I'm here to vent about the sneaker authentication process as a seller. Today, I just found out that my sale of a brand new pair of Hoka Bondi sneakers couldn't be completed and that the seller had to be refunded because the sneakers I sold were "not new" according to the authenticator. I can't imagine how this can be true and I'm in the blind about the details of how the authenticator came to this confusion. I inspect every pair of sneakers I sell which are also purchased only from authorized big name retailers. I have read that some authenticators use some sort of black light device on the inside of the shoes to determine if someone has put the shoes on previously. If true, this would be ridiculous as it's always possible that the shoes may have been tried on by someone in the store before it was sold to me.
So, when I got the notification, I was both embarrassed by what my buyer might think and irate since I didn't have any input in this and only got a notification after the return process started. I keep thinking it's a mistake. First, our buyers are forced to pay a whopping $15 burden which inherently lowers the price we can charge for our products if we want them to sell. And now Ebay is acting like much more than an authenticator per se and it's causing transactions to fall apart even where sellers and buyers may not necessarily want such an end result. Do much better, Ebay!
