Why do eBay's policies now favour deadbeat buyers?

[andrewjens]

Firstly, let me admit that I'm a minor buyer/seller on eBay, but a recent bad experience while selling has made me wonder why eBay has changed its policies to marginalise honest sellers and at the same time protect deadbeat buyers. When I first bought on eBay (in 2001), it was made clear to me that any bid I made was binding. A recent selling experience has turned that around because it is now apparent that eBay is going out of its way to protect buyers with dishonest bidding practices.

Specifically: a bidder can win an auction and then refuse to pay. When that happens, it now turns out that I (as a seller) have no recourse to leave a negative feedback rating and comment – something that used to be a quintessential part of the eBay feedback system (both to warn other sellers, and to encourage correct bidding practices). Also, as a seller, it now seems that I'm not entitled to see the feedback profile of a bidder who decides to keep their feedback profile "Private". To be honest, that's staggering (compared with how eBay used to be in the early days). At the very least, as a buyer, I should be able to reject a bid from any buyer with a private feedback profile.

TO EBAY: I'm officially finished with selling on eBay – at least until you fix these inequities and return the system to the way it was. Namely, that bidding (by buyers with transparent feedback profiles), is honest and binding. I realise that I'm a minor player, but please understand that I'm going to add my voice to social media outlets, and personal contacts by repeating loudly and often that eBay should now be avoided as a tool for selling.

[gec2002]

"I don't believe that it is eBay letting us down, but our fellow sellers who don't go through the process of issuing strikes..... I just don't know what else eBay could realistically implement and manage, to protect all sellers any further."

So its the sellers fault.  Every seller who reads the selling forum has read of cases of buyers with 10s of negative positives against them.  And please don’t say if those sellers had left a strike the buyer wouldn't be a problem, because for every negative positive there will be 1 or more sellers who leave a strike against the buyer.  The blokes don't help new or casual sellers who are yet to learn all the in and outs of selling.  The buyers don't care and have no incentive to stop doing it, they just start a new ID or find another seller who doesn't have blocks.

In their own policy eBay state "Violations of this policy (buyer non-payment) may result in a range of actions, including Feedback removal, cancellation of cases in the Resolution Centre, limits on account privileges (such as use of the eBay Buyer Protection program), limits on overall buying activity, and account suspension.

However if that happens it must be very rare I have yet to hear of one buyer suspension, but I have heard of quite a lot of seller suspensions, some with very feeble justification.  If these repeat offenders were actually restricted or banned the problem would be considerably reduced. And yes they could realistically implement and manage this because they do it for sellers now.

So Yes eBay are letting the sellers down.

[digital*ghost]

eBay let their seller's down by overturning strikes that sellers have issued - a buyer doesn't even need a reasonable excuse for not paying. This completely and utterly undermines the entire system and it's no wonder many sellers have lost faith in it when they can't even be sure that the strike will "stick".

eBay let their seller's down by allowing customer service representatives to advise buyers to break eBay's own policies and open a new account to circumvent blocks due to NPB strikes.

eBay let their sellers down when they clearly have the facility to detect multiple accounts belonging to the same person, which is proven by the fact that they can and do enforce restrictions across multiple selling accounts, but fail to do the same thing for buyers. That is, sellers can't get a "clean slate" just for having more than one email address; neither should buyers.

-But- All this is allowed because one seller's NPB, or even ten seller's NPB, will not be every seller's NPB. Very few sellers leave the site because of their experiences with NPBs, and even the sellers who may, well in the grand scheme of things it's probably a negligible loss. A buyer with 10 strikes, 100 strikes, still has value to eBay, so there is not the greatest incentive there for them to do anything about it, and in a way that actually improves things for the good buyers/sellers.

[my_wishes_and_dreams]

When a buyer does not pay or refuses to pay,after day 3, I send them a very polite email advising that payment is now due, with an advisory that that the un-paid item assistant to deploys and acts automatically. If they still don"t pay I let the assistant open and then close the case.Buyer gets a strike and usually my fees are refunded. Further more, unless the buyer contacts me about payment,I do not care who they are, how many items they have bought or what there rating is. For all I know it is another person selling the same item under a different account name and just wishes to have mine off the market in order to promote theres.

[2106greencat]

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@andrewjens wrote:

"sellers still seem to be here"? That doesn't sound too confident. Perhaps you think that eBay can thrive without encouraging new sellers (that'd be the ones who might not know all the finer points about how to detect and avoid deadbeat buyers)?

Oh well, it looks like my expectation (based on how eBay used to be) that buyers were expected to honour their commitment to buy based on bids that they made ... was unrealistically optimistic.

Still, it's a pity that there are those here who stick up for the excuses and tactics made by deadbeat buyers – those who try to game the system (as documented in this thread). Imagine the improvements that could be made if we all were trying to fight for basic justice (e.g. where buyers had to honour their bids)? Could that lead to a better eBay experience for all?

Anyhow, as you say: "You've gotta stand up for what you believe". Out of interest, do you believe that buyers shouldn't have to honour the bids that they make?

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Andrew, I am answering your original question, and serioiusly, I am now tired of answering it. You can go round and round and say that negatives should be given to buyers - hell you can even say eBay policy is favouring deadbeat buyers - but non of the repetitive rants make it true.

A seller on eBay is as safe from non paying buyers as they allow themselves to be in the way they set up the account.

I have broad blocks - 2 strikes - no bidding or buying from me.

Someone doesn't pay - I open NPB close it 4 days later and get my fvf back and add that buyer to my BBL.

I am not sticking up for eBay, just saying a system that has been in place for 5 years (that most sellers, as you can tell by the responces here) are happy with is not likely to get changed because you think it is wrong.

I will bow out now, and leave it up to the rest of the responders - my head is getting sore from the brick wall.

[andrewjens]

Hi 2106greencat,

Thanks for your repeated response. As the system suits you, you should continue to use it; and since we know your feelings, I agree that there is no need for your further involvement in this thread – and thank you for that. I trust that you won't mind if the thread can continue to be used by the many people here who have genuine concerns and grievances about how eBay's policies now favour deadbeat buyers?

>A seller on eBay is as safe from non paying buyers as they allow themselves to be in the way they set up the account.

You say that, but I don't believe that to be true. I would like to block all bids from buyers who are currenlty undergoing an Unpaid Investigation. How should I set up my account to achieve that? I would like to block all bids from buyes who have won an auction and subsequently refused to pay for the item (ever). How should I set up my account to achieve that? In fact I can't see any mechanism in my account setup and preferences that would have protected me from the deadbeat buyer I recently encountered. And what's more, eBay will do nothing to stop that deadbeat buyer from setting up another account and repeating the travesty on the next poor seller. Sorry eBay: after about nineteen years of operation, that's a fail.

It's a pity that your head is sore, because I'm sure that we were all looking forward to finding out your answer to my question: "Out of interest, do you believe that buyers shouldn't have to honour the bids that they make?".

Cheers,

Andrew.

P.S. I do believe in your signature epithet: "You've gotta stand up for what you believe". I trust you'll pay me the courtesy of doing just that via this thread?

[davewil1964]

I would like to block all bids from buyes who have won an auction and subsequently refused to pay for the item (ever).

What about BINs?

Even if the buyer weas a bit worried about the seller and asked on the boards and were advised not to go ahead? Because the seller was a shonk, they should never be able to buy from legitimate sellers?

Sometimes it pays to think through the implications of what you wish for. Which I believe was the moral lesson for Aladdin.

Btw - you can block buyers with 2 or more strikes over TWELVE months. The ONE month is the default, but certainly not mandatory.

[andrewjens]

Hi davewil1964,
It was just an example, and might not suit everyone. What's wrong with the preferences allowing individual sellers to set up how they want? Even if that's as drastic as the example I gave? You do understand that how the settings would be adjusted would be up to the individual seller? Some might not apply any restrictions on buyers, and not many would be as drastic as that example.
Of course, I still feel it is concomitant on the buyer to determine everything about the individual seller/item before they commit to buy. No one is forcing them to press the bid/buy button, however once they commit, that's a whole different ball game (as far as I'm concerned).
Cheers,
Andrew.

[andrewjens]

Sorry, but I don't understand your BIN point (in the context of this discussion). By definition, surely the BIN buyer pays immediately, and therefore how can they come under the heading of "deadbeat buyer"? If I've missed something, please let me know.

Cheers,

Andrew.

[2106greencat]

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@andrewjens wrote:

Sorry, but I don't understand your BIN point (in the context of this discussion). By definition, surely the BIN buyer pays immediately, and therefore how can they come under the heading of "deadbeat buyer"? If I've missed something, please let me know.

Cheers,

Andrew.

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To answer your query above - yes you may misunderstand the BIN - all buyers, whether bidding or BIN have 8 days to pay.

The only way to effect immediate payment is to set your selling account up with Immediate Payment required, but a lot of seller say this is detr

[padi*0409]

Hahahaha GC your reply dropped out as well I take it........................