Announced today eBay Launches Authentication Service for Luxury Handbags

[ijazzu]

The service appears to be similar to using a valet to sell your high priced handbags. So if you wanted to brand your eBay store as selling high end handbags, it doesn't sound as if the buyer would even know what seller was actually offering the handbag. The Authenticator would appear to be the seller, unless you sold them yourself and the buyer requested the service?

What I find interesting is this:

If the returned item is not the same item as the one sold, not in the same condition as sold, or the eBay Authenticate tag has been removed or otherwise damaged, the return will not be accepted. If the industry expert paid for the return shipping label, eBay will charge you for the cost of return shipping. You can request to have the item mailed back to you at your expense, with no refund. The item will not be mailed back to you unless you have paid the cost of return shipping and the cost of having the item returned to you. We also reserve the right to exercise any and all remedies, including limits on or suspension of your ability to use eBay, and referral to law enforcement if appropriate.

My thoughts are what if the buyer paid with paypal, is paypal going to override a denied return by eBay after 179 days of use??

Who decides the return will not be accepted? An eBay CS rep like they do now with all other items sold on eBay and always find in the buyers favor or does the expert automatically win? Do the expert sellers word mean more then any other seller that claims an item was returned in a different condition or a totally different item was returned all together?

 eBay has always stated that items must be returned in the same condition as received and yet never once in my 17 years has a CS rep ever backed that up and allowed a return to be denied.

These are high end handbags, we need to know what is being told here will actually be handled this way by the reps that handle these escalated return cases. They certainly haven't been up till now with other items.

https://www.ebay.com/s/itemauthentication/seller#terms-and-conditions

[itsjustasprain]

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@missjen831 wrote:

I find it highly comical that their "expert" /authenticator sells fake purses! 

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Cite please?

[luckythewinner]

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@emerald40 wrote:
Yes, but where does it end.  There are expensive items in almost every category that are scam magnets. What is safe to sell here - except the same low price items everyone else is trying to sell?

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Where does it end?

Where it always ends - one of two ways:

• with the seller developing a business plan that recognizes the risk, establishes his risk tolerance, and builds that risk into his business model; or
• with the seller ignoring the risk and probably getting burned

What is safe to sell here?

Nothing is safe to sell here. Again, it all comes to down to each seller recognizing and managing the risk. Or not.

[newview]

Bottom Line:
Do you trust eBay to do this correctly?

My answer:

[timzbiz]

And here is the kicker: ebay takes 20% of the sale price.

[bremontoy0]

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@missjen831 wrote:

I find it highly comical that their "expert" /authenticator sells fake purses! Did eBay not properly vet them?

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I caught that too!

[alli*kat]

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@itsjustasprain wrote:

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@missjen831 wrote:

I find it highly comical that their "expert" /authenticator sells fake purses! 

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Cite please?

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Here is the discussion from the fashion board it explains about the fakes.  https://community.ebay.com/t5/Fashion/Apparently-ebayauthenticate-is-up-and-running/m-p/27623314#M86...

[bremontoy0]

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@itsjustasprain wrote:

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@missjen831 wrote:

I find it highly comical that their "expert" /authenticator sells fake purses! 

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Cite please?

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Its in their feedback https://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=eastvalestore&iid=232520800475&de=of...

[emerald40]

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@jonathankirkland wrote:

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@emerald40 wrote:

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@jonathankirkland wrote:

Really, there's a simple solution for everyone's concerns: don't sell luxury handbags on ebay.

Seriously. Anyone even "thinking" about selling an expensive handbag on ebay may want to go have a look at the thread with the woman who almost lost out on a $6,000 handbag to a scammer claiming a cheap knockoff was sent instead. And she is STILL fighting a Paypal chargeback case right now on it.

I'm not saying every single person who sells these is going to be scammed every single time, but it seems like it's rapidly becoming one of the top scam categories along with cell phones.

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Yes, but where does it end.  There are expensive items in almost every category that are scam magnets.

What is safe to sell here - except the same low price items everyone else is trying to sell?

Wish there was a viable way to protect sellers, but this does not seem to be it.

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I agree with you 100%.

I am pretty new here and don't pretend to know everything, but what I do is the learning curve for selling here is very steep and as a seller you need to come in armed-to-the-teeth in understanding the policies of ebay & Paypal just to have a chance at protecting yourself.

As I said in another thread, ebay should offer some kind of training course or "Seller Exam" that would help teach sellers vital information to protect themselves better here. An incentive for this could be providing them with free listings based on their performance on such a test instead of just giving literally EVERYONE free listings and simply saying "List. Sell. Get Paid." Right now it's more like "List. Wait forever for sales. Good luck getting paid!"

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I have been here 19 years.  And there is no 100% way that I can protect myself from a scammer.

Yes, I know to make sure the payment is actually in my paypal account with an OK to ship, I know to always send to the address on the paypal account, I package like it is going into a war zone, I always use tracking and over $500 - signature confirmation.  And yes, I prewarn of that in my description.

But if a buyer really wants to scam me, decides to take out that diamond and pop in a CZ, file SNAD and return it back, I am at the mercy of ebay, paypal, credit card company.  And all my years here are not going to make a big difference with them.

[emerald40]

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@mrv71 wrote:

They should stop mandating Paypal as a form of payment, and go back to cash or postal money orders, they are the safest for the seller. Much harder to fake a postal money order than to fake an email for a "pretend" PayPal payment.

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Safe for sellers, yes, but not so much for buyers.

Especially with those stealing photos and listing items they do not have.

[emerald40]

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@jonathankirkland wrote:

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@mrv71 wrote:

They should stop mandating Paypal as a form of payment, and go back to cash or postal money orders, they are the safest for the seller. Much harder to fake a postal money order than to fake an email for a "pretend" PayPal payment.

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I wasn't around for those times. How does a postal money order protect a buyer? What if I buy something for $500, send the postal money order, and the seller just cashes it and never sends the item?

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Exactly what happened in the early days with scam sellers.

[emerald40]

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@mrv71 wrote:

That's why there used to be a working and honest feedback/communication system that built a relationship of trust between buyer and seller. It has been destroyed since by corporate greed and inserting intermediaries like PayPal who only wanted their cut instead of building relationship between two individuals.

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Honest feedback, hardly.

If you were scammed by a seller and dared to neg him, he would leave retalitory negative feedback warning other sellers not to deal with you.  You were at their mercy for whatever junk they sent you.

[ijazzu]

eBay does have a Market place exam:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/tutorial/marketplacetutorial/js_tutorial.html#

[missjen831]

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@alli*kat wrote:

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@itsjustasprain wrote:

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@missjen831 wrote:

I find it highly comical that their "expert" /authenticator sells fake purses! 

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Cite please?

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Here is the discussion from the fashion board it explains about the fakes.  https://community.ebay.com/t5/Fashion/Apparently-ebayauthenticate-is-up-and-running/m-p/27623314#M86...

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At least 1 buyer has posted proof on the boards as well, I won't link the thread because it would fall under naming and shaming. Kudos goes to Alberta for the detective work there, that's how I know of 1 thread involving the so-called expert. 

[missjen831]

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@ijazzu wrote:

eBay does have a Market place exam:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/tutorial/marketplacetutorial/js_tutorial.html#

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Hey Ijazzu! Good to see you over on this side of the tracks! Been seeing more posters from the knowledge base over here lately 🙂

Excellent find! I didn't know eBay had such an exam! 

[ijazzu]

That poor women, that's a lot of money to loose.

I am questioning who is held responsible if a buyer bypasses eBay and opens a case in Paypal or does a chargeback.

Since the original payment would be given to the expert, if a chargeback was to be done the experts payment would be at risk. The buyer would not be able to chargeback the 80% payment from the expert to the seller.  So I'm wondering how those cases are going to play out? If the expert does take all the risk and can't go back after the payment sent to seller, than the 20% cost of the service just may be worth it.