I Hate Ebay And Its Unfair Rules

[baldmanrox 7]

So, Sunday I sold an NIB Tamiya 30th Anniversary Porsche on the Bay. I get an email today from the buyer saying he doesn't want the item and "will gladly agree to cancel the transaction". I will cancel the transaction - but not gladly. I can't even leave negative feedback for him. My only option is to leave POSITIVE feedback? REALLY? They really need to change this back to the way it was. Buyers need to be held accountable as well as sellers. After all - there ARE bad BUYERS too......

What a waste of time and money. I am so aggrivated.

[30cms 7]

This stuff makes me mad.

I have had all sorts of feeble excuses - "my son was bidding using my account" etc etc.

It really is a pain.

You'll get your fees back and all that, but the target market that was looking at the item could have gone elsewhere now.

Each time it happens to me, I block the user from buying my stuff in future.

The other one that annoys me, is when I get outbid on something, then get a second chance offer about 30 mins after the auction finished.

I always ask why the other bidder didn't buy the item, and always get some great reasons. One time I asked if the other bidder's user name was "shill_bidder", or "your_mate" - to which I received abuse

[Tamiya1/10 382]

So, Sunday I sold an NIB Tamiya 30th Anniversary Porsche on the Bay. I get an email today from the buyer saying he doesn't want the item and "will gladly agree to cancel the transaction". I will cancel the transaction - but not gladly. I can't even leave negative feedback for him. My only option is to leave POSITIVE feedback? REALLY? They really need to change this back to the way it was. Buyers need to be held accountable as well as sellers. After all - there ARE bad BUYERS too......

What a waste of time and money. I am so aggrivated.

Will ebay charge you for the listing or you get to relist again for free of charge or you have to offer second or third chance until someone takes it? If can relist at no additional cost than is time you lost and hope the next round will go even higher.

[baldmanrox 7]

Will ebay charge you for the listing or you get to relist again for free of charge or you have to offer second or third chance until someone takes it? If can relist at no additional cost than is time you lost and hope the next round will go even higher.

I'll have to keep my eyes open to see if I get charged for listing it again.

This stuff makes me mad.

I have had all sorts of feeble excuses - "my son was bidding using my account" etc etc.

It really is a pain.

You'll get your fees back and all that, but the target market that was looking at the item could have gone elsewhere now.

Each time it happens to me, I block the user from buying my stuff in future.

The other one that annoys me, is when I get outbid on something, then get a second chance offer about 30 mins after the auction finished.

I always ask why the other bidder didn't buy the item, and always get some great reasons. One time I asked if the other bidder's user name was "shill_bidder", or "your_mate" - to which I received abuse

Blocking the bidder is a good idea. I think I will do just that. Thanks.

And yes - the "second chance offer" nonsense kills me. Especially when I get the offer 2 minutes after the auction ended. Hmmmmm............

[Percymon 2184]

The buyer has entered a legally binding agreement to buy - its up to you to accept his/her change of mind and breach of contract. Raise a case with ebay, don't expect any quick resolution, but if nothing else they may black mark the buyer

[chris350z 0]

I always put on my listing "you bid to buy".

What else anoys me is win you win it fair and square, then the next day the seller emails you saying " sorry my wife has tidied away, and we can no longer find this item". They have obivously been offered a bitter price.

[Swarm 242]

I understand your frustration its happened to me as well ,I now list my items with the pay immediatly option this way someone can't buy the item unless they pay straight away this seems to have stopped the time wasters but the fee's are higher .

I have also begun to really stop selling on ebay all together as both ebay and paypal fee's are crazy .

Stuart.

[VagabondStarJXF 350]

I feel your pain as this has happened to me too. I was trying to sell my PS3 to help fund my holiday and the buyer didn't clearly state that they were backing out, just that they couldn't buy it 'right now'. What the? What's that supposed to mean? So I asked him for clarification and I got nothing back from the git, no email or anything. The PS3 even finished for less than I was hoping and the buyer just dropped off the face of the earth. I can't leave negs so I just don't leave feedback.

[baldmanrox 7]

I understand your frustration its happened to me as well ,I now list my items with the pay immediatly option this way someone can't buy the item unless they pay straight away this seems to have stopped the time wasters but the fee's are higher .

I have also begun to really stop selling on ebay all together as both ebay and paypal fee's are crazy .

Stuart.

The 'Pay Immediately' option is a good idea as well. Hopefully would keep away any who are not serious.

And I agree on the fees. they are ridiculous. It seems like when all is said and done, between Ebay and Paypal you're out almost 20-25%. I'm in the wrong stinkin' business........

[Tamiya1/10 382]

And I agree on the fees. they are ridiculous. It seems like when all is said and done, between Ebay and Paypal you're out almost 20-25%. I'm in the wrong stinkin' business........

Nothing much can be done on the charges of ebay and paypal. They are like bank charges and the only way to get around is don't us their services altogether, but some time is just not possible. Ebay and paypal allow you to conduct transaction all around the world and so far I don't think there are anything similar. Kind of like woman, can't do without time....at times and unlike man, though we are perfect in everyway, they / ebay / paypal have good and bad points.

[TWINSET 1793]

And yes - the "second chance offer" nonsense kills me. Especially when I get the offer 2 minutes after the auction ended. Hmmmmm............

The second chance is quite handy; I recently had a bidder that emailed me and said he couldn't complete on the deal, so I just sent a second chance offer to #2 on the list. I only lost out a pound between the winning bid and second place, so can't see there's a problem with it.

There was another seller on here that said he uses the 'second chance' when he has multiples of the same item, so #2 gets a second chance, but two items are sold.

I'll have to keep my eyes open to see if I get charged for listing it again.

Pretty sure you have to go through the non-payment process to receive a credit against the original ad - you only get free relists for relisting (and then selling) items previously unsold - if it doesn't sell you pay for the relist too.

Unless you file a non-paying bidder report, your item is technically sold. Ebay actually credit you for the cost of the original listing, not give you a free relist.

[baldmanrox 7]

The second chance is quite handy; I recently had a bidder that emailed me and said he couldn't complete on the deal, so I just sent a second chance offer to #2 on the list. I only lost out a pound between the winning bid and second place, so can't see there's a problem with it.

There was another seller on here that said he uses the 'second chance' when he has multiples of the same item, so #2 gets a second chance, but two items are sold.

Pretty sure you have to go through the non-payment process to receive a credit against the original ad - you only get free relists for relisting (and then selling) items previously unsold - if it doesn't sell you pay for the relist too.

Unless you file a non-paying bidder report, your item is technically sold. Ebay actually credit you for the cost of the original listing, not give you a free relist.

I totally agree that the "Second Chance Offer" is a good thing. In fact - in your referencing a member here who uses it - I myself have purchased a few of a particular TC member's items when he's had multiples. My point is: when you get an second chance offer on an auction item 2 minutes after the auction ends and you KNOW he doesn't have multiples of said item - that's SHADY. It makes me wonder if the seller is bidding on his own item.

And I'm pretty sure the non-payment process takes awhile. More time than I care to invest at this point. I'll just eat the 2 dollar listing fee. The last thing I want to do is waste MORE time. This non-paying buyer already cost me a week. Plus - with Ebay's "new and improved" buyer-friendly rules and regulations, I'd be afraid the buyer would be able to leave me negative feedback for reporting him.......

[WillyChang 1814]

$2?! unless your toy sold for $10 only... total fees would be more than $2 at wild guess

final value fee would be another 5%ish on top of your initial listing fee

[Kokuzu 5]

$2?! unless your toy sold for $10 only... total fees would be more than $2 at wild guess

final value fee would be another 5%ish on top of your initial listing fee

In Germany, ebay has spun off in a website called 'ebay Keinanzeigen' = engl. 'ebay small ads'.

The original purpose of this site is to search for articles close to your home (you can search by zip-code) so sellers do not have to worry about packaging and buyers save the shipping cost. And it does not have a bidding function or limited validity of the offer. it is just like an online version of a magazine listing items for sale.

YOu can search all Germany if you want. With items fare away from my home I never experienced a problem if I requested and payed for shipping the item.

So e.g. I found a nice never driven Mammoth Dump Truck for a good price (negotiated)....

The good thing with those pages is - they are for free. No ebay fees for posting, selling or buying. Paypal fees remain off course if used.

The good thing is - as long as the article is posted - it is available and you can email-contact the seller and negotiate a deal if he comes back. Works pretty good.

The same goes for search ads. You can post search ads or search for 'wanted' ads only if you want to sell items....

The bad thing is it is only available in Germany and the market is pretty small - 50% of the toys offered are railway toys and trains...

I have become cautious with ebay - a lot of scammers around and people who want to make a fortune on you after they bought the item for a low price and then trying to press some more bucks doing unjustified claims or people just leaving a negative feedback.

As long as these people remain in the grey area of personal interpretations, ebay rules and regulations don't allow to intervene - and this 'disturbs' me big time....

[Olly_Lunchbox 28]

There was another seller on here that said he uses the 'second chance' when he has multiples of the same item, so #2 gets a second chance, but two items are sold.

Urgh, that is one practice by sellers that I loathe. Giving potential buyers the impression that there is only one of the item available is a bit dishonest. Imagine two buyers want that item and a bidding war ensues between them, essentially they are just bidding each other up unaware that they are both going to get the item anyway.

[TWINSET 1793]

Urgh, that is one practice by sellers that I loathe. Giving potential buyers the impression that there is only one of the item available is a bit dishonest. Imagine two buyers want that item and a bidding war ensues between them, essentially they are just bidding each other up unaware that they are both going to get the item anyway.

That's cobblers - if two people are prepared to pay/bid an item up to £15, why shouldn't a seller get £30 for two?

If a seller lists two with a starting price of 0.01 and one person bids on each, the seller gets 0.02 regardless of how much the buyers were prepared to pay.

If two bidders bid £15/£16 on one item they're both prepared to pay that anyway and, by way of the second chance offer, do.

How is that any different an outcome to listing two items with a £16 Buy It Now?

It's just taking advantage of one of the seller tools eBay offers, nothing illegal or illicit - they may not have envisioned it working that way, but it does.

eBay used to run a system whereby you could list two of an item in one 'auction' type ad anyway - does that still exist?

[Gruntfuggly 562]

I think I agree with Twinset - after all, you're not obliged to take the second chance offer...

[mike_o 35]

Back to the original problem; buyers bailing out. I believe you can reserve your auction for bidders with a certain amount of (positive) feedback. I've never used, but I remember in my early Ebay-days being blocked form bidding due to my low number of feedback/transactions.

[WillyChang 1814]

can block bidders who are +1, 0 or under only. Or individually ban on seller's blacklist.

eBay used to run a system whereby you could list two of an item in one 'auction' type ad anyway - does that still exist?

still does or at least the last time i looked, but i think the 'price' becomes the lower (2nd) bid

so if #1 bids $20 and #2 bids $18 which outbids #3 with $14, top 2 win it @ $15

if you only list 1 item then the price is 1 unit above outbid #2's $

[TWINSET 1793]

can block bidders who are +1, 0 or under only. Or individually ban on seller's blacklist.

You can also block bidders with a bad 'non paying bidder' record, which is why it makes sense to report all NPB

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/buyer-requirements.html

You can block buyers from bidding on or purchasing your items by specifying buyer requirements. You can block buyers who:

• Don't have a PayPal account
  
• Have unpaid items recorded on their account
  
• Have a primary delivery address in countries you don’t post to
  
• Have breached eBay policies
  
• Have a Feedback score lower than the number you specify
  
• Are currently winning or have bought 1-100 of your items in the last 10 days (you can specify the number)
  

[baldmanrox 7]

$2?! unless your toy sold for $10 only... total fees would be more than $2 at wild guess

final value fee would be another 5%ish on top of your initial listing fee

I already got the final value fees back when I cancelled the auction (albeit two days AFTER the buyer had WON the item) The $2 was just the listing fees......

[tamiyoman 2]

You can also block bidders with a bad 'non paying bidder' record, which is why it makes sense to report all NPB

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/buyer-requirements.html

Agree with Twinset on this one (its not often i can say that lol, and thanks for banning me for 2 weeks for saying "wee" ) , i get quite a few buyers saying "I want to buy your item, but ebay says i dont meet your eligibilty requirements, why cant i buy?", my usual reply is is along the lines of "If you have had 2-3 NPB in the last 6 months you will NOT be able to buy as we have restrictions in place to avoid people who dont pay or pay late, sorry mate", we also get lots of people complaining that we open unpaid item cases after 4 days ( when in in fact ebay does it AUTOMATICALLY now due to the large amount of people that dont pay in a timely manner which ebay considers to be 3 days!), simple answer PAY WITHIN 3 DAYS MATE!!.

Urgh, that is one practice by sellers that I loathe. Giving potential buyers the impression that there is only one of the item available is a bit dishonest. Imagine two buyers want that item and a bidding war ensues between them, essentially they are just bidding each other up unaware that they are both going to get the item anyway.

As regards ollys comments on second chance offers, i personally think its a good thing to have it, i myself have previously sold items on auction listing one of them and then sent 2nd chance offer as i had another identical item, cant see what harm there is there, its either auction it and let people bid to £15-20 and then get second chance or stick it on buy it now for £20-25, whats the difference?. Or would you prefer i auction one then list Buy it now at that price fo 2nd (resulting in more fees for seller and higher price for buyer, DOH!)

It also saves a few pennies in listing fees for sellers (Hurrah), although most of the smart ebayers/TC members know to contact the seller direct anyhow and deal direct and save them self money that way, around 40% of our total sales now comes from buyers who deal direct or buy through the website so ebay does not get ALL the money they dont deserve.

Cheers

Oh one more thing, had a guy in HK buy an item on 30th December (shipped same day) who opened non receipt case on 6th January (seriously), and as POSTIE was closed from 31st december through to 4th how the heck was he ever gonna get it in 2 working days???, anyhoo i sent tracking info to him on 7th and it got delivered on 10th, he left feedback and also comment on the claim saying he had received the items and was happy with transaction, then paypal wont close the case because "I" NEED to provide MORE information to paypal, WHAT?, err no!!!. I called them up and got medievel on them and told them to sort it out, the guy on the other end said we cant see it was delivered, i was like hows that then?, tracking shows delivered (they had the details), buyer left feedback stating "items received quickly and as described, thanks" and he even left comments on paypal dispute saying "Items arrived today, thanks for your help!" and paypal cant close it until I provide more information!!!!.

He said the tracking did not prove he had it as there was no postcode on the tracking info (had he bothered to check the paypal address he would have seen that the seller did not provide an postcode, as with lots of HK addresses they dont have them!), I pointed this out and he was like oh err yes ok?!!

Apparently him leaving feedback is also not enough, as (and i quote the paypal guy) "You could have hacked the buyers account and left FB yourself", i was like who you think I am some hacker?, whaaaattt?????

He then said they could not use his comments on paypal dispute as his comments were in CHINESE, while i was on phone i asked if he had access to google?, he said yeah of course, i said go to language tools and click Chinese to english and paste in his comments!!, i asked him what he saw and asked him to read it back to me, it said "Items arrived today, thanks for your help", although he then said he could not even use that!.

That was enough for me to blow my top and go at them, i said your getting no more info from me, im currently paying you 3.9% of everything i sell for you to make my life hard, get o to your HK paypal dept and get one of the locals to read it confirm it and close and get it sorted!!!!!!, i then put the phone down, got a cup of tea and came back an saw the dispute closed.

I mean seriously why do WE have to go through all the hassle to get things done rather than needing to shout at them down the phone for 5 minutes, its ridiculous, we are paying their wages, do NOT take any Poop from paypal or ebay, its THEM who are supposed to be providing a service!!!.

Stepped off soapbox now.

Cheers

[djmcnz 754]

That was enough for me to blow my top and go at them, i said your getting no more info from me, im currently paying you 3.9% of everything i sell for you to make my life hard, get o to your HK paypal dept and get one of the locals to read it confirm it and close and get it sorted!!!!!!, i then put the phone down, got a cup of tea and came back an saw the dispute closed.

I actually think you're lucky. I received an empty box once from a US$600 eBay purchase. I rejected it at delivery and didn't sign for it. Paypal determined that it had in fact been delivered (because it arrived at my premises) and although I never signed for it basically told me to f-off. Their rules aren't the same as the law in most countries... (in most contries my experience is not legally considered a "delivery"). So, because it had been "delivered" I had to provide proof of return to get a refund. Well, I didn't have anything to return and Paypal just could not get their head around the fundamentals of the situation. They specifically warned me against returning an empty box - "the product MUST be included" - err, logic problem...

I have no idea if the (original) box ever made it back to the seller but I never got a refund and all told it took more than 90 days so I couldn't message via ebay.

-US$600 - my biggest eBay loss and I'm still bitter about it.

[tamiyoman 2]

I actually think you're lucky. I received an empty box once from a US$600 eBay purchase. I rejected it at delivery and didn't sign for it. Paypal determined that it had in fact been delivered (because it arrived at my premises) and although I never signed for it basically told me to f-off. Their rules aren't the same as the law in most countries... (in most contries my experience is not legally considered a "delivery"). So, because it had been "delivered" I had to provide proof of return to get a refund. Well, I didn't have anything to return and Paypal just could not get their head around the fundamentals of the situation. They specifically warned me against returning an empty box - "the product MUST be included" - err, logic problem...

I have no idea if the (original) box ever made it back to the seller but I never got a refund and all told it took more than 90 days so I couldn't message via ebay.

-US$600 - my biggest eBay loss and I'm still bitter about it.

Whenever i buy anything on ebay myself i always clear my account beforehand and buy using my credit card, i been burned once before on a $280USD Kyosho Nostalgic bodyset, that wont happen again and now the Credit card comes out, if paypal dont play ball, my credit card company is refunding me and paypal can sort it with them!.

Sorry to hear about your loss, we live and learn from mistake i guess (both of us)