eBay

buyithereagain · ‎01-29-2018

I have a very difficul buyer, posting false message who in the first palce made mistake to buy the shoes.

Since ebay always does favor to buyers even though ebay is nothing without sellers (!!!) she returned the shoes to have both ways shipping at my expense.

Now the shoes arrived USED. I sold them NEW.

Ebay doesn't care, they just give auto refund wihtout even waiting for the item to arrive.

Any advice what to do now?

I am happy to provide the user name so other would stay away but I assume I can't go personal here...

divtec · ‎01-30-2018

in reply to 01-30-2018 03:21:17 PM

Yes... this ebay policy makes absolutely no sense!

I just sold a 63lbs plasma/TIG/STICK combination machine for $969.99 and I paid the original shipping. The buyer received the item, and filed a "Request For Return" within 24hours after receiving it. It had arrived with a problem caused during shipping. My auction clearly stated the machine has a warranty of 1 year labor and 3 years parts and that all shipping charges is the responsibility of the buyer.

I offered a money back guarantee with a 15% restocking fee.

Effectively ebay just ignored these clearly defined parameters conveyed to the buyer as part of the sale conditions.

ebay sent an email with a shipping label attached and charged over $70 and demanded that I pay return shipping.

My hard costs as a result of doing business with ebay... $70 + $63.48 (original shipping) = $133.48 for a failed sale. And that does not include the time, frustration, returned condition of machine, missing parts (which ebay won't cover) and for this they charge 10% commission (I hope I get that back as I had to deal with "Customer Support" in the Philippines. (that's another part of the story envolving PayPal getting envolved)... WOW this has become crazy.

I've feeling that I actually may not be able to afford to sell on ebay any longer.

What happend?

😕

First of all... shipping is not a financial benefit to the seller. It is only to provide a practical convenience to the buyer that a seller initiates shipping. We are doing it for the buyer.

The cost of shipping is for transportation of an item and really not part the price for the item.

Then ebay concludes that sellers should pay the shipping... BOTH WAYS. In the event of a problem that was cause by the shipping company and not the seller (or buyers). But, somehow it seems logical to ebay that the mean seller... apparent all sellers must be mean... deserves to be punished for selling the item in the first place. This is logical? On what planet!?

Could there be some other reason for ebay to use their power to require sellers to pay return shipping? Hmm

I thought it was odd that a shipping label just showed up with the email... which means I could not even choose which shipping company was going to return the item. What's that about?

All this just does not make sense!

I've sold hundreds of machines on ebay since 2004... what is going on here????

flyerfandan999 · ‎01-30-2018

@divtec,

You hijacked the OP's thread, but to answer your question, that is how the eBay Money Back Guarantee (MBG) works. If the item the Buyer receives is not as you described it, you as the Seller are on the hook to make good. In your case, the damaged unit was not what the Buyer bought----he bought an undamaged unit. Sometimes "making good" is a partial refund to compensate the Buyer for the lesser value of what they received; sometimes it is sending a replacement item; sometimes making good is taking the item back and giving a refund. eBay MBG refunds are the item price, plus original shipping from you to the Buyer, plus return shipping from the Buyer to you.

Any terms and conditions you put in your listings are superceded if they are contrary to established eBay terms, condition, policies, or procedures.

Once you know that eBay's rules require YOU as the Seller to get that item to the Buyer in as-described condition, then you have to start taking steps to protect your in-transit items in a manner that makes financial sense.

In your case the welder was damaged in shipping, so hopefully you took steps as the customer of the shipping company (USPS/FedEx/UPS/freight carrier/etc) to have them make good to you for the damage. Most freight shipments carry federally mandated level of coverage, but this level is based on some ridiculously outdated valuation to where it would barely insure topsoil. Hopefully you took out insurance or damage coverage on your welder shipment.

Also, keep in mind that eBay's return labels carry no insurance, so if you choose to utilize eBay's label for the return trip you might get another does of uncompensated damage done to the welder.

divtec · ‎01-30-2018

Really... you didn't get it, obviously.

You sound just like the "Customer Support" agents in the Philippines. Wow!

I've been selling expensive equipment on ebay sense 2004.

The policy's were tolerable from a business standpoint... now they are not!

Apparently someone with authority has decided buyer's need to be protected against the Capitalist sellers who are out to rip them off.

Does ebay not understand the repercussions of making policy like these.

Do they not understand they are poisoning the water (not being literal here, so don't get exicted).

All you did if site ebay policy as an explanation... and its obvious you can not realize it's deeper than that.

Here is a thought experiement. Let's suppose you are 100% correct. I contend that as more sellers experience the effects of such policies that no matter how they want to sell on ebay... it just won't be profitable. Such as in my case with a total lost of $70 forced return shipping + $63.?? original shipping + $96.99 ebay sale fee = $230.98 HARD LOSS + Soft loss of The Sale, Missing items not returned, scratches & dents rendering the original item to of less value, etc.

Under these circumstances would you continue to risk it? All this because of a faulty policy that effective was ebay sticking their nose in the business between the buyer and seller.

Ebay should require both buyer and seller to abide by clearly stated sale conditions as defined on the Auction page that the buyer has a responsibility to read. Same as when you buy a house... it's an enforceable agreement... a contract... to make everything fair to all priciple parties.

Ebay is siding with the buyer and as a result they can only lose sellers. Sellers they will not be alble to detect they lost. Dummys!

With

flyerfandan999 · ‎01-30-2018

Since you have been selling on eBay for a long time, you probably came to eBay when the norm was to offer insurance to Buyers as an extra-cost option, implying that risk of loss was on the Buyer. I haven't been around as long as you, so I'm not sure if risk of loss was previously on the Buyer and was changed to the Seller at some point, or if it was always on the Seller but rarely enforced.

But that was then and this is now.

All I had to do was cite current ebay policy as an explanation, because on eBay, those are the rules you agree to abide by.

If the rules are no longer acceptable/tolerable, buh-Bye to you.

Regarding loss, if this is the first time one of your expensive items was damaged by the shipping company since you've been on eBay starting in 2004, then on one hand that's a pretty good run, but on the other hand, you were wway overdue for a SNAFU.

Since you have not mentioned any kind of shipping insurance or damage coverage, I have to assume that you have made a calculated business decision to accept the risk of partial or total loss due to shipping damages....otherwise, if you decided to avoid risk and take out coverage, we wouldn't be having this conversation. That's OK, several volume sellers who post here advocate self-insuring by putting a little away from each sale in a "kitty" and using that kitty to cover shipping losses. Others advocate insuring on a case-by-case basis, building the cost of the insurance into the item price, just like any other business expense.