Buyers exploiting sellers and Ebays policies, Ebay seller support SHUT DOWN

[quantum_motor_works]

Has anyone else been experiencing problems on ebay since this covid 19 hoax began? I've noticed some buyers have been making purchases, and then once received, immediately Filing a return request due to the parts being supposedly faulty or item as not described. Or some other crazy request, like asking for a $6 refund when the sale was for $10 with free shipping. Ebay and paypal put an automatic hold on the payment, and do not give you any opportunity to resolve the issue fairly or equally.  Ebays policies are discriminatory against sellers and it exploits us. Anyways, I recieved the return, and ebay automatically refunded the money to the buyer upon delivery confirmation. Sad that they typically put a 21 day hold on my funds, so I never actually got my money, but I was screwed on shipping fees and seller fees. So I open up the box, and the part I had sold the buyer was intentionally smashed up and they took the good parts off of it. I was amazed and shocked. How is it legal, or moral of ebay as a business, that they can place a 21 day hold on my funds....make me refund a buyer for full cost plus shipping, make me pay fees and tax, but without inspecting the items condition upon delivery? This seems fraudulent on Ebays part, and possibly illegal business practice. I have had thousands of dollars and merchandise stolen and exploited from me due to ebays policies and practices. How come ebay does not set up a system that verifies these types of financial and legal problems? Is this discriminating? Is this exploitation? there is no way to contact ebay for sellers, but only buyers have this ability to have quick contact right now due to COV19. This has to be discrimination on a whole other level. Hopefully this message is not taken down. I invoke a class action law suit against ebay!!!! Whose with me?!!!! I know a lot of us use Ebay as a small or large business, but if scammers and ebays policies are allowed to exploit us, we will continue to loose our seller rights, and it may cost more finacially to do business with Ebay, than to explore other selling platforms. 

[jschmidty0912$]

Yes I am at a loss of words. I sold a 2Tb PS4 and 25 games. Buyer received and messaged me what an amazing deal it was. He got all for like 250. Super deal. Exactly a month later he put in a case saying everything came broken and didn’t work. I didn’t see email right away. PayPal refunded him and I never received a return so not only out money also out product. He got February opened case March I saw email in March. I’ve opened 2 cases and have heard nothing. Try calling weekly and line just hangs up on you. It’s utterly ridiculous. What can I do...

[dhbookds]

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@gracieallen01 wrote:

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@dhbookds wrote:

How many times has this happened to you? 

There is no way in this kind of a venue for ebay to tell whether the buyer is right or the seller is.......  this is the on line equivalent of shoplifting......and no solution has ever been suggested that would work.......  Sellers either have to find a "better" place to sell or factor in the losses in their prices.

No one who is making $$ on ebay is going to support a shut down.....without a viable solution to the problem.......which no one has found yet..........

just my opinion........

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I think a great solution would be for ebay to get out of the Money Back Guarantee business.  If ebay can't tell who is honest or who is right or who has just cause or who is lying, then why should they be making a decision as to who gets the 'money'?  If ebay is going to make the decision then they should take the responsibility for knowing all of the facts before making the decision - and acting accordingly.

(personal opinion - your mileage may vary)

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Yep.......that's the way it was way back when............when buyers stopped coming to ebay because of all the seller scams.........  HOW do you suggest ebay "know" all the facts?  I can honestly "miss" a hole in a garment......protest loudly that it was perfect.........only to have someone with very sharp eyes see the hole in a photo.  That thread went on for some time with the seller absolutely refusing the return......and protesting the injustice the buyer was trying to pull........putting a hole in the garment..........

[gracieallen01]

I'm not suggesting that ebay know the facts, I'm suggesting that they get out of the Money Back Guarantee business - if they can't provide responsible oversight.

How is it any different when ebay is out of the MBG and it is between seller and buyer, than when ebay IS in the MBG business and it is still between the seller and buyer?  The only difference, I see, is that ebay is profiting by it - in my opinion.

Perhaps there wouldn't be a billion listings on ebay, but only a few million.  Perhaps there wouldn't be so many scamming buyers or sellers, but profitable sellers that hold responsibility at an equal level as profit and happy buyers that get what they pay for.  Perhaps ebay would have done better as a venue, than an overseer.  Something we will probably never know.

[mam98031]

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@myboardid wrote:

You need to READ the user agreement and all eBay policies.  You'll find that you agreed to all of this when you signed up.  You also agreed that you cannot participate in a class action lawsuit. 

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@myboardid 

I know it says that about class actions.  However I've always wondered if that is really a binding clause.  I'm not so sure they have the right to declare this.  But I guess until someone tests it we won't know.

[itsjustasprain]

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@quantum_motor_works wrote:

Has anyone else been experiencing problems on ebay since this covid 19 hoax began? 

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Which part of it is a hoax? Please explain - especially the part about the dead people.

[shorts4you]

The NO Returns policy  is an absolute joke. The buyer can just make up whatever lie they want and return the item and eBay forces you to eat all the shipping and inventory costs and then your seller status gets penalized. Why even put an option to "disagree with a reason for return" if it doesnt matter?

[misfitfun]

You can not prove buyer broke  and there is no help from ebay.You can file police report and postal inspector fraud case as its a legal issue to put buyer on legal notice but action from either is unlikely unless $ amount is high or buyer has multiple complaints

[mam98031]

Has anyone else been experiencing problems on ebay since this covid 19 hoax began?

I think the families of those that have had members die due to Covid19 would disagree with you.

I've noticed some buyers have been making purchases, and then once received, immediately Filing a return request due to the parts being supposedly faulty or item as not described. Or some other crazy request, like asking for a $6 refund when the sale was for $10 with free shipping. Ebay and paypal put an automatic hold on the payment, and do not give you any opportunity to resolve the issue fairly or equally.  Ebays policies are discriminatory against sellers and it exploits us. Anyways, I recieved the return, and ebay automatically refunded the money to the buyer upon delivery confirmation.

The reason this is happening to you is because either you or the buyer has asked Ebay to step in on the return request which then turns it into a claim.  Your back and forth with the buyer before they returned the item is likely causing the buyer to ask Ebay to step in.  This is something you want to avoid happening as it will always result in what you describe happens after the item is received back by you.

Additionally Ebay rules in favor of the buyer, they do NOT refund your FVFs and you get a defect on your Seller Dashboard.  You should take a look at your Dashboard and check your status.  Because if this is something you do with too many of your INADs, you are likely getting close to the penalty fees.

Sad that they typically put a 21 day hold on my funds, so I never actually got my money, but I was screwed on shipping fees and seller fees.

The 21 day hold is for a completely different reason.  You are a returning seller after more than 90 days off from selling.  So Ebay treats you as a new seller.  This is a very good policy.  It protects buyers and sellers alike.  You'll work out of it shortly.  It is a temporary issue.

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/service-and-payments/funds-availability.html

So I open up the box, and the part I had sold the buyer was intentionally smashed up and they took the good parts off of it. I was amazed and shocked. How is it legal, or moral of ebay as a business, that they can place a 21 day hold on my funds....make me refund a buyer for full cost plus shipping, make me pay fees and tax, but without inspecting the items condition upon delivery? This seems fraudulent on Ebays part, and possibly illegal business practice. I have had thousands of dollars and merchandise stolen and exploited from me due to ebays policies and practices.

While the "thousands of dollars" is likely an exaggeration I do understand and respect your frustration.  Ebay's current return policies are a hot mess and are absolutely in need of change.  It is however what we have to deal with this time.  While there is no way to know if your buyer damaged the item intentionally or by accident, this is something that Ebay needs to have a way for us to take stuff like this into consideration.  

We just have to keep letting Ebay know how we feel about these inadequacies in the return system to be sure.

How come ebay does not set up a system that verifies these types of financial and legal problems?

I'm not sure what you mean by this.  Are you suggesting that an Ebay rep inspects the returns?  What kind of system are you speaking of?  Just curious.

Is this discriminating?  Is this exploitation?

This I don't hold the same viewpoint as you do.  

there is no way to contact ebay for sellers, but only buyers have this ability to have quick contact right now due to COV19.

This is not correct.  Here are the ways in which you can contact Ebay.

https://www.ebay.com/help/home

Drop to the bottom of the page and the email option is there.  Or you can click on the reason for needing assistance and the options for contact will display.  For some of them that could be the ability to call, leave a message for a call back, email or live chat.

https://www.ebay.com/sellerhelp

The seller’s help center give you the ability for file for certain types of assistance.

https://twitter.com/askebay?lang=en

https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness/

It's important to be aware of where you post a question on Ebay’s Facebook page.  A comment on one of Ebay’s marketing posts won't be answered, but comments posted directly on Ebay’s page will.

[mam98031]

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@shorts4you wrote:

The NO Returns policy  is an absolute joke. The buyer can just make up whatever lie they want and return the item and eBay forces you to eat all the shipping and inventory costs and then your seller status gets penalized. Why even put an option to "disagree with a reason for return" if it doesnt matter?

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The return policies options are as follows.

1. No Returns
2. 30 day returns w/ buyer pays shipping
3. 60 day returns w/ buyer pays shipping
4. 30 day returns w/ seller pays shipping, AKA Free Returns
5. 60 day returns w/ seller pays shipping. AKA Free Returns

With option number 1, No Returns the seller can completely deny taking a return for a Buyer's Remorse Return Request.  Or if they want to they can accept the return and have the buyer pay the return shipping.  If the seller so chooses they can withhold the original shipping if it was separately stated on the listing [not free shipping] when it is time to refund the buyer.

On options 2 & 3 the buyer is responsible for the return shipping on a Buyer's Remorse Return.  Plus if the seller so chooses they can withhold the original shipping if it was separately stated on the listing [not free shipping] when it is time to refund the buyer. As of October 1st 2019, sellers that are TRS have some additional protections as well as they can issue partial refunds if they options 2 or 3 as their return policy.

On options 4 & 5 above, they are also known as Free Returns.  If a seller that has either of those policies they will pay the return shipping even on a buyer's remorse return.  A seller can withhold the original shipping value from the refund if the shipping was separately stated in the listing [not free shipping].  Also Seller’s offering options 4 or 5 have the ability to do partial refunds in certain cases if the item arrives back damaged, missing something or in a condition less than what it was sent to the buyer in, see the policy for more details, the link is below.  In the cases where a deduction in the refund is taken due to damage or other authorized reasons for a partial refund, Ebay will protect the seller from negative or neutral feedback.

ALL OPTIONS [1, 2, 3, 4 and 5] are required to process SNAD claims without exception.  Even if they are improperly filed and should have been a Buyer’s Remorse claim.

All return policies by sellers must meet or exceed what is stated in the Money Back Guarantee Policy!

For those with Free Return and/or TRS members with 30 day return policies, there are some added benefits, one of which is the ability to do a discounted refund under certain conditions.

[a_c_green]

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@mam98031 wrote:
I know it says that about class actions.  However I've always wondered if that is really a binding clause.  I'm not so sure they have the right to declare this.  But I guess until someone tests it we won't know.

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IANAL, but I think the way it works is that a judge has to grant class-action status to your lawsuit; you don't get to just tromp into the courtroom and declare it as such.

Moreover, the judge can review the user agreement that you agreed to when opening your eBay account, note that part of your agreement was for arbitration rather than court action, and direct you to go arbitrate instead.

[mam98031]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@mam98031 wrote:
I know it says that about class actions.  However I've always wondered if that is really a binding clause.  I'm not so sure they have the right to declare this.  But I guess until someone tests it we won't know.

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IANAL, but I think the way it works is that a judge has to grant class-action status to your lawsuit; you don't get to just tromp into the courtroom and declare it as such.

Moreover, the judge can review the user agreement that you agreed to when opening your eBay account, note that part of your agreement was for arbitration rather than court action, and direct you to go arbitrate instead.

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I think that is how it is done anyway.  Or maybe it is when the judge decides to join certain cases.  I'm no lawyer, so I don't know for sure.

I agree about arbitration.  But arbitration does not always result in an agreement.  

[gracieallen01]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@myboardid wrote:

You need to READ the user agreement and all eBay policies.  You'll find that you agreed to all of this when you signed up.  You also agreed that you cannot participate in a class action lawsuit. 

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@myboardid 

I know it says that about class actions.  However I've always wondered if that is really a binding clause.  I'm not so sure they have the right to declare this.  But I guess until someone tests it we won't know.

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Many years ago, when that clause was first introduced, users had a 30 day opportunity to opt out, in writing, to ebay.  Some of us did.  Might be interesting to see if that opt out is still valid.

[shorts4you]

Thanks for copy and pasting the useless return policy.

[rixstuff]

Ive lost two coworkers (laid off then got it from family members while at hom - we're all fine here at the office).  There's no hoax.

[mam98031]

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@shorts4you wrote:
Thanks for copy and pasting the useless return policy.

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Some people you can't help as they refuse to see.

FYI, that is all my own words and descriptions.  And YES I did C&P because it is something that comes up often enough on the threads that I got tired of typing it out every time.  

I get it if you don't respect that each and every one of us here volunteer our time to come in and try to help others.  But if you aren't willing to consider the information that others may offer you here, why would you come to the DISCUSSION boards for the community???