How to buy on eBay for free and not get penalised !!!

[elmstamps]

I have been an eBay member since 2004 with 145 x 100% positive feedback, mostly as a seller.  I am honest and proud of my dealings with others.   Here is what recently happened to me:

I, the seller lists an item for sale in Australia.  (321128167196)   The successful bidder, the buyer living in USA, also has a 100% positive feedback but only as a buyer.

The seller sends the buyer an invoice and the buyer asks for time to pay which is agreed.

The buyer pays for the item via Paypal including standard international postage where proof of item sent is not available. Registered mail was not chosen by the buyer.

The seller posts the item to the buyer.

After several days the buyer lodged an “item not received” complaint with eBay and falsely claims that this is the third transaction the buyer has had with the seller where the item has not been delivered.

The seller emails the buyer asking for his details of prior transactions as there hasn’t been any.

The buyer does not respond.

The seller makes many more email approaches to the buyer, both via eBay and also the private email address listed, requesting contact all of to which the buyer does not respond.

The seller has had long dealings with eBay both as buyer and seller with 100% positive feedback and is uncomfortable with a potential tarnished record so the seller escalates the claim to eBay Support for determination.

Ebay Support does not consult with the seller and obviously not with the buyer because of the time involved.

Paypal then reimburses the buyer and debits the seller’s Paypal Account.

The seller contacts Paypal who redirects him to eBay.

The seller sends several emails to the buyer without a response.

The buyer can give the seller negative feedback but the seller cannot do the same to the buyer.

It is obvious that the buyer is protected against fraud but the seller isn’t.

Ebay permits a fraudulent buyer to pay, then falsely claim non-receipt of the goods, get a Paypal refund and the seller cannot do anything about it.   What a farce!!!

Obviously eBay wont allow this to last long on this site. I suggest instead of pulling it down, eBay fix the problem!!!

[2106greencat]

Registered mail was not chosen by the buyer.

Sorry, I understand how angry you must be, but it is not up to the buyer to choose 'registered or insured' post, it is up to the seller to send in such a way as to protect themselves from this very situation.

It is unfair, but honestly, you have no proof positive that the item ever reached the buyer do you ?

A lesson learned, send only via a method that will protect you in future.

[elmstamps]

Greencat, so what you seem to be saying is if that all those selling items overseas valued at say $20 or less should charge the buyers the incredibly high registered post prices just to safeguard themselves.  

If sellers did that, there wouldn't be a  problem as there wouldn't be any buyers.   Hong Kong sellers would be no more.

[digital*ghost]

The buyer protection available on eBay US means that, for a seller, proof of delivery is required, so the seller effectively needs to have proof the buyer received the item to have any chance of defending an INR claim. If you were prompted to agree to the International Selling Agreement, then you have agreed to those terms and - fair or not - it effectively is not in the buyer's interest (in so far as their money is concerned) to pay extra for the seller to have that proof, whether they are honest or not. 

I understand your frustration, but it is a risk of trading online. For lower value items, many sellers choose to accept the risk as the percentage of lost parcels (genuinely or not) is low enough to absorb the loss rather than choose lose sales by charging high P&H. 

[retailtherapist_8]

olley how very furstrating for you and very annoying that you had to deal with someone who is nothing more than a thief by the sound of it.. However I completely agree with greencat & digital ghost. 

I will only sell  certain items intl, mainly the hi end pricey stuff  its not worth it for an international buyer to buy low price items & then pay huge postage. The seller runs the risk of their DSRs being stung for postage cost & time from low priced item intl buyers however the higher end buyers are more accepting of postage costs & time .

Sometimes I wonder if these types of buyers trawl ebay looking for the loopholes in listings that allow them to get away with just exactly what you have experienced.The only way to combat it is to change your postage to a safe trackable & signature required service only. Sad indictment of the world we live in. 

[phorum_junkie*]

If you don't want to assume the risk of having to refund then block buyers from overseas, if you do want to selll overseas then you have to decide if you want seller protection or not, if you do then quote for fully tracked post so buyer's can decide if they want to pay that much or not, you can post a parcel under 500g to the US for twenty bucks using pack and track. If you are prepared to cover the occasional loss then send with no tracking

[elmstamps]

thank you all for your interest and replies.   I understand the pack and track method but it's fairly useless trying to sell a $20 item overseas with $20 frieght charges added.

From my understanding of the situation, it's the same posting to Oz buyers, without tracking they can get away with murder or am I missing something here.   Selling stamps (and there's thousands listed) for say a value of $5 & .70 postage, tracking at OP rates is just not worth it.   And when you do encounter a thief, a seller cannot give a buyer negative FB.     It's hard to check buyers bidding against each other, resulting in the succesful bidder with 800+ positive FB and only to find that he gets that only by buying.  I suggest it's easy to get that sort of FB by being a buyer, I suggest a little harder when being a seller.

It seems that it is not a level playing field so I have decided that after 9 years to call it quits. eBay needs to get their act together. There are other auction sites coming online and starting to compete and with much better conditions.

[lyndal1838]

Your arguement is not with ebay but with paypal...they are the ones that give the refund.

As a seller you also have paypal protection if you post using a qualifying method of postage.

[putney32]

olly, it has always been that a seller takes a risk not using a trackable method.

add a bit extra to your postage, say 80c instead of 70 and put those 10c in a jar, you'll soon have enough to cover your own ''insurance'' against the odd local letter going astray.

in my last 13yrs selling on ebay Ive sold around 5,000 items, the majority of which are sent without tracking, I havent sold overseas for a long time due to increased postage costs, just locally, and have, (touch wood) only lost 2 or 3 in all those 13 years.

[lane-ends]

Dont know what you sell, but with those sending parcels. Domestic tracking is free, so covered. International cost $5-6 (cant remember exact amount). So yes it makes selling OS not very competitive. I found it was a small % of my sales and a big % of the issues, so now I either dont include it or just list with high reg post and it doesn't sell OS.

Blame AP if you like, they have to cover the cost of delivering thousands of incoming cheap international post from China for free.