My very poor experience as a NEWBIE seller

[rapadaan]

I am a long time member with a few buys from a handfull of sellers with no hassle BUT thought i would unload a few items from home recently. After jumping through all the hoops to be able to sell, I sold 2 items.the first item posted off and recieved notification a couple of days later that the buyer was returning the item saying it didnot fit (coat) even thought the measurements were stated ,$16 dollars out of pocket for postage on that one  .The second item was sent and the guy had moved and had not updated his delivery address  Case opened again ..goods not received! Meantime the parcel has been sent back to me and  is sitting in a AUTOMATED mail delivery centre at a near by suburb going around in circles waiting on a person to intervein and read the return address cause the dumbarse machine is working properly .Aus post told me this could take upto 10 days before i see it again. I've blown another $16 postage on that one . So next thing i notice is all the funds are frozen cause I might skip the country and ebay will miss out on there 10% Well What prompted me to submit this post ? just received an ebay email wanting me to partake in a survey to share my selling experience No Prize for guessing how i will rate this !  Think i will just stick to selling on Facebook and quick sales   no hassles there

[clarry100]

... or Gumtree

[dazzledayz]

There's not much you can do about the first sale but you are covered by seller protection on the second.

Tracking will show the item as attempted delivery to the eBay registered address.

[clonmeld]

or Swapmeet...........

[extra-keen]

Gumtree is owned by ebay so not sure how good their customer service is. There is a new one on the scene I read on the boards - swapmeet. Might be worth a try. And from all I've heard their customer service is really good. Might be a great place for new sellers to learn how to effectively sell on-line with-out all the ebay fees, charges, defects, etc.

I can't imagine how hard it would be to be starting out on ebay now. I still think it is a great place to buy and sell, however for newbie sellers, too many traps to fall in to.

[digital*ghost]

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@rapadaan wrote:

I am a long time member with a few buys from a handfull of sellers with no hassle BUT thought i would unload a few items from home recently. After jumping through all the hoops to be able to sell, I sold 2 items.the first item posted off and recieved notification a couple of days later that the buyer was returning the item saying it didnot fit (coat) even thought the measurements were stated ,$16 dollars out of pocket for postage on that one  .

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This sounds like a change of mind return - what is your return policy? You're only obligated to accept a change of mind return if you have the policy set to accept returns, so if you list as 'no returns accepted' you're able to decline a change of mind return request.

For a change of mind, eBay will only make you refund the item price (not helpful if you listed as free postage, though. In the US, sellers can set a specific percentage of the sale price as a restocking fee, which only applies to change of mind returns and would be handy for sellers who list with free postage, but while we do have managed returns here, as far as I know they haven't yet implemented the ability to officially charge a restocking fee).