eBay has really got their work cutout for themselves this time. They have decided, as expected, that it’s time to block sellers from leaving neutral or negative feedback for buyers. Oh, and to make matters even worse they are now counting neutral feedback left by buyers as a negative when calculating the feedback score, which is sure to drop the score of many sellers. A lot of sellers have turned the other cheek when eBay has jacked up their fees, but I think this move could very well be the tipping point.
I was reading through the eBay forum and sellers are already complaining about the negative feedback they are receiving. One instance in particular occurred from a new member who was going around purchasing things at random, and then instantly leaving negative feedback. That member was obviously suspended from eBay, and the negative feedbacks were removed, but this is the type of nonsense that sellers will now have to deal with. Plus there’s always the possibility of extortion, but eBay supposedly has that under control:
If a buyer uses the threat of negative Feedback to demand more than what was promised in the item description (e.g. wants overnight delivery but only paid for standard delivery) the seller should immediately report the buyer to eBay.
If there is clear evidence of extortion eBay will take action typically on a first offense. If a buyer shows a pattern of malicious behavior, eBay will most likely suspend the buyer. If we suspend the buyer, any negative or neutral Feedback the buyer has left for sellers will be removed.
I’m not a huge fan of what they’re doing here, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a large number of sellers looking for other alternatives.
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).
If only all buyers did their job as simply as you just made it sound, it would be great! For about a year, Ryan and I ran an eBay business for a guy who did it as his living. We sold and shipped hundreds of items every single week. Just as there are bad sellers, there too are bad buyers.
To give you an idea of the “bad buyers” out there, we had those who simply wouldn’t pay, those who complained shipping was too slow when items were shipped the day of or the day following the purchase (just to try and get money back), those who made unreasonable demands, those who didn’t read the auction completely and then complained about what they received and demanded partial or full refunds (even though it was clearly stated in a listing), and the list goes on.
Now that we just sell an item or two on occasion, we don’t really run into these issues but for those who sell hundreds and thousands of items regularly like we did, you really run into all kinds of buyers who aren’t honest. After my experience dealing with a select handful of buyers who proved to be a nightmare, sellers should be able to leave negative feedback for buyers so that other sellers are warned about potential problems just as negative feedback for sellers warns other buyers.
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.