Should eBay alert Sellers and Buyers to Pitfalls re Postage?

[kalwal]

I just learned the hard way that it is not enough to send an item with tracking, as eBay encourages you to do. What they neglect to tell you is that you should also send it with extra cover for the item's full value, as they will not "protect" you if the parcel gets lost in transit. For me, eBay's insistence on tracking has always been good enough to feel protected as long as I used tracking. That and the assumption that the high fees I am paying should not just be so that eBay can offer protection to buyers who contribute absolutely nothing to their protection.

And talking about buyer protection, eBay also neglects to tell buyers that they will not be protected if tracking shows that an item was delivered although the buyer may never have received it, either due to it being mis-delivered or falsely scanned as delivered.

My question really is whether eBay should (or has to) disclose above pitfalls to their members many of whom would not be aware of them and as a result could find themselves misled and financially disadvantaged?

[kalwal]

The question really was whether eBay should DISCLOSE the pitfalls of postage. I am sure I have a point somewhere because eBay did not send me a transcript of our chat as they usually do.  Unless it's a convenient technical failure, I might have given them something to think about. For example, should they recommend to sellers to take out extra cover as tracking alone won't do in case of loss in transit, and should they disclose to buyers that they are not protected by the MBG if the carrier scans an item as delivered, but the buyer didn't receive it, either due to mis-delivery or theft. I have had this happen to me, and the carrier refused to accept responsibility while eBay did not want to know about their MBG. I can understand, why, since anyone could come along and claim not to have received something when in fact they did. But the end result is that the honest buyer loses their money and the goods, and that makes eBay's MBG somewhat questionable. Still, the point is not ebay's policies but their full disclosure of them.

[gutterpunkz05]

My last transcript took a few days to come through, so I strongly doubt you have given ebay any cause for concern at all