eBay

shinden_ace · ‎08-10-2020

I found a certain eBay seller that gets tons of sales for items that go beyond 30 days. He makes vague statements like "PRESALE SHIPS WITHIN RELEASE DATE" without ever stating what the release date is. Basically, he is lying by omission.

Per eBay presale policy, "the date the item will be available to ship must be clearly stated in the listing".

However, the burden of proof is high enough that if sellers don't incriminate themselves by saying what the exact release date is, eBay can't or won't do anything about it.

My proof? I've reported this guy to eBay chat a couple of times for violating presale policy to test it out. Despite the milquetoast replies I've gotten from eBay representatives that "this behavior is against eBay policy and serious action will be taken against this seller", nothing has happened at all after several days.

So how does he get away with presales that won't release until months and months later? The magic phrase seems to be "This is a PRESALE that ships within 30 days” or “Per Ebay PRESALE 30-Day policy this item will ship within the said date considering no other manufacturer delays occur”. Again, he never states what the 'said date' is. Judging by the complete lack of action taken by eBay, this makes him apparently untouchable.

mam98031 · ‎08-11-2020

The federal consumer protection laws are 30 days too. So yes, this is pretty serious stuff.

What's going on guys?

tyler@ebay

brian@ebay

postingid7659 · ‎08-11-2020

Does he not deliver the product?

I have to pre-order stuff in some instances 3 years in advance of when they turn up. It would be nice if I could sell ten of them while they're still on the boat and just turn them back out the door when they finally arrive.

computeraidllc · ‎08-11-2020

I see this with new trading cards cases being released. It seems to be getting worse since COVID-19 because of manufactures not being able to release an item. I see them posted without a release date mainly because it is longer than 30 days, which the seller isn't suppose to list.

I have a second eBay store that sells cards and I sometime offer up new cases of cards but I always put the date of release and it is always inside of the 30 day limit. I stopped putting them up because of COVID-19 and the manufactures not being able to release the item on time.

eBay needs to keep up with this policy.

luckythewinner · ‎08-11-2020

@shinden_ace wrote:
Judging by the complete lack of action taken by eBay, this makes him apparently untouchable.

IMHO eBay's policy is probably there so that when a buyer chooses to file a non-delivery case against the seller, the buyer will win. But if his buyers do not file cases and are happy with the delay, they do not really care.

That aside ....

Here's what eBay's pre-sale policy says about the consequences of violating the policy:

"Activity that doesn't follow eBay policy could result in a range of actions including for example: administratively ending or canceling listings, hiding or demoting all listings from search results, lowering seller rating, buying or selling restrictions, and account suspension. "

Given that the stated consequences include mild punishments that are hard for an outsider to detect, how do you know that eBay has not taken any action?

dhbookds · ‎08-11-2020

nothing has happened at all after several days.

Been my experience that very few things happen in "several" days on ebay.......usually takes much longer....

luckythewinner · ‎08-11-2020

@dhbookds wrote:
nothing has happened at all after several days.

Been my experience that very few things happen in "several" days on ebay.......usually takes much longer....

And if eBay chose to impose buying or selling restrictions, how would anyone besides the seller know?

shinden_ace · ‎08-11-2020

His listings still show up at the top of search results.

shinden_ace · ‎08-11-2020

@postingid7659 wrote:
Does he not deliver the product?

I have to pre-order stuff in some instances 3 years in advance of when they turn up. It would be nice if I could sell ten of them while they're still on the boat and just turn them back out the door when they finally arrive.

It's possible. There are plenty of buyers on eBay who make one time accounts then lose them, meaning they lose the ability to reply or open cases, and these are the same kind of people who don't know how open a case through PayPal, if that was what they even used to make the purchase with in the first place.

For reference, the guy I'm talking about sells limited run physical games which are currently still up on their store for preorder. Those don't release until many months later, and the webpages state as such.

After 30 days, I know you lose the ability as a seller to cancel the transaction. So then what happens when a preorder gets canceled or never enters production? At that point, do you just hope that the buyer forgets?

One example would be Limited Run Blade Runner. That game was announced on Limited Run's twitter March 30, but it still hasn't entered preorder status.

postingid7659 · ‎08-11-2020

Seems like if he didn't deliver he'd get hit with a bunch of chargebacks such that even if eBay does nothing else the fees will wipe him out.

brian@ebay · ‎08-12-2020

@mam98031 wrote:

The federal consumer protection laws are 30 days too. So yes, this is pretty serious stuff.

What's going on guys?

tyler@ebay

brian@ebay

@mam98031 our presale policy still requires a 30 day delivery timeframe. Reporting an item will result in a review and appropriate action taken. However, if a buyer doesn't receive a presale item within 30 days then they should open an Item Not Received case as they are protected by the eBay Money Back Guarantee.

Brian,
Community Team

brian@ebay · ‎08-12-2020

@shinden_ace wrote:

I found a certain eBay seller that gets tons of sales for items that go beyond 30 days. He makes vague statements like "PRESALE SHIPS WITHIN RELEASE DATE" without ever stating what the release date is. Basically, he is lying by omission.

Per eBay presale policy, "the date the item will be available to ship must be clearly stated in the listing".

However, the burden of proof is high enough that if sellers don't incriminate themselves by saying what the exact release date is, eBay can't or won't do anything about it.

My proof? I've reported this guy to eBay chat a couple of times for violating presale policy to test it out. Despite the milquetoast replies I've gotten from eBay representatives that "this behavior is against eBay policy and serious action will be taken against this seller", nothing has happened at all after several days.

So how does he get away with presales that won't release until months and months later? The magic phrase seems to be "This is a PRESALE that ships within 30 days” or “Per Ebay PRESALE 30-Day policy this item will ship within the said date considering no other manufacturer delays occur”. Again, he never states what the 'said date' is. Judging by the complete lack of action taken by eBay, this makes him apparently untouchable.

@shinden_ace I'm happy to send a report to our teams for review. I'll send you an email shortly so I can get the item number/s from you

Brian,
Community Team

southern*sweet*tea · ‎08-12-2020

::general comment made to nobody in particular::

I don't understand...WHY would someone order a pre-order item from a random stranger on the internet (which is what a third party seller is) when they could just go to the actual website and do the same thing? Am I missing something?

The easier you are to offend the easier you are to control.

We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did. - Thomas Sowell

kensgiftshop · ‎08-12-2020

@southern*sweet*tea wrote:
::general comment made to nobody in particular::

I don't understand...WHY would someone order a pre-order item from a random stranger on the internet (which is what a third party seller is) when they could just go to the actual website and do the same thing? Am I missing something?

I wonder about that also, plus you usually end up paying 2 to 3 times as much for the item.

Welcome to 2024, lets hope it's better then last year.