Rarevids writes:
I have been selling on ebay for nearly 2 decades. I use to love it. Over the last decade, all of their policy changes heavily favor buyers. Sellers cannot leave negative feedback, and we cannot stop non-paying bidders from bidding on our auctions. This has turned into a huge hassle and a waste of my time and money. So much so that I have stopped using ebay for EVERYTHING besides the stuff I can't sell any other way... Broken video game consoles. If ebay was still fair, I would sell 20x more items including high end collectibles, but ebay is not fair.
Rarevids writesRemember when ebay was fair??? Those days are long gone...
I write in every one of my auctions, "Bidders with less than 5 feedback, contact us before bidding or your bid will be cancelled." Of course this does not stop bidders who obviously do not read the auctions from bidding. So I have to police my listings and block anyone who doesn't follow the rules. I had 3 items that ended yesterday. I blocked 7 users from my auctions throughout the week. Still, bidders with low feedback bid at the last minute. All 3 items sold, but I only got paid for 1. That is 67% failure rate on my auctions, because ebay decided to take away the bidding rule that would have blocked these bidders from bidding. Now I have to file non-paying bidders with them, wait a week and then post my auctions again in hopes that a real buyer will finally win the auction and pay. I have had to list some items up to 4 times before I get a paying buyer.
Last night I called ebay to get answers. They acted like they didn't know what I was talking about and gave me the run around for an hour. They said they would forward my concern to the technical department, but it seemed to me like they were just trying to get me off the phone. I do not expect to hear from the technical department.
The way I see it is that ebay should stand behind their policies or change them. By standing by their policies,
I mean put their money where their mouth is. I feel that if ebay is not going to allow me to block these non-paying bidders, which I already know are not going to pay, they should pay for my auctions that do not get paid for. I really only post 5 items per week on average. I will keep a running "tab" throughout the year this year to see how much ebay owes me at the end and how many times I have had to deal with non-paying bidders this year.
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eBay CHANGES FEEDBACK. HERE'S WHY SELLERS HATE IT by Ina Steiner
“eBay is making a change to its feedback system that some sellers say slants the playing field even more in buyers' favor.
"Previously, sellers and buyers could only leave feedback of up to 80 characters," eBay announced on Friday. "We realize that's often not enough space to include important details, so we're increasing our feedback fields to allow a maximum of 500 characters."
If eBay was patting itself on the back, users quickly disabused it of the notion they would welcome the change.
"Feedback shouldn't be a novel," one seller replied on Facebook.
When a moderator said they appreciated the feedback and wrote, "We wanted to give buyers and sellers the opportunity to be able to express their feedback in a more detailed way," another seller pointed out the sticking point”
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This post added 15/06/21
A user writes:
I write as a veteran user of 11 years with 1,852 positive feedbacks. On the face of it, a reasonable performance which on the face of it suggests I have nothing to complain about. However, this is not the entire story.
Maybe your experiences are similar to my own? Read on and let’s see.
My gripe, in a nutshell and based on direct personal experience is that my perception is that when it comes to issues of resolution, ebay’s default position is first to take the side of the buyer.
Now then, it is certainly the case that there are unscrupulous sellers AND buyers and these need to be dealt with efficiency and impartially; no doubt about it. However …
My 1,852 positives is hard-won and of late … increasingly so.
Within the 1,852 I have been engaged [a polite term which does not fully describe the nature of some buyers’ attitudes and behaviours]. From memory I have successfully challenged NINE demands varying [all of which were eventually found in my favour] from what I perceived then and still do as covert blackmail, deceit, vexatious observations and more. Let me set out a few direct personal experiences:
1: Equipment not as described. My detailed images proved this to be incorrect
2: Covert attempts to blackmail the 100% positive feedback via vexatious negative feedback comments. My appeals were eventually upheld.
You get the idea I’m sure. Anyway I am now seriously closing my ebay seller’s account. There are viable alternatives, a far less cost [both mentally and financially]
So in conclusion, am I being unrealistic / paranoid about my perception that ebay is, in disputes resolution, prejudiced against sellers? Thank you.
