Why I'm leaving ebay as a seller

[bricksnmortar]

Some time back I pulled both my personal and all our work selling accounts off ebay. The changes to the policies made being a seller impossible. You couldn't even leave negative feedback for a buyer. This prevented us from being honest and that goes against my values. There was no point having a rating system if it was not honest.

I'd hate to think how many hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of product we had sold on ebay.

Some time later ebay wrote to me seeking a return to ebay. I was very hesitant. Had ebay changed?

Recently I sold a camera flash. It was in immaculate condition, listed as used but said 'as new' condition. The ad showed exactly what was included. Every item. The item was tested as working perfectly. It was tagged as no returns.

The flash sold. The flash was shipped on time.

The buyer complains to ebay he expected an extra cable to be included even though it was not listed and was not shown in any photos. He asked ebay for a return and this was granted by ebay and the money was pulled from our account. The listing showed photos of exactly what was included. The item was exactly as described. The item worked perfectly. And yet ebay has forced a return on us and taken the money.

Today I reached out via chat to talk to ebay. After presenting the points above they ended up simply cutting off the conversation. So we have sent out a perfect item, on time and ebay has taken the money and hung up a support conversation.

Ebay is simply a terrible place for sellers, there are competitors now who allow us to trade honestly. There is no point coming to us again because after all the reassurances, you haven't changed. You simply do not care about customers or about delivering value to the planet and that is the worst sin a business could commit.

[imastawka]

Just FYI - ebay don't read here.

This is a public forum for member to member help.

I'm sorry you feel this way, but really, ebay don't care.

[bricksnmortar]

"I'm sorry you feel this way, but really, ebay don't care."

ok, wow, if that is a fairly universal sentiment about ebay then I have misread how they want to treat their biggest asset which to me is their sellers.

[imastawka]

No, the buyer is everything to ebay.

Just read the Selling Board to get an idea of how they treat sellers.

Sellers have to conform if they want to keep selling.

Buyers don't need to conform to anything.

[chameleon54]

Yes ebay is slanted heavily towards the buyer and this has encouraged a few crooks and online shop lifters.

The answer is to do what B & M businesses do and factor this into your prices. If you take it all too seriously you wont be able to trade anywhere as unfortunately the scammers and dishonest people have seeped through all facets of society. Your selling price should factor in all costs including purchase cost of stock, stock wastage and depreciation, your time spent on ebay, ebay & paypal fees, storage costs, items lost in the mail, damaged in the mail, change of mind returns and scammers. If you dont factor all of this stuff into the price, you wont have a future in retail.

In answer to " I hate to think how many hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of product we have sold on ebay ". If you go to your dashboard and scroll to the bottom of the page, it tells you your total transaction number and how much you have sold. Only problem is, I think it is in U.S dollars, so you will probably need to do the conversion to Aust. dollars to get an accurate figure.

[enigmabear]

As far as eBay are concerned, all sellers are,well, I won't say it

Your experience is very common/typical. Buyer complains, buyer is automatically in the right no matter what

It is almost like at Luna Park playing noughts and crosses with the chicken, the chicken will always win because that is what the machine is set up for. eBay is a bot system designed so the buyer always wins

I totally understand where you are coming from, and I have myself had customer service 'cut out' because they did not want to address my complaint. I understand if you want nothing more to do with it, but there is the option of using the have us call you option and requesting to speak to a supervisor

I believe the chat 'cut out' because the CS person knew jolly well that eBay were in the wrong rewarding your trouble maker buyer and rather than admit itthey simply hung up

I wonder how many other sellers this buyer has ripped off?

[springyzone]

I can see how that would be the straw that broke the camel's back as by the sounds of it, you did not a thing wrong yet no doubt you copped out of pocket expenses on postage both ways.

I first came to these boards a while back to pick up selling tips, after an absence (as a seller) of several years.

What I read turned me off returning to sell on a regular basis & with the occasional sales my sister & I have made since then (not on this account), some went well, a couple were obviously playing the system for discounts.

I  think ebay still has the best coverage. You'll get more people looking at the items & probably a better selling price. It has the advantage of being more streamlined ie people can buy & pay without having to message you or call into your house to pick up or try to beat you down in price (a la gumtree and facebook).

However, and it's a big however, ebay is skewed towards the buyer's side, it is automated & some of their reps give different stories or less than satisfactory service. Selling second hand can be a minefield. It's not like the old days.

In my opinion, ebay made the wrong call on your flash. If you had every included part itemised in a list plus a photo of every part, then ebay had no business allowing a return because of an unmentioned, unphotographed part that a buyer wanted. Mind you, if there is any part that usually accompanies an item & is not being sold with the item, always better to mention it in an ad. I wouldn't know if that applies to the cable, mind you, as I don't know much about flashes etc

But for sure, if you do decide to keep selling on ebay, even on an occasional basis, cover yourself on all fronts as best you can & bump up asking price toallow for tracked postage, extra fees etc.

[gutterpunkz05]

The trick is to play ebays games and make ebay work for you.   Of course you are going to have the occassional loss, but that is unavoidable no matter what form of trading you decide upon.   Walking away from ebay, only means you have no chance to recoup

your losses.

Some time back, I lost  a $1000  shipment, to a scammer from Mexico.  Ebay were useless and I nearly walked away, I did cease

International trading via ebay but continued selling domestic.  I have since recouped that loss ten fold +, and will continue to use

ebay to my advantage.

[digital*ghost]

---

@bricksnmortar wrote:

ok, wow, if that is a fairly universal sentiment about ebay then I have misread how they want to treat their biggest asset which to me is their sellers.

---

Sellers are an assest to eBay, but it's buyers they need to compete for, and that is what drives their policies and practices most of the time. All the sellers in the world won't do any good if they can't get buyers to purchase things, and in today's climate I guess they felt they needed to overcompensate for the reputation they have gained over the years (I told someone the other day that I run an online business, the first thing they said in response is "you're not one of those dodgy eBay sellers, are you?" eBay has earned a reputation as being a haven for theives by both sellers and buyers, but they don't seem to feel the need to combat that rep when it comes to sellers). 

They do what is best for them as a business, and they have determined that the best for them is to attract / keep as many buyers on the site as possible, sometimes at the expense of sellers, and at the expense of what is truly 'right' or 'fair', and it's considerably easier for them to do this because it's not their money that their policies are playing with.

Most CS reps have little to no personal investment in what happens either way, they primarily just have a script and an instructed bias. Your position, and evidence, often needs to be 100% undeniable, provided in advance of any development of a case, before many CS reps will start to provide workable options to deal with a problem (and even then, the system is not actually designed to give the seller options, most of it needs to be done manually by eBay, if they agree with you, and many times it will still be after the buyer has gotten what they wanted, too). 

I'm not saying any of this is right, I'm mostly just trying to highlight where I think eBay is coming from, because when you understand the environment you're in, it's a lot easier to know if you can work in it, and how. I would be surprised if there is still a seller on ebay who has not been burned by a buyer, or frustrated by eBay CS, or disadvantaged by one of their buyer friendly policies - many have experienced all 3 more times than they can count, so while I do continue to sell here, I also understand the decision not to, and I would personally dearly love for ebay to become as disposable as it treats its sellers, which I expect is a matter of when, not if (everything ends). 

[satans-angel64]

w to avoid all ebay policies...and ebay can not do anything about it.. what they don't tell.

when you sell, all you have to do is to include all of your own personal policy when selling and state... all bidders must agree to my policy when bidding.

This makes it a legal binding contract which the bidders are agreein to when biddin and ebay will then have no legal right to intervere.

and also the hold policy is infact illegal by law.. it will only take one person to take it to small claims to over ride it... which ebay won't do because they know they will loose.