eBay instituted a practice of having valued items sent to an authenticator before sending it to the buyer. This makes sense as it provides a level of protection to the buyer and for the time being there is not supposed to be any cost to the buyer of the seller. If the authentication process passes the item is sent to the buyer and if it doesn't it is returned to the seller.
I recently sold a Rolex watch for $3,200 and the authenticator returned it to me together with a boilerplate note that the item is vastly different than the description. eBay contacted the buyer and asked if they would be satisfied if the money was returned to them and they said that was fine. They immediately held the money that was in my payment account and then refunded what was there and pulled whatever else as needed from my checking account. I am fine with all of this except for the selling fees , a tad over $200.
I contacted eBay to question what was wrong with the watch as I wouldn't relist it unless I knew what the issue was and I was told that the watch wasn't waterproof and I failed to state that in my listing. I let the buyer know what the issue was and he told me that more than likely the backing didn't have a good seal to it; there is no way I would have know that.
My biggest issue with eBay is their failure to refund the fees and their premise was my listing was exact. I've been on this site since 1999 and have never had an issue in selling and never knowingly listed something incorrectly to try defraud someone. On a few ocassions I was contacted by prospective buyers letting me know that I my listing was incorrect and it was corrected.
This failure to refund the fees feels like theft on their part. Had there been to authenticator and if the buyer would have received the watch and let me know that there is an issue I would have had them return the watch and on receipt of it I would have canceled the order, they would have received their money back, and I would NOT been out the fees as they would have returned from eBays pocket.
I'm so totally **bleep** at eBay. They come across as heartless.
