I'm Done with e-Bay???

[the-godfather]

   I've been selling on e-Bay for about 15 years.  In that time, I have taken great pride in selling and providing customer satisfaction beyond any expectations from the buyer.  I'm too honest in the regard that, if there's an issue, I prompty issue a refund.   Lately, I feel that there are buyers who are stealing items from honest sellers, like myself.  Just over the past three weeks, I have had three different buyers complain about an item and received a refund, one even stated that they only received an empty box!  I called e-bay and they were kind enough to reverse the $19.95 refund that the buyer requested and received.         

   I guess my question is, "Has anyone else experience the same issues as I have and if so, how does one prevent it?"

   I'm think that since all three items were DVDs, the buyers only want to make a copy, make up a complaint and get their money back.

  THANKS in advance and may you sell all that you have!

[jessicassupercrazystuff68]

My Husband recently sold a Laptop Screen Cover (no screen included) as advertised. The buyer requested a return because it did not include the Keyboard ??? for the same laptop.  Said item was "Not as Described" His listing showed nothing BUT the screen cover (Plastic cover for Laptop screen) with NO MENTION of any other part of the Laptop to be included.  So he opened a case stating the Buyer was wrong to say "Not as Described" Guess what happened a few minutes after he opened the case???

The Buyer wins !!! Gee.. Imagine that. That's like selling a tire and expecting it to come with the air included. Stupidly Bad E-bay policy for sellers !!!  This Place is getting WORSE by the minute ! It's like Fantasy Land for Buyers - You can ask for a refund for any stupid reason, and get it no matter what !

Thank God I don't rely on this site as an income it's pathetic. I can't even imagine how many Top Rated Sellers here are getting sick of this baby **bleep** - And why the heck even have a Feedback System ??? Hey Seller - Try to leave anything other than a positive F.B. No Can Do ..

What a joke ! Even if you got totally hosed, you can do nothing...

[mistwomandancing]

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always-free-shipping wrote:..........my question is, "Has anyone else experience the same issues as I have and if so, how does one prevent it?"

   I'm think that since all three items were DVDs, the buyers only want to make a copy, make up a complaint and get their money back.

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No, not remotely experienced the issues you are having!  In all my YEARS of selling here, I can count the requests for refund (for breakage or damage in transit only) on the fingers of one hand, and I sell much very fragile merchandise. 

But I will say, there are definitely categories where sellers are far more likely to run into return requests, outright scams, etc.  There are categories here I would absolutely not sell in. 

I'm on eBay to make money, to make profits.  I have to choose pretty carefully what merchandise I want to deal in and what likely and possible customers that merchandise will attract.  So far, the results of my dealings with customers eBay provides me is excellent. 

Sorry you have had some difficulty with some of your buyers.  I think in those categories where these happenings occur more often, the sellers make sure to up the price of their merchandise a bit, to kind of *offset* the losses they know they'll face, selling in their chosen category.  Sad to have to do it that way, but even the real Brick & Mortar stores have to build in a little to their prices to cover loss.

[jessicassupercrazystuff68]

And another thing... How many of You Top Rated Sellers got applications for advertising your items right here on E-Bay, and All of a sudden, Your listing are all screwed up cuz E-bay changed there mind ???

Now you have to click on "veiw listing details" to see what you have wasted so much time tring to sell ??? Have fun fixing that HUGE MESS !!! I can see them sitting in a room trying to figure out how to make it HARDER for Seller's to sell. As you can probably tell, I am very upset with everything here. Heck, I can't even log onto my site like I could a week ago, I have to click through several links to land where I want to be. What are they trying to acheive ???

[jessicassupercrazystuff68]

One last comment before I shut down, and this is for you E-Bay employee's who no doubt monitor these comments, at first - I would tell people how I like selling here, how easy it was. Now - I get.. well kind of mad, whenever someone asks "How's E-Bay going???" I can only say, Fine accept for the leeches that get away with robbery from both my husband and I. Yep, I still make a small profit selling my garbage here (one man's trash is anothers treasure) But I will never recommend selling here to anyone who asks, I will simply say, Get ready for some headaches if you do. E-Bay treats sellers like Garbage !

[vintagecraze50]

Good advice.  Sellers on the web and everywhere factor in loss in their business model. Unfortunately, that also increases costs to other potential buyers. The people who do this scamming on here are costing all the sellers and Ebay their business, and I am not kidding. The more this stuff happens the more sellers have to raise prices because of the risks. Here's another interesting fact. The more you increase prices the more likelihood you are going to get a chargeback. That's well documented on chargeback specialist websites.

[kpettree0ec3]

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@margarenisa_0 wrote:

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@mistwomandancing wrote:

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@kclim0828 wrote:
"please return for a full refund" does not always work either.
they will send different item or empty package...
and ebay will say...sorry you have to issue full refund.

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That is something we hear repeated here quite a bit.  I've never had it happen.  I don't personally know of anybody it's happened to.  I think it's one of those thing that rarely happens, but then gets blown up into something some people actually think happens quite a bit... one of those Old Wive's Tales sort of things that are based on fact but wildly blown out of proportion. 

Mostly the return for refund just gets returned, and then refunded.  Sometimes the buyer doesn't think he should have to pay the return postage and gets in a snit over that, or even decides to demand a return label or will file a SNAD.  That's about all I've ever heard of REALLY happening.

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I’ve never had it happen to me personally either.

But reading these boards day in and day out for years- it *does* happen. I don’t believe ALL these sellers are lying about it for one second.

I don’t think it’s an Old Wife’s Tale or an urban myth. I do agree it probably happens much less than you can tell from the posts here and is rare.

But when it does happen? There’s precious little any seller can do about it.

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I HAS happened to me and I totally agree with you; there is nothing a seller can do about it. It is extremely demoralizing - in a way - because you feel that every item you ship out from that point on has the potential of being "stolen" from you.

[stitchesandseamsct]

I blame this behavior on the lack of balance between good buyers and bad buyers during this slow season. All the slick buyers are on ebay, while all the good buyers are still cooking outside. People asking me for ridiculous questions just to NEVER make a purchase...buying stuff just to return it...its constant

[mistwomandancing]

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kpettree0ec3 wrote:

I HAS happened to me and I totally agree with you; there is nothing a seller can do about it. It is extremely demoralizing - in a way - because you feel that every item you ship out from that point on has the potential of being "stolen" from you.

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It absolutely is *more dangerous* than us selling from our own little shops.  There, we had the shoplifting theft and occasional breakage that a customer didn't mention and just tucked back deeper in, where it wasn't noticed until the next inventory was done.  "Hmmm.. what is this broken goblet doing back behind this stack of high end bath towels?"  But, we priced every item of merchandise a bit higher to cover the expense of shrink and loss.  In the end, the buyers always pay for it by way of having to pay higher prices for everything, whether from grocery or hardware stores or our little gift or home decor shops.

On eBay, most of us do pretty much the same thing to cover the losses we'll likely occasionally run into that are accidental damages, and.. the losses from the cheats and scammers.  Yup.  It happens, more in some categories than in others, and while it's not thought to be rampant, nobody disputes that it absolutely does happen. 

You hate to think when you ship something out that it may end in some kind of a dispute or claim, that the item may, in the end, be *stolen* from you.  CYA by pricing everything to cover the occasional loss of any single item, grit your teeth, and keep on workin' your business and putting the profits in your pocket!