Have eBay's recent policy changes done more to erode buyer confidence than to address it?

[pennyforum14]

I have been an eBayer for 15 years, sold for nearly 10, then took a break from selling and only returned a year ago. 

I remember the time when, if a buyer had an issue, the very first thing they would do is contact the seller to see what they could do to fix it.  Since returning to selling on eBay, I am now finding that, not all the time, but all too often, buyers are jumping in and lodging disputes or just going straight to leaving negs, without even bothering to contact the seller to express their dissatisfaction and see what could be done.  Furthermore, they will often not respond to attempts to correct the problem, even when a seller offers a refund. 

I believe this behaviour has been instilled in some buyers by eBay's blatant promotion of the MBG and defect system.  It is far easier to push a button and request a refund through the system, than to write a message to the seller.  Okay, I can understand that part, but what's with the neg thing?  I have seen numerous posts in recent weeks and it has happened to me twice now, where the buyer just goes straight to negative feedback.  The first you know there is a problem is when you see the red dot.  I always contact the buyer, and ask what the problem is and offer a solution, which usually includes the offer of a refund, but on both occasions recently, there has been no response from the buyer.  Why would they not want to accept a refund?  And why are they so keen to jump to negs without contacting the seller first?  Is it because all eBay's so called "buyer safety" measures actually do more to erode buyer's confidence in sellers than to make them feel safer?

Open for discussion......

[phorum_junkie*]

Things were indeed different 15 years ago, there was little point in buyers starting disputes,  except for expensive items, without contacting sellers as there was no Paypal and ebay only refunded any of the purchase price over $25. There was also the fact that buyers could receive neg feedback so were often given negs in return and as some people thought that mattered or they sold on the same id a lot of transactions that deserved negs didn't get them. When you also take into account that the number of members has increased by tens of thousands over the years it is no surprise that the number of disputes and negs has increased too.

[raffta1]

I am going through this as we speck. An item I have sent hasnt been recieved yet, its 1 day past the expected delivery. In the past I have had buyers email me and I am onto Auspost the same day if its before the close of business, or the next working day.

I keep the buyer informed and so far have only refunded once due to a non delivery as the rest got delivered with in a few days of me calling Auspost. 

Buyers have been thankful and happy that I followed up quickly and kept them informed.

Well this one, went straight to the button, first I knew there was an issue. I responded straight away and advised the proccess I use that includes a refund it the item cannot be found. Well thats not good enough for some people, they want the refund NOW. I am holding my ground as I suspect I will get a neg anyway,going by the messages. But I do deserve the right to follow up with Auspost first.

[pennyforum14]

Some good points there, pj, I'd forgotten about the $25 threshold prior to Paypal's arrival. And the risk of negative feedback may also have a bearing on buyer actions. However, from my own experience, I have been back here selling since March last year, and did some one-off sales in the last few years before returning to selling full time, and for me, it seems buyer attitude changes didn't really start showing up until August last year when the defect system kicked in, and really ramped up form later in the year when the MBG happened. The bit that really has me stumped though is the lack of response after leaving a neg. It's almost like the buyer doesn't want a solution or even a refund, they just want the seller to receive a defect.

[medalsbadgespatches]

Classic example.

One of my best customers. Item returned to me  by Australia Post as "RTS No Longer At This Address".  Fair enough so I message them to say its been returned to me and and when they let me know the correct postal address I will repost it. Easy.

A couple of hours later I get this.

A request is open in the Resolution Centre

....let us know that they haven't received ... and has requested a postage status update.If you don't reply, or if the buyer isn't satisfied with the outcome by 08 Apr, 2015, the buyer can escalate the request

So its easier to open a request than to change your postal address.

[mbselections00]

---

@medalsbadgespatches wrote:

Classic example.

One of my best customers. Item returned to me  by Australia Post as "RTS No Longer At This Address".  Fair enough so I message them to say its been returned to me and and when they let me know the correct postal address I will repost it. Easy.

A couple of hours later I get this.

A request is open in the Resolution Centre

....let us know that they haven't received ... and has requested a postage status update.If you don't reply, or if the buyer isn't satisfied with the outcome by 08 Apr, 2015, the buyer can escalate the request

So its easier to open a request than to change your postal address.

---

That is just sad !!

Hopefully you don't cop a neg or a defect, but at least if you do, you will have your message and RTS parcel as evidence & justification for removal.

Having gone the Resolution Centre route as a way of responding though, I have a sickening feeling that's an automatic defect, which means you have to waste your time & energy fighting an unfair defect with no guarantee of winning these days either even when you have done everything correctly & are not at fault in any way 

[lane-ends]

They no longer view sellers as mums and dads, they view sellers as indifferent corporations, and so go to the "victimless' resolution process. Ebay also promote it more as business than a community.

The fact is Ebay environment is a hard nose business environment where its dog eat dog to stay at the top. Good service now is about risk management and best result driven rather than warm and fuzzies.

No one wants reasons or excuses, they want results for least effort and they want them now, otherwise they will go shop at target where calculated losses are factored in as PR vs overall profit.

I think the full potential for scamming via the MBG has not been fully exploited as yet.

[mbselections00]

penny, I agree with what you have said in the main, however, I think the problem is they have actually instilled too much confidence in the Buyer, they now know full well they are the protected ones under this new system and can get away with pretty much anything - s***w the seller anyway they please, ebay will back them up . . . .  just my opinion

[pennyforum14]

For a small (very small IMO) percentage of buyers I guess that is true, but the buyers in my situations are not using the system to get a refund, they are not even responding to accept the offered refund, they are not trying to gain anything for nothing, so I'd hardly call them scammers.  It's more like they just assume the seller is a bad apple and couldn't be bothered seeking a resolution, just neg them and move on.  BTW, neither of mine have a long history of such action.

[bakeandfry]

I think it boils down to miscommunication or misdirection if you will, for example when i first started on ebay i had no information from ebay what exactly to do, i operated by what was told to me (word of mouth).
Same thing when i first sold on ebay, ebay did not realy give me any real indication on how to list, how to block certain countrys i didn't want to post to, ect ect, thankfully though it was around this time that i found the boards (quite by fluke), it then dawned on me that the people on the boards were more helpfull than ebay itself.
I think that ebay need to educate the buyer and seller, plus make its trading platform fairer.