Ebay Ridiculous

[Jessie77]

I can't believe what I have just read!
We sell childrens party tableware we sent a Monkey bowl instead of a teddy bowl. Our mistake the buyer opened a case Item not as described. I told the buyer we are sorry we have sent the wrong product keep the bowl as its not worth paying return postage and I will send the correct product. The buyer then failed to close the case ignoring emails. Ebay was holding onto our money . I had to escalate it into a claim for ebay to sort out. They closed it in the buyers favour and then they refunded the money as a gesture of goodwill from Ebay at no cost to me and I would still have my money and the case closed.
So this customer failing to close the case has ended up with two lots of bowls and a refund?
What message is this giving out we all ways have customers trying to cheat the system the customer rights are just going to far !

 

[The Panda]

Ebay and Paypal both have bad names for themselves these days. Dont use either any more since all the stress they used to cause me. I still get many e mails telling me how good Paypal is. Just who are the kidding.

 

[SuffolkDesigns]

Yes it is crazy.
I do not sell on Ebay but I do buy quite a lot.
Occasionally mistakes happen, I contact seller and mistakes are rectified. No problem.
I would not dream of opening a case before trying to resolve the issue directly.
Ebay need to make it so that cases cannot be opened for maybe 14 days to encourage people to make contact with the seller when there are problems. At least then there should be some dialogue in the message system that ebay can use to make a more informed decision.

I don't envy people that sell on ebay for a living now a days.....

 

[Jessie77]

Luckily we only use it to shift end of lines

 

[Anonymouse72]

i only buy on ebay & very rarely have a problem, but i did have an issue a few weeks ago with a SNAD item. following all the prompts on ebay i selected 'contact seller' & chose 'not as described'. i thought that i was only contacting the seller, in fact, i was opening a case (which is what i would have done but only after trying to resolve with the seller first). the system gave no indication that this is what was happening, all i'd done was follow the 'contact seller' options.

just my 2p from a buyer POV.

 

[japancool]

ebay tends to come down on the side of the buyer. I've only had a couple of cases to deal with, both as a buyer and a seller, and they've always been resolved in favour of the buyer (although when I've been the seller, it's been at no cost to me as I haven't done anything wrong).

ebay thrives on services to buyers, not sellers. What's the alternative? Amazon is more expensive, or else you can start your own website. Nothing else delivers the audience that ebay does, and they know it.

Perhaps someone should get the European Commission to look into it.

 

[SillyJokes]

We sell on Ebay and issues like this on low cost items? Suck it up and get on with your life.

I also buy from eBay and have had encounters with some really rubbish sellers who don't have a bloomin' clue and have needed eBay's help to sort it out.

I wouldn't buy from eBay if I thought I was likely to be ripped off hence they have to side with buyers to maintain it as a successful platform.

 

[Spock]

We had to open a dispute with paypal over a purchase on another website. When you do that they recommend not contacting the seller and just to go through the paypal dispute, so perhaps this is why they didn't respond to your emails?

 

[emmylou74]

I do not sell on ebay but recently bought something that never arrived when they said it would. I contacted the seller just to find out if they had sent the item - I had no idea by contacting asking a question this then opened a dispute. And I got a barage of emails about closing the dispute, which I ignored. Now I feel a bit bad because I had no idea the sellers money would be withheld until I read the OP thread. I will know next time. The seller I bought from was a nightmare though 3 times they said they sent it and they never did, I guess they sold something they never had in stock, who knows. But ebay do not make it clear that when you are contacting asking a question you are opening a dispute.

 

[Anonymouse72]

I contacted the seller just to find out if they had sent the item - I had no idea by contacting asking a question this then opened a dispute. ... But ebay do not make it clear that when you are contacting asking a question you are opening a dispute.

glad to hear it's not just me that caught out on this. i've contacted a seller loads of times in the past & it never opened a dispute, something must have changed in the meantime, but that's how it's goes on ebay.

 

[dingbat]

Ebay are encouraging the scammers with their current campaign 'We guarantee you get the item you ordered or your money back'.

 

[SillyJokes]

but isn't that what any ecommerce site offers?

 

[Bluebird99]

I have bought & sold off E-Bay for years, I don't think I have ever had any problems with purchases (other than items being cheap tat), but on more than one occasion found that Paypal are definitely on the side of the purchaser.

I am now very choosy who I sell to, if they have very few or poor feedbacks I simply cancel their bids. (Against E-Bay rules I know).

 

[FirstClassVirtualOffice]

I'm glad this subject cropped up as I bought something off ebay recently, though it wasn't for business.

It was advertised as a pop up tent but in fact wasn't pop up, it was a manual put together tent (there are 2 of them as part of a kids tent and tunnel system, and costing £40).

They still continue to advertise it the same on ebay and amazon despite me bringing it to their attention.

Anyway, I started a message asking for full refund and return postage to be paid by them, seeing as item was not as described, instead of opening a case against them. They offered a partial refund if I could make use of it but I specifically wanted an easy pop up and not something that takes 15 minutes to assemble. I thanked them but said no, so they replied and said to return it. Took it to post office to weigh and get a price and it is costing about £13!

I have today asked them to send a prepaid postage label. Am I within my rights to ask them to do this? Or do I have to pay and hope they refund me the postage (as well as the cost of the item, which they say they will refund upon receipt).

 

[Anonymouse72]

I've had to pay return p&p on a few items that were SNAD, even after filing a claim & found in my favour. Ebay/paypal just advise it's between you & the seller, as a buyer i think this is really unfair when you've been sent something not as described/wrong item/size etc. That's life on ebay!

I'll always leave a negative in these circumstances, just sticking to the facts of seller error & me out of pocket, doesn't make me feel any better though...

One seller even sent me a cheque to cover return p&p, but then cancelled it! Fortunately, i hadn't already left feedback at that point.

 

[Bluebird99]

I'm glad this subject cropped up as I bought something off ebay recently, though it wasn't for business.

It was advertised as a pop up tent but in fact wasn't pop up, it was a manual put together tent (there are 2 of them as part of a kids tent and tunnel system, and costing £40).

They still continue to advertise it the same on ebay and amazon despite me bringing it to their attention.

Anyway, I started a message asking for full refund and return postage to be paid by them, seeing as item was not as described, instead of opening a case against them. They offered a partial refund if I could make use of it but I specifically wanted an easy pop up and not something that takes 15 minutes to assemble. I thanked them but said no, so they replied and said to return it. Took it to post office to weigh and get a price and it is costing about £13!

I have today asked them to send a prepaid postage label. Am I within my rights to ask them to do this? Or do I have to pay and hope they refund me the postage (as well as the cost of the item, which they say they will refund upon receipt).

I think their returns policy should be on their listing. Normally the postage cost is down to the buyer, which is unfair really as the item is not as described.

 

[10032012]

I listed an item on ebay last night. I have been a member for 10 years (as of next month) and have both been a buyer and seller. I normally buy stuff, rarely sell, but thats what ebay is about... but I notice they now limit how many items you can sell at one time, having to request for a higher number (not sure how long it been like this).

This is a tricky situation. ebay used to always side with the seller - as a buyer I have had many issues with ebay. One (for example) someone sent some software "BNIB with 180 (ish) page manual hard copy, 3 CD disks" .. basically a retail box for some really expensive software and it wasn't too cheap to be true but cheaper than in stores (and if you can get it, too specialised for PC World), seller 100% feedback, been established a few years, no feedback retractions and wasn't a stock photo... no issues... sent recorded delivery...

ebay couldnt see that the item wasn't as described, they checked it has been signed for and didn't want to know... in fact, all what was sent was an envelope recorded delivery, with a piece of cardboard and an illegal copy of the software on a mass-spindle low-quality CD. Of course, I took photos and the price of recorded delivery was obviously too cheap for a large retail box. But ebay wasn't having any of it. I wrote off £160.

Now, ebay was dying in popularity... (its not doing too badly to this day) Amazon was a heavy weight and so was alibaba/aliexpress to an extent ... so they had to change their poor attitude. Instead of innovating they took a leaf out of both of their main competitors... now they banned sellers leaving negatives... and then developed a buyer-friendly approach to shopping on ebay.

My advice to any ebay sellers who don't like it is to move away from the platform. Always will be a household name but its nothing like what it used to be and even back then their self-righteousness and arrogance is unbelievable - kind of like facebook today thinking they are a court. Laws were broken and infringed all the time. ebay has finally realised that the "legally binding contract" nonsense cannot be enforced... so now seems to have dropped that too.

 

[kelvin1950]

According to the new policy if the item is not as described then you're entitled to a full refund, including postage.

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/buyer-prote...4684.m30&_trkparms=&clkid=1405950064901222940

 

[Anonymouse72]

According to the new policy if the item is not as described then you're entitled to a full refund, including postage.

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/buyer-prote...4684.m30&_trkparms=&clkid=1405950064901222940

that's new, & good to see. i'd be even happier if it said return postage costs on that info, but that's just my inner cynic coming out

 

[groovyjon]

they refunded the money as a gesture of goodwill from Ebay at no cost to me

Have I misunderstood this? Ebay refunded the buyer at no cost to you? Are you saying ebay released the hold they'd put on your funds and refunded the buyer out of their own pockets?

 

[FirstClassVirtualOffice]

In my case, the seller has sent me a 2nd class Freepost number when I asked for a prepaid label, so i'm happy not to have to fork out for postage.

 

[japancool]

Have I misunderstood this? Ebay refunded the buyer at no cost to you?

They do do this.

 

[j600com]

I've been using eBay for years now, both buying and selling. Years ago it used to be too weighted on the seller, lots of buyers got scammed and eBay started to get a bad name for itself (some people believed they encouraged / protected bad sellers etc) - lots of big brand retailers wouldn't sell there because of this.

eBay obviously needed to change and introduced lots of things to counter balance this. It worked, they have a much better reputation now for buyers and shoppers are a lot more confident using eBay (in terms of authenticity and service eBay is the best it's ever been). There are brand retailers on eBay now that wouldn't have touched it in years gone by.

HOWEVER, I believe one thing these changes did do was make it a lot harder for the smaller more traditional eBay sellers, as the weighting swayed too far in the favour of the buyer.

It began in my opinion when they removed the ability for a seller to even neg a buyer; even if the buyer was a really bad customer or scammer, you could no longer alert them to other sellers by leaving bad feedback. The customer is not always right. Hopefully moving forward eBay will realise this and introduce a few things to balance it out so that it's fair to both buyers and sellers.

With recent Google changes most retailers nowadays can't afford to ignore eBay and Amazon. The revenue from those two channels is so big they just have to take the bad with the good.

 

[KateCB]

One of our divisions sells predominently through ebay, and battles daily with cases, less than honest customers, unfair feedback and in honesty customers who either cannot or will nor read and use step by step (with pictures) instructions, who then claim SNAD etc.....
Ebay and Paypal appear to side with the buyer, an despite evidence to the contrary decide that the buyer is correct every time, to the point where they refund and allow the customer to keep goods worth £100+.

I hate ebay, however the traffic simply wipes the floor with any other platform sadly

 

[FirstClassVirtualOffice]

The thing is it's also bad sellers who spoil it for good sellers. I said earlier that the seller of an item SNAD sent me a freepost number to return my item for a full refund, so it was sent back 1st Oct. Heard nothing so 4 days ago sent an email chasing where was the refund, and got a message saying something about waiting 15 days before a lost item can be claimed via Royal Mail! I think what they were intimating, without making very clear, is they are saying it's lost and I should claim my money back for the item via RM while they get to keep the £40 for it.....and I bet they have got it back and it's a scam, telling sellers to claim back via RM for lost items. Something just seems fishy.

I sent them a msg via ebay on Saturday requesting a refund or to expect negative feedback and i'd open a case against them for SNAD and guess what, no reply as yet. Any genuine seller wouldn't behave this way.

I've had to ring ebay and they are refunding me direct and then they will claim it off the seller. Surprisingly, ebay didn't even ask me for proof of return postage but I have a good, long standing account without any issues ever. Maybe that went in my favour.

 

[Core List]

Don't get me started on Ebay, it really is the bottom of the market when selling products. It can be good for buying products cheaply, but it is so competitive for selling.

Regards John

 

[kris-london]

What about eBay customers forcing you to refund the money because the item was not fit for purpose? Or they want partial refund due to unreal allegations? Do you have many of them?

 

[kris-london]

Ebay are encouraging the scammers with their current campaign 'We guarantee you get the item you ordered or your money back'.

New 2013 eBay spot is coming: 'We guarantee you get the item you ordered AND your money back' hahaha
eBay customers are so rude, forcing to get money or part of their money back. They want to decide how you do a business.
One day they all end up!!

 

[FirstClassVirtualOffice]

My seller in question finally responded on Tuesday but only after they saw my negative feedback and probably only after ebay sent them a message about it, and sent me their profound apologies, saying this is not their normal standards of service, blah blah, and they will refund but could I revise my feedback! I think not, the plonkers just don't get it do they?!

A bit later I also got another message saying they had now refunded me. I think they try it on and hope that some customers are naive and let them get away with it. Maybe some do. Oddly enough they never asked me for my proof of postage certificate, or maybe they suddenly "found" it and it wasn't lost after all.

But when you give them every chance to be a good seller, and your patience for 3 weeks, they do themselves no favours so they don't deserve revised feedback after so many opportunities to put this right before it gets that far.

I am pretty sure it is 50/50 as far as bad sellers and bad customers are concerned and it's a pity ebay can't find a way to rid them of the bad ones but I guess they just want anyone who they make money from.

They must be making more money from buyers and have sellers prepared to do whatever they need to, because now they have this guarantee of your money back oh and now I see buyers get 14 days to return an item they don't want, and not 7, and ebay have introduced this earlier than is required by DSR.

 

[FirstClassVirtualOffice]

Both ebay and the seller have refunded me the money :|

 

[Conglomer Group]

I can't believe what I have just read!
We sell childrens party tableware we sent a Monkey bowl instead of a teddy bowl. Our mistake the buyer opened a case Item not as described. I told the buyer we are sorry we have sent the wrong product keep the bowl as its not worth paying return postage and I will send the correct product. The buyer then failed to close the case ignoring emails. Ebay was holding onto our money . I had to escalate it into a claim for ebay to sort out. They closed it in the buyers favour and then they refunded the money as a gesture of goodwill from Ebay at no cost to me and I would still have my money and the case closed.
So this customer failing to close the case has ended up with two lots of bowls and a refund?
What message is this giving out we all ways have customers trying to cheat the system the customer rights are just going to far !

If a case is closed in the buyer's favour, a seller will have 45 days from the day the case is closed to appeal the decision by providing the appropriate documentation through the eBay Resolution Centre. If the decision is reversed, the seller will be refunded the reimbursement amount back to the reimbursement payment method on file with eBay. Other fees will not be reimbursed.
The seller cannot appeal to eBay if they have lost a chargeback or lost a case under PayPal Buyer Protection. In these cases, they must contact the relevant credit card company or PayPal, as appropriate.

Condolence for you