Why eBay push to open cases in resolution center instead of contact with seller as first step to do?

[amadi.poland]

I sell my goods all around the world. Have many customers from USA, good custemers, but unfortunatelly most problems are made by them. As to be honest, is not they fault. Key to unswer is the eBay and USPS.

I always send the item as postal international priority tracked and signed letter.

Here is samle - item was send from Poland 16th December, tracking number is RR805469282PL - track it via http://emonitoring.poczta-polska.pl/?lang=en

Tracking show only the way in Poland, USPS turned off this possibility of tracking for incoming international mail - Please read thishttps://community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-Shipping-Returns/USPS-no-longer-supporitng-inbound-internation...

eBay is another culprit, firmly establishes some unrealistic expected time of delivery, the seller I can not change, what is more, eBay does not take into account the periodic summits sale, which always cause huge delays among postal operators.

Unfortunately, customers in the US operate somewhat mechanically, without thinking. they see the description by ebay estimated time of delivery, the shipment did not come, so they opening the case in the resolution center.

When some of them asked a question, why do not they first contacted me, why not asked a simple question and instead they immediately opened a case on eBay? Their answer each time was the same. They write something like that - I began to worry about where my package, so I went to eBay and support center there instructed me to open a case on eBay.

Many national postal operators there is no trace of foreign inbound, UK, Canada, Australia also does not allow for tracking. But the question of why the people of the United States immediately open up cases on eBay? After all, the help pages always advise everyone the same way, when someone enters a phrase associated with lack of or delay in shipment, actually gets instructions from eBay about the possibility of opening the case as a solution to the problem. In fact, the eBay too little pushing for direct contacts the seller as the first element in the chain of solving the problem. Just why my customers from other countries, however, can get up to a minimum of culture and before the opening of the case, will ask the question, they contacted me, customers in the US they can not. What is the reason you think?

[gently4u]

eBay will always side with the buyer and leave the seller to take the blame. So much for their "Seller Protection" - it's almost invisible. That is the Reason!
You would be fighting a losing battle with eBay. The buyer is always right as far as eBay sees it. Very sad situation for us sellers.

[survivorsedge]

I experienced this yesterday.  My local post office scanned the tracking as received/delivered when I handed it to them so the buyer sees the item delivered already!  I asked them to consider the logic of an item being delivered the same moment I turned it over to the post office and to please give it a few days (normal number) for delivery.  Instead, they filed with ebay, and then filed with paypal. Since they filed with paypal, ebay automatically closed their case.  So if paypal wants to, they can refund the money to the buyer as the item on usps shows it "delivered" to me. I pointed out that the package is NOT ONLY not late, but physically could not make it to NY from Arkansas already!  Regardless of the visible, obvious facts and a request to at LEAST wait until the item was actually LATE before giving the buyer their/my money back....

Point? Sellers have to fight for their justice, buyers just have to make a stink regardless of facts.  Like the crazed customer making a scene in a high end store (Saks) and the clerk giving in, the customer has their behavior reinforced and get what they want through inapropriate and manipulative behavior.  Or the parent too lazy to disipline their child when they make a scene, demanding a toy in the store... they just give them the **bleep** toy to shut them up.... so we end up with college students that need safe zones on campus free from controversial conversations and an eBay and PayPal that forgets it is NOT the buyers that make their companies... but the sellers.

[kincah.eavje]

So here's my first return battle. Buyer says item arrives broken in pieces but says there is no damage to the package. Now this was a hard to find Tommy Hilfiger crystal glass and sterling silver top and bottom toothbrush holder. So I tell the buyer sorry and please send back the pieces and I'll send refund cause I put insurance on it. Don't hear anything from buyer for a couple of days then buyer sends message saying maybe they will just have to call ebay. OK so I call ebay. Ebay tells me what to do and where I should do it. Fast forward. Buyer sends me just the top of item and some glass and keeps the heavier bottom piece. I call ebay for advice and they say to accept the return and send message about the bottom piece being returned to me also send shipping label to the buyer if in five days there is no answer from the buyer ebay will close everything and side with me. Super excited I came out on top. I have no problem giving someone a refund for something and I'm always trying to be fair with people but if you're being shady I'm going all the way with you. So it might be beginners luck witch I'm cool with but ebay did help me start to finish.

[kincah.eavje]

Don't think I'm against you or nothing like that cause I'm to new to have gone through anything yet. But you should find home Depots policy, the customer is KING. and how that came to be. I don't know if it's still that way but it was 10 years ago when I worked there. I feel where your coming from and it sucks but those words will ring true till the end of time. The customer is king.

[amadi.poland]

so, the customer is king, right, but you can not accept uncritically and can not be doing this general principle, because then we get another bandit religion of life, just as terrorism or Islamic state.

The customer is king, but the customer is also a human and should behave like a human, like someone who is worthy to call him a man and not, for example pig. I do not know if you know, but the pig is the result of too frequent presence of wild boars in the company of a man.

If we allow this to grown another terrorist religion under the title the customer is king, then one day we all wake up in one big cesspool, where they will rule liars, crooks, con artists and those who are honest people, probably in the minority will unfairly bear the costs of servicing the degenerate band of rogue clients, the sick institutions such as eBay allow to to anything.

Remember that 10 or 20 years ago people were more honest, local, closed communities was not easy to become anonymous boor, anonymous scoundrel, so people were trying to involuntarily more. They considered how act to not be stigmatized by neighbors. The Internet allows an anonymous and impunity dishonesty. If we do not fight it, I say, one day we wake up and it will be too late.

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@kincah.eavje wrote:
Don't think I'm against you or nothing like that cause I'm to new to have gone through anything yet. But you should find home Depots policy, the customer is KING. and how that came to be. I don't know if it's still that way but it was 10 years ago when I worked there. I feel where your coming from and it sucks but those words will ring true till the end of time. The customer is king.

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[survivorsedge]

It's been an unpleasant and slow schooling for me, but I have learned 'I can be right, or I can be happy'.  I've saved emails where customers have without provocation or legitimate cause, started their email to me with vulgar insults and demands where I was in absolutely no way in error.  In me early eBay times, I'd bite that hook and dish it back.  Of course I'd feel better but also get my negative.  Downside was, I got to see the negative for years (before they rolled off annually).  

Point.  I find myself much more relaxed and less frustrated with those guaranteed freak buyers when I look at their shocking behavior as "interresting" instead of outlandish.  Takes awhile, a hard pill to swallow at times... but deciding to not give those buyers free rent in your head makes eBay a better experience... and having gone from a brick-and-mortar to stricktly online has made it even easier.

[amadi.poland]

Perhaps what now write it will be received as an exaggeration. But the history, a very rewarding field of science, inadequately considered by many as the place used to pull the old dirty linen in the daylight, in other words to create feuds, disputes, even wars. In my opinion, history has a science which enables us to avoid the mistakes, because we can draw from the experience of our ancestors and not to make such mistakes that they committed. And now to the point.

Sorry, but must wrote this, at one time, English and French after Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, for his own peace of mind, thought it rather interesting madman and not as they should have, a dangerous man who led the largest humanitarian disaster in the world. In the recent past 10 years, governments and the European countries together with the United States stated that for peace of mind their own and their citizens to leave Iraq and leave this area alone. Now we all pay the price for a momentary sense of happiness and peace, literally under our noses grew hydra monster that now to eradicate, overcome, will need to use many times more military forces and suffer much greater losses, including loss of life, rather than during, in which our military forces were still there but we was not enough strength, intellect and patience to finish the job.

Yes, I am also much more prefer to be happy and free from unnecessary nerves that burn our productivity and poison life. But please note one thing, you can afford to stay calm when we know that there is an epidemic or not symptoms that indicate that soon develops. From my observation (and I'm in the trade for 30 years), that the last years of the severity of the growth of various types of deviations, including mass cheating, robbing, extorting increases exponentially. In my opinion, they are beating last bells.

[survivorsedge]

A cliche only goes so far. Obviously having spent 10 years in the Marine Corps, I am not likely to choose to be happy over being right when it comes to issues of core values.  If you stand for nothing you will stand for anything.  My point is simply this.  Complaining without suggested solution is the real epedimic.  Beating your chest and renting your robes for the sake of attention seems to be the hallmark of an active discussion, facebook page, blog or political party.  "Questions about day to day routines, marketing strategies & long term business plans invite informed response" is the hopeful goal of this forum.  Complaining to ourselves about eBay's behavior without a call to action is no more than grandstanding or seeking "kudos".

Possible Solution to the premise "eBay push to open cases in resolution center instead of contact with seller as first step"

1. Create a petition and get ebayers to sign it to show eBay this is a concern of many

2. In your emails and listings instead of listing all the "don'ts" and "won'ts", include positive language of what will make for a great transaction for your buyers.  (I'm not perfect, but currently my feedback shows I am going in the right direction).

3. Consider the number of transactions that aren't going as you  would prefer and

   a) see if there is a pattern

   b) if there is one, work on a proactive solution and consider the unresolvable losses a form of tuition for education,

   c) if there is no pattern and it is in your opinion just evil buyers or unfair eBay, look at the percentage of your transactions that are wrong/bad/unfair.  
      i) If the ratio is too high, consider a different selling platform (web only, Amazon, Etsy, Craigslist...)

      ii) consider if the ratio is not very high (i.e. 1 of 50 transactions) as one of the costs of doing business with "people".  (When I had my brick-and-mortar store in downtown Seattle, shoplifting no matter how many security cameras, security tags and vigilant owner and employees happened anyways.  Mind you, I have a background in military and law enforcement, so this REALLY rubbed me the wrong way.  Still, I could be right, or I could be happy.  I didn't quit being vigilant, but I quit demanding to be right.  My customers felt less mistrusted, felt more comfortable, and felt like they were friends of the store, not customers.  They became watchful eyes too without asking.  Shoplifting went down, sales went up.  My eBay store has used the exact same logic, and may be part of why I made the "eBay 50".  My wife enjoys hearing about my eBay 'experiences' more now too because she knows they won't be filled with bile and spittle.).

you can be right, or you can be happy.  You can also take action to be happier.  Throwing another cliche out there, 'people don't plan to fail, they fail to plan'.

[amadi.poland]

This is the answer, which I had hoped and which I expected. I'm just at the moment I check the ground under their feet, you were in the army, so I will say so, let it out scouts let them look at what lies ahead.

I'm too young experience on eBay to immediately, without checking to initiate the procedure. Again, an allusion to the army, not jumping to head into the water, which you do not know, because you can turn your spine too shallow water.

I have my account on eBay I am actively using only been slightly more than a year. I put them on the Polish version of eBay, which generally is a big misunderstanding, a big joke. When eBay entered the Polish market was a little too cocky, arrogant, did not appreciate the local competitor who showed him where the pepper grows. So with a curled tail, like a mongrel chased eBay walked away and left the work unfinished.

Yet I do not feel so confident on eBay.com, this happens a language barrier, mental and cultural. This is what in us is regarded as a sign of good manners and decency are not necessarily among you will be equally well received, and vice versa.

As of now I am looking for allies, chic help, check to see if my views are even minimally consistent with the views of others.

I confess principle that if everyone AROUND shouting - RUN - and the only one is me see no danger - that there is nothing to discuss, I have to acknowledge that I'm wrong and the time to draw conclusions from this study.

And finally thank you for a very constructive discussion, I was afraid that nothing of this post will come, but I am very positively surprised that I have the pleasure to lead a discussion with someone from whom I draw inspiration and whose observations are not malicious, for they are full of positive energy and willingness to help.

[gently4u]

GREAT ADVICE! Not just for amadi.poland but for all sellers that have read it. THANK YOU for sharing this very helpful point of view and THANK YOU especially for your service to our country.

[reallynicestamps]

amadi-- You may find eBaydotCOM is not the best forum for help.

Why not try eBaydotCA -- the Canadian site-- for your questions?

We work primarily in English, but are used to posters who are not English speaking. Canada has taken over 200,000 immigrants a year since 1975 into a population that today is only 35 million. To put it another way, about a third of Canadians are foreign-born.

We are less aggressive and more willing to work within the 'system' than Americans.  Less denunciation and more problem-solving.

More importantly, we are much more used to selling internationally.

Almost all Canadian sellers sell internationally, although about 80% of those sales go to the USA.

We are used to dealing in multiple currencies.

We understand the problems of international disputes and claims. And problems with returns and refunds.

We understand how to use the dotCOM shipping which defaults to the USPS, which is not available to non-resident sellers.

Also we have Nanaimo Bars.

[amadi.poland]

Thank you for the offer. I will do as advised.

Today I received another one eBay case, another unpatient customer who open a case, item sent 4th January, form Poland to USA. It was not even twenty days after shipment and he has already opened a case on eBay.

You know what I'm most **bleep**? It is another purchase of the same client. Why do people in the US do not have enough manners to simply ask? Ask a simple question to the seller? Are you in the US with any, even trivial matter, you run straight to court?

Or maybe it's like in many places around the world about saying that the people of the US have absolutely no respect for the rest of the world, so treat others as a lower race and did not even bother with that it can someone do harm? Something wrong, without question, without checking, you immediately open the case on eBay.

Very strange level of personal culture.

[femmefan1946]

It is another purchase of the same client.

Did you know you can Block bidders without explanation?

You cannot Block a transaction that is underway, but you can prevent difficult customers from bidding again.

http://pages.ebay.ca/services/buyandsell/biddermanagement.html

There are several Blocks you can use to manage who is allowed to bid on your listings.

[survivorsedge]

With my background in counseling psychology, I guess I read 'tones' of correspondence and predict difficulties. As such, I have a rather large blocked list. My rationale is that I would rather lose one buyer than lose feedback rating, thrown away postage and headaches. In addition to the BLOCK link: http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?BidderBlockLogin the other ways to block mentioned include the following restrictive settings under "Site Preferences/Buyer Requirements": http://my.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?MyEbay&CurrentPage=MyeBayPreferences&FClassic=true&ssPageName=ST... Controversial, but have to protect my business and choose to be excessively proactive. I plan on doing this for many years and can't afford burnout.