Buyer protection

[t732]

EBay offers a broad buyer protection yet claims to be just a marketplace. The money back guarantee is at the expense of the small time sellers. 

[wastingtime101]

eBay is a venue with a set of policies. Nobody says you have to like the policies to sell here, but you do have to consent to them. Every venue has a set of policies. Pick the venue(s) that will work for your business.

[t732]

Are there any other online venues with better policies?

[wastingtime101]

We're not allowed to post here and encourage sellers to go to other venues. That's the kind of thing you'll have to research for yourself to see if eBay is the place for you.

I sell on several venues. eBay's policies aren't the best in some areas, but they do bring me the most customers, so I work the losses into my business model and do what I can to mitigate them.

[downunder-61]

You have posted another thread where you recieved good advice - up to you whether or not you listen to it.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Seller-protection/td-p/32387156

[t732]

I  apologize. My only recourse is to accept the return and swallow the loss. 

[dbfolks166mt]

     There are several but you will need to do that research on your own. You may also want to look at local online forums for selling things. There are several options where you don't have to deal with shipping, most transactions are handled person to person and the transaction is done in cash. There are also often no fees associated with the majority of these platforms. 

[inhawaii]

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@t732 wrote:

EBay offers a broad buyer protection yet claims to be just a marketplace. The money back guarantee is at the expense of the small time sellers. 

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You are correct.

[maxine*j]

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@inhawaii wrote:

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@t732 wrote:

EBay offers a broad buyer protection yet claims to be just a marketplace. The money back guarantee is at the expense of the small time sellers. 

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You are correct.

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It's been my own experience that it's the small-time sellers who are most likely to misidentify or misrepresent their items (usually unintentionally, I believe) or to pack them poorly, or to ship them slowly. 

So, buyers have to be protected with them as surely as they're protected with big sellers. 

I'll grant you, though, that it hurts small-time sellers more when buyers are cheats and file bogus claims, but I don't see a way around that.

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[friskya]

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@inhawaii wrote:

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@t732 wrote:

EBay offers a broad buyer protection yet claims to be just a marketplace. The money back guarantee is at the expense of the small time sellers. 

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You are correct.

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Never made sense to me that a "marketplace" should be setting policy for how merchants should be handling customer disputes, but that's what eBay has decided to do and the only options are, agree to whatever policy eBay sets, or sell elsewhere.

Things have really gone downhill (IMHO) since the good old days of caveat emptor and caveat venditor. You know - back when eBay really and truly was simply a marketplace facilitator.

[katzrul15 · Accepted solution]

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@t732 wrote:

EBay offers a broad buyer protection yet claims to be just a marketplace. The money back guarantee is at the expense of the small time sellers. 

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In some ways, you are correct.  And the small-er seller does not have the ability to absorb the losses the way larger sellers do.

It is definitely a site you need to be careful what you list on here.  Some items are scam magnets.

Unfortunately, that scam magnet list is growing by the day.  Seems like almost anything can and is, fair game.

[maxine*j]

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@friskya wrote:

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... Things have really gone downhill (IMHO) since the good old days of caveat emptor and caveat venditor. You know - back when eBay really and truly was simply a marketplace facilitator.

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I think eBay would be a goner had it not introduced buyer protection. Too many people had experiences like mine:  Received cheap book club edition instead of the first edition advertised.   Received books so covered in mold and mildew that they had to be immediately disposed of before they infected everything else in the house made of paper.  Never did receive the pricey glass paperweight.  In each case, it was just TOUGH LUCK KIDDO.   I didn't buy anything here again for years. 

Now, of course, the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction, to the detriment of a lot of honest sellers, but there's no way eBay can go back to the Wild West days.

I don't have the answer, but surely there are others smart enough to find a balanced policy.

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