Why do eBay's policies now favour deadbeat buyers?

[andrewjens]

Firstly, let me admit that I'm a minor buyer/seller on eBay, but a recent bad experience while selling has made me wonder why eBay has changed its policies to marginalise honest sellers and at the same time protect deadbeat buyers. When I first bought on eBay (in 2001), it was made clear to me that any bid I made was binding. A recent selling experience has turned that around because it is now apparent that eBay is going out of its way to protect buyers with dishonest bidding practices.

Specifically: a bidder can win an auction and then refuse to pay. When that happens, it now turns out that I (as a seller) have no recourse to leave a negative feedback rating and comment – something that used to be a quintessential part of the eBay feedback system (both to warn other sellers, and to encourage correct bidding practices). Also, as a seller, it now seems that I'm not entitled to see the feedback profile of a bidder who decides to keep their feedback profile "Private". To be honest, that's staggering (compared with how eBay used to be in the early days). At the very least, as a buyer, I should be able to reject a bid from any buyer with a private feedback profile.

TO EBAY: I'm officially finished with selling on eBay – at least until you fix these inequities and return the system to the way it was. Namely, that bidding (by buyers with transparent feedback profiles), is honest and binding. I realise that I'm a minor player, but please understand that I'm going to add my voice to social media outlets, and personal contacts by repeating loudly and often that eBay should now be avoided as a tool for selling.

[andrewjens]

Dear diamond-halo,

In my case the bid was accepted (in good faith), however when it became the winning bid (determined by the stated end of auction), the buyer decided to renege on their side of the contract by non-payment. Thanks for your post, but you have not addressed the substantive point of my complaint: namely that eBay's polcies now support and protect bidders who don't uphold their part of the contract.

One of the (previously supposed) benefits of eBay was that sellers didn't have to micro-manage the bidding process. Thanks for your nebulous allusion, however it would be enjoyably more useful to those trying to learn from these posts if you'd be so kind as to "fill us in on" the options available to sellers when confrontated with deadbeat buyers.

Cheers,

Andrew.

[amber-eyed-girl]

Andrew,

When you have a buyer who does not pay, after four days you can open an unpaid item dispute, through the resolutions centre.

The buyer then has four more days to pay.

Still no payment, you can receive a final value fee credit (a plus for you) and the buyer receives a non-payment strike (a negative for them).

These strikes can be used by sellers to auto-block buyers who have not paid for a few things in the past.

So ALL sellers with non-payers should open these cases.

Some do after four days, or seven.

A seller can even set an automatic case opener through the unpaid item assistant.

http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/sell/unpaid-item-assistant.html

Anyone you do not want bidding, place them on your blocked bidders list.

http://offer.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?bidderblocklogin&hc=1&hm=v%7F.rp*g252%6066

[*crikey*mate*]

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@andrewjens wrote:

Dear diamond-halo,

In my case the bid was accepted (in good faith), however when it became the winning bid (determined by the stated end of auction), the buyer decided to renege on their side of the contract by non-payment. Thanks for your post, but you have not addressed the substantive point of my complaint: namely that eBay's polcies now support and protect bidders who don't uphold their part of the contract.

eBay have never been able to enforce a contract to which they aren't a party. (That's a long established law created long before ebay was even conceptualized)

One of the (previously supposed) benefits of eBay was that sellers didn't have to micro-manage the bidding process. Thanks for your nebulous allusion, however it would be enjoyably more useful to those trying to learn from these posts if you'd be so kind as to "fill us in on" the options available to sellers when confrontated with deadbeat buyers.

Cheers,

Andrew.

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If you use the tools made avauilable to you, by eBay, you will find that eBay's policies neither support or protect bidders.

Go through the UID process, recoup your FVF's issue a strike to the buyer and set your blocks in place to exclude those with morte than one NPB strike from purchasing from you.

No amount of negatives, or even false positives will protect a seller from a snipe bidder or a BIN purchase. But the blocks will.

and no one can predict which buyers will become non payers, so how could eBay address this before they establish such a record?

I don't know what your past conceptions of eBays powers are or how they have been formed, but whilst eBay may seem to be omnipotent, they don't trump the law, and cannot do more than provide a remediation process for a person to acheive performance of their contract.

If a contract is breached through non performance, then it is up to the contracting parties to sort it out. Not eBay.

[amber-eyed-girl]

Andrew,

Set up your auto-blocks through My eBay, Account, My Account, Site preferences, Buyer requirements.

Site preferences also contains the unpaid item assistant link.

It might also be useful to familiarise yourself with other information for sellers, and the seller tools, through the site map link, at the bottom of the page.

[andrewjens]

Hi amber-eyed-girl: Thanks for that ... much appreciated.

To diamond-halo: the protestations regarding the Ebay "law" misses the point. eBay selling/bidding usen't to be about the "law", it use to be about what was fair and just .. within a virtual buying/selling environment. By encouraging/enforcing equitable bidding practices from buyers via transparency and consequence, everyone was informed and happy. eBay has now slanted the process inequitably towards the buyer ... with the expectation being that the seller will "recover". If eBay were to change that attitude, everything would settle ... towards a more equitable balance between buyer and seller (in fact, closer to how it is expected in everyday life).

Anyhow, thanks for you "support" and "sympathy" towards an honest seller who has been shafted ("poled" perhaps?) by a deadbeat eBay buyer. Your attitude has been more than enough to convince me on my original hypothesis that eBay is no longer the place for honest sellers expecting a fair environment.

Plonk.

[davewil1964]

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@andrewjens wrote:

Hi amber-eyed-girl: Thanks for that ... much appreciated.

To diamond-halo: the protestations regarding the Ebay "law" misses the point. eBay selling/bidding usen't to be about the "law", it use to be about what was fair and just .. within a virtual buying/selling environment. By encouraging/enforcing equitable bidding practices from buyers via transparency and consequence, everyone was informed and happy. eBay has now slanted the process inequitably towards the buyer ... with the expectation being that the seller will "recover". If eBay were to change that attitude, everything would settle ... towards a more equitable balance between buyer and seller (in fact, closer to how it is expected in everyday life).

Anyhow, thanks for you "support" and "sympathy" towards an honest seller who has been shafted ("poled" perhaps?) by a deadbeat eBay buyer. Your attitude has been more than enough to convince me on my original hypothesis that eBay is no longer the place for honest sellers expecting a fair environment.

Plonk.

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DH wasn't referring to eBay 'law'. She was referring to real, enforcable Australian law. For somebody who has been a member for 13 years.....

Besides, why would ONE buyer have you so antsy? Easy to fix, as you have been advised. A First World problem.

[andrewjens]

I'll make a final attempt at a reminder about fairness. As per my original post:

eBay has gone down the path of trying to mop up a multitude of problems when it could have obviated that need via a policy of (say) "dishonour payment of a bid, and you will be band". With that stated policy, bidders would have been made to think very carefully about entering into a contract by clicking the bidding buttons; now however, bidders are aware of a number of options (excuses) available to them in trying to extricate themselves from their bid towards the auctions presented by honest sellers (e.g. no negative feedback, hidden feedback profile, no requirement to honour their buying commitment, ability to set up another account, etc.).

A similar workable solution has been implemented in top-line swimming via the one-break-and-you're-out policy ... with no detriment to international competition.

Anyhow, I'm encouraged by my reading and research into the mulitude of opions denigrating the approach eBay has taken over the years. Why not come join us in the fight to right these inequities?

Cheers,

Andrew.

[*crikey*mate*]

another way to prevent NPBs, use BIN and set instant payment. That way, your item stays for sale until it is payed for, and you'll never have to suffer the indignity, unfairness and unjustice of another NPB

It's just a matter of using the tools available to us to protect ourselves.

Between that and the strike and block process, it really is a pretty cool system.Nope, it's not airtight, but considering the legal and virtual nature and parameters of online trading, not too shabby.

[chameleon54]

I can understand your frustration at non paying buyers and the way ebay allows sellers to slap them with a soggy lettuce leaf in return. I can also appreciate that you would like to see what the private feedback of non paying buyers says. A couple of small problems with this. The first is that sellers are only allowed to leave Pos feedback ( no Negs . ) and positive comments. ( No negative comments with positive dots. ) for all buyers, private or not.  Private feedback ebayers can only buy items, not sell. So it doesnt matter how many private buyers feedbacks you looked at, they should all be 100 % positive, with positive comments. If a seller breaches this policy and leaves a negative comment with positive dot, ebay will remove the feedback on request. ( same for all buyers ) Is it fair ? Probably not. Should ebay put further measures in place such as an automatic red dot with standardised message for all non payers who have been through the dispute resolution process ? Probably !   The private feedback isnt the problem, non paying buyers are. I use private feedback as I believe my purchases are my business and no-one elses. I dont have any great secrets with my purchases or feedback, I just like my privacy respected and private feedback just adds another layer to that privacy.

[the_great_she_elephant]

If your defaulting buyer had had multiple negative feedbacks, would you have been aware of that before he bought from you?