eBay

kmartsucks · ‎03-09-2019

I have a few complaints in regards to the recent practices of eBay. The first of which being that they keep modifying my listings to except offers when I’ve already got the lowest priced item of that nature listed. I asked customer service how to permanently get rid of it and their answer was that I could simply delete that from being an option in my listing. Upon investigation I’ve discovered this is not true and that I was lied to. No big surprise there.

The next complaint is a major one which also comes with a word of warning to anybody else that encounters a similar situation. I listed an item for sale in an auction style listing. It had a few bids and the item had sold. The item was marked that it was paid however I couldn’t find any record in my PayPal account of receiving a payment at all. The buy price is sold for was less than a 10th of the actual shipping cost based on size and weight. I asked the Buyer if he had a transaction ID number which was promptly provided to me. Upon doing research through PayPal I still could not find the payment anywhere. After doing a bunch of research I gave up and contacted eBay and PayPal balls and their advice was not so helpful. I pretty much was frustrated and gave up all together. I decided that I would just refund the gentleman’s payment in the morning when I got home. My best friend then proceeded to login to his PayPal from our Office computer and he noticed there was money in his PayPal account and didn’t know how it got there. After we investigated the transaction somehow his PayPal account received my payment. He sells on eBay as well and we share a computer because we have a small office but after doublechecking both of our accounts were unsure how our information even got linked in the first place we live in the same town but opposite sides of town. Contacted customer service about that and they had no answer. Go figure!

Another issue is that people will bid on something and not pay for the item. It forces you to have to open a dispute. Once you win the dispute you try to leave negative feedback and it will not allow you to leave negative feedback at all. Messaged eBay in regards to that and they claim that it makes future buyers not want to use the service seeing all the negativity. I think it’s complete **bleep** that buyers are allowed to get away with not paying for an item. A good recent example is somebodyMaking an offer on an item I have for sale which I excepted and then refusing to pay with the explanation that he already bought something from someone else. Don’t make offers you don’t intend to follow through with. Of course go figure, customer service was no help with this matter either.

Lastly another complaint about someone purchasing an item. I sold a very expensive mixing console and was unaware of the gentleman purchasing it lived out of the country. Usually with the global shipping program that is not a problem however this gentleman lives in Africa. My typical shipping method (USPS) does not ship to Africa. I received a prompt payment and when I looked in the shipping address it directed me to a third-party company that exclusively sends things to Africa. I was a bit skeptical so I contacted the company I was supposed to send the item to defined out if they were aware of any such transaction at which point they said that the person purchasing the item should’ve notified them first. They reassured me that I could send the item and that they have plenty of references and are completely legitimate. I thought to myself as long as I have a tracking number and lots of insurance I should be OK. I then sent the item to this company. This company then forwarded the item to Africa and the gentleman received it. It was severely damaged when it arrived. He filed a claim trying to get a return through eBay because of damage to the item. I compared serial numbers in the item was completely different than the one I had sent but all of that aside I knew I could potential he win this case. My line of defense was the fact that there were no customs forms attached to my item when I sent it to the company that would forward it to Africa. Their website states they open packages and inspect them to make sure they’re accurately filling out the custom forums since if they don’t do that they would have no idea what the packages contain. Again a big liability for them. However my complaint was that they had to re-package the item before they could send it to its end destination at which point it becomes A bit of an issue in regards to how the item got damaged or who damaged the item. You couldn’t prove without a reasonable doubt that my packaging of the item was not good enough because it was opened and repackaged. You couldn’t prove their packaging was good enough because there was no proof of it. No way to prove who damage the item or how it got damaged or when it got damaged. Also I believe the warranty would be voided because somebody tampered with it i.e. the middleman. EBay finally understood my point and ruled in my favor thank goodness. Of course the item was packed so well that it would’ve taken an army of Ginsu knives to penetrate the box.

A brief complaint about shipping. I am an honest seller when it comes to shipping. I don’t mark up my shipping charges. When it is entirely possible I use a flat rate box to save the buyer the most money possible. In the event that it will not fit flat rate I then professionally weigh the item and put in the exact dimensions accounting a little extra weight for packing materials. So again there’s no up charge and the person purchasing my item can rest assured to get the best possible value. So my complaint is quite simple, why in the heck do they even bother giving you a discount by printing the postage labels online just to turn around and steal the money right back from you via their 10% fee on shipping charges? They should not be allowed to take any of your shipping money whatsoever. I could completely understand if you were selling a 2 pound item and charging $50 shipping and a $.99 buy it now price.

Another thing that I find interesting is that certain items I’ve paid a $500 seller fee for which I believe is the maximum amount. I sold a $5000 pinball machine and that’s what I was charged. However I sold a $10,000 Camaro and was only charged $125. Perhaps they need to reevaluate fees?

Another thing I wish they would crack down on from a buyer perspective is the number of people that are using the same images. I will give you an example to explain what I’m talking about. Four instance if you look in the musical instruments section at some electric Guitars you will find multiple accounts posting pictures of the exact same guitar and using the exact same photographs. Usually the prices are a tad bit different but what if multiple people by this same item from one of the multiple accounts selling it at the same time? What happens then? I confronted a couple of the sellers about this and they claim that it’s their family members running a shop down the street I told them I understand wanting to maximize exposure of your item but that I don’t think it was honest business practices to be doing that. To be honest I find it a little bit deceptive.

A good friend of mine told me recently he got accused via his eBay listing of spamming keywords which apparently is frowned on. He showed me the listing in question and I didn’t see where it was spam and keywords whatsoever it was simply a modified item that was created using two different items so in order for her to him to give a proper description of the item there was no other plausible way he could list it. Ironic? I think so.

Now for my final complaint for the love of God please stop allowing my already lowest priced items on eBay to except offers because I’m getting a lot of angry people messaging me when I declined their offer is because I’m not taking them despite my listing claiming so.

Thank you to anybody and everybody who took the time to read my mile long post of complaints. If there are any spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes, or any other issues it is because I was using speech to text and sometimes my phone speaks better gibberish than it does English LOL.