Is it time to throw in the towel on eBay?
Unfortunately, we are all victims of buyers who abuse eBay policies and it doesn't help that eBay does nothing about it. Buyers are constantly abusing eBay returns at my own expense. Claiming an item isn't as described when it clearly was. I'll relist the item after receiving it back with no modifications to the original listing, it'll sell to a new buyer who is happy with their item and I don't hear about any issues. Sometimes I do send out a defective record without noticing but 90% of my returns go something like this. I always report the buyer for misusing returns but I don't think eBay does anything about it. I don't experience these issues at all on the other platforms I sell on.
This hurts me financially because not only do I lose money in total shipping & supply costs but I am also now paying 17.9% in fees which is just insane. eBay probably won't care if I bring this up to them. But given the extremely high fees here on eBay, I just don't think I can continue here considering every other selling platform I have been selling on has fees of 5%-9% depending on the platform.
eBay can be a great tool to drive up my business and I would like to continue to be able to use eBay but it just seems like I can't with how unfairly I'm treated. Are there any redeeming factors, besides auctions, that make it worth my staying on eBay?
chapeau-noir
·3 years agoI understand not wanting to take returns on media, but if you don't take returns, your quality control needs to be near perfect with meticulous testing and packing.
slippinjimmy
·3 years agoI DON'T understand not wanting to take returns on media!
It's not the 1970's, home taping is not killing media sales on eBay, the only people buying vinyl records these days truly want them. Even if you do accept returns (as I do) you still need to be near perfect in your grading as record buyers can (and should be) picky.
I rarely offer any records that less than EX+ and most are Mint- or still sealed. The few times I have listed lower grades I've had issues as a result.
As an aside, the Goldmine record grading system is horrible, the common VG+ grade is so variable as to be meaningless especially when the grading is not done by a highly experienced seller with a well established reputation for accuracy and honesty.
The OP might be honest but they lack the accuracy and their feedback and issues confirms that.
calicorecordsandcds
·3 years agoYou don't offer anything from the looks of it. Maybe you should not have an opinion on this.
slippinjimmy
·3 years agoMaybe you should look into something called a "posting id". I don't care one bit if you think I lack credibility.
The OP has over 600 feedbacks but they don't know how to grade and/or describe records, I may only have 3 feedback on this id but I have been dealing in used records for almost 50 years and know what I'm taking about or I would not have posted.
itsjustasprain
·3 years agoIt has been explained to you repeatedly in multiple threads what a Posting ID is. Sellers do not necessarily post from their selling account if they do not want unhappy posters here messing around with their listings just because the posters are not hearing what they want to hear. Sometimes the responses are not going to be pleasant and they do not want the OP to shoot the messenger.
Thus the advice may be given from a buying account or even from an account that was set up for posting and nothing else. You can judge the quality of their advice from the Helpfuls or Solutions that have been given to them by other posters.
pburn
·3 years ago@calicorecordsandcds
calicorecordsandcds
·3 years agoMy only question:
Why would a seller want to hide selling ids? What are you hiding? Why not be honest especially when posting said advice. I will not apologize to anyone who is Shadey. sorry!
itsjustasprain
·3 years agoSo you are reading the multiple answers you have already received to your question and apparently understanding none of them.
Is there anyone else in your friends or family that you can refer to about this? Someone close to you may be able to help you with this. Given the number of people who have already tried to explain it to you here it seems like you are going to need more help understanding this than what we can offer.
calicorecordsandcds
·3 years agoAll I can say is you are doing it wrong! If you want some advise. I can help you! I will address some of this now:
1) first identify what policy you feel sellers are abusing.
2) ebay does nothing to help- I don't understand this because when it comes to issues with buyers abusing things ebay has 110% been there for me. However, I take steps that maybe you missed:
a. get with CS as soon as you suspect something wrong. they cannot help you if you keep them in the dark until it is too late.
b. engage with customers a lot even when nothing is wrong and twice as much if things go wrong.
c. review what you are doing that may need some fine tuning to cut back on what you call abuse I see constant returns. If you have constant returns then you might want to look at why find the trend and review how you are doing business and if you can improve on it.
d. Claims of item not and described- How first and second ebay never will not side with you if it was.
e. Do not use buyer comparison to prove your point again if ebay knows and you are right they will side with you get them involved immediately call CS get real person to get on and see what you see.
f. Why are you paying 17.9% in fees?
I just think you really need to take a closer look at the trends and determine how YOU can handle things better. I have never had an issue with not having ebay be there for me when their are disputes and often the scam or abuse people will claim oh it was not packaged correctly however they also almost always want a partial refund but, will not take a full refund and return the item. I find this often with bent corners. I think they make mild some cases stupid mild bend at very tip of corner just to attempt to get partial refund.
If you have questions I will help you. I am pretty new to ebay as a record store but, I am not to dealing with people or businesses. So take what you can if anything I say and I wish you the best of luck. I hope you stay and help me make this undesirable for the mega corporation companies that treat people like cra^& and really are abusing ebay and the Policys.
I wish you the best of luck either way,
Happy New Years Everyone
gunz
stewpidazsole
·3 years agoIt’s not sellers! It’s buyers! At least in my case. I am a seller. I list things by auction and buy it now. The auction listings are repeatedly bid up by buyer with little feedback and newer account and the bid the item up then never pay. It has happened with several of my listings in the last 6 months. I am not doing anything wrong except selling on eBay. There is something fishy going on and I want no part of it!
mandisattictoyz
·3 years agoYep, it’s the “opinion” not factual misconceptions about return reasons. One person will say junk and another would say gold. Some people do t understand or have less knowledge about an item and its condition. This is where eBay gets you and takes advantage. If your item isn’t one size fits all, then they will start to give you a 5% fee increase for opinions and that’s not right either. Selling online is just like street hustling with these big corps like eBay Etsy amazon Walmart. You just have to learn the ropes and play each platforms game to compete.
tdrake
·3 years agoExactly.
"Is it time to throw in the towel on eBay?" is a question only the OP can answer. I been here 25 years and have rolled with every punch so far and will continue to do so. I'm doing fine for what I do, but if I wasn't and there was another, better, place I'd be there.
Anybody thinking it's time to throw in the towel on ebay and go somewhere else, I wish they would post which platform they are getting a better deal at. I have to ask WHY THEY ARE NOT THERE NOW? Seems like poor business to not be where the best traffic, rates and buyers are. WHY would anyone stay where they feel they're not doing as good as they could if they went elsewhere?
pburn
·3 years agoI'm also amused when sellers quit the platform in disgust but stick around the discussion-board community, bashing eBay at every opportunity. I can only assume their new selling sites don't have discussion boards. 😂
stewpidazsole
·3 years agoAre you amused? Maybe it’s just that sellers are trying to get answers to what is going on. Maybe so they can put all the facts together and put an end to the criminal activity that is apparently what so many on eBay think is perfectly ok. Since no one can talk to “a manager†on eBay because there aren’t any! The community used to be a good place to seek help but as of late it is nothing but a bunch of people who appear to be in on the scamming and ripping off of the decent eBay users. I have tried to get to the bottom of why things have changed for the worse on here but get no help.
calicorecordsandcds
·3 years agoI am going to tell you also then you are doing it wrong and:
1) you can talk to a manager via cs for one. I have none of the issues you are talking about. Furthermore ebay does investigate claims of abuse and does remove buyer. I am not sure how you are not doing something right but usually it is communication.
99% of my buyers are legit less than 1% tried to pull a fast one and all of them ebay sided in my favor.
v/r
gunz