Seller Protection, comparison for users of eBay.com (US site)

[rusty9292001]

I have mentioned myself, and read the posts of many sellers over the years regarding ebay Australias aparent lack of concern regarding supporting and basically a "fair-go" for its Sellers.

Really, all us sellers have ever asked for is to make the rules and back-up support the same for everyone, Buyers and Sellers!

Constant headaches and time wasted with "Non-Paying-Bidders" is one of the most commonly raised issues, and not being able to insist on immediate payment for "Buy-it-Now" sales, unless you are an ebay store.

I recently logged in to my account via the US ebay.com site and was surprised to see a "General Announcement" dated May 3rd 2013

It was titled: "Spring Seller Update reminder: New seller protections start this month, new categories and item specifics now available"

Check out the full notice for yourself, however here are some of the key points;

1. Feedback removed for cases found in your favor;

for transactions in which an eBay Buyer Protection case is resolved by eBay in your favor, buyer feedback and related detailed seller ratings will be removed promptly and won't count towards your seller performance rating.

2. Steps to reduce unpaid items and keep your inventory available;

Starting mid-May, many fixed price items and auction-style items purchased with Buy It Now will continue to be available for sale until the item has been paid for.

3. You may continue to accept multiple offers when utilising the "Make an Offer" feature, until an offer has been accepted.

4. Un-Paid-Item Cases can be opened as soon as two days after the Auction has ended, not four days as we are made to wait.

It is refreshing to see that they at least care a great deal about both parties, come on ebay Australia how about following their lead, after all without the sellers the buyers won't come!

I also checked back on the Australian site to see if a similar notice was posted but sadly not...

[davewil1964]

So you'll also be happy to pay FVF on postage as well as item price?

And provide proof of delivery instead of proof of postage?

Just 2 conditions of the US site that come to mind.

I doubt you can cherrypick the bits you want, so I'll stick with the current situation for the nonce.

[phorum_junkie*]

Thank you but I will keep the Australian seller protection afforded by Paypal rather than the much harder to comply with ebay protection enjoyed on the US site, I will gladly wait 4 days rather than 2 to open unpaid item disputes in order to be able to offer bank deposit which isn't an option on the US site and finally I am more than happy to continue to pay FVFs on just the item price rather than on the total sale price which goes hand in hand with the ebay US seller protection policy.

[arnl7178]

Wow, no bank deposit in the US? I didn't know that!

[digital*ghost]

The time frame for UPIs would be welcome by many here, I'm sure, especially since you can still choose to wait for up to 30 days before opening one if you want to, even if you use the UPI assitant. 

Better protection of FB would also be welcome, but there are a lot of things that wouldn't be. Inventory management actually sounds like it would be more difficult if items remained available until paid for, in that you could end up selling more than you have available.

Best Offers have always been able to continue to be made when there are others pending, so I'm not sure what that's about.

The grass always looks greener, but there are a lot of changes made in the US that look good on the surface, yet aren't so good in reality. For example, a buyer has to communicate with a seller in order to open a dispute, but that's because a dispute is automatically opened if a buyer sends a "I haven't received my item yet" enquiry. 

[room3_2010]

eBay.com has some good features, as does eBay.com.au

I have always thought that eBayers are resistent to change, so matching our rules with the USA rules would not go down well.

I agree that we should be careful what we wish for.  I wouldn't want to be paying an eBay fee on the postage that buyers pay.

[dickos-extreme]

Just one thing. You can now open an UPI case after 2 days here.

But I chose to give them a little longer. Then I email a friendly reminder. And open it a couple of days later if they have not responded.

I cant open open a dispute after two days, some people are not like me and on the computer every day.