EBay has unfair policies for sellers

[tms]

Seller of 27 years with 100% positive feedback. Recently ended an auction due to a scam buyer and for the first time EBay is charging me the fee as if it sold. I have re-listed and now if it sells I get charged a second sell fee for the item. Talked with customer support and they will not cancel the fee. Last time this happened, EBay refunded the scam buyer without me receiving my item back. I received a $2 item with a tracking number for a $135 item. Took me 2-3 months of filing a dispute and a small claims litigation with Ebay. They finally refunded my loss but this time they are refusing to comply. I do not want to go through the same actions for under $20 in charges. Ebay has good buyer protection but poor seller protection.

[aeparts1]

How do you know it was a "scam buyer"?

If you end an auction with bids, you have to pay the fee as if it sold.

[heckofagame]

So, you ended the auction due to a scam buyer?

How did know it was a scam buyer? 

And if this has happened before, then you should not be surprised by getting charged a fee. 

[12345jamesstamps]

After 20 years with eBay I would think you know about the eBay fee of canceling an auction before it ends.

[murph1727]

You might want to consider not doing auctions to avoid this situation. Most of the items you have sold only received one bid anyways so why not just use BIN with immediate payment? If you cancel a BIN sale there should not be any financial consequences but you would get  a defect against your account.

[maxine*j]

It's a perfectly fair policy.  Chaos would ensue if sellers could just willy-nilly cancel sales for any vague reason and without consequences. 

Since you're convinced you had a "scam buyer" (although how you can determine that I cannot imagine), the loss of the fees is small in comparison to the loss to the scammer.  And that had to be the basis for your decision to violate a fundamental policy, knowing the result.

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[buyselljack2016]

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[monica-sells]

As @maxine*j asked....

"...Since you're convinced you had a "scam buyer" (although how you can determine that I cannot imagine)..."

how did you know it was a scam buyer?

[reallynicestamps]

You can cancel the bid of any bidder before the auction closes.

You can add the name of any bidder to your Blocked Bidder List.

If a winning bidder does not pay within 96 hours you can Cancel the transaction, giving him a Strike. This can be set up to happen automatically at 96 hours and one second.

You can set your Buyer Preferences/Seller Requirements to automatically Block bidders with Strikes.

You can manually Cancel an ended transaction at Buyers Request or for Problem with Address, without getting a strike or paying fees.

Since you just learned about this long standing policy, please try to realize that you have had 27 years of successful transactions . Congratulations!

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@tms wrote: .... Recently ended an auction due to a scam buyer and for the first time EBay is charging me the fee as if it sold. .... Last time this happened, EBay refunded the scam buyer without me receiving my item back. ...

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As others have noted, eBay has had this policy for a long time.  eBay's priority is to not have disappointed buyers/bidders, so there is a penalty fee if a seller ends an auction early after it has received bids, to discourage sellers from making a habit of this.

The policy used to clearly state that the first such cancellation per year would be forgiven, since sometimes there is a valid reason for cancellation. This forgiveness policy no longer shows on the Help page, but might still be in effect, which could explain your surprise -- if you had canceled before, you might have been exempted via the "one free per year" policy. The chart shown in another post is from the policy page:

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/creating-managing-listings/cancelling-listing?id=4146

And here is the relevant tidbit from it:

If you were convinced that this particular bidder was a scammer, you could have canceled their specific bid(s), rather than ending the listing, and put them on your blocked-bidder list:

Cancel bid: https://www.ebay.com/bfl/cancelbid

Block bidder: https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/BuyerBlock

If I have misread your story, and the auction had already ended, then your options depend on whether the buyer has paid. Still, this seems to be a very different situation from the earlier problem in which you had already shipped the item.

[tms]

Thanks to all of you that have responded. I have canceled before without penalty. Maybe it was misses by Ebay? However, I was not willing to go through the same senario that I did before. I do not disagree with all that has been said but still have issue with the fact that Ebay refunded the scammer without waiting for me to receive my item. They clearly, in an email message stated " not to issue a refund until I receive and inspect my item" Which did not happen, hence my subsequent action. That is why I chose to ignore the policy and take my chances. Please, in the future, make your response kind and without somewhat insulting blame.

Thanks anyway, your time and responses are appreciated.

[brightlightbookseller]

No one here insulted you.  It sounds like you're describing something totally different than we thought.  Did you have a case opened against you that you chose to escalate to eBay?  That's the most common reason for the result you just described in this last post (again, different from the words you used in your original post).

[fashunu4eeuh]

Hi @tms , since your post is discussing two separate subjects, i am addressing the latter. You wrote:

”…I received a $2 item with a tracking number for a $135 item. Took me 2-3 months of filing a dispute and a small claims litigation with Ebay...”

First, very sorry this happened to you. As we sellers are all aware, selling online has inherent risks that cannot be avoided, only mitigated. Sorry you encountered a dishonest  buyer. Fortunately, it sounds like you have not encountered much fraud, if any, before this. So apparently you have had a very good run and haven't needed to bone up on the policies. But now is the time to do so in order to be prepared for a possible next time.

One of the greatest risks selling here is getting an unscrupulous buyer who knows how to manipulate eBay policy to his benefit. Plus, your buyer committed a federal offense by using the mail to defraud you. (Was curious: did you report the crime to the authorities—the police, the postal inspectors and the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center?) 

Could you also please clarify, as others can benefit from your experience: On your small claim’s court litigation, did you prevail and therefore eBay was ordered to pay? Or what was the actual ruling?  Why didn't you file instead against the buyer who defrauded you?

It is surprising eBay gave you what sounds like a possible courtesy refund (if not ordered to by a judge), since they did follow their own written policy of refunding the buyer (once the seller fails to) after tracking shows delivery back to the seller. And that policy requires a seller to refund even if the buyer sends back a box of rocks.

If that happens, eBay then expects the seller’s next step to be to open an appeal. That is where, finally, an actual person reviews your claim’s circumstances and either upholds or reverses their initial judgment.

It is no secret that eBay protects the buyer’s interests first and foremost. Sellers must watch over and govern their own. There are a few seller protections, but to be able to negotiate one’s way successfully through eBay’s landscape, a thorough knowledge of their rules, procedures and policies are absolutely needed.

[fashunu4eeuh]

By the way, adding such a disclaimer as you have to all your listing descriptions, stating that you will not honor returns/refunds, does not protect you in any meaningful way, and is not enforceable. eBay’s Money Back Guarantee trumps all seller terms.

In addition, negative and fear-based comments in one’s listings could hurt sales. Savvy buyers will pass over a seller who will seemingly not stand behind their goods/transactions, or who suggest they are anticipating bad outcomes rather than good ones. It paints a picture of a seller who may not be helpful should a problem arise with an order.

Finally, stating that one will not deal with new sellers or anyone with under 10 feedbacks is akin to shooting oneself in the foot. That can turn-off every buyer.

Yes, sellers are free to not sell to anyone of their choosing, but then what is the point of listing here if there is that much anxiety? It would be best to list where a seller has more control. Sell locally for cash and better protect one’s interests.

Canceling transactions on ebay as a tactic to manage one’s risk tolerance can eventually cause a seller to seriously impair, or lose, his selling privileges.

[a_c_green]

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@tms wrote:

Recently ended an auction due to a scam buyer and for the first time EBay is charging me the fee as if it sold.

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@tms : Just to be clear: you ended the auction early due to a scam buyer? What was the sequence of events there?