Once upon a time eBay was a pretty cool place. Many of my customers became friends. I had stunningly good feedback and a high sales rate. Over the years, eBay's policies became draconian, the feedback capability was turned into a rubber stamp, big-box Chinese sellers pretty much took over, reducing the small-seller activity that gave us unique art items, lots of Americana folk, and so forth. Now it's mostly cheap Chinese junk that takes over a month to ship (enabling some to cheat buyers with phony shipping scams), and a rise in sellers' prices that defies reason. I'd love to report eBay to the Attorney General for some of those practices, like charging a final auction fee on SHIPPING, even when we don't use their shipping calculators/services. Of course, there's PayPal and that can of worms; I was once charged for contributing to four charities out of my PayPal account--things I never permitted from groups I don't like--and I didn't find out about it till too late to recover my money.
The auto-fill feature makes for wrong infornation too often. I bought a pressure cooker that was listed as stainless steel. It was aluminum. The seller said she didn't realize the error--that it was an auto fill by eBay. Neither did I catch it, so I didn't hold it against her. If I had returned it, it would have required that I pay a restocking fee and return shipping on a very-heavy item. Either way, I stood to lose, so I just left good feedback and let it go at that; eBay intrusion into the seller listing caused this problem. No reasonable recourse was possible.
I've always had a 100% rating that I worked like a dog to keep, but it's nearly impossible to satisfy eBay now. Recently I sold something and the buyer asked me to delay shipment because he was on holiday; he said he'd notify me when to ship it after he got home. I did wait but asked him to write a note on the listing about it to save me being charged with a late shipment. Well, I was charged anyway, lowering my dashboard rating. There seems to be no way to fix this although I've spent way too much time trying . I live in New England and we have horendous winter weather, causing many shipping problems. There is almost no quarter given to sellers for this problem. Messages to eBay don't get a reply--the most unfriendly policy of all--but be assured that a money-grubbing, unremitting Big Brother is watching and judging, often unfairly.
Not long ago I went up on the blogs and issued a warning about a Chinese seller who has a scam--delaying a buyer with promises, saying that it's been re-sent, etc., until it's too late to get refund and the two shipments she said she'd sent never did arrive. I was too nice--make that stupid. I tried several ways to warn aeBay but couldn't get through, so I posted a blog warning people--with the sellers name--and was disciplined by eBay for naming a thief. It's not the first problem I've had with Chinese shipping but it will be the last. My quick assessment is that they compromise as much as 40% of the sellers on eBay now. I don't need to further detail the problems with their products or accountability.
I came a breath away from deleting my account this morning . I may still do it. I'm conscientious, thorough, honest and dedicated in my dealings--and thoroughly frustrated. Obviously, eBay doesn't deserve me any more. If I were an attorney, I'd bring a class-action lawsuit against them. There! Maybe they'll throw me off of eBay for saying that. If so, good riddance.
Signed: barefoot-designs (Carla Kelly)
