A dead beat buyer left me negative feedback because I would not refund his payment!

[huntingrgb53]

LEFT ME NEGATIVE FEEDBACK BECAUSE HE SAID HE COULDN'T USE THE Bino Pro 2 Binocular Harness System FROM THE WAY IT LOOKS IN THE PICTURE. He saw the picture on the auction page before he bid on it, so I told him I wasn't going to refund his money because he had every opportunity to contact me to cancel his bid. I also told him that this wasn't Wal-Mart or Target. I said this is eBay, an auction site and he couldn't return something just because he didn't like the way the picture looks. This is too much abuse on the seller to have to take this kind of **bleep** from a dead beat buyer and then to have eBay rule in their favor. It's about time that eBay start protecting their sellers, for without them there wouldn't be an eBay. There's always  somebody buying, but if something isn't done to protect the sellers then there'll not be anything for the buyers to buy! Because like me, they will get enough of this **bleep** and say good bye to eBay.

Regards, Robert G Breland

[huntingrgb53]

femmefan1946-

Have you ever stopped to think before commenting on peoples problems. eBay, if you'll realize is an AUCTION site, which offers both auction listings and Buy it Now listings. Do you understand what an auction is? My dictionary describes an auction as a method of selling or casting bids for an item of desire. Any auctions I've taken part in clearly states to know what you're bidding on because all sales are final with no returns. That means if you bid on an item and win it, it's yours, clear and final. That's the way eBay started and it was very good and fun to buy or sell. Fees were low and you could get real deals on all kinds of things from houseware to pornograpy, if that is what you are in to. Now everybody that sells has to raise the price of their items just to cover fees and shipping cost. And, eBay now gets a percentage of the shipping cost, which at might add is wrong. You take up for them all you want but the American people won't! They're not very far from becoming a thing of the past!

[femmefan1946]

I've been selling here since 2001, when eBay was an auction site.

Today the vast majority of listings are Fixed Price. Over my several IDs I have about 15,000 listings, mostly items that work best that way because they are unusual or unique and require time to find a buyer. The vast majority of eBay listings are Fixed Price.

I just did a quick check in Antiques- Architectural and Garden, chosen only because it was at the top of the lists. There are

57, 596 Fixed Price Listings. There are 7, 597 listings as Auctions. I didn't check to see how many of those 'auctions" includedthe  Buy It Now option.

The same is true throughout the site. Auctions are how newbies test the waters. Very few exerienced sellers use that option. It is useful in a very few categories.

And few buyers use the auction option. Most auctions end with only one or no bids.

EBay is a venue.

As for auctions, our family has run an  international catalogued collectibles auction since 1990. Before that we had an auction, which also ran internationally, but online was not available to us. We have sold many thousands of lots, with four to eight auctions a year and an average of 1100 lots in each catalogue. Our usual floor is about 100-150 collectors with as many bidding online, by telephone, or fax or occasionally even by mail.

But like most auction houses we do accept returns. We would not keep the respect of our peers and of collectors if we were not able to admit our mistakes and learn from them.

And then we move on to the next sale.

Every auction house has its own rules. EBay's are stated. If you look at the Sell Your Item form you will notice that while eBay allows sellers to advertise No Returns, there is a caveat :

"The buyer could still return the item if it doesn't match the listing's description. Learn more - opens in a new window or tab"

You may be used to 'country auctions' where everything is sold 'as is, where is" and the customer has an opportunity to inspect the lots before buying.  With catalogue auctions, this is usually not possible so thorough descriptions and excellent pictures are important. EBay auctions have more in common with Sotheby's than with those country auctions. (Including their fees, with charges of 15%-20% charged to both buyer and seller/consignor).

Far from a thing of the past, eBay has been growing year after year, in spite of a slowdown during the recession. The company is profitable enough that I would buy stock, if they paid dividends or even did the kind of stock splitting they did earlier this century.

[rock_your_closet]

I have a propsoal and what I think is a pretty good idea.  We sellers are at the mercy of Ebay feedback.  ALL of my negative feedback is from buyers who were too lazy to bother to contact me before they left bad feedback.  I have had to contact numerous buyers after bad feedback to try to fix it even though I explain how reasonable I am in almost all my listings.

MY PROPOSAL IS... That every Ebay seller  contact Ebay somehow email phone...heck stop by their offices if you're close (I would!) and suggest that they REQUIRE BUYERS TO CONTACT SELLERS AT LEAST ONCE BEFORE LEAVING NEGATIVE OR NEUTRAL FEEDBACK.  I really believe you will see your feedback scores rise if this simple rule was in place.  I'm tired and angry right now, but I really can't see how this would not be a viable option for both sides. God know they have enough rules for us sellers!

I am a teacher and a Certified Public Accountant.  I am also a top rated seller though I have only been selling a few months. 

I soooo wish there were somewhere else to sell that treated their sellers with some kind of respect.....perhaps AMAZON!!

Don't worry I'm not getting my hopes up:(

Sad.... I'm so frustrated after less than a year of selling.  Thanks Ebay for all your support:/

[passline]

I've been selling online for 15 years, have a 100% rating with over 4000 feedbacks. Over 100 days ago, the powers that be, namely an outfit tagged "paypal", wisely decided to put my account on a 21 day hold. As I looked to an actual phone conversation for the reasons, it was explained to me and the reasons were at best adolescent and none were critical, even by their ridiculous standards. I would liike to thank them for pushing me more into private sales as theirs is now a comedy skit, submerged in foolish rules that all have glitches to penalize sellers.