Anybody else considering closing there ebay account?

[Roger G.]

I'm closing mine after my auctions end in 3 days...I'm tired of these half bleep buyers who want to neg you even after you have refunded them and have 2-3 emails on problems and everything seems to be working.

There is NO sellers protection at all and i'm for one am sick and tired of there CRAP!

I will stick to selling on trading sites/flea markets/craigslist

 

[mrmopar]

Perhaps the problem is not ebay, but you? I have never had to refund anybody their money. Are you not selling items as described? Not packaging properly? What is causing the need to refund money? I know we had deals on ebay as well as on here. I seem to remember the only issue was a delayed shipping time, which doesn't bother me as long as I eventually get the items.

In reality, ebay still provides the best expose for your money. Unfortunately for those who don't like it, excluding ebay will hurt your sales efforts until something better comes along and replaces it.

 

[Roger G.]

I see your point,but ebay is just extra funds for me and a hobby.I'm slow on shipping sometimes and i admit that,but i'm a single parent and work 40+ hrs a week,so family comes 1st!

And i'm always in communcation with the buyers.I offer free shipping on most of my items and still have recieved 1 and 2's for shipping and handling.My problem someone bought a lowend item from me and i mailed it,they said they never got it..I exchanged 2 emails through ebay stating if they hadn't recieved the item by today,i would refund them.

So today i come on to ebay to see a neg from him.Now he was fine with the refund and i told him it would be about 5:00pm when i can issue a refund.I just think it is crap that a buyer would do that whan a seller is bending over to make it right.

And if you think that ebay protects there sellers,then you are just a lucky one.

 

[sandman43103]

eBay protects sellers very well...when they accept Paypal and use DC for shipping and ship within 7 days.

Do all those and I doubt you'll ever see a buyer claim the didn't receive an item.

 

[Roger G.]

That might work most of the time,but i know a lot of sellers that have the same complains as i do...I can't count how many times i have used d.c. and the card was delivered within 3-4 days and the buyer waits 12-14 days to leave feedback and give me 1's or 2's on shipping time and charges when i had to pay out of pocket for the shipping.

 

[mrmopar]

There are bad apples out there as buyers and sellers. Hopefully we will all be lucky enough to miss MOST of them. I think everyone will be a victim at one point or another. It's the risk of dealing with direct people and not businesses.

As far as selling, I am pretty flexible with sellers who don't ship right away. I am in no hurry to get my items. However, I would think that most buyers have certain expectations when they are spending money and unfortunately, sellers can't use excuses. If it's not clear in your item description, then it's not a valid excuse. You might consider adding that you only ship once weekly and state that date and then make sure you achieve that goal. Buyers can't expect you to ship an item in a couple of days if you only ship Fridays and their payment arrives on a Saturday. They'll have a 6 day wait and they know it.

The fees are part of doing business I'm afraid. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. Keeping a site like this running costs money and those fees are what pays the bills. If your personal website were to allow other traders to use it, you'd probably quickly find that your provider is either asking you to upgrade to a fee level account or will boot you. At the same time, the exposure for others and yourself is minimal.

The reality is if this is a hobby for you, then you must treat it like a hobby and use hobby based outlets to sell/trade, which will keep costs to a minimum. If you want to act like a business, you'll need to run it like a business and that will cost more money.

Good luck either way.

 

[mintman2]

The fees are part of doing business I'm afraid. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.

How SAD of a statement is that !!!!!!!!

Originally ebay made it easy for EVERYONE, kept it simple, and charged a reasonable fee. Now they're just another bloated bueracratic corporation that has in essence a monopoly, thinks they know what's right for everyone, and will charge (gouge) whatever they want until someone else comes along to challenge them. I use them because there's no better option right now.

 

[Applegate]

I quit ebay and paypal several years ago and I don't plan going back to either.

Gary

 

[clinton]

I have no intention of shutting myself out of the best place to find stuff for my PC.

 

[mrmopar]

That is exactly why they are the best option. There isn't a better option and there may never be a better option. More people use ebay than any other site, like it or not. Others have come and gone and so far, none have ousted ebay. Are the fees that unreasonable for selling your item on a site that draws millions?

There are other card sites that offer you "better" terms for selling I suppose, but do you get the traffic at those sites? I'd guess no.

Ebay didn't start out huge, it took time to build word of mouth and reputation. Other sites could do this, but it's the buyers who need to be supportive of these sites to make it work. If sellers are willing to take a little less than if it were sold on ebay, maybe...

I use them because there's no better option right now.

 

[mindbinge]

If you have to refund anyone's money, first you should cancel the auction...then they can't hit you with a negative...once they agree to cancel the auction then refund the paypal...pretty safe and simple...just did it with an R2D2 cooler that I sold a guy then ended up the UPS store wouldn't ship it...so i just told the guy what was up, he said cool just send a refund...i said cool i will cancel the auction then refund it...he said cool...all is done and well.

 

[Roger G.]

When they took the right for sellers to leave a Negative,it went down hill...People can bid on a card and win and you wait 7 days and no payment and 1-2 reminders with no reponse and then you have to open a dispute with ebay for you to wait even longer to get paid,if at all and they slap the buyer with a unpaid item strike!

That is a joke and very sad at the same time.

 

[mrmopar]

It is a similar wait and process for buyers being cheated by sellers. I have had to file many claims against flaky sellers and the only difference is that I could leave a negative. After 3 negatives a seller is still jerking people around. However, once a buyer gets 3 NPB strikes, they are NARU'd. There is protection for sellers (Paypal, DC, etc). The only protection for buyers is if they use PP.

The inability to retaliate against honest buyers who are displeased with a crappy seller is what that policy was all about. No matter how each member wants to spin it personally, that was the reason and I think it was a good decision. Too many sellers would simply hold off leaving feedback for buyers until they got their positive and this included those sellers who shipped slow, sent items poorly packaged, didn't send items as described, etc. If they got anything less than positive, guess what...the buyer got the same mark OR WORSE sometimes, even if they were model buyers! That is the whole reason I don't leave sellers positive feedback even today unless they leave it for me first. It started before the policy, but since the policy I have strengthened my belief that sellers who can't/won't leave feedback for a buyer when they receive payment do not deserve it at all. The reality is that sellers need feedback to build their reputation. Buyers don't. You can argue that these new policies make for an uneven playing field, but I would feel pretty confident to argue that there are more lousy sellers than buyers, even today.

 

[Ahmanfan]

As Storm from CU would say, selling 'tiny money' items on ebay is a bad idea.

I see your point,but ebay is just extra funds for me and a hobby.I'm slow on shipping sometimes and i admit that,but i'm a single parent and work 40+ hrs a week,so family comes 1st!

And i'm always in communcation with the buyers.I offer free shipping on most of my items and still have recieved 1 and 2's for shipping and handling.My problem someone bought a lowend item from me and i mailed it,they said they never got it..I exchanged 2 emails through ebay stating if they hadn't recieved the item by today,i would refund them.

So today i come on to ebay to see a neg from him.Now he was fine with the refund and i told him it would be about 5:00pm when i can issue a refund.I just think it is crap that a buyer would do that whan a seller is bending over to make it right.

And if you think that ebay protects there sellers,then you are just a lucky one.

 

[superpieman]

The inability to retaliate against honest buyers who are displeased with a crappy seller is what that policy was all about.

i think this works both ways. now we as sellers have no way to defend ourselves against crappy buyers. we can get a negative and yet if they pay late or do something to make an unpleasant transaction the most we can do is not leave feedback. i have a suggestion that i think would eliminate the problem. reinstate sellers being able to leave negative or neutral feedback, but make it so feedback cannot be viewed by either party until they have both left feedback. that way they can leave there honest assesment of the transaction without fear or retalitory negative feedbacl.