For Parts Or Non Working Condition Category Means Nothing Now. Sellers Beware, You Are NOT Protected

[albany_sellers]

This is news to me since I have always been supported in the past, but according to eBay for business, and the return specialists over the phone, if you list something as "For Parts or Not Working" you now have to describe exactly what is wrong with it, down to the minute details what works, what does not work.

I just spent an hour on the phone with eBay reps telling me platitudes like "it's the cost of doing business" and saying that while my listing was correct and I did everything right in describing this parts item, they can't be sure if the buyer is wrong and don't know if it's a remorse return disguised as an INAD, even though they said my listing was clear.

I was also lied to repeatedly about the rep leaving a note on my account that he never left. Business as usual I guess.

This was an item sold for parts in the correct condition category with no returns, just as we are instructed when selling parts or broken items. Put the same in the title, condition description and item description, but it seems eBay has switched their policy and decided anything and everything can be returned, regardless. 

It used to be that if you sold something under the parts category, you were protected, but the returns specialist told me that is not the case now. They told me that if the buyer lies, you instantly lose your seller protection, and could not articulate any situation where you would be protected. 

If you are thinking you can safely sell something as non working, forget it. It's open season on all sellers.

[ittybitnot]

If you are thinking you can safely sell something as non working, forget it. It's open season on all sellers.

If you think you can sell something mint in box, sealed, never opened it is still "open season."  Once that SNAD button is used by the buyer, the seller is toast no matter what they had in the description.   Basically, when you sign up to sell on ebay you agree to become a victim of buyer fraud.   Anything can be returned at your expense, or anything can be had for free.  

[gracieallen01]

Gotta keep the buyers coming back, I guess.  And, if they come back, they gotta have money to spend - again.

[mesodude]

I think people who sell electric, electronic, or mechanical items (working or not) are brave. I don’t sell such items anymore. About the only thing I could suggest is for you to urge potential buyers in bold to contact you if they need to know if this or that part is present or functioning. You can ask someone who buys an item if they are looking for a specific part or functionality. Not foolproof but still you’d have a chance to let them back out of a sale before they caused you headaches.

[mtgraves7984]

Sorry this happened to you. It stings the worst the first time, if that's any consolation. Learning curve and all...

[gracieallen01]

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@mtgraves7984 wrote:

Sorry this happened to you. It stings the worst the first time, if that's any consolation. Learning curve and all...

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Unfortunately, when it is the platform that changes the rules to suit themselves, after the fact, not just the 'first time' does it hurt.  In fact, quite often, it can hurt more each time it happens.

[albany_sellers]

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@mtgraves7984 wrote:

Sorry this happened to you. It stings the worst the first time, if that's any consolation. Learning curve and all...

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It's not the first time, not the second time, not the 3rd time and not the 4th time.

If eBay has made anything clear to me, it's that they do not want me here, and that they prefer bad buyers and scammers over me.

They lie to me consistently over the phone, don't know their own policy, ignore what policy they DO know when it benefits them, never honor what they tell me, make phony promises and then have the nerve to send me customer service surveys like they don't just go immediately into the trash. They really need to just drop the whole seller protection act and call it what it is. If we are going to be abused and treated like garbage as sellers, maybe they should just let us know from the start that they will not support us. 

After the thousands, and thousands, and thousands of dollars they have gotten from me, you would think they might show me a little bit of gratitude, and maybe even value me as a seller, but what do I get? A couple of "courtesies" that were never actually courtesies when I needed my seller protection, and then once the so called courtesies ran out, I effectively get told to shove it, even when I have an open and shut, easy to solve case.

It's funny how often us sellers are expected to pay the cost of doing business, and how to eBay it means that we should just let buyers mow us down wholesale, yet somehow an actual business like eBay does not ever seem to apply that to themselves.

I would think that after all the money I have put into their pockets, they might treat me a little better so that I would keep on putting money in their pockets, but they are so short sighted that they would rather keep a bad buyer who is part of the problem on eBay, and kick the ones who make them the money in the face.

I really hope they enjoy their buyers when all the sellers who bring them the buyers move on.  When only the bad sellers remain because nobody else will have them, I guess eBay can have fun dealing with bad transactions 3/4 times as they wonder why there are so many problems.

[coolections]

It has been posted many times here on the boards by the blues that for parts only is not an automatic no returns. If a seller says a screen is broken on a phone and the phone will not even turn on that is still a snad. If a seller says the item does not work but has not mentioned that half the parts are missing that is still a snad. There are many reasons why a seller cannot just say parts only and force a buyer to keep junk.

[mesodude]

It may not be of immediate consolation but I constantly remind sellers to report and block troublesome buyers. My philosophy is that if they've tried to scam me or weasel out of paying for a return, they are probably a habitual scammer. If enough sellers report these buyers, they'll eventually get tripped up (and have their buying privileges curtailed, if not revoked). There are no foolproof categories but I don't envy folks who sell electronics (especially expensive electronics) or electrical or mechanical stuff. Between dealing with thieves and people who just aren't terribly bright, I think your life as a seller will be miserable.

[frodobagginskennedy]

The first and only rule that is true fast and never changes is NEVER EVER NADA list something you cannot afford to give away.

[coolections]

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@frodobagginskennedy wrote:

The first and only rule that is true fast and never changes is NEVER EVER NADA list something you cannot afford to give away.

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@frodobagginskennedy  Or anything that should be in the trash.

[albany_sellers]

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@mesodude wrote:

It may not be of immediate consolation but I constantly remind sellers to report and block troublesome buyers. My philosophy is that if they've tried to scam me or weasel out of paying for a return, they are probably a habitual scammer. If enough sellers report these buyers, they'll eventually get tripped up (and have their buying privileges curtailed, if not revoked). There are no foolproof categories but I don't envy folks who sell electronics (especially expensive electronics) or electrical or mechanical stuff. Between dealing with thieves and people who just aren't terribly bright, I think your life as a seller will be miserable.

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That does little to help me now. Sure, I can report someone like I have done more than once in the past, the same people who are still doing the same thing a year later after I reported them, and who even knows how many other seller have reported them.

Instead of helping me, i get phrases like "awwww man, if ONLY you had offered free returns, you could have just been screwed over only half as bad"

I don't even know why I go out of my way to offer good service when it's does not even matter at this point. A seller is a seller, and is going to be treated like garbage regardless.

[mesodude]

I'm in your corner. I'm only suggesting that if this is your livelihood and these are items you feel you must sell, there's a few things you can do to protect yourself (and potentially others). As someone else said earlier, selling an item "as is" doesn't offer you any kind of immunity. Encouraging potential buyers to ask about specific functionality or parts they might be interested in (as well soliciting such information from someone who has already hit the buy it now button) could help you avoid some returns.

[redschoolhouse]

It's funny how often us sellers are expected to pay the cost of doing business, and how to eBay it means that we should just let buyers mow us down wholesale, yet somehow an actual business like eBay does not ever seem to apply that to themselves.

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Yes, it would be nice  if ebay would pay part of the refund as part of its doing business!

[earlyant-77]

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@coolections wrote:

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@frodobagginskennedy wrote:

The first and only rule that is true fast and never changes is NEVER EVER NADA list something you cannot afford to give away.

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@frodobagginskennedy  Or anything that should be in the trash.

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So Pierre should have tossed that broken laser pointer and just forgot about the concept of ebay?