While searching Ebay for some camera equipment I came across a seller that has a very unusual and possibly illegal terms. While I personally did not buy anything from this seller (and will not at any time in the future) I feel this should be pointed out. The General Terms included in all of this seller's listings I viewed states (among other thins):
"-Orders will be canceled for buyers with less than 50 positive feedbacks & 10% (Relisting fees) will be deducted from original purchase value."
Initially, not believing what I read I contacted the seller via Ebay Messaging and asked if this is what he/she actually meant and was somewhat shocked that it was confirmed as well as advised that I could not buy from his/her Ebay Store since I only had 19 positive feedbacks (I don't buy that much via Ebay). The seller also advised that this policy is because of bad experiences with previous buyers. Now I know I have the option to never buy from this seller if I don't agree with the terms but in this case I believe the terms violate (or should violate) Ebay's policies and may even be illegal.
Here's why, when a person submits a bid (or in this case selects "Buy it Now") he/she is committing to that purchase (as per many warnings before letting you confirm you bid/offer/purchase). The seller should is also committing to the purchase. Once the buyer pays the full purchase price, which is often immediately (at least that is how I do it) after confirming the purchase. If done through a service such as PayPal the funds are transferred immediately to the seller's account and a confirmation from PayPal (and Ebay) is sent to the buyer. This completes the contract between the seller and the buyer legally obligating the seller to fulfill the order. While there are a few valid circumstances that are out of the control of the seller in which fulfilling such an order may occur, arbitrary "conditions" such as how many previous purchases a buyer has made from any seller of Ebay is certainly not one of them. And worse, this seller says he/she is going to keep 10% of the "purchase value" of the item (this part of the policy statement alone seems to confirm that a purchase actually happened) as a relisting fee - for an item that you paid for and legally are entitled to fulfillment - there should be no "relisting" let alone a "relisting fee" - UNBELIEVABLE!
In response to my Ebay Message to the seller, he/she further defended their policy by touting that they have a 100% seller feedback. Of course they do, If they cancel your order then you have apparently not made a purchase and therefor cannot provide feedback on your order (or can you, I have not looked into that possibility).
What you can do, and I have done, is report this to the Ebay but according to their policy they will not advise the person reporting the issue of any action taken. Can't say if that is a good thing or a bad thing but as of today (its only been a little over a week since making the report) the seller still has the policy on all of his/her listings.
In fairness to the seller (there's an twist) and to allow Ebay sufficient time to respond to my reporting of this issue, I have chosen to not include the name of the seller in this posting but would like to hear from anyone who has come across other examples of such terms.
