These 2 situations could not have happened with better timing (both in the same week) for me to put to the test actual eBay & PayPal seller protection & support. Both companies proudly promote in some way they "got your back" as a seller so if you are interested to see how they did in my real-life story, grab a cup of coffee. First, I'll start with my positive experience with PayPal. PayPal let me know a customer had opened a case for an unauthorized purchase through their financial institution. PayPal said they valued my patience & business and provided links to their website resolution center where updates are provided. PayPal promptly replied with information to the customer’s financial institution on my behalf. In a few days, I got a message that the case was reviewed & covered under their PayPal seller protection, they were happy to inform me the case was now closed. In this message they again thanked me for my patience & business.
Now let's review eBay's actual performance with my request for assistance as a 12-year member. I received a return request on day 29 of 30 from the customer's receipt/delivery of a pair of shoes. In the return request, the customer claimed I had sold them garbage and was very disappointed. I contacted the customer immediately to return the shoes so we could inspect them for any defects we may have missed. I am very confident of what we sell as every pair of shoes is checked top to bottom, the soles are cleaned, laces are tied etc. They are then wrapped in eBay branded tissue paper, a personal thank you note is attached and then they are snuggly/safely packed in USPS or eBay branded packaging and sent almost always the same day to the customer.
When the return package came, it was truly unbelievable. I opened the box and pieces of shoes fell out. It’s hard to describe how poor the condition was of the return shoes. I promptly contacted the customer who politely asked for a full refund for the garbage I sold. I thought if ever a time was, this was it, I needed eBay’s “got your back” help. So, for the first time ever of selling, I went to the website seller resolution center. I described the return details & timing, poor shoe condition, what the shoe damage looked like to me, provided photos side by side of original listing and what came back to me. I also pointed out a unique mark on the shoes in the original listing that was not on the return shoes. I specifically asked for help because I had never dealt with this before. In about a day, I received a message from eBay that the case had been closed, with a full refund to the buyer, purchase amount plus shipping. This is the actual eBay representative message I received, “We understand that you received your item in a different condition than you shipped it, but unfortunately, we couldn’t determine that this was caused by the buyer, or that this was something in the buyer’s control. What? In addition to that, eBay promptly added a transaction defect to my seller performance rating for reaching out for assistance through the resolution center.
So, that’s the end of my side by side comparison of the seller support. You can make your own assessment. We are certainly pausing to reconsider our relationship with eBay. I think maybe eBay could learn a lot from PayPal who delivered the support promoted to their valued customers.
