It's Time to Verify Sellers

[9ahau]

It's time for eBay to have some verification process that sellers have what they publicly claimed to have for sale. This nonsense of having people coming on their site and listing things they don't have is killing the spirit of online shopping...even Amazon started following suit.

Online shopping must follow the law and the essence of the Uniform Commercial Code...

Yet, when buyers who already paid and has not gotten their item  call eBay or have eBay call them after the buyer securely logs in to have eBay call...are greeted with so much verify process, its sickening...

[kensgiftshop]

Do you really think the FBI is going to do anything about an Ebay dropshipper.

You could do some good by not buying from them.

[kensgiftshop]

---

@jklfindings wrote:

I vet most of my buyers.  Feedback left for others is the first thing I look at.  If its a page of red... no thanks.   You can tell a lot about people by how they treat other sellers.  

---

Do you ever check the sellers that receive the negative feedback?

That could tell you why the buyer leaves negative feedback.

[a_c_green]

---

@deltilogical wrote:

Managed Payments seems to be one way Ebay confirms sellers - you don't get a US bank account anymore easily and without ID.   Not sure if there are online banks that permit accounts without in-person visits.  

---

Certainly there are... that's one of the advantages of having an on-line presence in the first place. (That's not to say that you might not have to send them copies of your gummint ID for account purposes: Driver's License, passport or whatever.)

I've been a member of my credit union for decades now despite never having set foot in the door, ever. They've moved about three times and changed their name twice, and I'm not even sure where they are anymore, but they've been handling my Managed Payments income for years now; no problems.

[mam98031]

---

@9ahau wrote:

Thank you all for responding...here is what I have proposed to eBay:

1. When a seller list an item for sale, eBay sends a pop up, do you have physical possession of the item? if the seller clicked yes, that seller has 48hrs for the item to be in the hands of the shipper...not merely just posting a tracking info.

2. if the item is not in the hands of the shipper within 48hrs, the transaction is suspended, eBay contacts buyer to determine if the buyer wants to cancel or wait.

3. if the buyer choose to wait, eBay contact the seller about the delay....determine what's going on

4. if the buyer choose to cancel, the transaction is closed, buyer refunded immediately. The Uniform Commercial Code says a buyer can cancel anytime before the seller ships (the shipper must have possession) if the buyer communicates...here, if the buyer communicates via eBay 's message, the cancellation request is in writing...but eBay's policy claimed one can only cancel within 24hrs...not cool because eBay's interest is at stake.

Hope this makes sense.

---

1.  How does Ebay verify or monitor that the seller actually did that and just didn't tell Ebay what they needed to hear?  Why would a seller have to have a newly listed item in the "hands of the shipper" within 48 hours??  Why would the seller need for the shipper to have it BEFORE the item is sold or the seller knowing who it will need to be shipped to?

2.  Assuming you are just talking about sold items, why would sellers be forced to do two day handling times.  We have more freedom in that setting, or are you looking to also FORCE seller into a 2 day shipping policy?

3  Not sure about this either.  Ebay collects stats on sellers and some things actually cause defects which can be harmful to the health of a seller's account.  So you are saying that the buyer would have the power to override Ebay policy for Seller Performance?

4.  This already happens when a buyer requests a cancellation IF the seller agrees to it.  Buyer's can't determine if the cancellation is OK.  They don't always know if the item has shipped or not, which it is why this decision is for the Seller to make.  Most sellers will cancel when a buyer requests it IF they can.  It is a minority of sellers that try to fight it with the buyer, which is never a good idea.

There is NO SUCH rule that says a buyer can only ask / REQUEST a Cancellation within the first 24 hours.  You are confusing this with the FORMAL [for the lack of a better word] request for a cancellation.  If a buyer requests the cancellation within the first 24 hours after purchase, there is literally a function they can do that submits a REQUEST for cancellation to a seller.

However if the buyer misses that window and can't file a Formal request, they are welcome to email the seller within Ebay and ask for the cancellation of the transaction.  This is moreover the most common way for a seller to get a REQUEST to cancel an order.  But either way it is a request and the seller has to agree to it.

[mam98031]

---

@deltilogical wrote:

Managed Payments seems to be one way Ebay confirms sellers - you don't get a US bank account anymore easily and without ID.   Not sure if there are online banks that permit accounts without in-person visits.  

---

The OP isn't asking for sellers to be verified, they want their inventory levels to be verified.  They want Ebay to take inventory for 19+ million sellers and their billions of listings.

[soh.maryl]

Once a buyer has made a purchase and paid, then what do you do, cancel the sale? 

[tobaccocardyahoo]

---

@tobaccocardyahoo wrote:

I have an order right now, that I cannot find the item. I know it was not sold anywhere else or on Ebay. I had it and there are pictures on the listing. Nothing Ebay could do would predict that I might have to cancel. I am sure this item has a personal link to the buyer. I feel awful about cancelling, but if I cannot find it soon, that is what I will do.

---

Found it. Shipped it. On time. It was more or less where I expected it to be, but was hiding. Must have totaled about 3 hours looking for it.

[chevymontecarlo88]

---

@soh.maryl wrote:

Once a buyer has made a purchase and paid, then what do you do, cancel the sale? 

---

IMHO On a $500 plus item, yes. On a $10 sock, no. If i see a sea of red in the feedback, that is enough for me not to waste my time and to proceed with care. 

[frankenhobbit]

How much more would you be willing to pay to have eBay provide that service? They'd have to do it for every item listed, not just the ones that actually sell. That means the overall cost of that service would need to be baked into the fee charged for sales that actually happened. 

I'd rather pay less and look at feedback to see if the seller has a history of delivering. 

Now, they DO in some circumstances ask sellers for proof of where they obtained the items for sale, but that's generally for items that are commonly subjects of organized retail  theft. 

[chapeau-noir]

If you sell Women's Clothing or Auto Parts, you will get returns. Sometimes those returns will be not what you bought or sold. As a buyer, you might find hidden flaws. MBG works for the buyer. The seller needs to eat the loss.

Men's clothing can be as bad - I stopped selling it finally (even though I had some great customers, too).  Clothing is a tough game all around. Not sure it's tougher than auto parts, though!

[adamcartwright]

A page of red means the buyer leaves only negative feedback. It's a good way to vet buyers when you receive offers.

If I'm buying, the seller's feedback is front and center on the listing -- usually no need to delve further.

[adamcartwright]

@tobaccocardyahoo Oh great! Once I read your initial comment I was looking for this one. Congrats! It's a great feeling of relief, I know.

[chapeau-noir]

---

@9ahau wrote:

Thank you all for responding...here is what I have proposed to eBay:

1. When a seller list an item for sale, eBay sends a pop up, do you have physical possession of the item? if the seller clicked yes, that seller has 48hrs for the item to be in the hands of the shipper...not merely just posting a tracking info.

2. if the item is not in the hands of the shipper within 48hrs, the transaction is suspended, eBay contacts buyer to determine if the buyer wants to cancel or wait.

3. if the buyer choose to wait, eBay contact the seller about the delay....determine what's going on

4. if the buyer choose to cancel, the transaction is closed, buyer refunded immediately. The Uniform Commercial Code says a buyer can cancel anytime before the seller ships (the shipper must have possession) if the buyer communicates...here, if the buyer communicates via eBay 's message, the cancellation request is in writing...but eBay's policy claimed one can only cancel within 24hrs...not cool because eBay's interest is at stake.

Hope this makes sense.

---

Yes, the words make sense, but the logistics would prove to be an administrative nightmare. It would also drag the shipper into it (and shippers don't always verify shipment promptly). The back and forth with the buyer given the right of refusal (without being able to verify if the shipper actually HAS the item - it's obvious that the seller's word would not be accepted) would add an extra layer.

And you know eBay would want to implement their 'magical' AI to handle the load this would require, which would be next-level disaster.

So I think this would not work.

[yuzuha]

---

@adamcartwright wrote:

A page of red means the buyer leaves only negative feedback. It's a good way to vet buyers when you receive offers.

---

But even that doesn't necessarily mean anything, because some buyers only leave feedback when they're unhappy with a transaction. They may have three times the number of purchases but didn't leave feedback when they were happy.

[chevymontecarlo88]

---

@yuzuha wrote:

---

@adamcartwright wrote:

A page of red means the buyer leaves only negative feedback. It's a good way to vet buyers when you receive offers.

---

But even that doesn't necessarily mean anything, because some buyers only leave feedback when they're unhappy with a transaction. They may have three times the number of purchases but didn't leave feedback when they were happy.

---

No one is saying you have to cancel every transaction. The point is that if you are selling something of high value, there are some clues (sea of red in feedback) that may lead you to Not want to continue with the sale.  There is Risk vs Reward on every sale (especially high value) so it's just another step some of us take to protect ourselves. It may not mean anything to you but it may to me and that is ok. We all have options and the ability to choose what works for ourselves.