gives money to street beggars religiously. She asked eBay for an full explanation of why her account had been suspended but got back a lot of eBay gook speak about “We never reveal our sources of information”, but if you want us to unblock the account send us 6 lots of I.D, passport, photos of the goods your offering for sale, and photos of you [my wife] stood with the goods. Certainly a lot of trouble to have to go to but she complied and emailed them the information requested. EBay claimed it never arrived [we all know it did but this is eBay Cyber-Crackers writing to her from their "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest World HQ", Europe] we then got 3 more requests for this same information which sent and re-sent to them. They got her I.D information four times in all. This proved she hoped that she was not in Lagos, she was English age 66, not an eBay terrorist, and certainly not an unfortunate person whose father, an engineer, had been killed in an air crash leaving $66 m dollars to dispense to the needy. We then got a fifth request for this information saying that what she had sent was illegible and needed to be re-sent. By then she had had enough and asked eBay to close her account. Before making this ‘please close my account now request’ she paid them £36-66 pounds, about $85-00 USA dollars in fees so her account was not in default for unpaid fees. To her annoyance eBay emailed her to say “We cannot close your account because suspended accounts cannot be closed, and if you wish to close it, you first need to reopen it by sending us a fifth lot of I.D and, if your I.D is approved by us we will then re-open the account [remove the suspension] and will then agree to close your account as requested.”.

Is this not a winning entry in the eBay Stinks contest. Please copy this post and paste it all over the web and on Face book especially.

Sell an new item on ebay, receive a message a month later stating item is faulty and want money back, request further information from buyer but receive none, buyer sends a parcel back and obtains full refund from ebay. Buyer not returned item purchased – THIS IS FRAUD BUT APPARENTLY ACCEPTABLE BY EBAY, so to all you budding criminals forget robbing little old ladies and shop on eBay as your protected by eBay’s policies :-) perhaps eBay needs a new slogan, something like we welcome all criminals no matter how qualified, honest sellers beware as we will rip you off, you can off course complain if your luck enough to find someone who can speak and understand English. What a joke Ebay is becoming…… If you are an honest seller, I advise you sell elsewhere. DON’T SELL ON EBAY.

Hi guys, though I’d share my story. I am a teacher, have 4 small children and do eBay and a market stall on the weekend to make ends meet. I spend EVERY night on eBay and do this once the kids are in bed – very hard work, but pays for kids clothes, school trips, Christmas etc. Anyway, just about had it with eBay now as I am finding myself being ‘stiffed’ by buyers in order to protect my feedback. The case below happened last week. I have removed names to avoid causing problems for the buyer (godness knows why though.) Clearly this buyer did not know I couldn’t leave negative feedback, and neither did I until tonight – if she had done, please look at all I did and I could still get bad feedback – how is this fair?

Basically, I sold a £30 babies sleeping bag for 99p. Buyer got a real bargain and I sent out the item as per my description – I only post on a saturday due to work, and use 2nd class Royal Mail as eBay holds the money for up to 21 days. The buyer gets back in contact 14 days later to say she has not got the bag. I have no proof either way, but decide to try and help her. So I email her and offer to send another, taking pics of the ones I still have and letting her choose which one she wants. I have enclosed the real conversations between us – but removed email addresses for obvious reasons.

ME: Here are the pics of the bags – the yellow and white one is the same colour scheme as Winnie the Pooh but is a hedgehog one. The 3D rabbit one and Pink Grobag are both sadly 0-6 months. The pink sleeping bag has been in the loft and has some marks on the front as you can see. I have applied my trusty VANISH and it’s in the washing machine as we speak :)

BUYER: Hi I need 6 to 12 as the 0to6 are to small. The yellow one I will have please

ME: No problem, I have packed it for you and will send it on monday (this email was sent late on saturday night) -enjoy :)

All going well up to this point I am sure you will agree – I get nothing out of this 2nd bag being sent and am now out of pocket. On wednesday, I received this message from the buyer.

BUYER: hi i still havnent recieved any of the sleeping bags and i no it does not take this long. i am sorry but i have no option to report you and leave you negative feedback if i do not hear from you as soon as possible please email me as i do not get a chance to get on computer until a night time.

ME: Hi, here is the proof of postage to confirm that indeed the parcel was sent on monday as promised – I even got out of work early in order to do so. The pic also confirms that the parcel was sent 1st class, so I have no idea why you had not received by yesterday/today – I’m really not sure what else I can do regarding the delay, as as I explained before, I have sent in good faith and can’t explain why Royal Mail, despite me paying for the service, have failed to deliver to you – you can see it is on it’s way and should be with you any day.

BUYER: Hi I can see you posted it and I never doubted that but I have paid for something I haven’t received

ME: I understand and I will be chasing again with Royal Mail for you, but I do believe leaving me negative feedback for something that is clearly not my fault, is very unfair. I really have bent over backwards to try and resolve a problem not of my doing. The parcel I think MUST arrive, as ok for one to go missing in the post, but the chances of this happening with two are very remote – you must be cheesed off and I do sympathise as I feel the same, it’s all so frustrating.

BUYER: Well I won’t be buying anything else off you as it seems I have been ripped off altho you have proof it should have arrived by now. I am going to have to leave feedback as not received and it is not my fault either

ME: I’m sorry but I think that is so unfair and will have no alternative but to do the same for you if you do – I can’t have my customers thinking I don’t try my best if problems occur that are not my fault. It is clear I have done nothing wrong and am also out of pocket and have lost two items. You can see the problem lies with Royal Mail and
you can’t say that I haven’t dealt with the item going missing, I sent you a replacement and even let you choose which one you wanted. What will leaving me bad feedback achieve? If I had ignored you, not dealt with the missing item etc I would understand, but clearly that has not been the case. I’m sorry but I don’t understand your anger with me when I have done everything I can to help you. Royal Mail are the ones that have let is both down.

BUYER: So what your saying is to just forget about it and forget I paid money for an item I haven’t recived. Ok well thanks so much for your time your going to leave me bad feedback when I paid straight away there is obviously something going wrong at your end this is not my fault

ME: No, of course that is not what I am saying. I have agreed with you all along that this is unacceptable – My only worry is that your emails have become increasingly hostile towards myself – who like you is not responsible for this situation – which I reiterate again is clearly caused by Royal Mail. You can see a parcel was sent from myself to you on monday, I have no control over the postal system. I have paid my money to send it and after that I am afraid there is nothing I can do, in terms of helping it reach you, they are the experts in that department. Well, at least one would think until this whole episode began.

I also have no desire to leave anybody bad feedback and despite having an eBay account years ago (to which I can no longer remember the password, which is linked to a defunct email address, least I would be using it) I have never left, not received bad feedback.

You are clearly very angry, again I don’t blame you. From your point of view you have paid, and waited for a very long time for a sleeping bag that your little one could benefit from now, consider the turning weather – I fully understand this. I also agree with your last email, which states that clearly there is an issue – however, what I don’t agree with, is that this is at my end – I do however believe (given the evidence of the proof of postage emailed to you today) that the fault lies with Royal Mail. Neither you, nor I have done anything wrong here, and at present have both lost out – you on the sleeping bag you have paid for – and I as I have had to send out a replacement to you, cancelling out the profit from your original sale. At present we are both in a lose-lose situation.

I have accepted quite a while ago that there would be no financial gain from this sale for myself, but I still consoled myself with the knowledge that a satisfactory conclusion could be met by you receiving a replacement and the gaining of another positive feedback achieved. As I am not the person lacking in morals that you are increasingly intimating you believe me to be – I do actually care. If not, why else would I bother seeking out replacement bags, photographing and emailing them to you – getting out of work early and sending them to you?

For what it is worth I do believe this second parcel will reach you – if only because I find the chances of two items, between the same two people, going missing in the post, simply inconceivable. Nor is not my intention to simply sit back and say it is no longer my concern, nobody in your position should be left out of pocket. Having spoken to the Post Office about your previous parcel, they have clearly stated that until the item has been ‘missing’ for a certain length of time – they do not consider it lost. I am putting in a complaint to Royal Mail and will be more that happy to copy you in on it so you can see that this is indeed something I do take seriously and will be asking them to refund the cost of the first missing bag and the recent postage to myself (therefore I am even) and adding a gesture of goodwill to the customer of mine that this affected, you.

You say you believe that the problem is at my end – I don’t believe it matters at which end the postal system is not working, the main point is that both you and I have paid for a service from them, and as yet neither have received anything for the money we paid. I believe we should, considering we are both victims of their incompetence, act together in demanding to know why, and demand from them some form of recompense for this situation. What do you say – are you with me on this?

I never heard from her again – what annoyed me most is that she could still leave negative feedback when I had done all I had done and tbh I had no prrof that she did not receive the first parcel, I just trusted her word. This, and other cases, have left me very dejected about the whole eBay experience – how would you have handled the situaton?

I’m going through an ordeal now as I type. I had someone who can barely speak English buy $160 worth of items from me, a total of 8. I packaged them up neatly, each in bubble wrap, then into a medium flat rate box, then space filled with packing peanuts. I then get a complaint claiming all 8 batteries arrived “not as described” but broken and destroyed. That box would have had to be ran over for that to happen. So now here I sit weeks later with $160 taken from my paypal account leaving it in the negative. I was selling a bunch of my stuff to afford christams gifts for my children and starting early as I was laid off a month ago and it is going to be a rough holiday season. Well it’s getting even worse since that money WAS going to go to buy my 2 year old daughter a bunch of Dora stuff. Now I’m left here struggling to find more of my things to sell to make money to buy presents. I’m truly heart broken going through one of the hardest times in my marriage with the stress of picking what bills to pay each month and now I’m being scammed by someone. Oh and I just got my first negative feedback in 10 years from them.

I feel your pain, I only lost a sale, and it is frustrating so I can only imagine.
I had a buyer with 0 feedback win one of my auctions, of course after he bought the item he decided he didn’t read the title which clearly said “for parts not working” and just simply said, “hey bro, I didn’t know it didn’t work, sorry never mind” sure, now I have to repost it again, he will not even do his part to cancel the transaction and I can’t even leave him negative feedback.
No one should have to deal with this idiot, now that you can’t leave negative feedback there is no way to warn anyone of this.

I haven’t sold on ebay for a year or so and just realized the not being able to leave negative feedback for a buyer plus ebay doesn’t use UPS a their shipping. I sold something that was marked pick up only. This buyer bought the same item from three people and didn’t pay any of them. I lost all faith in ebay. Hopefully someone will come up with some competition to them and start another website. ebay cannot be the monooply any longer.

Sellers! Leave your negative comments under the Positive feedback.
No Way can Ebay trawl through thousands of comments per day. SPREAD THE WORD and lets make Ebay safe for Sellers as well!

Leave neg feedback in positive feedback column for now. The send letter to the FInancial Ombudsman. If enough of us complain they’ll have to do something.

GET THIS….!!!
Recently sold and shipped a new $30 item.
Buyer emailed me saying he realized that he “didn’t need it” and “ordered it by mistake”.
Always fearful of negative feedback, I told him if he returned it I’d refund his money in FULL, including shipping.
He did… but it was opened, and missing the original packaging. NO LONGER IN SELLABLE CONDITION.
Is THAT not a “BAD” buyer?????
And I can only leave him positive feedback.
B.S.!!!!!!

By the way… eBay states that it is a policy violation to write anything negative when giving buyer positive feedback.

I have been busting my tail off to acheive good feedback. I was shipping in the shipping time line and with all do respect wasn’t good enough. So my feedback score went down sudden and fast. Although the buyers were paying for this slow shipping. Then i did what i call speed shipping. And after several months and several positive feedbacks Ebay insists on keeping me at 97.8 percent feedback. Also had one buyer complain item not as described.Said it was broke. So i told him to send back and receive full refund. He insisted on keeping item and Ebay opened case against me. Finally after he didn’t return the item Ebay refunded the money back to me.But said he won the case.What is going on here? is there a posillbility they keep a large handfull of people at bay to collect interest on the money pending because of low feedback. To whom it may concern.

It’s interesting reading these comments…they just keep trickling in even four years after the news hit.

I’ve only bought on ebay and never sold, so here is a buyer’s perspective: In the old days, ebay came down hard on non-paying buyers and shut down accounts over it, but non-sending sellers had carte blanche to do whatever they wanted, so long as they sold frequently enough on ebay to make them money. This atmosphere made it extremely difficult for buyers to bid with confidence, because they could very easily pay money – never to see it again – and end up with nothing. In contrast, sellers who got stuck with a non-paying buyer only had to start a new auction for the item and try again, and that’s the worst that would really happen to them.

Over time, ebay started to pay more attention to buyers who were screwed over, but that didn’t stop me from getting screwed out of $350 twice in a row by two different sellers:
One had a fair amount of feedback (100-ish?) and almost 100% positive, but he sent the wrong item (a cheaper one). He agreed to a refund when I called him on it, and figuring that was that, I tried again with another seller. Meanwhile, the first seller claimed I tampered with the cheaper item after he received it still in its original shrinkwrap. Little did I know, he chose that moment to screw over a dozen or so other buyers, and the negatives started flooding in. I should note that the auction originally stated that he would only accept Paypal, but he changed his terms afterward and demanded USPS money order. That should have been a red flag, but I was inexperienced and relied on his feedback score to tell me he was legit…I never did receive my money back, despite opening a case with ebay, a case with Squaretrade, and a mail fraud complaint with the USPS. I held off giving negative feedback for a while though, because I’m a casual user (still only 10 feedback), and I’d be crushed by a single retaliatory negative. I never did get the chance to leave a negative, since his account was closed down first.

I mentioned that I decided to buy the item from another seller: This guy had only a small amount of feedback (15-ish?), but all of it was positive. He never sent it at all. Suddenly, a dozen or so negative feedbacks rolled in all at once. I opened another complaint with ebay and this time Paypal (I learned my lesson), but Paypal gave him ten days notice before putting a hold on his account. I’m sure I looked like the boy who cried wolf, considering I was a total newbie who had already filed a complaint before, but their delay wasn’t personal; it was simply their policy. I warned the Paypal rep on the phone that the guy would simply withdraw his money and disappear, since he was screwing so many people, but they couldn’t do anything about it (and God forbid they’d take it upon themselves to reimburse me and go after his funds themselves from a position of strength). By the time ebay and Paypal ruled in my favor and closed his account, it was just a formality. I never got my money back.

These were not fly-by-night seller accounts: They were both around for a decent amount of time (maybe a couple years?) before deciding to screw people en masse. The first had a long track record of performance, and the second had a slow but steady trickle of positives. I still got screwed out of over $700, after only having used ebay a handful of times. Was I unlucky? Yes, I’m sure. Nevertheless, I’m a “newbie with a feedback score of 10″ today (as Anonymous from March 10, 2010 at 9:06 PM would say), so you can imagine how much of an easy target I was when my feedback score was ~3 or so.

I still only use ebay on occasion, but my experiences in recent years have been much more positive: I always finalize payment with Paypal within three minutes of winning an auction, and so far the worst sellers I’ve dealt with in recent years are one that sold me an item on backorder (but eventually delivered a month later) and another who failed to disclose an issue with a used item. I still left positive feedback (with caveats), since they were communicative and helpful, but I feel MUCH more confident now knowing that I have the ability to leave a negative without retaliation, and I feel MUCH more confident knowing ebay/Paypal have been better at going after refunds from non-performing sellers.

I’m a competent and honest buyer, and I don’t try to game the system, and sellers today are receiving more of my money because I can bid with greater confidence than before. Nevertheless, I understand the frustration that competent and honest sellers feel with unscrupulous buyers: Just like there are unscrupulous “sellers” trying to screw buyers out of their money, I fully believe there are unscrupulous “buyers” trying to obtain refunds for items they’ve already received. (I also consider that a much bigger problem than non-paying buyers: Sellers with 1000 feedback have that much because they’ve successfully completed a lot of auctions; having to relist one every once in a while is far less damaging than losing your money or item entirely to a scammer.)

I know the current situation is frustrating for sellers, but I wrote this to offer some balance to the discussion: There’s a reason ebay has changed their policies so many times. They’re continually experimenting and looking for a formula that works and minimizes scams. Just a few years ago, there was a serious problem with unscrupulous sellers retaliating for negative feedback and holding positive feedback hostage if buyers didn’t leave a positive. These tactics were far more damaging to buyers with a half-dozen feedback than the current system is to sellers with 1000 feedback and their own ebay stores. They also undermined confidence in the whole system, because nobody can tell good sellers from bad ones when buyers are too afraid to tell the truth about their experiences. Is it possible some earlier buyers could have warned me about the two sellers who screwed me, if they weren’t too afraid to leave feedback? Is it possible I could have warned some of the people who got scammed in the same time period?

I agree with the sellers here that there’s an imbalance in the feedback system: Sellers DO need a way of indicating when “buyers” don’t pay, and they DO need a way of indicating when “buyers” run refund scams. However, returning to the previous system is untenable, because it created far more serious problems. Instead of letting sellers leave unrestricted negative feedback, there are certain alternatives ebay could follow:
- At least when Paypal is involved, ebay knows how long it takes for each buyer to pay. They could statistically track the average and maximum lengths of time that each buyer has waited to pay for a Paypal-required auction, and they could advertise that on each buyer’s feedback page. They could also introduce mechanisms that allow sellers to programmatically block buyers with sketchy payment histories, as well as opening buyers up to negative feedback from a seller after they go for e.g. over 2 days without payment.
- ebay also knows when buyers open up complaints with ebay, with Paypal, etc. As soon as a buyer opens a complaint or a refund attempt, perhaps it would be appropriate for ebay to let the seller make unrestricted comments in that buyer’s feedback.

These are just brainstorming ideas, but I think this kind of approach could help attack non-paying buyers and scammers without returning to the world of retaliatory feedback and low buyer confidence in whether a seller’s feedback is meaningful or not.

I may not have been clear above, so let me revise my remarks:
- ebay also knows when buyers open up complaints with ebay, with Paypal, etc. As soon as a buyer opens a complaint or a refund attempt, perhaps it would be appropriate for ebay to let the seller make ***negative feedback and*** unrestricted comments in that buyer’s feedback.

Usually, a buyer should only be required to pay quickly (and hopefully give positive feedback after receiving their item intact), and that’s the extent of their involvement. If they pay quickly and never open up a case, a seller should have no legitimate reason to leave negative feedback.

However, things do become much more complicated once they fail to pay or open up a case with ebay, so it makes total sense to give sellers more leverage to brutally hammer the buyer’s feedback at that point. It’s a shame that sellers can’t say the buyer refused to pay for a week when ebay can easily corroborate the non-payment probably 99% of the time, and it’s a shame that sellers can’t publicly warn other sellers about buyers who open up frivolous or fraudulent complaints.

Another thought: Although non-paying bidders aren’t as much of a problem as refund scammers, ebay has in fact created a mechanism shield sellers against deadbeats: Second chance offers let sellers give the next-highest bidder (i.e. the highest “real” bidder) a second chance to complete the transaction.

Personally, I think they do it incorrectly though: The second chance offer uses the buyer’s maximum bid AFAIK, which they may no longer be willing to pay. Instead, the buyer/seller should be able to negotiate for a selling price between the buyer’s maximum bid and their “actual bid” before the deadbeat winning bidder even entered the picture.

Ebay and PP both suck just plain and simple. Taking away the feedback option for sellers was a low blow. It also gives deadbeat bidders more reason not to pay because they arent really reprimanded when they dont. Also PP holding of funds if you have less 100 feedback is ridiculous and a way for them to earn interest on your money

I have had so many items have to wait through the no-pay process so it will officially close and I feel safe relisting the item.

I had a seller leave me neutral feedback because my used copy of FF13 did not include the manual. Nowhere in the description, title, or pictures was there any indication the manual would be included; only this case and game discs. Notice the open box I showed you with only a disc inside?

I had a non paying buyer, and i was shocked that i could not leave negitive feedback!!! WTF

As an experience ebayer of some 15 years (837 100% positive feedbacks) I recently sold a Victorian sofa to a newbie. At her time of bidding she had 1 feedback. My listing was crystal clear in that the sofa had to be collected by a certain date to make space for the new sofa. (Small house – one sofa in, one sofa out). She bid, she won, she paid – and then radio silence. My new sofa duly arrived and had to be stored in the kitchen. After a fortnight of (polite) chasing she finally bothered to reply and spat out that her house move had been delayed. Her conveyancing cock-ups are surely not my problem… Another week went by and eventually she sent a Man with a Van to pick up the sofa despite having been told that it would need 2 men. So my partner and I had to take a day off work to help get the sofa loaded up. Six weeks later the ungrateful bint posts me a blunt Neutral feedback on Ebay. The sly nasty little minx knew only too well that as a seller Ebay now prevented me from giving her any feedback at all if it wasn’t entirely positive – despite the fact that they get 100% of their revenue from sellers! Beats me too! Ebay – you’ve messed up and are killing your golden geese sellers. Are you entirely mad?!

I sold a set of 4 wheels with Tyres, arranged for the buyer to collect them.The day of collection a van turned up two guys loaded them and as I went out to collect payment they drove off.Now I’m not saying it was the buyer who took them.. but I rang them and they accused me of selling them on at a higher price.I informed the police of the theft, the “buyer” got a visit and I got -1 feedback because of it.450 feedback at 100% with 1 negative takes it down to 97% what a load of bollocks and scumbay dont want to know! I dont even usually sell on ebay I buy…
WHERES THE JUSTICE?
PS I left them positive feedback with a touch of sarcasm, its all you can do just now.

Today was the last time I’ve ever used eBay for selling my stuff. There is NO PROTECTION for the sellers…

Had negative feedback left for me due to slow post….left him the following

Moaned almost as much as he did last night with his boyfriend…..late post fool

Follow up by site_22 (23-Aug-12 22:29):
LOOK ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ He loves it

:OP

Sold an RC part on ebay. Waited 5 days for payment nothing. Sent email asking when payment is due. They replied I don’t need it now. Went to leave negative feedback and there is no option. i also have 100% feedback but can’t leave anything negative as it will affect my feed back when they make up lies. I would like to tell ebay ‘See You Next Tuesday’. If you get my drift. Im will sell my last few items on ebay then seek my revenge.

This policy is ridiculous. I recently had a buyer who paid promptly but then the item arrived damaged in shipping (obvious shipping fault). The item was insured for the cost of replacing it at retail but the buyer refused to file a claim because he was going traveling in a few week (what your plans three weeks from now has to do with filing a claim I don’t know). He left negative feedback and then continually harassed me. Buyer feedback allows me to let other sellers know that just because they are prompt payers doesn’t mean they are good customers…most sellers aren’t large stores, we’re just everyday people with a few unwanted items laying around. I had to eat the loss and I don’t even have the option to note that he refused to follow the listings rules (which very clearly stated no-refunds and shipping insurance was provided for just this reason). I’m done with Ebay – apparently it’s only good for the buyer so no more sellers fees for me… Ebay can wonder where their profit went when 90% of their customers are buyers who use the site for free. You’d think given the fact that we are the ones who pay the fees they would be a little more fair – or at least equal out the playing field…how about no feedback for anyone ever??!! I’m headed to Craig’s List where at least I’m on the same footing with buyers.

Um, to those who think they can use the positive feedback bubble choice and then leave written negative feedback.. THINK AGAIN. It is 100% against ebay policy. Sellers are now left unprotected due to this policy while buyers remain even more protected. I am more of a buyer than a seller, in fact, in the 5 years I’ve been on ebay, I’ve only been a seller once.. and that was last year (2012).

Even I don’t agree with the policy. How does a buyer, know that a seller feels confident in the transaction. I have 100% positive feedback because I EARNED it! I have 100% positive feedback because I pay less than seconds after clicking the “commit to buy” button. And for me as a person who strives to have a perfect rating, it makes me upset that some crappy buyer can have the same rating as me and constantly screw over sellers.

When I was a seller, I came across one such buyer.. and sure, you can report them to ebay, but how can you leave something everyone can see on their account, that will warn other sellers to beware, that this person is a fraud, that this person will email you and say your item didn’t work and ask for more, because they feel like a moron for spending $40.00 on a giga pet. Only to stop communicating when you tell them “you’ll have to pay for return shipping, send the so called broken item back, and then also pay for shipping on the new item.”

It’s people like that, that make it more apparent that ebay should allow sellers to leave negative feedback should it be appropriate. But, if they want to prevent retaliation feedback, negative feedback should only be allowed after a UPI is filed and then closed due to non-payment, and/or proof of suspicious communications of a buyer trying to get freebies from a seller by being dishonest. Then that should unlock the negative feedback option for sellers to leave on buyer accounts. I support this more as a buyer than a seller, as I said before I EARNED my positive feedback, I didn’t get it because of ebay’s relatively new and stupid feedback policy.

In the real word, business owners are protected just as much, if not more than consumers, and ebay shouldn’t be any different. Both buyer and seller should be equally protected on ebay.