Simplify eBay

[blucrystl]

Hello, Ebay has been an overwhelming positive experience as a buyer. From a seller standpoint it is different. There is one simple thing that eBay could do to simplify the eBay selling experience and make eBay a more positive experience for seller AND buyers. That simple thing is to allow sellers to cancel a transaction if a buyer has not made payment in five business days. Buyer would be recognized by eBay as a nonpaying bidder and prevented from leaving negative feedback. 

We're all supposedly grownups here right? eBay's policy at this time is for seller to report a 'buyer' as a nonpaying bidder after two days then that person is allowed four days to respond.  This unfairly drags out the process of selling an item and receiving payment. And the buyer can then still leave negative feedback which they might be inclined to do after being reported as a nonpaying bidder. 

One person that I sold an item to left negative feedback for more than TWENTY THREE percent of sellers. Just by reading this abundance of negative feedback it could be seen that much of it was CLEARLY inappropriate.  

The ONLY negative feedback I have ever received was from this person. It was negative and inappropriate as it had nothing to do with the item I sold him. 

I noticed many others also received their only negative feedback from this person and many of these sellers left eBay after receiving negative feedback from this person so this person is driving a LOT of potential good sellers off of eBay. 

This person is still buying and selling on eBay. 

Anybody see a flaw in this simple suggestion I have made? If you agree with this suggestion I hope you will contact eBay and make this suggestion. 

BluCrystl

P.S. This message being sent using a computer that is 100% powered by solar energy 🙂

[stepher-4]

I see a flaw. With the unpaid item strike it allows you to block buyers who have more than two. Why wouldn't you want to be able to give them a strike so that other sellers can block them? Why wouldn't you want them to get strikes so that you can walk them?

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

There are a million things that eBay needs to fix. This would be way down on my list. How would shortening the uid process and dropping a step make eBay better for buyers as you said in your post? Closing the uid already blocks feedback from buyers and if you use the auto uid it is blocked after the initial filing.

you can use the automated process and are only suggesting dropping the duration by one day? Every time EBay “fixes” things it causes new problems. Are you sure this change is worth the risk?

[luckythewinner]

That simple thing is to allow sellers to cancel a transaction if a buyer has not made payment in five business days. Buyer would be recognized by eBay as a nonpaying bidder and prevented from leaving negative feedback. 

I believe a seller can accomplish this in six days with an Unpaid Item Dispute.

Yes, it requires the seller to use a two-step process instead of a one-step process. But the benefit of that process is that it puts the seller's payment demand into a formal process that gives the buyer time to react, rather than just blindsiding him with a cancellation after five days.

As others have suggested, this would not even make my top 100 list of things that eBay needs to fix.

[blucrystl]

stepher-4, If you read message it says 'buyer' (actually non-buyer) would be recognized by eBay as a nonpaying bidder. That should result in action, including a strike against this person. 

Very simply, we are all supposed to be grownups here. Seller should not have to hold buyers hands or repeatedly message them or have to report them as a nonpaying bidder to receive payment. And, in the end, be subject to inappropriate negative feedback. 

A seller would not have to cancel transaction if payment is not made within five business days. But a seller should have this option. 

BluCrystl

[blucrystl]

luckythewinner, 

I am truly puzzled by your " ...  blindsiding him [buyer] with a cancellation after five days ..." comment.

Message says five business days. A person is being 'blindsided' after being given a total of seven days to make payment???

C'mon. 

With this two-step procedure you somehow think is better you are still subject to inappropriate negative feedback. IF you want to do anything about that ... more time consumed on your part. Pretty much guarantee you will not get any results. 

Note, this is an OPTION that seller could use. They do not have to. A seller could still message buyer before canceling transaction.

[nobody*s_perfect]

The system that you are proposing (5 business days, then cancel the transction) actually takes more time and effort than setting up the existing automatic Unpaid Item assistant, which can close out a nonpaying buyer's transaction in 6 calendar days.

I suspect that you are overreacting to your one bad experience.  Many sellers with thousands of feedback have never gotten a neg from a buyer who was angry because they filed an unpaid item claim.

[luckythewinner]

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A person is being 'blindsided' after being given a total of seven days to make payment???

First - you said a seller could do this after five days, not seven. Where did the other two days come from?

Second - not all buyers have eBay as the center of their universe. Some buyers bid on the first day of an auction, and then go on with their lives - birthday parties, vacations, and business travel.

With this two-step procedure you somehow think is better

I never said it was "better". I simply said that I could see a benefit to a formal notice that starts the clock ticking, and suggested that the process seems adequate to me.

Sellers who are obsessed with quick payment can start the clock ticking earlier, and those  who give buyers several weeks to pay (like me) can start it later. But either way, the buyer knows exactly when the seller has started the clock - instead of finding out after the fact that the clock was started started silently five days earlier. 

[nobody*s_perfect]

The total would be 7 days because there would be a weekend somewhere in the middle of the 5 business days.  That's why this process would actually take longer than the current unpaid item claim process, with its minimum timeframe of 6 consecutive days.

[blucrystl]

 the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth,

You are half-right. 

You say "Closing the uid already blocks feedback from buyers..."

That is true IF bidder still does not make payment by the sixth day. 

If a buyer makes payment on the sixth day of eBay's current two step, six day process they can leave feedback and leave inappropriate negative feedback. 

This would be an OPTION to seller. Cancellation is not automatic and it does not have to be done in five business days. 

I am hoping to see any flaws in what I have suggested but all I am seeing so far from people that have responded is they do not seem to mind wasting time with slow-paying or nonpaying bidders and do not seem to mind the prospect of inappropriate negative feedback. 

Putting myself in the position of a bidder/buyer I think this is fair. You have 5 business days to contact seller if you are having a problem of some sort. You can ask the seller to give you more time. You can request the seller cancel sale. You can cancel on your own within one hour of auction ending even. 

If you make a bid on an item and you cannot keep track of what you bid on or when auctions end or when you are supposed to make payment or are incapable of making payment ... sorry, you don't belong on eBay. 

What am I missing here???

[blucrystl]

nobody*s_perfect, 

You are half-right. However, you must set-up the unpaid item assistant for it to be automatic. The same could be done for automatic cancellation if payment is not made in five business days. And, eBay could allow the seller to choose a longer time period. 

You  say: "Many sellers with thousands of feedback have never gotten a neg from a buyer who was angry because they filed an unpaid item claim."

When I received the inappropriate negative feedback from this person he did NOT say it was because I needed to file an unpaid item dispute. 

FYI, I gave this person 7 days to make payment before filing an unpaid item dispute. He then dragged payment out for eBay's allowed four additional days.  I hope you would agree that a person that gives more than 23% negative feedback to sellers has some kind of issue. This person is still buying and selling on eBay and driving off a LOT of potential good sellers.

I have done mostly buying so far and the first thing I do when I look at an item to bid on or buy is look at the feedback that person has given to other people. That, to me, is one of the clearest indications if you are dealing with a jerk or not. 

BluCrystl

[stepher-4]

Seriously set up the automatic and it's completely simple.

What you are suggesting seems to make things more complicated

[dilo-8873]

BluCrystl,
Hmmmm I would have to give your suggestion a good think as I believe it may have some merit. With eBay now fooling around with sellers BBLs, it’s not unreasonable to think that perhaps at some point they may do away with the UI strikes.

[dhbookds]

If a buyer makes payment on the sixth day of eBay's current two step, six day process they can leave feedback and leave inappropriate negative feedback

Well,  yes, if a buyer pays they can leave their choice of feedback.........that would be true even in your 5 day scenerio, if they paid, I assume.    I don't  "get" why this would be better than the present automatic process, except cut a couple of days off it.....

[luckythewinner]

If a buyer makes payment on the sixth day of eBay's current two step, six day process they can leave feedback and leave inappropriate negative feedback.

Yes.

If the buyer pays before the seller is allowed to close the INR, they can leave feedback.

The same goes for your proposed process.

If the buyer pays before the seller is allowed to cancel the transaction, they can leave feedback.

What am I missing here?

That you are really just proposing that eBay create a second, parallel process for handling INRs that does not accomplish much more than removing one step of the INR process - a step that sellers are already able to automate if they so choose.

IMHO the money, time, and effort required to set up and educate buyers and sellers about this alternate process for accomplishing the same thing as the INR process would be better spent on more important things - like a viable replacement for Turbo Lister.