eBay

prestonenterprises · ‎06-15-2018

My name is Frederick; I am a seller on Ebay under "prestonenterprises". I have found that Ebay's "seller support" pledge is not worth the webpage it is written on.

Yesterday, against what I was told would happen by Ebay support, a buyer who claimed I had not shipped their product was given a refund, and I was told to go pound sand by Ebay support.

To make a long story short, on 21 May 2018 I mailed four magnets with tracking to a buyer in Connecticut. The magnets were apparently held up in transit and stated so on the USPS website, which is not my fault.

Buyer was very arrogant and demanded his money back, after I told him they were held up in transit and to please be patient.

Ebay support lied to me on Monday evening and told me that since I had provided tracking, that I was "covered". I found that was not true on Thursday, when they told me that "I" had not delivered the magnets to the buyer. Yes, that is what I was told. I then said, "What will happen when my magnets are finally delivered to the buyer?"

I was told, "Oh well," and the Ebay "teammate" HUNG UP. In other words, the buyer will receive four free magnets and my thirty dollars, and I will be left looking like the fool I evidently am.

I have to use Ebay to sell my items, but I will NEVER trust them, and I will NEVER recommend their services to ANYONE. I will make certain that the world knows about this deceit by Ebay, via posts and articles on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Disqus.

I'm sorry, but I cannot accomodate liars and deceitful actions, and I want nothing to do with such individuals or corporations.

I would be interested in opinions if anyone reads this message, thank you.

fashunu4eeuh · ‎06-15-2018

Dear Frederick,

Very sorry to hear you got stung.

Before i go on, you should know that your post violates the forum guidelines and will get edited or pulled, although not likely right away at this time of night. Naming names isn't allowed. It's considered naming and shaming.

I see your deep frustration at having an impatient buyer, but looking at your feedback it seems you are doing well here and this is just one problem out of many successful sales. It is a shame to let a single poor experience knock you down.

In the land of eBay selling, the seller is held accountable for a delayed or lost package. While this may feel wrong to you as you have little control over the shipping, it is still your responsibility as an eBay seller. And although you have a no return policy, that only covers you for buyer remorse cases, but not when a buyer opens a Not Received case (or a Not As Described case). Did the buyer open a Not Rec'd case? The only way for the seller to win this is to upload the tracking to the case notes showing Delivery. If there was no delivery, then the customer gets his money back after a certain amount of time has passed, per eBay's Money Back Guarantee. Was there a delivery?

I strongly advise you to familiarize yourself with the MBG because every eBay seller is bound to its tenets. It is important for you to know what is expected of you in the eBay universe so you can better prepare and protect your interests. If you don't know what you are up against, you will lose. If your buyer had to escalate the case to eBay and they forced the refund, you will also receive a defect on your account for a case closed without seller resolution. You don't want a defect if you want to sell on eBay. A few defects can seriously affect your selling ability here.

Everything that happened to you here is spelled out in the policies and you agreed to abide by them every time you list an item for sale. The only deceit you encountered here is in the Customer Service rep who hung up on you and told you falsely that you were covered when you were not. I admit that was bad. But not knowing the policies is why you got stung. And eBay is not to blame for that.

Again, I am very sorry this happened to you. I wish you good fortune as you move ahead.

dilo-8873 · ‎06-15-2018

Mr. Preston,

you are going to get a lot of responses on this board such as the one that has preceded mine, so let me be the one to say that I totally agree with you, it is a disgrace what happened to you, policies and procedures or whatever not withstanding. When such a thing happens to the ones that tell you it is your responsibility (maybe you should have hand delivered it?) then you will hear their uproar as I have seen already on these boards. Good Luck to you going forward!

prestonenterprises · ‎06-15-2018

I won't be moving ahead - I will maintain stasis, and will NEVER sell anything of real value on Ebay ever - I can no longer TRUST them. I do not forget, and I never forgive.

prestonenterprises · ‎06-15-2018

Thanks for your support.

orangehound · ‎06-15-2018

There are a couple of common experiences that you just encountered:

eBay is very unclear about their policies with sellers ... some policies are not logical, and others are hidden. Sellers really only learn about these policies through painful experiences (or from the stories provide by others).
eBay's Far East customer service is trained to operate from scripts, and when you have a problem that doesn't exactly fit their script they will sometimes "wing it" by going off script. When they do, this is usually where they tell you anything that you want to hear just to get you off the phone ... and their guidance will sometimes lead you in a much worse situation.

flyerfandan999 · ‎06-15-2018

Since it has been 7 business days, you can submit a missing mail search to the USPS:

https://www.usps.com/help/missing-mail.htm

If you shipped with enough USPS insurance to cover the eBay sales price, if the item is declared lost, they will pay you the eBay sales price plus the cost of shipping. (If the item was damaged but not lost, they would not pay you the cost of shipping.)

As far as eBay is concerned, it is your responsibility as the Seller to deliver items to Buyers. As a Seller, it is part of your business "calculus" to determine when it is appropriate to take out insurance to cover the risk of your items not making it to the Buyer in one piece, or in this case, at all.

turfsup09 · ‎06-15-2018

I feel for you but if a buyer does not receive item by the last day of the estimated delivery date, they can file a INR regardless if you the seller are at fault or not. Lets say you make a purchase on ebay and the item does not arrive, what are you going to do? Did tracking show that the item finally got there or is it still lost in space? If it is still lost in space I would make contact with who was responsible(USPS) and file an insurance claim.

thatsallfolks · ‎06-15-2018

Since you have tracking info, you could have contacted eBay and asked for an extension in the deadline for resolving the case. You could then contact USPS to try to resolve the issue with the package.

terrycanarsky · ‎06-15-2018

eBay "seller support" does not exist, not really.

Please put in a Lost Mail claim with USPS. You sent the package via Priority so it's covered for at least $50 insurance - and if the package is not found, you stand a good chance of compensation.

~M

prestonenterprises · ‎06-15-2018

I send everything with insurance - and USPS "insurance" is not worth the paper it is written on - it will take perhaps six months to get a refund, if I ever do at all.

prestonenterprises · ‎06-15-2018

Yes, I am supposed to jump through more hoops like a trained seal in a fruitless attempt to retrieve my money, which can take up to six months, if ever. Perhaps you enjoy wasting time; I do not.

That said, such rhetorical homilies on your part will not alter the fact that I will never trust Ebay ever again, and that I will go out of my way to discourage people from using their services.

I did learn one valuable lesson, though - Ebay does not back its sellers, and should never be trusted by anyone. I will never forget that, and will recommend their competitors to those who may ask.