It's Time to Verify Sellers

[9ahau]

It's time for eBay to have some verification process that sellers have what they publicly claimed to have for sale. This nonsense of having people coming on their site and listing things they don't have is killing the spirit of online shopping...even Amazon started following suit.

Online shopping must follow the law and the essence of the Uniform Commercial Code...

Yet, when buyers who already paid and has not gotten their item  call eBay or have eBay call them after the buyer securely logs in to have eBay call...are greeted with so much verify process, its sickening...

[dhbookds]

---

@9ahau wrote:

Thank you all for responding...here is what I have proposed to eBay:

1. When a seller list an item for sale, eBay sends a pop up, do you have physical possession of the item? if the seller clicked yes, that seller has 48hrs for the item to be in the hands of the shipper...not merely just posting a tracking info.

2. if the item is not in the hands of the shipper within 48hrs, the transaction is suspended, eBay contacts buyer to determine if the buyer wants to cancel or wait.

3. if the buyer choose to wait, eBay contact the seller about the delay....determine what's going on

4. if the buyer choose to cancel, the transaction is closed, buyer refunded immediately. The Uniform Commercial Code says a buyer can cancel anytime before the seller ships (the shipper must have possession) if the buyer communicates...here, if the buyer communicates via eBay 's message, the cancellation request is in writing...but eBay's policy claimed one can only cancel within 24hrs...not cool because eBay's interest is at stake.

Hope this makes sense.

---

Do you understand how many hundreds of thousands of listings/sales are handled each day?  Depending on back and forth from sellers and buyers would entail millions of responses from each with all the attendant possibilities of user/contact errors.  Simply impossible to do......

[mam98031]

---

@yuzuha wrote:

---

@adamcartwright wrote:

A page of red means the buyer leaves only negative feedback. It's a good way to vet buyers when you receive offers.

---

But even that doesn't necessarily mean anything, because some buyers only leave feedback when they're unhappy with a transaction. They may have three times the number of purchases but didn't leave feedback when they were happy.

---

I'd have to say that would give me pause and IMHO does show abuse of the FB system.  I would not hesitate to report a buyer that does that.  Ebay will know if the buyer is actually someone that buyer many more items but only leaves FB when they are upset.  That is Ebay's job to figure that out.  Mine is to look out for the health of my account in a case like this.

[mam98031]

That is hundreds of MILLIONS.  I believe we are closer to about 1-2 BILLION transactions a site as a complete site.

[reallynicestamps]

@chevymontecarlo88 

The Better Business Bureau is a franchised business that sells its memberships.

Each franchise has its own territory assigned by a central office.

We belonged to it-- and paid a membership fee- for over 30 years.

It does provide mediation of commercial disputes if the disputants want to use it rather than pay the fee for a Small Courts Claim.

Unlike the Small Courts process, it has no legal standing.

[chevymontecarlo88]

reallynicestamps

Exactly.  Take it away (responsibility) from Ebay and extend it to all online platforms/sellers. This also would prevent any platform shielding sellers from negative feedback and/or practices.  If you are a accredited member, platforms could have some type of universal emblem that allows potential buyers to be able to get more info on the seller. Of course this would not make too much sense for low value sellers (maybe) but could flush out some of the higher end fraud and give buyers a little more piece of mind when buying.

This does not mean everyone has to participate to get accredited and business (Ebay) could still go on as usual. And with a membership fee, there is some skin in the game for sellers.

Although the OP ( 9ahau ) did suggest something that would be a difficult task to take on, there heart (venting) was in the right place. Plus its easy to dunk on someone else's idea instead of offering different ideas/suggestions.

[mam98031]

---

@reallynicestamps wrote:

@chevymontecarlo88 

The Better Business Bureau is a franchised business that sells its memberships.

Each franchise has its own territory assigned by a central office.

We belonged to it-- and paid a membership fee- for over 30 years.

It does provide mediation of commercial disputes if the disputants want to use it rather than pay the fee for a Small Courts Claim.

Unlike the Small Courts process, it has no legal standing.

---

I used them once many years ago with an auto shop that was trying to take advantage of me.  They were awesome and they resolved my issue.  IMHO they are an underused asset to consumers.

[chevymontecarlo88]

---

@mam98031 wrote:

---

@reallynicestamps wrote:

@chevymontecarlo88 

The Better Business Bureau is a franchised business that sells its memberships.

Each franchise has its own territory assigned by a central office.

We belonged to it-- and paid a membership fee- for over 30 years.

It does provide mediation of commercial disputes if the disputants want to use it rather than pay the fee for a Small Courts Claim.

Unlike the Small Courts process, it has no legal standing.

---

I used them once many years ago with an auto shop that was trying to take advantage of me.  They were awesome and they resolved my issue.  IMHO they are an underused asset to consumers.

---

The BBB was the gold standard years ago for consumers. I think they lost a little bit of their luster due to the internet. You could walk through downtown and every shop would have the BBB logo in the window. Not so much anymore. I stopped my membership years ago (membership was a couple of hundred bucks) because we found it was better to spend the money on Google and Yelp where many consumers were getting reviews. (for the industry i was in)  Might be a good time for them to rebrand for today's challenges.

[ferrucciobusoni]

"As a seller, you review your buyer's profile. "

Once I receive payment, and eBay tells me that the payment is being processed, I am required to ship to the address printed on the label.

What does one review when looking at the profile of the person who just paid you?  

A home address that is in a crime-infested neighborhood?   A funny freight forwarding address that has been associated with scams according to amateur internet sleuths?  A mistyped zip code?   The person's Facebook account?  

What do you do then, cancel the sale?  Because you are "suspicious"?

There is always some risk when selling online.   If you are in business, you should be doing sufficiently well to absorb periodic scams and associated losses.  

Not at all sure what "you review the buyer's profile" will develop.  

In my opinion its better simply to sell to an educated and financially well off demographic.   There is usually / usually a lot less to worry about.

[gone.c-33]

---

@9ahau wrote:

Thank you all for responding...here is what I have proposed to eBay:

1. When a seller list an item for sale, eBay sends a pop up, do you have physical possession of the item? if the seller clicked yes, that seller has 48hrs for the item to be in the hands of the shipper...not merely just posting a tracking info.

A bad seller can just lie.

2. if the item is not in the hands of the shipper within 48hrs, the transaction is suspended, eBay contacts buyer to determine if the buyer wants to cancel or wait.

A bad seller can put anything in an envelope with tracking.

Then it’s just a regular SNAD dispute, a process that has been in place for 2 decades.

---

[9ahau]

This is like too big to fail concept...here too much transactions to regulate, but guess what, that's coming up...remember taxes on every transactions...eBay was very aggressive not for that to happened...

[9ahau]

This is like "too big to fail concept"...here too much transactions to regulate, but guess what, that's coming up...remember taxes on every transactions...eBay was very aggressive not for that to happened...

[9ahau]

Can get away with one lie but when the buyer file a fraud case, that seller sees jail time...lots of intent putting something in an envelope that's not as describe. There needs to be an independent online court to deal with eBay transactions with prosecutorial powers...

All buyers have is guaranteed hassle factor with eBay's supposed buyer protection which is designed to protect the transaction fees...the toxic corporate culture.

Ever heard "possession is nine tenths of the law."

[bonjourami]

Ever heard that nowhere in the legal code does it explicitly state that “possession is nine tenths of the law.”  The saying is more of a proverb than a legal doctrine.  

[gone.c-33]

Buyers are protected by eBay, their payment provider and the courts.

Only the judicial system has prosecutorial powers, they won’t create an outside process only to deal with eBay issues.

[mam98031]

---

@9ahau wrote:

This is like "too big to fail concept"...here too much transactions to regulate, but guess what, that's coming up...remember taxes on every transactions...eBay was very aggressive not for that to happened...

---

Not at all.  The two have nothing in common.  You just seem to think that a venue has some responsibility to verify and inventory the items being sold on the site from around the world.  Billions and billions of listings.  You somehow see this as being reasonable and for everyone to be able to stay in business.

The expense of such a thing would be beyond imagination.  The legal team Ebay would have to employ alone because they would be legally responsible for what they say the seller has would be cost preventative alone.

There is a reason why all these sites are Venues only.  They offer a site for a variety of people to come and post the items they have for sale.  But if something like you are proposing were to be necessary, this type of site would no longer exist anywhere.  They would all go out of business, Ebay, Etsy, Craigs list, Facebook marketplace, Ebid, Ecrater, Mercari, Poshmark, Bonanza, Walmart [the 3rd party seller portion], Ruby lane and so much more.