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Seller Retention is Horrible
I have ran an eBay store full time for just under 5 years now. I learned how to navigate the returns process and many aspects of operating under eBay. I started in 2019 part time selling random things I could acquire off of Marketplace for cheap and sell on eBay. Then I scaled up to buying out business inventory and overstocks. Over the course of the last few months, eBay and the buyers on this platform have ruined it entirely for me. Just this year alone, I have had someone force a refund by abusing eBay Money Back Guarantee in a way that they were able to keep the item and get a full refund. Now this was not for some small item worth $20, this was for a $500 guitar. When I contacted eBay regarding this, they basically told me to eat it. My only option to get the money back was to file a police report that would cost me more in small claims than the money was ever worth. The second incident for me was for a undermount sink I had acquired for quite cheap and I had a decent profit margin on even with the shipping cost, about $40. The sink was sold, delivered, then a return was opened and forced on me via Money Back Guarantee because it did not fit their specifications simply because the buyer was too lazy to do their own research before purchasing. It was properly labeled, advertised, and sold with as much information as I could possibly give for item specifics and model numbers. So all in all, I lost money on the item because I sold it on eBay and they value their buyers FAR more than the sellers. The final straw for me and the reason I am now closing my eBay store is because of another return event. I sold an item that was quite fragile. I have sold many of these units and have experience with it. A Bose unit from the early 90's that are known for breaking during transit. I packaged it the best I could and made sure to get insurance on the item. It arrived damaged, and the buyer was quite helpful with sending the required pictures I would need to file insurance. I accept the return, send the buyer a return label, await return, and for some reason the tracking number was bugged with some non existent Fedex tracking number. So eBay forced the refund before the item was ever delivered and marked my account with a case closed without seller resolution. The item did get delivered so I didn't lose out on the money, but due to other bad buyers on the platform, I was already at 2 cases closed without seller resolution, resulting in this third one putting me into below average and limiting my selling capabilities. I contacted eBay and let them know that I had accepted this return, sent the buyer a label and that they forced the refund before the item ever got returned to me with screenshots of the Fedex tracking number backed by my own tracking number and label created for the buyer to return the item. I started the appeal process only to get denied and the case closed to remain on the account. This is now a month later and I called customer support basically letting them know I will be shutting down the account if an answer cannot be given to me regarding this situation, whether it be the reason for denial, the reason for ever pushing the refund, literally any information regarding this so I can better understand why this ever happened in the first place. Instead they went ahead and cancelled the subscription, explained to me my options for closing the account, and not once tried to save me as a seller on their platform. Now keep in mind, I have given eBay over $1000 in seller subscriptions ALONE. That does not account for the 10's of thousands of dollars they have made off of me through auction reserves, and any other selling fees involved in selling on this platform. It would not have taken much for them to throw me a bone and I would have continued to sell on this platform and make them thousands of dollars in revenue every year, but they just don't seme to care. I hope this reaches people as I know I am not the only person leaving this platform due to the way it is now being operated.
