What is your greatest financial loss due to Ebays new systems that welcomes...

[**dancemum**]

Merry Christmas, Just reflecting on my year on Ebay. I send standard post due to the low cost of my item and this was never an issue in the last 8 years. A few per year would go missing and I would replace items, no big deal but this year... with Ebays new systems - wow... the increase is crazy..  What is your greatest financial loss due to the new systems? For example I have just had to refund a customer tonight and they have the items but would not update the claim.. A loss of over $46... 😞   Thankfully I am almost flying on social media (it's taken ages) so hopefully I can move on and not a moment to soon!

[amber-eyed-girl]

Actually, no, not always. In my experience any problems have not been colour or cut. It has been as I stated above. I read the listing, know my size, and trust that there will be no hidden surprises.

Maybe that's the difference...and how to get over a thousand items, right. The problems here with buying sight unseen (apart from selected images) is when things are misrepresented. 

Trusting it to be as stated, yes, agree completely.

Clothing sellers who state any flaws and list sizing accurately are saving themselves hassles later, too. Happy buyers return, and will be more accepting of genuine errors.

[amber-eyed-girl]

Back on topic, my loss with the new system has been as a buyer. Item not received. Item tracked. Item missing...seller claimed through insurance. Still waiting for item (they have more) or refund.

Going to avenues outside eBay to facilitate this. I know it will eventually work itself out.

[*tippy*toes*]

If you had read my post in full, you should have seen where I wrote "of course there are plenty of good ones too". It just seems that a lot of seller complaints about buyer issues in this forum are from clothing sellers. I certainly wasn't tarring all buyers with the same brush. You don't see anywhere near the complaints from say book sellers, jewellery sellers or hand made item sellers.

A crooked thread in the hem, wham NAD dispute, refund without item having to be returned. Label sewn on slightly crooked, wham, NAD dispute, refund without item having to be returned. Pattern doesn't exactly match at the seams, wham dispute. So many other categories the buyers will contact the seller to try and come to some kind of resolution. When it comes to clothing, first port of call is dispute and quite often the item is refunded without having to return.

Yes, there are some sellers who need their butts kicked because they will list as brand new when it clearly isn't, but this thread is about financial loss to the seller, not buyers having issues with bad sellers.

[phorum_junkie*]

I don't know what it is about the clothing buyers, but they seem to be some of the worst

Perhaps those of us of a larger size are not as bad as I sell mostly big gals clothes and have very few complaints.

The only money I have lost out on is postage. I sent the wrong item, I sent the right one with a prepaid satchel enclosed and the buyer returned the wrong one. The other was a change of mind for which I have always offered a refund of item price so I lost out on a couple of bucks because I have free or subsidised postage on my store items.

[amber-eyed-girl]

Sure I read your post in full. Right to the last sentence. Which was what I was, in the main, addressing. That was a blanket statement. Entitlement is a word that has a meaning which does apply to purchases, but not only how you presented it.

This thread is a about financial loss, under the new eBay system.

That would apply equally to the buyer, also. Most stories here are about the detrimental effect it has had on the seller.

There would certainly be incidences of buyers being overly picky. In any category. What my point is, is the buyer is "entitled" to receive what they have paid for. That is why there are guarantee services to that effect.

[amber-eyed-girl]

Also, when I have had issues with the odd purchase being not as described, it was before the new eBay system was introduced. Most sellers were happy to listen and come to an agreement. I am talking about items which were filthy or had holes I could not repair myself. Things I would not be selling. There is a reason eBay is trying to protect the buyer here. Has it gone too far? Yes, if what I have read here is true, that case escalation defaults to the buyer being refunded. That is ridiculous.

[247newdeals]

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@amber-eyed-girl wrote:

Sure I read your post in full. Right to the last sentence. Which was what I was, in the main, addressing. That was a blanket statement. Entitlement is a word that has a meaning which does apply to purchases, but not only how you presented it.

This thread is a about financial loss, under the new eBay system.

That would apply equally to the buyer, also. Most stories here are about the detrimental effect it has had on the seller.

There would certainly be incidences of buyers being overly picky. In any category. What my point is, is the buyer is "entitled" to receive what they have paid for. That is why there are guarantee services to that effect.

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I am intrested to hear how a buyer loses money? considering it atuomatically gives the buyer a refund holds the seller as responsible for the return postage and on top gives them a defect.

[digital*ghost]

For whatever it's worth, the following relates just to my eBay experience as a seller....

I have significantly more issues now, as a seller of handmade items and craft supplies, than I ever did as a clothing seller. I think once in a blue moon I received a message about an issue, very few of which were things like INRs, and even less were about INADs (in fact, pretty much none if I remember correctly, though sometimes I spotted flaws - before posting an item - that I didn't pick up to mention in the listing, in which case I generally posted the item anyway and refunded the buyer's money in full). 

Part of the reason for that is obviously down to things like growth - i.e. I averaged 100-150 listings, many of which were one-off single quantity items, when I sold clothes. I currently have just shy of 500 listings, many of which are now multi-quantity variation listings. So larger customer base, significantly more sales, higher potential for something to go wrong (seller error, manufacturing flaws etc) , or to strike a dishonest buyer. I also started my store when I had less than 1000 FB, my listings and images very obviously belonged to a hobby seller, and I gave a much more personalised service (such as direct messaging every buyer with order and postage details etc). 

Cut to now, I have a uniform listing style, I've made significant improvements to my photography, some I even think are better than my supplier's stock images , and I have a little under 6K feedback, plus no longer have the time to devote to messaging every customer their basic order details, and when it comes to communication from buyers, I've noticed a difference in how I'm approached or addressed (it's much less personal, often things like "thanks guys"). I do believe these things contribute to some people being less willing to approach me personally, which also results in increased cases of requests etc. (In other words, I feel like I look more like a big business that can "take it" in some people's eyes, or even deserve it according to a select few special people). 

Craft supplies are also susceptible to different things - such as some people "imagining" things like size from the first image, since they can't go by things like known brand sizing, measurements and so forth. I also have a bit of a problem with people claiming not all of their order arrived,  which never happened with clothing. At this point in time, such cases are rarely genuine. I used to make those kinds of errors occasionally, but I have introduced some rather time-consuming, but mostly effective, processing systems to ensure I can minimise those instances, as well as some other things that help me confirm exactly what was posted to the buyer. 

My biggest loss, however, didn't even occur on eBay, it happened on the other E__y site for handmade stuff, where I'm actually allowed to offer custom made items to order - occasionally I'll have to work with buyers who are very particular on every detail (i.e. perfectionists :D) - I'm happy to work with them, most of the time, as long as they remain respectful, but on one occasion an overseas buyer wasn't happy with their necklace - it would have been an easy fix, but they weren't prepared for me to guide them through it, so in the end I footed the (expensive) bill to have them send it back, fix, then re-post. When they got the new one, still not happy. I refunded in full ($80, after paying a total of around $50 for the back-and-forth postage), and told them to keep it. Still not quite happy, though. In the end I made them a new one from scratch, which they paid full price for, and were apparently happy with...

Comparitively, on eBay, my biggest individual loss due to eBay's system, rather than my personal choice of customer service level I offer, is less than $20 - it does occur more often, though, so collectively it would be more than my E__y losses. 

[misterforgetfulsbooks]

worst thing is when you have auto feedback set up - to reduce time spent doing so, it leaves the good feedback for everyone no matter if they dud you or not.

Only thing for it is to make a comment on their feedback you left that you refunded/replaced the stock that was lost or stolen.

ie: stock not recieved, refunded or replaced

this way, if repeat offenders do this, there could be a pattern we would be able to see on their feedback.

once, twice, three times, yeah maybe.

26 times, hang on

[amber-eyed-girl]

How to lose money as a buyer:

my experience with the new system. Seller ships, something. Never received it. Has tracking. I open a case. Initially, it was a request for the seller to follow up the stalled tracking. Seller does this. Seller tells eBay that I will receive a refund through insurance, or a replacement. They receive the insurance. eBay closes the case as the seller tells eBay I have been reimbursed through insurance. As in, I am repaid. It is now in the hands of my bank. This is a major seller. I don't believe them to be dishonest, just not very well organised with their eBay sales perhaps. So I know I should get this resolved, but eBay wasn't in my favour. I responded to the case as required.