eBay

darkangel.86 · ‎06-11-2018

Dear eBay, your website SUCKS for sellers.

I recently listed a phone for sale, someone won it for $170 and right after the auction ended they messaged me saying "well I am only willing to pay $150, sorry but auto-bid took me over my price limit". SUUURE, So .... I say "no, I can't do that since I still have to pay the final value fee on $170 not $150! Either pay $170 or I'll let this escalate further". The buyer then requested I cancel the transaction. So hating my entire selling experience at this point, I agreed to cancel it and accepted the wasted time and re-listed the item.

Long story short, the item sold for $205 to someone else and I ship it, then I see negative feedback from the FIRST buyer who was CLEARLY trying to scan me out of $20. His negative feedback said "bad communication, bad seller" or something like that. To add insult to injury, I couldn't even leave ANY negative feedback for this terrible scammer of a buyer, all I could do is leave a POSITIVE feedback with negative text ... YET he can leave negative feedback for me EVEN THOUGH the transaction between us was canceled and he NEVER got an item from me.

Sooooo, here are the issues with this scenario:

1) Why the heck can't I leave this terrible buyer NEGATIVE feedback? He clearly wanted to scam me and looking at his feedback, I can see that he's been trying to do this trick on MANY other sellers.

2) How the HECK is this buyer able to leave ME negative feedback when the transaction between us is CANCELED? Feedback on what basis exactly? The eBay system is TRUELY garbage in this regard.

3) I called customer care to take care of this, which they did. It took 1 hour and 45 minutes to get 80 cents back (for listing the original item) and get the negative feedback removed on grounds of unfairness. Let that sink in a little bit, 1 hour and 45 freaking minutes and 5 or 6 different representatives to remove a single negative feedback and credit me back 80 cents. Why isn't this garbage automated? It's 2018 for the love of God, eBay truly SUCKS for sellers.

4) After I reported the buyer, they didn't even tell me if they will be deleted from the website, - it's such a waste of our time.

All in all, I've been an eBay seller / buyer since 2005 and every year they make the experience crappier than before.

/rant over.

castlemagicmemories · ‎06-11-2018

With all due respect, you don't seem to know policy. That can work to your disadvantage and cause you undue frustration.

I hope you cancelled using buyer requested as the reason.

Ebay did away with negs for buyers in 2008. You can't leave a negative comment in a positive format, that is a violation for you. Buyer can call CS and get that removed.

You are very fortunate that someone removed that as usually they won't.

Chances are, the buyer won't be NARU just because of your report, UNLESS he has quite the history of doing this.

Due to the privacy policy, they don't tell you what they did to another user.

bigdeals.etc · ‎06-11-2018

Not trying to sound repetitive, I just want you to avoid or be prepared for these issues in the future as you continue to sell on ebay. As @castlemagicmemories said, these selling policies have been here for years. It's best to know them if you plan on selling here. I'm not saying they are right... (heck I don't like most of the rules too), just respect them and adjust your selling methods accordingly.

For example, from now on I suggest when you have ANY buyers who don't want to pay for their auction that they won for any reason... just file a Non Paying Bidder alert. In hindsight, had you did it here with this buyer and ebay closes it by giving the buyer a payment strike, they will be unable to leave you any feedback at all. And yes, you got lucky by having your CS agent remove it for you... I have never heard of that based on such a generic feedback comment. Just file NPB next time, and let ebay sort them out as a good or bad buyer.

Understanding the actual seller policies ebay goes to show you how exceptionally great the existing sellers are since they have to follow all those rules and continue to thrive huh. All except overseas sellers who ebay doesn't really enforce these policies to.

darkangel.86 · ‎06-11-2018

The transaction was 100% canceled based upon the buyer's request. They sent a message saying "Ok then, Cancel it" so I did, STILL eBay allowed them to leave me negative feedback. That is nonsense.

darkangel.86 · ‎06-11-2018

They requested I cancel it since I didn't accept their lower payment after they won the auction. So I canceled the transaction based on their request. YET they were still able to leave me negative feedback. This is nonsense.

castlemagicmemories · ‎06-11-2018

@bigdeals.etc wrote:
Not trying to sound repetitive, I just want you to avoid or be prepared for these issues in the future as you continue to sell on ebay. As @castlemagicmemories said, these selling policies have been here for years. It's best to know them if you plan on selling here. I'm not saying they are right... (heck I don't like most of the rules too), just respect them and adjust your selling methods accordingly.

For example, from now on I suggest when you have ANY buyers who don't want to pay for their auction that they won for any reason... just file a Non Paying Bidder alert. In hindsight, had you did it here with this buyer and ebay closes it by giving the buyer a payment strike, they will be unable to leave you any feedback at all. And yes, you got lucky by having your CS agent remove it for you... I have never heard of that based on such a generic feedback comment. Just file NPB next time, and let ebay sort them out as a good or bad buyer.

Understanding the actual seller policies ebay goes to show you how exceptionally great the existing sellers are since they have to follow all those rules and continue to thrive huh. All except overseas sellers who ebay doesn't really enforce these policies to.

Thank you, @bigdeals.etc.

jonathankirkland · ‎06-11-2018

@darkangel.86 wrote:
They requested I cancel it since I didn't accept their lower payment after they won the auction. So I canceled the transaction based on their request. YET they were still able to leave me negative feedback. This is nonsense.

Have you considered using fixed price listings instead of auctions, with immediate payment required?

This would save you a lot of this nonsense you are talking about.

I realize some people still like to use auctions because you can theoritcally get more money than you originally thought an item was worth, but if you do your research and pick a price that is comparable to one sold just like it recently you can still get about what the item is worth and save all these non-sense hassles.

The number one complaint I am seeing here lately from those who still choose to do auctions is from non-payers for any variety of reasons, most of these non-payers don't even bother to send a message to the sellers at all, they just waste their time. However, what most of these sellers fail to realize and acknowledge though is that if they all COLLECTIVELY reported these non-payers the proper way with the Unpaid Item Dispute, these buyers would accumulate strikes very quickly and would find themselves not able to buy from many, many sellers here.

marcusrava · ‎06-11-2018

Sorry I know, Ebay is has a terrible experience.

vintagecraze50 · ‎06-11-2018

Big Deals gave the great advise on how you navigate here as a seller to prevent some bad things from happeneing. When buyers back out of their committment to buy after they have bought the item, if you want to protect yourself, FILE THE UNPAID ITEM DISPUTE. Technically and policy wise they are in violation because they bid and committed to that bid. If you file the unpaid item case, Ebay can then help if the buyer does not pay and they do not have the opportunity to scam, or leave you a neg. Try that next time you get situation like this. I know it seems like Ebay should know what to do without doing an unpaid item case, but you have to follow certain rules for the right outcome.

bigdeals.etc · ‎06-11-2018

@jonathankirkland wrote:
Have you considered using fixed price listings instead of auctions, with immediate payment required?

This would save you a lot of this nonsense you are talking about.

However, what most of these sellers fail to realize and acknowledge though is that if they all COLLECTIVELY reported these non-payers the proper way with the Unpaid Item Dispute, these buyers would accumulate strikes very quickly and would find themselves not able to buy from many, many sellers here.

I totally agree with ^^ here, on both points. I've stopped auctions altogether years ago and never looked back. I have all immediate payment required fixed price listings. I actually started to auction off discontinued items at super low prices last week (too lazy to monitor them full priced with fixed price). One of them ended at a low price... first auction in over 5 or so years. The buyer hasn't paid yet and the auto system is going to file an Unpaid dispute tomorrow I think for it... haha. Totally reminds me of the headaches of auctions.

Oh also if you already didn't know... selling cell phones are usually easy targets for scammers and low lifes.

And reporting buyers... I don't care what others say or comment that "it's going to do nothing", or "don't make a mountain our of a mole hill." I'm still going to report, report, report buyers if they stray from the policies at all. The impact of the collectively small reports will add up.

"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem."

fashunu4eeuh · ‎06-11-2018

When a buyer requesta a cancellation, they are not supposed to be able to leave negative feedback, which is probably why you were able to get it removed. The policy read thus:

“When a buyer cancels a transaction, they can't leave negative or neutral feedback or low detailed seller ratings for you...”

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/getting-paid/cancelling-transaction?id=4136

As others said, learning the policies governing the platform will save you a lot of headaches in the future if you opt to continue selling here. Good luck to you moving forward.

darkangel.86 · ‎06-11-2018

You tell me! They requested the cancelation and I obliged and STILL they were able to leave negative feedback. I can'e blieve the above folks are trying to tell me that I don't know the rules.

If you wasted my time and asked me to cancel my transaction, then you should NOT be able to leave me ANY negative feedback, and eBay SHOULD credit me the listing fees without having to call and wait for HOURS on hold.

darkangel.86 · ‎06-11-2018

I reported the buyer. It doesn't mean eBay will do a thing. The buyer is always "right" and we have to suffer the consequences.

reallynicestamps · ‎06-11-2018

Cancellations are mutual agreements. They are used when a transaction is just not going to work out.

Often, perhaps usually, this is because one or the other made some sort of mistake. And mistakes happen.

Polite discussion.

Polite agreement that it won't work.

Cancellation.

Buyer can leave feedback because she found the experience comfortable and wants to reward the seller.

If you pick a fight with the buyer, the transaction won't get better.

He still won't pay.

And now he can leave appropriate feedback.

If the transaction is rancourous, use the Unpaid Item Dispute mechanism.

It takes longer (six to eight days) but no FB can be left by either party.

Feedback makes no difference to your seller account in eBay's eyes.

It does make a difference in the eyes of your future customers.

You can't leave negative feedback, but you can, and I strongly advise you not to, you can leave a Response.

Responses draw attention to the original feedback, so more people will read it. And they are judging YOU on both the FB and more importantly, on your Response.

I would suggest "Wanted post-purchase discount on $170 Cancelled Sold instead for $205"

But somehow I just know you will post an angry Response that will make you look worse.

Yes, I do have children. How did you know?

darkangel.86 · ‎06-11-2018

It's not about being angry, the point here is that this guy is clearly scamming and if you bother to read my original post and look him up, you will see that he tried to do this to many other sellers before.

I reported him, and there was ZERO anger in agreement to cancel the transactions. I just told him "sorry I can't sell for less" he siad "ok thank you, cancel it" so I did. That was the extent of communication. Please stop assuming that I am mad, angry, or being unreasonable to him.

I wouldn't be posting here if I was unreasonable myself.