Reluctancy to use Ebay
Early in 2025 I used a gift card to order basic supplies to start my cleaning business.
3 of the orders were scams using deliveries with the same zip code as me. I was unaware of this scam, and got a refund on 2 of the orders but not the third.
The money lost was insignificant, the help I received from ebay was minimal, the order I did not get my money back from was not even addressed to the same city as me, but did have the same zip code. Not even a human at ebay would fix something that was clearly wrong. Admitedly, 1 of the orders was sketchy, less than 25 positive reviews, but I have relied on the ebay money back guarentee for years which gave me a lot more confidence in my purchases.
If that guarentee meant anything to me, it was a deterrence from scams, and here I was, replying to support staff for weeks to get a measly $40 something dollars back.
The whole point of my post is I hardly use Ebay anymore because I simply can't trust sellers anymore, even ones with thousands of positive feedbacks, because this scam is way too easy to pull, refunds wipe the would-be reviews that warn of a scam, and I want at least someone to know.
I have avoided ebay for many purchases in the last year and only used it for items that are hard to find in my area, or deep discounted used electronics which are significantly more expensive anywhere else. I check online to see if ebay has done anything every so often and see story after story of scammed buyers whom share my frustrations, then I go back to Amazon, or reddit marketplaces.
I just wanted to say this, and that I can't bring myself to use ebay as anything but a last resort until I can have some sort of assurance that the money back guarentee used to provide.
I don't actually expect anything to change, nor will I check back here, but I couldn't find somewhere else to leave this where someone at ebay might see it.
Every time I have used ebay since, just 8 small purchases, have felt like russian roulette, and this reluctancy can't change until ebay changes something.
magicjohnsonsvariety
·5 months agoMy wife won't even buy here anymore for the same reason...ebay has really dropped the ball on this issue...letting people get away with this is probably one of the main reasons sales are so much lower these days than in years past...
....way less buyers as they continue to shop other sites...
roccotacodad54
·5 months agoSellers only get away with what an informed buyer lets them get away with, if me...nothing. I rarely have any troubles buying on eBay.
Sure there are dishonest sellers on eBay, I avoid buying from them. In the rare instance I am fooled the Money Back Guarantee has come to the rescue.
The false tracking scam is one I haven't run into but if I do I know what to do.
I see over and over on these forums "A seller in China" or "A seller in India" etc. etc., the solution to these problems is simple...don't go there in the first place. It's like walking into an alley drunk and then complaining one got mugged.........................
ed8108
·5 months agoAnother unhappy buying experience
pickapaper
·5 months agoYes, there are a lot of unhappy buying experiences out there, just as there are a lot of unhappy selling experiences. But unhappy buying experiences are often the result of a buyer not vetting a seller, not paying attention to whether the seller is a drop shipper, or is in another country, or what their feedback looks like, or not knowing how to go about getting their money back on a bad transaction.
@eburtonlab 's post #5 above has a lot of good information regarding this.
tobaccocardyahoo
·5 months agoUsing gift cards online on any internet marketplaces is a high risk activity.
Using gift cards purchased from retailers is a high risk activity.
You give up many of the protections which you as a consumer have.
When you behave in a manner which increases the risks when a transaction goes bad, you have contributed to your loss.
Come away with a lesson from these losses, always use a payment method which you can open a dispute with which provides protection beyond the terms of the Ebay MBG.
stephenmorgan
·5 months agoAnything at anytime can become a scam.
I have been ripped off several times for mail order items.
Twice was thru Court Orders that someone has filed for bankruptcy and I was not allowed to do anything to try and get the money back.
ryry-jj
·5 months agoEbay does have each share of issues, and hopefully some of those can be remedied . I also think many buyers assume eBay is something it really isn't...It's not a store, its a marketplace for individual sellers to sell their goods, some do it well others do it poorly. Think of it like a big city, a lot of people...both good and bad, a lot of places to shop...both in the good parts of the city and bad, a few dark alleys, but many bright shopping malls, too. The "city life" isn't for everyone....as some say, it is too crowded, no one goes there anymore!!
eburtonlab
·5 months agoThe whole point of my post is I hardly use Ebay anymore because I simply can't trust sellers anymore, even ones with thousands of positive feedbacks
Not all eBay sellers are equal, and eBay provides ways to distinguish the good ones from the bad ones if you are willing to do so (you may not be -- that is certainly your call).
It is not that hard to quickly divide eBay sellers into one of three basic groups:
Sellers that have been selling a long time and that have a long history of receiving positive feedback for selling similarly-valued items, and that have no troubling patterns of negative feedback or drastic changes in seller behavior recently.
Sellers that have not sold enough to properly evaluate one way or the other.
Sellers that have obvious red flags such as troubling patterns of negative feedback, changing the kind of items sold, suddenly offering deals that are obviously "too good to be true", claiming to ship from a location different from the registration location shown on the feedback page, signs of being a low-quality drop-shipper.
If you buy only from sellers in the first group, avoid the third group entirely, and hold off on purchasing from the second group until you have enough data to move them into the first group, you can avoid many issues.
Not every new seller account is run by a scammer, but scammers open (and abandon) many more new accounts than legitimate sellers do, which means that scammers are vastly over-represented among new eBay accounts, and are also vastly under-represented among experienced seller accounts. And the relatively few experienced seller accounts that are truly problematic can be avoided by noticing a few obvious signs like negative feedback patterns or indications of hijacking or illicit drop-shipping.
kalyoth
·5 months agoconsidering you are buying from individuals & not ebay in the first place, your experience is equal to that of Facebook marketplace, the old newspaper for sale listings etc. If what you want is a retail store experience, you go there.
pickapaper
·5 months ago@bryb_w_hueie1x
You said you are not going to return here but just in case you get curious and do, I'll just add that eBay isn't going to change anything like you want. There are more than 17 million sellers on eBay, selling more than 2 billion items. There is no way that eBay can police items or sellers to know if everything is on the level. That is why they offer the Money Back Guarantee. It is up to the buyer to check out a seller, where they are located, how long they have been selling, their feedback both received and left for others, etc. Even then, if you buy something and it is not as described or received, your back is covered. But there are certain procedures in place that have to be done in order for the MBG to take place. (You did not say why you did not get your money back on your third purchase; it would be interesting to know the details of that transaction.) Then, if all else fails, there is always your payment source to file a chargeback, but once you file a chargeback with a payment source, eBay is out of the picture.
If buying on eBay feels like Russian Roulette to you, it might be just as well that you no longer shop here. There are plenty of other venues from which you can buy, but if you think those other venues are going to be problem-free, you are wrong. There are problems of some kind or other, no matter where you shop.
grann-4629
·5 months agoThere are more than 17 million sellers on eBay, selling more than 2 billion items.
If eBay could come up with some kind of magic (a la 'Minority Report') to eliminate all scammers, I wonder what the real numbers would be ...
christworks
·5 months agoWhat is your definition of a scammer? Would it include people who do not accurately describe listings?
grann-4629
·5 months agoIt would only include those who inaccurately describe items with the intent to fool someone.
Intent is the operative word here and my definition of a scammer includes anyone whose intent is to take advantage of someone else. This would include such famous people as Billy Graham.
magicjohnsonsvariety
·5 months agoWellll....These days that would include at least 90% of sellers...I've noticed recently most of which now don't even have any kind of written decription on the condition of their item whatsoever...just a bunch of useless vague text...
kathiec
·5 months agoSo you're saying there are 15,300,000 scam sellers on eBay and only 1,700,000 good ones?? And you base this on what? Your own perusal of all 2 billion listings? Your dealings with everyone of those 17 million sellers? Or did you perhaps mean to say that 90% of the small subset of sellers you've dealt with are scammers?
Yes, there are scammers on eBay, and yes, their numbers are growing. But they're still a small percentage of sellers on the platform. EBay has definitely been remiss in dealing with some of the scams, particularly the fake tracking scam. But their protections for buyers have increased exponentially over the years to try to deal with bad transactions. When I started on eBay there were no protections at all.
christworks
·5 months ago