Wow, have things changed!

[coloradospaul]

Hi. I started selling on eBay in 2005. For some reason, I got the bug again and started a store in February of this year. Yeah, 18 years is a long time and technology runs at a rapid pace, blah blah. But let me tell you, I have NEVER experienced what I have in the past two months.

I've had an item that was shipped to Canada (correct address on label) sent to an entirely different province.

I've had more than one buyer NOT pay for items. I remember when (back in MY day) as soon as you won the auction, you paid automatically. I've had to cancel and relist quite a few items. I've also had a buyer send me an email telling me what he got was "covered in hair" and that he won't leave a bad review because he "only" paid $14 for the item. That one really ticked me off. I wash everything on the sanitize setting of my washer and dry it the same way. I use a lint roller before I package any clothing. Nobody else has said this. Like, **bleep**? I asked him to send me a photo and I'd be happy to partially refund him if it's that bad (or bad at all) and he said "no thanks". So, buyers can now threaten bad feedback?! 

How long has it been like this??!!!

/endrant/

[bonjourami]

"I seem to recall people NOT paying for auctions 'automatically' a lot longer ago than 15 years."

Me too, like 1999.  

[the-hook-and-the-loop]

I guess you haven't been back long enough. The things you mention are minimal. I was waiting for you to rant about the more popular daily difficulties with selling here. (Constant software changes/glitches, promoted listings, pay-to-play, halo sales, inability to have repeat customers without paying an ad fee every time they return to your store to buy the same item month after month, eBay inviting buyers to open returns, ebay's redefining terminology in their policies and creating new terminology, recalculating fee structures, and I could go on)  You have to read here daily to keep up with changes and glitches.

[buyselljack2016]

you can also set it so that if they buy it now or offers that they have to pay instantly. you can toggle on and off on the block buyers page, and block anyone that's giving you crap.

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To be noted:

although the set "on/off" is there in the "buyer requirements section" for sellers to use, the  "on" ..............  at this time, only affects those "chosen buyers" that are in the "test" for requiring a pre-payment source to be added when submitting "offers".

[iart]

I think you have a nostalgic memory of eBay. Sure, it has changed, but back in 2005 there were a slew of different issues. There were entire site outages (usually about an hour before our listings would end, lol), the photo uploads rarely worked right, a slew of silly rules infected the site and, on the other end, many sellers had no clue about how to list or ship.

Now, I think the biggest issue is slow sales and that can mostly be blamed on a bad economy where half the country lives paycheck to paycheck.

[coloradospaul]

You're right, I haven't been back long enough. Just a verbal espousing of what I've noticed so far.

[coloradospaul]

Thank you so much!

[coloradospaul]

Maybe I do, maybe I don't. Maybe I'm romanticizing it. I do remember making mistakes and fixing them, learning as I went. I just remember it being fun, you know?

[laststopgeneralstore]

I rarely have any issues with buyers. Yea I'll get a bunch in a row every now and then but that's going to happen and their is nothing that you can do about it. I wouldn't worry about it.

[ticketbatman]

if the buyer used neg fb as a threat, report the buyer using the "report buyer" drop down choice in your sold listings.

[shado-x]

So, buyers can now threaten bad feedback?!  How long has it been like this??!!!

No they cannot.  eBay has a policy for "Feedback Extortion":

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/feedback-policies/feedback-extortion-policy?id=4230

If you need assistance with Feedback that you do not agree with, go to your Seller Hub, click "Seller Help" in the upper right hand corner, from which you will be taken to a new window with a feedback option.

[gurlcat]

I'm not sure how you took the "covered in hair" email as "threatening negative feedback."  The only mention of feedback they made was to say they WON'T give you negative because it wasn't an expensive item.  Then they waived your offer of a partial refund, when they could have easily gotten it by snapping some pics (maybe adding hair to make it look worse).  That's what a real scammer would do.  I really don't think they were trying anything, other than alerting you to make more sure you are packing perfectly clean items.