Well I agree, this is absurd. I am prompt and polite seller and I give a complete disclosure of the condition of the items I sell. YET I get buyers who, after receiving an item, clearly did not read the auction description, or they request a replacement for a unique item that was as-described. Now I'm wondering if the Buyer Protection system is enabling a scam? I have two people that credibly deserve negative feedback right now and its absurd I cannot even leave a positive feedback with a warning on it.
In fact, I've had two buyers so far request a refund ( because they requested an item I was not actually selling ) and upon receiving refund, REFUSED to cancel the eBay transaction THUS forcing me to eat eBay fees with no option to reopen the case. I only lost 80 cents in each case but REALLY? eBay just profited off of a non-transaction and I guess they're hedging I won't spend the time to recover 80 cents by calling them on the phone. Yes I'm feeling a little victimized here.
So my conclusion is this : eBay is losing revenue somewhere, maybe because of the economy, who knows, it doesn't matter. And **bleep**py buyers who SHOULD be blocked are likely recognized internally by eBay as a potential source of revenue. It's apparently more important for them to be profitable than produce a safe environment for a transaction. The seller is taking all the risk here and eating all the fees. After the experience of the past month I think I'm prone to give craigslist a spin and consider eBay as a secondary venue.
