eBay reporting options suck

[r4vi]

I take issue with eBay's options for reporting.

I report a fair number of items every month.  I do this due to listing violations such as offering a vehicle for sale and "reserve the right to end this auction as it is for sale elsewhere" - which is a direct violation of the seller agreement.

I bought an item which did not come in the configuration listed in the item description.  How the hell do I report this?  How do I make eBay aware of the inaccuracy and misleading nature of the item description?

Do eBay care in the least?

I find a lot of problems with items where I KNOW the information provide is contradictory, misleading or fraudulent.  If I report them, I have no chance to leave a comment as to WHY they are such, I have to leave it up to the eBay "investigation team" to make a deliberation without them having the knowledge that I have.

I'm expected to pick from a few dropdown lists, and then leave it up to eBay.  Which invariably results in NOTHING happening.

I reported an engine I saw listed as "will bolt into a Pajero with no modifications or changes" - it was a Mitsubishi motor, but to fit it to a Pajero would require a LOT of changes, including a custom made sump.  I contacted the seller and they ignored me, so I reported it to eBay.  But they don't know the seller is incorrect, and they didn't contact me to find out why I listed it.  End result?  The seller sold his engine, probably to a Pajero owner, who just bought a motor that will cost them a small fortune to adapt to fit.

I won a BA Falcon XR6 Turbo in an eBay auction for $10000.  The seller straight afterwards contacted me and told me he wanted $14000 or I couldn't have it.  It ended up that we talked on the phone and he told me he sold it and so "sucked in" and "you are in another state so you can't touch me".  I reported him, tried to take the seller to task through eBay, and they did NOTHING, including allowing the person to continue on eBay with no penalty.  I'm actually glad as I found out the car was two halves of two cars stuck together to do a dodgy to get past the writeoff register but that's not the point.

I see dodgy stuff all the time.  I see people ripped off and try to get fair recompense after the fact, where eBay should have been able to stop it occurring in the first place.

It's very frustrating.  I go out of my way to be the best community member I can be, including looking out for other people by trying to do something about the liars and charlatans.  But at the end of the day, a lot of sellers on eBay think they can hide behind anonymity, or demanding you pay their PayPal fees, or lying, or even physical threats.  And eBay do NOTHING about these people.  At least in my experience.

I have basic rights under Australian statutory law.  Whether you are a professional seller or someone selling something for the first time, how about treating people with respect and giving them those rights?

"Oh the item is faulty - send it back and we will send you a replacement, but you have to pay return postage" - guess what?  Fair Trading say this is BS.  But it happens THOUSANDS of times a day.

Listen here matie - if you send me an item that is not fit for purpose, is not as described, or has a manufacturing fault, it is YOUR responsibility.  I DO NOT CARE if you paying for return postage and sending out a new one wipes out your profit.  That's NOT my problem.

If it's damaged in transit, it is YOUR responsibility to take it up with the courier/postal service, not mine.  YOU paid the company to courier it/post it, not me.  Therefore YOU have the contract with that service provider, not me.  YOU get the money back for yourself, and YOU refund me or take the item back and take it up with the courier.

I honestly DO NOT CARE if your "policy" is this that or the other.  That's a business/operational decision and is not backed by law.

If I'm being a prat of a buyer and not giving you your fair share, or being painful, well then I'm being a prat.  But I'm not.  You resolve the issue and I'll be happy.  You tell the truth and I'll be happy.  You take responsibilty and I'll be happy.  If I'm wrong, I will admit it and openly apologise.

I'm sick and tired of the blatant lies, fraud, misrepresentation, inappropriate terms, extortion, fraud, deliberate flaunting of responsibilities and breaches of seller terms.  Right now I could confidently assert that more than 20% of all items listed and/or sold on eBay AU breach one OR MORE terms of eBay.

[thesoulyearns]

Welcome to eBay. 🙂

At least you got all that frustration out. Don't waste your time on things like this. From the sounds of it, you've done more than your fair share. Take a break.

[r4vi]

X-(

Nah LOL

Yeah I know...I'm just venting.  Everyone has been through it themselves...

[not_an_eloi]

oh, no, not THEM again     😐

THEY'VE been mentioned before

[r4vi]

What the?

[thesoulyearns]

Maybe it's just my poor memory but knock wood I can't remember having a dodgy seller yet. Not dodgy enough to leave a neg for, anyway. Probably will happen.

By the way, in the last 24 hrs or so, I've reported the same listing twice where a seller is selling fake items. Their feedback even has a neg to the same effect from a disgruntled buyer. eBay probably won't do anything but I felt compelled to report them. I'm not going to go out of my way to report all of the other fakes around, though. It would be simply too time consuming. I have other stupid things to waste my time on... I don't need another. 🙂

[2106greencat]

With regard to the 'return at your own cost' - there is a very good reason for this.

I run an importing company and distribute to retailers.

If an item is claimed to be faulty then they return to us AT THEIR COST and if it is found to be a manufacturers fault then we replace and return and refund the cost of said postage to the retailer - they are in no way out of pocket.

If, however, we find it is damaged due to misuse, lack of care etc, then the item will be returned at the buyers cost or disposed of at the buyers discretion - no refund or reimbursement of postage.

How is this unfair? Why should the seller be out of pocket if the buyer mistreated an item.

This is not the way it works on eBay I know, however most decent sellers will offer to do this. I simply wanted to point out to the OP that the sweeping statement you made

"Oh the item is faulty - send it back and we will send you a replacement, but you have to pay return postage" - guess what?  Fair Trading say this is BS.  But it happens THOUSANDS of times a day.

Is not so black and white in the real world and there are guidelines for any manufacturer and warranty provider in place, and they are there to protect both buyer and seller.

[***super_nova***]

It is up to the buyer to check that the info given is correct = if the seller says that item A will be suitable for B, the buyer needs to make sure it is so.  People in eBay going through the reports are not mechanics, they would have to take your word for it that the seller is wrong. 

if I see something reportable and report it I never look what happens.  It is usually items in wrong category, like when I am looking for art deco jewellery in antique section and get pages and pages of carp from China.

[r4vi]

"With regard to the 'return at your own cost' - there is a very good reason for this.

I run an importing company and distribute to retailers.

If an item is claimed to be faulty then they return to us AT THEIR COST and if it is found to be a manufacturers fault then we replace and return and refund the cost of said postage to the retailer - they are in no way out of pocket.

If, however, we find it is damaged due to misuse, lack of care etc, then the item will be returned at the buyers cost or disposed of at the buyers discretion - no refund or reimbursement of postage.

How is this unfair? Why should the seller be out of pocket if the buyer mistreated an item.

This is not the way it works on eBay I know, however most decent sellers will offer to do this. I simply wanted to point out to the OP that the sweeping statement you made

"Oh the item is faulty - send it back and we will send you a replacement, but you have to pay return postage" - guess what?  Fair Trading say this is BS.  But it happens THOUSANDS of times a day.

Is not so black and white in the real world and there are guidelines for any manufacturer and warranty provider in place, and they are there to protect both buyer and seller."

Hang on - I 100% agree with what you have written.  I can't fault it.  Well written, logical and succinct.

Except that "most decent sellers will offer to do this" - I guess this means there aren't many DECENT sellers on eBay.

I am TOTALLY happy with paying for an item to be sent back if it is faulty - as long as I am reimbursed for postage if the item is found to be faulty due to no action on my part or hasn't been damaged by a power surge or used outside of the stated or reasonably expected operating parameters.

If the item is faulty due to a defect in materials or workmanship, is not fit for purpose, or does not perform as indicated, then that is the seller's responsibility and they should pay for the postage back to them.

I fully accept that there are idiot/lying buyers out there who buy an iPhone with warranty, drop it in the bath and then expect the seller to give them warranty on it.  In that case the phone should be sent back at the buyer's cost and the seller refuse to reimburse the postage as the lying sod of a buyer is just trying to rip off the seller.

I've received neg feedback after selling an item I was totally straight up about, where the buyer just had to BOTHER to read my item description to know what was what, but NO - instead I have been abused and asked for a refund even though they refused to send the item back.

(it was a PDA with a scratched screen protector - my item description CLEARLY stated that the screen protector was scratched and was just left on to protect it for now, and if they peeled it off the screen was perfect underneath.  Instead of reading that, or listening to my correspondence, they tried to get their money back through eBay and left NF)

I take issue with the sods who make a statement in their item heading and then negate that in fine print in their voluminous item description in super small print or stuffed in with a heap of word guff.

I take issue with sellers who CLEARLY mislead the buyer and hide behind some technicality.

I take issue with CLEAR breaches of eBay policy/terms.

I take issue with registered businesses selling NEW items and refusing to give Tax Invoices - especially when purchased via Buy It Now.

I take issue with sellers (usually private) stating that even though you have already bid on an item, that they can pull the item because they took an offer from someone else.

I place as much responsibility on MYSELF as a buyer or seller as I do anyone else.  I can't hold anyone to a standard that I am not meeting personally.

I guess I'm saying that buyers have as much responsibility as sellers to do the right thing - but when you do the right thing and get screwed by some greedy seller, that is wrong.

And when something has contradictory information in it's item description, clearly violates laws or eBay's terms, and you report it, and NOTHING happens, that's BS.

[r4vi]

"It is up to the buyer to check that the info given is correct = if the seller says that item A will be suitable for B, the buyer needs to make sure it is so.  People in eBay going through the reports are not mechanics, they would have to take your word for it that the seller is wrong. 

if I see something reportable and report it I never look what happens.  It is usually items in wrong category, like when I am looking for art deco jewellery in antique section and get pages and pages of carp from China."

I fully understand the principle of Caveat Emptor - beware the buyer

I take exception when you point out to a seller that they are clearly in breach of eBay terms, or that an item is not what they think it is, and provide supporting information, and are ignored, or worse receive an abusive message or "get a life, what's it to you?  If you don't like it, don't bid"

That is NOT the attitude of a community member.  That's the attitude of a greedy one sided individual.

I personally have listed items on eBay and Gumtree (which I think I'm safe mentioning as it's owned by eBay) where I have been contacted and told my item isn't what I thought it was, and pulled it or changed the item description to take this into account.

Being given the opportunity to do the right thing and not doing anything about it is just greed ruling your roost.  That little voice in your head saying "it's ok to lie a little" or "it's not my problem if they don't read it carefully enough" or "well that's what I was told so I'll go with that"

It's like buying a car and being told that the smoke coming out the exhaust is a "factory feature" on that model, or saying "oh I've been told it's just valve stem seals" when they know fully well it's worse or they haven't been told that in the first place, it's just rubbish they roll out with every sale.  The person selling the thing knows that's utter crap but they justify the lie in their petty little heads.

You can say that eBay aren't responsible for what happens but at the end of the day they are making MONEY from it.  And from a commercial point of view, it's all about the volume of sales, even if people get ripped off or lied to.  All they need to do is be SEEN to be "doing something about it" and somehow that's ok.

If it's logistically impossible to do anything about it, if it just CAN'T be policed, well fine - then let's just accept it's a free for all, wild west style.