Ebay does not care

[ladybirdroses]

I have been selling on Ebay since 2005, I have recently had a rude scammer buyer who received a damaged item from Asutralia Post and accepted it. I was then harassed to immediately refund the buyer without a ebay or pay pal case. I was called names, abused and harassed. I tried calling the buyer who just yelled into the telephone non stop that I had to hang up. Since the 22/5/19 I have not received the item back till Pay Pal got involved and then agreed that buyer was a problem and gave her 10 days to return the damaged item. I already raised a case with Austrlaia Post who agree that the box was damaged. I obeyed the ebay rules sent the item registered post with insurance yet the buyer leaves me negative feedback calling me a scammer and other rude comments. Then the buyer had purchased another item and complains and leaves further negative feedback. Ebay do not care about sellers at all, the highest superviser said that the buyer can leave negative feedback because that is their experience. So I turn over $50,000.00 per year on Ebay and I am now going to close my store due to the way Ebay has configured it's selling protocols to protect the buyers but not the sellers. Ebay has turned into a Giant Greedy Place that has no consideration to the hand that feeds it.

Good Bye and Farewell EBay Or Should I Say Fleabay..........

[repentatleisure1952]

" I was then harassed to immediately refund the buyer without a ebay or pay pal case."

Any reason you did not reply to the buyer in a calm & reasonable manner "Please return for refund"?

I don't understand why you would phone the buyer & not keep all communication on eBay.

Your response to the negs & the false positives you left  the buyer show a distinct lack of professionalism in handling this buyer.

I wish you all the best.

[countessalmirena]

@ladybirdroses,

THINGS YOU PROBABLY KNOW BUT WHICH I'M POSTING JUST IN CASE YOU DON'T.

Seller's Responsibility If Item Arrives Damaged

You must be aware (having sold on eBay since 2005) that on eBay the seller is responsible if the item arrives damaged. (It's covered under eBay's Money Back Guarantee. Quoting from eBay's Return an item for a refund page, ❝If the item you received doesn't match the description in the original listing, or if it arrived faulty or damaged, you're covered under eBay Money Back Guarantee. You can return it even if the seller's returns policy says they don't accept returns.❞ Quoting from eBay's Manage returns, missing items and refunds for sellers page, ❝If the buyer got their item but it's faulty, damaged, or doesn't match the listing, you'll have to work with them to resolve their issue – you'll also have to cover the return postage costs.❞

Refund Not Obviated by Sending Item Registered and Insured

Although you sent the item registered, and with insurance, and this gives you some Seller Protection, it does not protect you from having to issue a full refund if the buyer opens a Significantly Not As Described dispute (with the buyer usually being required to send the item back to you, and you being responsible for the cost of return postage). Seller Protection will only give you protection from negative or neutral feedback. Quoting from Seller Protection Policy, ❝If the buyer submits a return request because an item isn't as described in the listing, you are protected from negative or neutral Feedback if you offer free returns, accept the return and give a refund.❞

In other words, you are not financially covered by eBay if an item arrives damaged.

Because you insured the item, you should be able to get reimbursement from Australia Post, but that is your battle. (I've heard that if AP don't resolve issues of this nature in your favour, you are more likely to get a positive result by posting your grievance politely but firmly on their Facebook page.) In other words, the insurance is for your protection.

Seller Protection if Item is "Delivered" when buyer claims not arrived

The fact that you sent via a registered method is seller protection against an eBay MBG claim if the buyer claims that the item hasn't arrived, as long as the tracking method shows that the item's delivery status is "delivered". If the item's tracking information shows that it hasn't actually been delivered (lost in the system, destroyed in a fire, goodness knows what else!), then you are not in fact protected against an eBay MBG claim on the basis of non-delivery, so once again you'd be chasing this up with Australia Post and thanking God that you had purchased insurance.

Disputes, Partial Refunds, Full Refunds, Returns

You say that the buyer "harassed" you to refund them. eBay actually suggest that a partial or full refund without a case being opened is one of your options as a seller in cases like this! Of course it opens the door to possible abuses of this process, so you may well want the buyer to go through the dispute process (as long as you are prepared to resolve the claim, because buyers will almost always be able to win this). Bear in mind that if you advise the buyer to open the case and return the item for a full refund, you'll be paying the cost of the return postage - and I know that this may in many cases seem unfair... If you've packed an item carefully but it's damaged en route anyway by something unusual (psychotic courier who takes scissors to parcels? Sorting machine suddenly goes berserk and punches holes in packages?), how on earth can you be held responsible for that???? Unfortunately, it is one of the unavoidable costs of selling on eBay (with sellers having to take it up separately with the courier/AP).

RE YOUR SECOND LOT OF NEGATIVE FEEDBACK FROM THIS BUYER

You have a good case for having that second negative feedback removed entirely. It would come under the heading of malicious buying (See Unwelcome and malicious buying policy - but what a pity you hadn't blocked the buyer after the first issue!) and feedback manipulation (See Feedback manipulation policy)  - from which I quote: ❝Any attempt to artificially increase your Feedback score, or lower another member's, is considered Feedback manipulation. It can take different forms, such as selling or buying Feedback, giving unfairly low ratings, or even offering to buy another member's username.❞

(Bolding is mine).

Re your response to the buyer's negative feedback:

Ai, ai, ai. It would have been better for you to avoid this sort of reply. Seller responses to feedback can be a very effective way to show your professionalism and calm management in solving issues, but in this case you've let your emotions get the better of you so that you vented in the feedback. Unfortunately, your two replies look worse than the original feedback.

If you decide to stay on eBay and continue selling, you may want to think about what sort of feedback would have been better, and prepare some careful responses just in case you strike another case where there is an unhappy buyer. Something like "Item damaged in post; fully refunded when item finally returned" is a little bit snide but is mostly just factual, unemotional and reasonably polite. I'm not sure that you could mention what you call "harassing" emails without looking unprofessional, and certainly calling the buyer a "nasty scammer" is uncalled for. If the item was damaged on arrival, after all, how is that the buyer's fault? How did the buyer scam you?

And... as tuckcase said, why on earth did you give the buyer two false positives? Do you not realise that this is a policy violation? You cannot give buyers a negative, so if you have had an awful experience with a buyer, give no feedback. You should also be aware that posting "block and avoid" is completely pointless. No one else can see who this buyer is! All that can be seen is the masked ID of g***l - you've possibly relieved your spleen a little, but to no effect.

(The major problem with the buyer is that the buyer appears to have purchased a second time from you for the purpose of giving you an additional negative. That is really not on. If you contact eBay using the Have us call you option, you should be able to have that negative removed. I'm told that some people are having trouble accessing Have us call you; try this link and, if the blue button appears (left column), click it and see if that works.

By the way, that canna lily looks gorgeous.

[jellybirddesigns]

Why didn't you put them on your blocked list so that they could not make any further purchases after the first negative experience?

I also wouldn't leave Ebay for the sake of one buyer if I was turning over $50K, but that's your decision to make.

[lyndal1838]

Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face......one nasty buyer and you run for the hills.

If you had blocked the buyer after the first bad experience you would not have had the second negative.

[springyzone]

I don't think ebay does care personally about individual sellers or buyers. Just about everything is automated and where there is a doubt, the benefit is often given to the buyer. That doesn't mean you can't still turn a profit though.

It looks to me as if you have probably had more than 10,000 sales over the years. Probably way more, given a lot of buyers never even bother with feedback.

No matter what you do, you're going to occasionally strike some odd or nasty customers.

All you can do is try to deal with problems in the most hassle free way you can. If someone is claiming not as described and you believe the item probably has been damaged, then probably accepting a return/refund is the way to go.

Blocking buyers who turn nasty is probably also worth doing.

As for feedback, hardly any seller can totally avoid the very occasional neg and quite often they are not deserved, which can hurt.

but as a buyer, I don't worry too much about a seller having a neg or two if i can see they replied reasonably about how they tried to fix the problem.

I know most likely you were angry when you wrote one of your replies to a buyer in feedback, but mentioning their facebook status is irrelevant and even sort of alarming as it hints of stalking. You'd be better to keep comments objective and relevant to ebay. That's how I see it as a buyer, anyway.

If you have a profitable thing going on ebay, why give it up for the odd bad experience?

[x3n0m]

obviously the op sells elsewhere .. if they are anything like me they would be tracking their profit on turnover and time in motion .. and if anything like me they would probably see that ebay is dragging down their POT and TIM significantly and is by far the most risky and problematic .. As for the ops response to the rancid conniving feedback they received I believe it is entirely appropriate and also ebay telling the buyer to return a damaged parcel to the op and the op to refund means the op is out of pocket as in the event of a damaged parcel the onus is on the person receiving the damaged or tampered parcel to make the claim against the post office not the sender .. ebays automatated return system is completely on the nose and quiver in my boots every time I sell something of any value here as judging by all the missing items and ridiculous expectations of buyers that second hand items are in fact brand new etc there is obviously something very risky about ebay selling .. yes I still do it but am seriously considering it to be a bad choice and am also reconsidering selling here and am not happy selling premium high value products here at all .. auspost is also a big part of the problem and are charging extraordinary high prices for a very lack lustre diluted product .. businesses can only do this when they have an effective working monopoly .. the ACCC are drunk and asleep at the wheel as usual .. with all those headwinds I sympathise with the OPs circumstances .. best regards ..

[djavusydney]

Recently get a case if buyer claiming empty mailing box, no item. Guess I just refund and move on. Don't let one bad egg to discourage you on reselling. Even you sell elsewhere, there will always that kind of person. Most buyers are good.

[thebossesaccount]

On our main eBay account, which has over 5,000 sales a year, we have no hestitation on adding buyers to out BBl at the first sniff of a problem and/or future problem with a buyer.

That includes, unpaid item cases, cases where a buyer files a late delivery rating although we posted on time and delay was due to postal authorities being slack, non-receipt, etc. etc.

The hard and fast application of these rules have contributed to us to maintaining a 100% seller rating and has not adversely affected our sales volumes that continue to increase month-to-month.

In short, avoids a lot of aggro. at minimal, if any, cost.

[waddingtonfirstaid]

First up, let me tell you I feel your pain and I know what you went through when this happens. I'm also not going to simply spit back at you eBay policies or stuff that makes you feel worse. Despite what others have said, it is still a very grey area when articles arrive damaged because the delivery company is an equal partner in this equation. If you use Australia Post, we use eParcel, there are procedures which you and the customer have to follow for damaged articles. Australia Post requires evidence via the customer taking the damaged article to their local Australia Post Office, with packaging.

I've never experienced a customer who does not want a good outcome when a damaged article arrives. They generally buy something for a reason and they don't want the hassle of a problem involving the overall transaction unless there is good reason. So it's important to be there for the customer and provide empathy with a sorry for the current situation and to quickly assure them that it will be sorted out quickly.

At this point it is important to have the customer send a picture of the item and its damage, including the packaging so you have evidence right from the start. It also helps to verify whether there is damage and how bad it is. This sets the scene for possible negotiation, mediation, working towards a solution that best serves the customer and yourself as the seller given the situation. This may involve checking how bad the item has been affected and whether you can offer a complete replacement or a part refund. Let's face it, if your profit margins are set right, you should be doing business in a way that covers you if disasters happen. That may not just mean you have a 100% or more margin but it may take into account the number of successful transaction compared to the number of problematic ones. You should be always prepared for a situation whereby you might need to send a replacement which may not cost you the earth to do so. Sending a replacement also is a quick circuit breaker. The photographic evidence, along with the customer's complaint should be enough to get Australia Post to at least refund the cost of freight because they can not by law charge you for a service if it did not happen as it should. They are not in the business of breaking goods and/or damaging articles they are meant to deliver.

So, first up, establish a good line of communication, even try phoning because that can also work wonders so the customer feels your attentiveness and willingness to get it sorted out to their satisfaction.

If it reaches a point whereby the customer is not wanting any compromise and refuses to take the damaged article and packaging to their local post office, then you have that to take to Australia Post for compensation. if they are willing to take the damaged article into Australia Post, you also have a case for compensation against Australia Post. In some instances it is not worth asking the customer to return the item. They can leave it with Australia Post for binning. From this point on, you either replace the item or your provide a complete refund and then you make a claim against Australia Post.

All up, as a seller, you won't be left in the lurch financially for the entire transaction but it will be one of those occassions we all must plan ahead for and hopefully they do not happen too often. What makes a good seller is how well they behave and act when a customer is not happy.

All the best for the future and I hope you continue because for someone to be selling for such a long time you must be doing a lot that is right. Every now and then we sellers get tested and there has never been a worse time selling on eBay as is now, given the pressures, constant eBay changes which usually always demonstrate their own self-interest, marketplace and economic conditions.