New ebay refund protection... killing business

[gamedudecomputers]

Sigh....

We have PayPal for disputes and you know what even PayPal does not demand the seller pay return postage and PayPal allows files and faxes to prove case issues and has decent support in Australia for complex disputes.

As soon as ebay started this new rubbish policy of "customer satisfaction" and a complete and obvious grab for the christmas customer I have had in the past week 3 disputes started all of which give me the seller NO OPTIONS but to refund in some form or pay for the items return.

Bare in mind before this problems were only one every few months and sorted no problem (bar the complete idiots)

WHAT A RIDICULOUS SITUATION the sellers now have to face.

Customers are not stupid and will play this system black and blue and with ebay fee's including PayPal fee's at around 10% making it more than our profit plus sellers from other countries (and even here in Australia) avoiding tax makes it almost impossible to make any money at all which makes me wonder whats the point anymore?

Seriously ebay your new policy is holding sellers to ransom and circumvents at least in Australia the sellers rights to NOT ACCEPT NON FAULTY, MISUSED OR DAMAGED GOODS BACK.

[ms_aussie]

Now many sellers, including yourself, will understand why so many of us packed up our stores, tore down our listings and left before November 1st. We knew what would happen

[gamedudecomputers]

Oh and ebay.... I am sure this will help clean up all the dodgy sellers on ebay as now there is a process to hold them accountable and honestly I appreciate this .......

HOWEVERE.....

There is NOTHING protecting the honest seller from unscrupulous buyer and dont kid yourself there are many out there that will use this system just as quite a few try to pull fast ones through PayPal dispute system.

The return process is awkward and offers the seller NO PROTECTION and NO APPEAL to anything...

I might add I already spoke to one of your staff and they were completly USELESS, not only did they NOT READ the comments in the emails but failed to read the item was physically damaged as we already inspected it and refused warranty due to water inside the unit...

What did ebay say? "Oh it says here you advised to return the item"....

Well in the real world ebay makes 10% and competitive sellers make 1% to 2% because any more than that and someone is undercutting you and the search makes it oh so easy to find the chespest item... ususally from a seller who 6 months later does not exist or does but under one of many other ebay accounts....

Yes get this I advised ebay of these sellers showed proof and even the same bad spelling in each account and they did NOTHING........ ebay cares nothing but "IMAGE" but fails to see how much damage they do to honest sellers.... God know how long I will keep the ebay store running unless this ne policy is rectified and made more robust for sellers and hold buyers more accountable in the way of EVIDENCE... pictures etc.

[gamedudecomputers]

Congrats to ebay again.... Quick to moderate my posts but get an answer on something takes AAAAGGGGGEEEESSSS

My comments were.. were not bad at all either.

WHAT!? of course I said that AFTER I gave pointers and tips... what else are sellers supposed to say? XXXXX XXXXX?

The next natural step is return for inspection and if faulty refund but ebay staff must be trained in "SHUT UP AND DO WHAT WE SAY"  because as sellers we should be factoring it all in to keep customers happy....."

I might also like to point out now the "profanity" used was EXACTLY the same kind used in some of my feedback and when I asked for it to be removed i was told "the context describes the product blah blah we dont care" "Its mild we dont consider it bad"

Yet use it here to describe how your being treated and LOOK OUT!

Just makes sellers angry.

I actually just read these new policies... the ones that are in the new user contract that was sent to noone and did not allow any sellers the opertunity to leave before instigated...

It seems the buyer protection has quite a few limitations... NONE that are implimented in the automatic click an option system for the seller including unwanted goods, damaged goods, buyer proof of problem pictures (like you can in the standard email system)

ebay = geared for the buyer at every expense of the seller.

[treasuress.4207]

Bottom line - It doesn't matter how logical your argument is, or what proof you have (unless of course it's the golden tracking number), Ebay just do not give a flying continental.  You can argue till the cows come home, but regardless of your clear logic, they will do as they please.

[treasuress.4207]

ebay = geared for the buyer at every expense of the seller.

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GD - I pointed out to an Ebay CS rep a couple of days ago that Ebay is ruining sellers by being 100% pro buyer.

The response was "at the end of the day, we have to take care of the consumers"

My response was... "well good luck with that, because for EBAY itself sellers ARE the consumer. WE pay money to you, not the customers.  You will soon have no CONSUMERS left"

[phorum_junkie*]

I haven't as yet had anyone ask for their money backbut as I have always covered the return postage costs if an item was faulty or not as described I don't see that it is going to make any difference now.

[i-love-my-sheep]

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@treasuress.4207 wrote:

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Hmmm, I didn't know my cousins worked for eBay.....you learn something new every day! I wonder if that means I can get some special privileges?

[lane-ends]

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@phorum_junkie* wrote:

I haven't as yet had anyone ask for their money backbut as I have always covered the return postage costs if an item was faulty or not as described I don't see that it is going to make any difference now.

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I do too, BUT the difference is if it is pushed as all too easy and to be taken for granted the incidence of these requests will start to increase. Many sellers will simply take the view why pay to get a faulty item back that has no resale value, so i will just refind without return. This may trigger "the try it on" brigade.

I may have the same policy as you PJ but it is only viable because I dont advertise it up front as a selling point. That way I only get the request if they are serious, not because they see it as an entitlement for effectively a full refund and no out of pocket expanse, all fuss free, which may simply just be change of mind.

It will take time for the buyer mindset to slowly change to "entitlement" but it will.

[black*poppy]

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@lane-ends wrote:

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@phorum_junkie* wrote:

I haven't as yet had anyone ask for their money backbut as I have always covered the return postage costs if an item was faulty or not as described I don't see that it is going to make any difference now.

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Agree with everything lane-ends says.  The main difference with your way PJ (the way we all quietly managed NAD returns) and ebay's way is that by enforcing sellers to pay return postage, ebay is now open to scammers falsely claiming NAD, doing it more often, and sellers getting a defect for it.  Too easy to get too many and suddenly can't sell on ebay anymore.