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disgruntledseller.3owl.com/ – EBAY MISSION IMPOSSIBLE – 1 mans story that I can bet you have had at least 2/3 or even maybe more of the same issues as him, it is a must read, loads of detail of the problems a honest, normal hard working person had to battle through with crazy eBay buyers and staff, I don't know how anyone could possible keep there sanity through all of it. Sadly his story is VERY common and getting more common as every week passes. Seriously read this before it happens to you, its not "if" its "when"
Source : disgruntledseller.3owl.com/
Mirror :
02 April 2013
Like other people I tend to sell those odd tubes of glue on ebay or whatever I have lay about to get money back on items I no longer need or never used. I have been a member on ebay for over 10 years now.
Ebay seems the ideal place to sell such items though after a while it becomes a rather poor joke. If I had the time I would sue ebay and its buyers for all the stress and vast amounts of my time wasted. I have always replied to my customers within the hour and tried to help as much as possible. Though in a lot of cases, I just get abuse for poor customer service. So I think, why did I bother in spending hours of my day helping someone just to get abuse from them.
Most people expect me to give endless lifetime technical support over a 99p item. I always try to help people out, though it gets to the point where my entire day has gone and I have nothing to show for it.
Overall I get fantastic feedback, but unfortunately, there few % which cause problems greatly outweigh the good ones. Good feedback is done in a few seconds you can have 100's of them. Then you get a couple of "bad eggs" or situations you have no control over, and the past part of your week turns to hell.
Then when you finally get over one dispute, there is always another one. Overall I can spend my entire week trying to help people and jump though ebay's hoops to solve impossible problems. I see that all that ebay do is take money from me and thats it!
It becomes impossible to offer general advice or assistance due to the amount of buyers opening disputes or sending abuse over something which has nothing to do with me. I can spend anywhere from a hour to a entire week, and in some cases longer, replying via ebay's dispute center, defending myself against endless amounts of nonsense.
A lot of sellers just refund the person to shut them up. Which sellers shouldn't have to do and buyers should not be able to get away with it, but they always have done and ebay will side with them aswell! It has long gone past the point of even buyers telling convincing lies. Though ebay do nothing to solve such problems. The only thing they are quick to do is punish the sellers for poor service, where is the option to punish poor buyers ? Ebay is encouraging scammers but they do not realise it, and probably never will.
I read in ebay's newsletter that buyers expectations are increasing and they want "no questions asked return and refund". Apparently this is to tally with being able to take items back to a shop for a refund "no questions asked". Though in the past several years, I have not found one single shop that will give a refund in that manner.
I purchased a expensive sat-nav a few years ago. It broke within a few months. I wanted to return for a refund or a replacement but was told NO. The only thing I could have is a repair. So I waited over 2 weeks, finally got a repaired one, with a duff battery. I was stuck with it. I needed my sat-nav. I even brought a computer part from another shop, it was faulty, they wouldn't give me a replacement or refund. So ebay's claim to be seems somewhat in the land of fiction.
However I do agree you should be allowed to return items. Its annoying when you can't. Though this is a very problematical area. If I sell a tube of glue and the buyer uses some and wants to return it "no questions asked" I am horrified if that's the policy ebay are going to be operating under. As far as I knew, by law, items have to be fit for resale, but on who's authority ? If a buyer uses a item, I sure would not want to be the buyer of that used item. This is a huge problem.
If I sold a faulty item, I would replace it, but what if the buyer broke it ? What if a buyer buys a TV then spills beer on it, then wants to send it back for a refund as he is entitled to a 14 day no questions asked refund ? The seller will be unable to sell it as new, though if the buyer complains he was unable to get a refund, what then ? I guess the seller will get punished for not issuing a refund on a now damaged item.
The goods become second hand goods, and yet buyers can return them for full refund ? The seller has to make the sale as new, but what if there was damages to the item from the previous buyer ? The seller gets a used item, the new buyer gets a used item expecting a new one, and the seller gets the blame for selling used goods. What choice has the seller got ? Buyers could buy items all day, use them, return them, if it was the same seller, they would just go from a new stock pile to a used on in a short period of time.
Just this past week I had a email from a buyer asking to buy a bottle of ink from me. He said, if it does not work in his printer can he return what's left in the bottles for a full refund. I'm thinking, what am I doing to do with half empty bottles of ink ? Why does he think he can get a full refund on it even ? Do these people not know that I simply cannot sell a half empty ink bottle set as a new unused item ?
If I was buying that now used item, I would be as mad as hell. I find the direction ebay are taking very disturbing to say the least. I only sell the odd items on ebay, if I can get the odd problem like this, what are the larger sellers having to put up with per day ?
Anyone now who asks me a half stupid question, I just block them. This may sound harsh, but my entire day can go emailing someone who may never even buy anything anyway. Experience has shown, anyone asking stupid things is just trouble right from the start and I would rather loose a sale of a few pence than my entire day replying to such questions.
It seems the more you help people, the more trouble they become. Most of my day is taken up fighting nonsense ebay disputes. So I simply do not have time to sit around chatting to people all day. I would be able to offer better customer service if I was not subject to all the abuse I have to deal with each day via ebay.
Years ago I used to work in electronics. It was my job, my hobby, I collected thousands of electronics parts which I no longer need. I listed 1 item that I had over 100 of as a private seller and was blocked from listing any more. There was a option to raise limits, so I did that, and listed a second item. Then hit the same problem.
Apparently if you sell 100's of items you are forced to register as a business and act like one. Which also happens to include a monthly store fee. So even though I am only selling less than 10 different items, as I have 100s of them, I am a business, apparently. To which, subject to all the joys of "running a company".
I understood private sellers could legally sell any items they have with the condition they are not making a profit from it. However, ebay do not actually even follow what is in their own terms. I have hundreds of electronic parts, some are still pretty valuable. I spent thousands of pounds over the years on electronics items and was simply looking to recoup some money on them, by selling them on ebay. However, list 1 single item that you have over 100 of, and you are forced to be a business, which just exponentially increases the problems and fees.
The first problem I find, is that ebay favour items which have free postage in the search results. Also you get 5 star rating each time for free post items which improves your feedback score. However, there is no such thing as free postage, and all it boils down to is ebay making a few more % on transaction fees, which seems a little unfair.
Then you get abusive feedback comments about high postage costs which is just the final insult of the day really. I doubt the idea of these people to simply look at the postal value on the package never crosses people's minds before they start leaving comments about high postal costs.
So you then think that I will just charge the actual postage amount and it will save me money and ebay will not make as much per transaction. That is where the problems start. First of all, sellers get punished for people's opinions on how much items cost to post.
A small box can cost £4 to post. However if peoples opinion is that "it's a lot" they will leave you a low star rating. This soon spirals out of control as if you have just a small number of these low ratings, ebay then start sending you emails that you need to improve or you will get suspended, which has happened to me. So ebay basically force you into a corner where the only way out is to offer free postage again, which just so happens makes ebay more money.
There are then buyers who claim items never arrived, of course you only have their word for it, which seems to count for very little. I started sending all my packages signed for delivery, strange how once I started doing that all the claims of lost packages stopped. Though it was costing me a fortune to do this. So I just offered a signed as a extra. Nobody ever paid for it. Then , no surprise the "lost packages" started coming in again and you entire day goes to hell yet again.
Then you get buyers who then complain about everything under the sun to get you to give them a refund. Even if you list 100% correct information, it seems 99% of buyers do not read a single line on what you are selling, then open up a dispute and ebay expect you to "fix" the problem.
An example is if I sold a metal plate, say 5cm square 0.1mm thick, then once the buyer receives the plate, then complains saying it is smaller than he expected and will drag you though ebay's dispute centre over a mistake that the buyer made.
Ebay's terms do not allow this sort of thing, but unfortunately they do nothing about such claims. I still have to spend hours of my time pointing such things out, where the buyer just does not want to accept what is clearly stated. Then he leaves bad feedback which then causes ebay to send me policy violation emails and emails that I need to improve.
I then over the past year did a test stating, "quote this number to obtain 1 extra free item". This was stated in the very first line on my listing. Over the past year and near 100 sales, not 1 single person quoted the number. At this point it become a joke that 100% of buyers did not read a single line or read any information to what they are buying. and yet somehow, this is my fault and i need to improve on this ?
The only action I could take was to email every single person who brought a item to make sure they understood what they are buying. Around 50% emailed back saying they did read all the information, which must have been a lie, as you would have thought they would quote the code to get a free item. At this point I thought, why am I even bothering going to such lengths over a few bits and bobs of low value.
The problems just mounted from then on. I sold bottles of ink that I never used. I used to print a lot of items out so I bulk brought ink and sold it when I no longer needed all the bottles. These items were heavy to post and cost more to post than they were worth. Though I didn't want to simply just bin them all.
Due to complaints about "high postage costs" I ended up listing them as free post, which after all the fees, it was actually costing me to sell them! After a handful of bottles sold, I got complaints that they were leaking. I was perplexed by this. I spent most of one weekend throwing bottles around the driveway, throwing them to the ground and crushing them in a vice to try and get them to leak. and yet half the bottles I sent out seemed to be leaking.
I concluded that items were going via air ports and realised that the external pressure on the bottles would be a lot less than the internal pressure while in flight. I had reports that some bottles looked like they had exploded so I can only assume that bottles going via air were not pressurised during flight. The internal pressure would in effect increase, as the external pressure decreased. This would cause the bottles to leak and even explode.
Contacting Royal Mail about this resulted in no helpful advice. So here I was faced with an impossible problem. Buyers were unhappy, how many buyers would take that explanation as to why the bottles leaked? They all just think they were not sealed correctly by myself and that was the cause. Though it wasn't that simple. So I was faced with bad feedback and more emails from ebay telling me I needed to improve. How do I get royal mail to pressurise their cargo in flight ? Why am I even asking myself that question ?
The past week was Easter weekend. 4 whole days Friday to Monday where the post office was shut. A buyer opened up a dispute as he had not had his package by Friday. Technically he waited 2 full working days before complaining. I even spent hours emailing buyers pointing out such things. However I think, why the hell am I trying to educate people about bank holidays, Easter weekend, post office being closed.
I have found that Royal Mail can take up to 5 weeks to deliver 1st class items. Unfortunately buyers think I work for the Royal Mail and leave me bad feedback for slow delivery times. I wish I knew I worked for them, I guess they owe me a lot of wages.
I am sure not happy when I buy items and they take weeks to arrive, but I do not blame the sellers for it, but it's all too common.
I now notice sellers sending out emails pointing this out after sales. Again they are forced to do this as ebay's feedback system is based on people's ill-fitting opinions. So I get the blame for another companies postage charges and intermittent delivery times. Then ebay expect me to sort out such problems. The government can't even sort out such a epic problem, so how do ebay expect me to ?
The only way I could have delivered that buyers package is if I kidnapped a bunch of people who work for the royal mail and held them at gun point to work over Easter weekend and deliver peoples packages within the 3 day delivery aim. Buyers are under the illusion that 1st class items are next day delivery guaranteed!
If buyers were so desperate to receive packages, why not at least pay £7 for 24H post ? It annoys the hell out of me, and yet all these buyers opinions cause ebay to force me to improve or face the consequences. Is it even legal for ebay to operate under such poor policies ? The "report a buyer" button is almost burnt into my monitor, can I file a claim to ebay for a new one ??
"Note that a case will only affect your seller performance rating if the case is not decided in your favour. "
I am frustrated that ebay are even blaming sellers for slow delivery times in the first place. A few months ago I wrote about 4 pages of proof that the buyer was incorrect about a dispute. Ebay ruled in her favour. So that wasted 3 days of my time in being forced to respond to a case which was nothing but lies to start with.
So the bottom line is, if a buyer is not happy his package took a week to arrive, even though 4 days the post office was closed, and Royal Mail no doubt had a backlog to deal with too, that if I do not fix this problem, it will affect my seller performance.
Its as about as clear as it can be that I am going to get punished as there is no disputing the fact that the buyer paid a week ago and not had his package yet. Even emailing buyers in about this in the first place falls on deaf ears. The buyers are either too lazy to read message or just live in a wonderland which has no grip on reality.
How are you supposed to deal with such buyers ? ebay's buyers need to improve and ebay, not the sellers! It gets me how in the latest ebay seller news that they say "buyers expectations are rising" , what about sellers expectations on ebay are rising ? They have been ignored for some years so far. It seems to me buyers expectations are already way out of the realm of reality, so why is ebay pushing this even further ?
It's the same with dispatch times also, They are all listed as "1 day" and 99% of items are posted same day, so you would think you would get 5 starts for posting so far, but in the opinion of the buyer if he does not get the package for a week he leaves low ratings. At which point did the RM delivery times become my problem?
I listed 2 postage options, 1st and 2nd class, 99% of people go for 2nd class as its cheaper, but then they moan as it's taken a week to arrive. Well, does the thought of not paying 60p more for 1st class enter people's minds? Do they not "get it" that I do not work for Royal Mail. I offer 24H post, but nobody wants to pay £7+ for it, and yet they expect items to arrive next day.
So again I get emails from eBay saying my dispatch times need to improve, erm??!!!!! I can't force people to pay for 24H post, nobody yet has paid for it. They want cheapest post, but don't want to wait. This is the buyer's choice what service to use and has nothing to do with me. I somehow feel I am taking the blame for RM being slow to deliver at times, and then also getting the blame as buyers choose 2nd class post then blame me as it's taken a week to arrive.
A new problem I found this week is royal mails stamps are coming off packages. They simply are not sticky enough to stay stuck to items. This then causes disputes with buyers as they blame myself for not putting stamps on items. Even though I can show proof by post office receipts we did put stamps on it, once a buyers is mad about something, you are simply wasting your time trying to convince them otherwise. They open a dispute, ebay side with them, they get their money back, and you get suspended for 3 days with a warning mark against your account. Also don't even get me started on packages which are "lost in the post" !
They just assume you have scammed them and trying to defend yourself only results in escalating problems and endless hours of wasted time. We can't even put sticky tape over the stamps to keep them fixed as its against Royal mails terms. They think you will just clean the tape off and re-use the stamp. So you simply cannot win. Yet again ebay punish sellers for problems which are beyond the sellers control, and buyers send endless amounts of abuse over something which cannot be resolved.
After a while it becomes clear, that you have to protect yourself from buyers who complain because they do not get the items they expected, in most cases it is because they failed to read anything. Then you have to defend yourself over buyer's opinions which have nothing to do with yourself.
I like many other sellers, are finding the hoops you have to jump though to please buyers has just become a joke. The amount of work and emails it generates to sell a few odd unwanted items just isn't worth the hassle.
I used to buy items from sellers all the time, though not one single seller I dealt with is still active. They all just had enough of being blamed for problems which are beyond their control and just closed their accounts. Best part is, this has been going on for years and yet ebay are constantly putting pressure on the sellers to do better.
ebay's feedback system is simply broken. Dispatch times are as fast as they can be. I do not have a crystal ball so I can't post items the day before someone orders them. Though people do not understand dispatch times are NOT delivery times. This has been an ongoing problem with ebay since day 1.
Postage charges, unless you list free postage you will face an impossible situation. You can't change people's opinions of what it costs to post items, even though it's right under their nose on how much items cost to post. Item as described is a joke, as nobody reads what is listed, you will always get a zero rating and then the seller gets punished for the low ratings.
I can't help but feel ebay should educate its buyers on how the world works rather than dumping all the problems onto sellers. Ebay make enough money out of myself and others, and the only emails and help I ever got, was telling me I needed to improve or face the consequences. I think ebay should face the consequences of all the stress they cause sellers and all the time the sellers have to spend in defending themselves against unjust comments/abuse and ratings.
Considering the odd items I sell and the endless hours of stress and abuse I have to put up with from buyers and ebay, I fear the thought of the big time sellers on ebay. Ebay are constantly putting up prices and putting the pressure on sellers. I guess they do not care that sellers are dropping like flies.
The buyers are getting worse, they are learning all the loopholes in ebay's system and they know they can obtain a refund even if they make up what they are complaining about. A lot of sellers who I have chatted to are closing shop due to the amount of scam buyers and ebay expecting the seller to sort out problems or get suspended. I would like to know how they have got away with this operation for so long.
Of course nothing can be done about it. Ebay can seem to operate however they like and get away with it. I guess they operate under the policy of "you know where the door is" which is exactly the route more people are taking. How any company can operate under such cowboy tactics is beyond me. Though technically they are not doing anything illegal. I really am shocked, frustrated and appalled on how ebay operates.
I think ebay is just a cheap place with people looking for cheap deals. The fearful realisation was when I went to buy a generic audio cable last week and going around town from shop to shop, it was impossible to find. I think I would rather buy items from a shop than contribute to ebay's profits. Though with all the shops closing due to online trading, it has become impossible to buy, what once was simple basic items.
I think ebay's directors should open a ebay shop and sells a few 100 items per month and see what problems they get. I am sure they would soon change their polices pretty smartish.
You also cannot leave bad feedback to any of the buyers either, it is a policy violation to speak the truth. Though the problem buyers can just keep on scamming sellers and sending abuse, and the seller can't point this out on the buyers feedback page. I had one buyer send me over 40 emails of abuse a couple years ago. I cannot put a comment in his feedback about it, as it would be a "false positive" and be a policy violation.
A couple of times I have left feedback pointing out that buyers do nothing but complain. Ebay were very quick to remove the feedback. Which I class as simply hiding the truth. I have also contacted other sellers who had problems and after sending out more than one item they end up forced to refund the buyer to get them to remove their own bad feedback. Ebay call that feedback extortion and against their terms. Though they do nothing about it. When the seller tries, they get ignored and simply get warning marks against their account. The final insult is when the buyer then emails bragging about how he got away with it all.
These days I will not bow down to ebay's infuriating rules. If a buyer complains about slow delivery, I point it out on his feedback. No doubt my ebay account will get deleted pretty soon. Though sellers do have rights too, oh, wait, no they don't, my bad. Ebay siding with all the buyers who cause problems seems to speak volumes to me.
I once had over 40 emails of abuse from a guy who lived over seas. I emailed ebay about it MANY times. The only I reply I got was to block him. Which I did, and it did not work. He kept on emailing. Even spanning months later. ebay's only response to this was to setup my email filters to block his user ID. How does that stop him from cluttering up my ebay message inbox ? Clearly they are willing to simply ignore all the stress and wasted time that the buyer has put me though.
A typical line in a newspaper feed states
It is very poor that on Ebay a buyer can leave a seller bad feedback, but if a seller gets the customer from hell, there is nothing they can do to warn other people of threats, extortion etc.
And 3 years on, from that comment, the same thing happens. As many sellers I have spoken too, ebay should get zero star ratings for service and support of its members. Then we we try to leave comments and warn people, ebay punish us.
I find it contradictory that ebay state "Thank you for leaving Feedback for 1 transaction. Your Feedback helps keep the eBay Community informed and safe." When they do not allow any negative comments for ANY of its buyers. So how exactly is that "Keeping Community informed and safe" ?
The only way to keep your account active is to "be silent" and not speak up about ANY problems. This article is just a typical day for most sellers. You would think ebay would look after the sellers as they are making them money. All the sellers I once knew have closed shop a long time ago due to such problems. I see a growing number of listings which say they are closing shop due to endless problems which ebay simply turn their back too.
It is also true of many other problems, such as, if a buyer does not pay, you can only leave good feedback for the person. Obviously freedom of speech and telling the truth does not apply in ebay's case. A dishonest buyer can ruin your feedback for a entire year and ebay do nothing to help. Get a few bad feedbacks and your stuffed.
I disputed feedback from a buyer about 5 years ago where a buyer left me negative feedback over a ink cartridge which he couldn't work out how to install in his own printer. The thought of this person reading his printer manual never occurs to such people. They expect the seller to spend endless hours of technical support to them over a 99p item. Surely this is why manufactures have help lines and manuals. I am still waiting for ebay's reply and removal of the abusive comments I received over it.
I feel like sending ebay a fee each month for all the hassle they cause over their broken system. They make many promises to make ebay a safer place and to help sellers, Though I am still going around in circles dealing with more and more problems which ebay simply wash their hands of. Then if we don't deal with these problems, ebay punish us.
I have sleepless nights and nightmares about waking up each morning and finding pages of negative feedback and disputes and endless abusive emails all over problems I simply have no control over.
For example ,a lot of people the past couple of weeks couldn't go to work as the snow was too bad. Though people still seem to expect delivery of their packages and complain when the delivery is slow. Then they leave low ratings and ebay expect the seller to improve their ratings or be punished. How do ebay expect us to educate buyers on why snow stops delivery ? Why should I even have to ? It just seems more than clear, that the problems are never-ending and it just isn't worth selling the odd items as it just generates constant stress and causes huge amounts of wasted time.
It has just become clear beyond any doubt that ebay simply isn't a safe or good place to do business with. I have a huge shed full of stuff which I could sell, though its all going down our local tip now. I would rather someone else get some money for scrap/recycle value than involve ebay with its endless problems.
Considering I just spent the past 3 days writing this article with just the thoughts which are "at the top of my head" It makes me realise even more how poor ebay's operating policy's actually are.
I have bills to pay like anyone else, and a fulltime job. I don't want to be at work all day just to come home to hours of stress over items which are worth next to nothing. Its amazing to think one time I gave a lot of stuff away to someone, who complained like hell for days about the quality of goods. I am just sat bewildered over what goes on in peoples minds.
Considering I work in the public sector, and always have done, I know you can get the odd idiot now and then. Though on the internet, there seems to be a never ending flow of them. In the good old days, if someone insulted you, you got your mates to simply go and beat them up and lesson learned sometimes they wouldn't do it again. I think it is just too easy for people to hide behind a computer screen and spend all day emailing abuse to people simply because they have nothing better to do.
There is a on going joke on the internet about people on forums, where in order to upset someome, just say something, and that's about it. I used to be involved in a lot of forums, regardless of what you talk about or say, someone will take offence.
I remember telling a simple joke once online. Someone misread it, wrote a abusive post, then before I knew it around 20 other people joined in and started posting abuse to me. This went on for over 2 weeks! Its against the law to go physically beat someone up, though its perfectly fine for any amount of people to bully you online. Clearly I think the law needs a revision to keep up with the digital age.
One time I refunded a item worth about £30, I was so stick of people moaning about stuff, I just started refunding people to shut them up as I just had enough of people. Best part was, such people continue to send abusive emails on poor customer service, dispute they just had a refund for basically telling a pack of lies.
I just can't deal with such people any longer. As ebay want to side with the buyers and not help the sellers, then either the bad buyers go , or I do. As ebay are increasing its "buyers expectations" I think its pretty clear which will happen.
At least the guys at the tip are helpful and polite. They help you and explain what goes where and even help you carry items. Even though it cost me money , I feel a lot happier at the end of the day and have a good experience than facing endless hours of abuse & disputes via ebay's system over very little money.
The bottom line is that ebay are making money off me to make my life hell. If I wanted to spend money and make my life hell, I would go out drinking and get into a bar fight. At least it would be over in a few moments. With ebay, the fight is never ending uphill battle that you simply cannot win
The internet is flooded with infuriated ebay sellers spanning years and it is only on the increase. I feel the need to voice my experiences in other media , other than the internet and ebay as they are simply being ignored. I would really like to know how ebay get away with such poor business ethics. Punish the people who are making them money & side with the people who cause endless problems. Where is the button to click to tell ebay to improve or face the consequences ? I rest my case.
This past week has been interesting. I was selling a product which was similar to another product that another seller was selling, he had been getting other people he knows to ask all kinds of odd questions. He was convinced I was tricking people into buying my item over his down to a similar looking style pot. The past week I had been ignoring strange questions which resulted in the other seller writing a paragraph on his page basically insulting "other sellers" for selling a falsely advertised product and ignoring buyers questions. I knew it was this other seller, which was why I ignored the questions. His listing just goes to prove it was him.
A couple weeks before he setup a new ebay account. My settings did not allow people with zero feedback to buy from me, so he faked a couple of sales to get his account going. To which he then purchased a item from me then opened up a ebay dispute saying I was selling a fake product. Considering I never mentioned any branding or even hinted of such, how can it be a fake product ? So he opens a dispute demanding all kind of things.
The fact that he has gone out of his way to slag me off from a new ebay account, and emailed from other accounts too and he basically has the nerve to say I am selling a fake product annoyed the hell out of me. Of course now I have a dispute where ebay expect me to follow the "buyer is always right" policy ?
As this guy was so obsessed with a style of pot I decided to just remove the image totally and do a new updated image and listing. Considering the pots were common and could be brought anywhere it was again pathetic than I again have to spend fixing problems which are just pointless in the first place. So I removed my images, I had a couple of variations of the item, though I wrote the HTML code "offline" and uploaded it and some updated images (without showing the pot) to ebay.
The best part is, he claims to be a open and honest seller in his pages and prides himself on it. Though he opens a new account to go out of his way to open a fake dispute claim and to slag off other sellers. This does not sound like the actions of a honest man to me.
Meanwhile ebay removed my listing saying it was a duplicate listing. Ok fair enough, but the pages were only the same for a few moments while I tweaked the final changes on ebay. So now ebay have ended my best selling item and considering I have policy violations on my account already, this new policy violation will no doubt cause my account to be suspended.
Trying to avoid disputes over images to comply with ebay's policy, while "keeping buyers happy" has just resulted in my account being thrown out of the window. The phrase "can't to right for doing wrong" springs to mind.
I wish I hadn't of bothered to change the images. Though I was tired of being harassed by this other seller. He has been reported and I have explained to ebay about this , though no doubt all these problems will just end up being "my fault" somehow.
I have 47 disputes at the time of writing, 27 of which have been closed in my favour so far. Though the buyer got refunded anyway at ebay's own cost. Though I think how much of my time has this all wasted ? Some people have nothing better to do than make up all kinds of false claims and ebay force me to "deal with" ,simply put, crap from people. I have better things to do with my time than defend myself against such extreme rubbish. All the help I get from ebay from years of reporting is a deaf ear and the promise of if I don't sort out such problems, my account will be suspended
Today's idiot.
I was selling some printer flush which was supplied in a small bottle. The flush itself is blue. Some buyer who speaks bad English started to complain that the item he had was not as shown in the image. I asked for a image of what he had, and he wouldn't send one. I ask if he had the item shown in the image, he said no. So I asked what did he have, he said a bottle of blue liquid, which is exactly what was shown in the image. He then sent me abuse and threats to report me to ebay about it.
This type of person seems all to common on ebay. Where buyers get exactly as shown and described, and they even admit it is what they have, but then complain it is not as shown. There must be some form of common metal illness where reality totally slips these people. Even looking at this persons profile, he purchased a broken printer, then left bad feedback when it did not work. We keep reporting these people to ebay, and yet it seems to fall of deaf ears. Yet again the sellers get the blame for buyers own ignorance and stupidity.
I really do think as ebay like to comply with the law so much, they should add a option to refuse sale to people based on ethnic origin. Bars can ban and refuse service to trouble causers. Shops reserve the right to refuse sell items, so why isn't ebay enforcing this for us sellers ? Based on my experience its in 95% of cases who cannot speak English correctly.
My daytime job has me dealing with the general public. After 30 years of service to customers, we now refuse to do any work for anyone who isn't English. 95% of problems are again with non-english people. Though we also refuse to do work of any companies, English or not as companies just never want to pay bills. The amount of work and stress day per day these people cause, then have to come home to more of these people on ebay just goes to show how society is "progressing".
This weeks annoying people…..
I was selling some items, where I sold a couple, and wasn't sure how many was left. As ebay does not have a "out of stock" option, I put a 99 on front of the item price and put out of stock on the image. Each day I now get semi-sarcastic emails about the item price. People telling me its a mistake, or is it made out of 24K gold, or how someone will buy lots of them and be back for lots more. Considering none of these people even looked at the image is making them sound so stupid to start with.
I will let the price thing pass for now, as it is common for sellers to up the price to stop people from buying items while they are out of stock. I suppose ignorance is no defence in the eyes of the law though!
While hunting around my pc I found ebay cases between myself and ebay and the buyer. I copied them below. In the end ebay refunded the buyer. I wish they would refund my endless hours of wasted time too.
Dispute was opened "item not as described" as the ink cartridge levels show empty, as stated on my ebay page, the ink levels will show empty! I wrote this on my ebay Q&A also and even put a PDF link with even more information and I even send a hard-copy with all orders. TRIED to prove this to the buyer MANY times, its in black and white everywhere, can't exactly miss it! But this buyer refuses to accept anything which is stated either on my ebay pages or in my endless emails. its like trying to talk to a brick wall, so pardon me if I get stressed about this as with buyer I am in my rights to be.
In my information sheet I explain the ink levels shown on the printer bare no relationship to the ink levels held in the printer cartridge itself. Ink level test pages produced on the printer state "Estimated Ink Levels:*. Magenta, Cyan, Yellow, Black. *Estimate only. Actual ink levels may vary." this is HP's own words and just confirms what I am stating. As HP admit the ink levels are only estimated, I state to ignore this in my information as it has no relation to the actual ink levels.
I provide a printed copy of all information which clearly illustrates how to ignore the ink level. When the cartridge is actually empty, the printer shows "damaged ink cartridge" or similar message. this is common practice for almost any printer and has been known for the past decade.
Almost all ink cartridges sold/produced via a 3rd party will show zero ink levels. Ebay has thousands of such listings and I am one of the few sellers who actually state this up front and probably the only seller who produced a detailed information sheet which is free to download on every ebay page in order to help people and make installation as easy and quick as possible.
The buyer is clearly not interested in trying to resolve this simple problem. I have spent over 6 hours writing emails to help, and when I asked questions they go ignored. When I state things its apparently not the truth. Anything I state is just going ignored. The buyer just does not want to accept what I state and will not accept the ink levels shown will not relay actual ink levels inside the ink cartridge.
I also state if the buyer does not accept the levels will show empty, then they simply do not buy them. I would rather lose sales than go though this type of hype, which is what this buyer is putting me though. This is why I state the ink levels will show empty, if they do not like this "idea" then they can go elsewhere!
The buyer seems to be willing to waste everyone's time by complaining about the item, rather than looking at the information sheet which will solve the problem in 2 seconds. The information is illustrated with actual images direct from the printer so there can be no mistakes, so all the buyer has to do is match the image on the sheet to the one on her printer and follow the buttons to press. A 5 year old could do this, and at no point has the buyer even considered doing anything I suggest, the buyer is just not interested full stop.
I also see right from the start the buyer has put words into my mouth which I have simply not said. Ebay is welcome to read my ebay messages as they are still there. Clearly shows regardless of how much I try to help, the buyer is just not reading anything I suggest/say or accepting it.
So far the buyer in my opinion has not said one honest thing and only seems to be interested in telling lies and wasting peoples time. If she actually read the ebay page it clearly states they will show low/empty, so the buyer has no grounds whatsoever to open a dispute about this, it clearly says on my pages what she is disputing, the dispute is total nonsense!
I have sold 100's of these items, and have regular customers, I personally find it very insulting that the buyer discredits me as scamming my customers when its clear by my feedback that I have fantastic feedback and have many repeat customers. All clearly to be seen, though again, the buyer is not interested in any facts whatsoever as such I simply stopped replying. At no point has the buyer stated one single valid thread of truth and is just constantly showing her ignorance which I can only assume is intentional for whatever reason.
The buyer now states that after years of using printers the ink cartridge is empty and she is 100% sure of this. If this is the case then why is the buyer disputing a item which is now admittedly used and empty ? This is total nonsense!
You don't buy a item use it then complain it is now empty. Though clear this is exactly what this buyer is stating. I very much doubt it is actually empty, but nothing I say makes any difference at all. I just get the same impression the buyer just does not want to do anything but complain. If the buyer spent as much time reading the information sheet instead of complaining, the buyer would have apologised by now for the stress she has caused!
All my help falls on deaf ears and how the buyer has no interest in anything but disputing everything to do with the item and everything I say. Its clear the buyer is just trying to falsely obtain a refund or just trying to cause trouble for no reason at all. I stopped replying to this buyer as she would not even accept the ebay page states the ink levels will read empty. Opening a dispute about this alone is just nonsense never mind all the other hype which she has fabricated also!
She is insulting stating "i am trying to be clever" , I'm not at all, Pardon me if I am getting a fraction annoyed going blue in the face trying to make this buyer understand such simple little things which are clearly stated in black and white on around 80 of my ebay listings! It can't be missed, so why does this buyer refuse to see whats there?? If It was a scam why would I bother to waste hours of my time trying to help sort out peoples problems?
I also find her comments about my service insulting, spending now over 6 hours replying,trying to help and make her understand, only to be insulted for typo's and spelling! Makes me wish I just shouldn't have bothered to reply to her first email at all. Clear I just wasted all that time for nothing either way. All I have done is try to to be helpful only to put up with garbage from this buyer. I can't deal with ignorant people like this so she has been blocked from contacting me and buying from me again.
Now another 2 hours of my time wasted all for about 50p which is all I actually made on the item. PC technicians charge at least £50 a hour for technical support and she is owing me several hours so far! (and I am a fully qualified electronics & computer engineer!) I always try to help people, but as it states in my terms, I do not provide a unlimited "get you working" service. Furthermore, she is just unwilling to even be helped. She has annoyed the hell out of me, she is just ignorant and wishes to do nothing but dispute things which I have stated in black and white on all my ebay pages. How she can even get away with such rubbish is frankly amazing.
I also see from her feedback page she runs into similar disputes where seller states she is rude and does not read information then she blames the sellers! It is clear to me this buyer has issues with sellers where the sellers are in no way at fault. I can understand why people loose their temper with her as she does not listen one bit or read anything whatsoever, this is proven in her own profile! She lectures me about poor customer relations when shes posting personal insulting remarks to other ebay members! Its clear other ebay sellers have run into issues with her and the sellers sate "theres no pleasing some people" and how unfair she has acted towards sellers. They even state she has not read the listings, or ordered while seller way away then she complained! She is doing this all the time and needs to be stopped!
Reply by rmxxxx (30-Apr-11 20:21):
Always one – purchased whilst shop was closed 17-25 Apr and didn't read listing!
Reply by 7_goodxxxxx (08-Aug-11 16:59):
Royal Mail lost your parcel and you received a full refund. No pleasing some ppl
Reply by blibblxxxx (31-Oct-11 12:54):
I made a genuine mistake but never got a chance to rectify the situation, unfair
Reply by my_badgexxxx (02-Dec-10 14:29):
Read the advert it says ALL TAGS HAVE BEEN REMOVED So why the nasty f/b
Seems clear to me she is not reading things then blaming the sellers! Its clear she has not read anything on my page, nor does she want too. Then leaves negative feedback for those sellers who even refunded her! Makes me think why should I care to solve her problems as all I am going to get is bad feedback regardless of what I do!
My buyers normally leave me fantastic feedback and state how helpful and how I give them good advice and help, So clear this buyer just does not want to be helped and is intentionally being ignorant.
She will not read the facts on my page so there is nothing I can do about that! She has had a item which is 100% as described she just refuses to read that one simple line! The buyer states I try to trick people with technical rubbish, I find that comment rubbish, as how can "ink levels will read empty" be misunderstood ? Its not technical at all, if she thought that, why did she buy in the first place ??
The buyer says it is empty, as to if it is actually empty or not there is no way to tell as she refuses to reply to any of the questions I have asked. The only information she can go on is what her printer is telling her, which is to be ignored, as I have tried to explain to her many many times. This is why I urge people to read the information before they buy, if they think they cannot do it, then they do not buy! her insulting emails saying I am trying to pull a fast one is rubbish, I have been selling these inks for over a year and nobody has this problem.
I could explain to her how to really check ink levels, but I would feel I will just be wasting even more of my time. Though these ink cartridges weigh approx 100g when full and 55g when empty. This is the way to tell, but there is generally no need as the printer refuses to print when they are actually empty, having the printer tell her they are empty will not work with these cartridges. This is why I state they will read empty, if people think I am trying to pull a fast one then they go elsewhere!
Ask her if she has read my ebay page stating the ink levels will read empty, I have done many times, she won't reply. Then ask her if she has read my information sheet and tried the solution in there. Its free to download, its a PDF, it is illustrated. Very easy to understand. At no point as she even suggested she has done this or even attempted too. The only thing she is willing to do is dispute everything to do with the item and everything I say! I have spent a great deal of my time trying to tell her what to do, but she does not want to know.
Its clear from her messages she has no intention whatsoever in reading any of the information. I feel even if she claimed to do so, she would just be telling lies and say "I tried and it didnt work". I can actually provide video proof to back up what I am saying. I would very much like to see her installing our ink cartridge and how she is using it. But its clear I am doing nothing but wasting my time, its clear she is only interested in a refund full stop so its pointless trying to help her any longer. If she read my information sheet she would have this solved in 2 seconds, so as she states she is so clever with printers, why does she just not do as the sheet says and do what I have stated from the start!?
I'm sorry but her claim for a refund is just not valid, Our inks will show empty ink levels as stated in my pages, if she is convinced it is really empty now, then she needs to buy a new ink cartridge!! Its clear she is just trying to scam a refund, anyone can tell she never does anything but dispute the item and dispute my efforts it just goes totally ignored! Its clear she has had this issues in the past after reading her feedback profile, I personally think she should be banned from ebay!
Ask her what steps she has taken to using the ink cartridge! I want to know step by step! I would very much like to know. I will of course need video evidence that what she is doing, I am not taking her word for it as she has not yet said one single creditable thing. If she does not want to do this then she will have to send her printer to us, there is a £50 charge plus postal costs for us to diagnose printer problems.
If she really thinks the item is faulty, then as per my terms she can return this for us to test the item, if not found faulty she will be charged return postage. If it is faulty it will be replaced. Though i know even without seeing it that there is nothing wrong with it. She states she has used it, so its not going to be full of ink as we supply them anyway. Even so it would be pointless as she will not accept what I say anyway so its pointless to even try. However it is in our terms, so if needs be then fair enough. I will of course video everything which is done as proof. But yet again, she can solve this in 2 seconds herself, but she just is not interested. Its clear by my feedback I am not scamming people and I find all her claims and remarks very insulting! She is just ignorant and does not want to spend 2 seconds in solving this, this is perfectly clear, all she wants to do is moan!
Buyer comments in quotation marks below..
"The seller states that the ink cartridges are only partially filled"
I would love to know where she got that idea from! I never said that! Where on my page does it say that, would love to know!
"The buyer said the item doesn't match your description"
Yes it does, we state it shows empty! This is a contradiction to her previous comment!!
"The buyer has tried contacting you"
Insinuates I never replied, when I did! MANY times!
"The seller states that the ink cartridges are only partially filled but to ignore this as it is really full. When in fact the cartridge is only a third full of ink."
Where does this "third" full of ink come from ?! I find her "its really full" comment somewhat manipulative! The only way to know how much ink is inside is to drain the ink out and measure it in ml, no other way to do it! She would have had to dismantle the ink tanks to do that! No ink level software will report exact levels of ink, its totally impossible, its a ESTIMATED ink level, if she read her printer manual she would actually find this is true! She can contact HP support to verify my statements!
"This is a flawed item, a misrepresented sale and must be refunded."
Again another insult, we clearly state the ink levels will show empty, how is that misrepresented?? Clear her insulting disputes are flawed and my time should be refunded in full!
"The item is damaged"
So its empty, then only has a third of ink, then its damaged, and flawed, which is it ??? Im shocked she can find so many things wrong with a simple plastic cartridge with ink in it! its frankly laughable!
"I have now discovered that after having used up that third of the ink the cartridge is now empty!"
No shit?! I asked how she knew it had that much ink in it, in my ebay emails, and she never replied! Clear she has used it so it probably is empty now! If she is 100% sure its empty then she needs to buy a new ink cartridge!
"The seller has stated to me that it is not his problem."
Another insult, lets see PROOF of where I said that! Really would like to know! After trying to help her already clear than I am doing the reverse to what she claims!
"I feel that this seller is clearly fooling customers into buying these cartridges with his clever technical nonsense."
Clearly not fooling customers, another insult, If it was technical nonsense why did she agree to my terms and buy them in the first place! more nonsense from her! I have sold 100's of these items, how come only she has a problem! Clearly not fooling customers, how many more insults do I have to take from this women ?
"It is quite clear that this black ink cartridge did not meet specifications"
At no point was this even explained how she came to that conclusion, Just pure heresay with nothing factual to back up this whatsover. I did ask long before she opened a dispute! If she read my ebay page she would know it clearly does meet specifications! 100% as described!
"I am very familiar with levels of ink from years of using different printers and am quite able to check the printer tools"
This is where the problem is, she has not read my page stating the ink levels will read empty. She needs to ignore the levels as I have TRIED to explain to her many times already! She clearly is not familiar with printer tools or software, if she was she would easily solve this in 2 seconds! So why does she not do this ? Again very contradicting!
"from all printer tools I used and from checking against the amount of paper printed-it was unquestionably only a third full and no more"
This is total nonsense, how many pages a ink cartridge will print depends on what you are actually printing. You could print 100 full colour double sided pages or thousands if only 1 letter printed on a page. How much ink is used per page there is no way to tell. That comment is one of the most stupid things I have ever heard! Furthermore if her print heads are blocked the printer will do many cleaning cycles and will actually waste a lot of ink doing this. This is common FACT!! and she can contact her printer manual for hard PROOF of this. Another indication she has no idea whatsoever on how to use her printer even though she claims to know very well after "years of experience". Tell her to google what I am telling her, its all over the internet, many printers and brands. How many more things can she find wrong with it ?!
"we are all, all accountable for our actions and there are such things in life as sanctions and consequences"
That sounds like a threat to me! Where the hell does she get off ??!! This buyer is totally insane! I really do hope we are held accountable for our actions as she will be going straight to hell with hype she comes out with! She lectures me about things and yet she has done nothing but cause me stress over her own ignorance!
I refuse to even reply on any of her other comments! This dispute had been going on for some time even before she actually opend a case. Around 2 days of my time WASTED because of this. Its clear to me this buyer is trying to make everything as difficult as possible. Her insults and contradictions are a clear indicator to me what type of person she is! Her feedback to others backs this up! I contacted other sellers in he feedback and had similar problems. Though this buyer "got clever" and started not leaving bad feedback so she actions could not be traced. She never left me bad feedback, strange ? Though I did not leave her bad feedback either as I couldn't take the risk. "win win" for the buyer yet again.
As to why she is going to such extremes to annoy the hell out of me I have no idea. I suspect she assume is she harasses me enough I will cave in and give her a refund, im sorry but I am not playing her games any longer, and I refuse to be bullied by her and her personal insults and slander!
If I was scamming people why would I bother to state the ink levels would read empty! Other ebay sellers sell similar products and none of them state as much information as I do! Would make more sense to not state such things, but of course she will not listen. I have already wasted 3 hours of my time writing the email alone, I shouldn't have to go to great lengths defend myself against such insane buyers! I am a fully qualified electronics engineer! and know she is talking total nonsense!
Always the same when trying to help people, try to help someone and all you get is abuse and the more you try and help the more abuse you get! buyer does not understand to bypass ink level monitor,nor does want too. Gave up. She got a refund via ebay anyway. Its all she wanted. So again, why bother even trying to defend yourself from such people ?
I can understand some people have problems, I was always willing to help them. I setup a website and took screenshots of every printer message and programmed a online help tool. All buyers had to do was match the image on the help system to the one on the printer, and it would show them step by step on how to solve the issue they had. Most people could solve it in 2 seconds, just pressing OK a couple of times was all that was needed. Though I still spent weeks of my time programming a comprehensive help system. I even printed a sticker with the address on the back of the cartridges. I even sent out printed instructions showing step by step instructions with images. This took me a HUGE amount of time to all setup.I had to do all this for free, and yet ebay still want me to improve. I shouldn't have to have gone to such lengths in the first place. I even send out instructions in emails to the people, plus information about possible delays with the postal system. Ebay expect me to improve on all this ? I have already done way more than even large companies and sellers do, Im not going to do anything else on top of all that. It pretty much would work out as a full day of work to sell a small inexpensive item.
PROFESSIONAL COMPLAINER – ebay case again.
A guy who brought a pot of glue – guy claimed the item wasn't the size he was expecting and demanded a full refund, even though we state the size of the item. He then emailed saying it was empty, when we fill them ourselves so we know they are not empty. He then emails saying the item does not work, which if it was empty how did he get to use it ?
I also emailed some other sellers on his feedback page, one seller said he sent items out twice, then the buyer demanded a refund in full for him to remove his negative feedback. If you check his feedback he has done this a few times now.
None of this is normal buyer behaviour, I think he demand for a full refund as the items wasnt the size he expect is enough to prove I am not in the wrong.
Comments are stated exactly as written from the buyers.
Dear xxxx,
I am nt happy at all I have just had to pay 1.50 to royal mail coz u guy underpayd it!
He quotes £1.50 which is what we state as postage cost, but the actual postage value is actually less than that. So his claims of £1.50 are incorrect. If anything a 2nd class stamp would cost 60p. After 100s sold I think we have a pretty good idea how much things cost to post! If he really did get charged more, he should file a complaint with RM. We send out 100's of items each week exactly the same way and nobody else has this problem. We have proof of postage and proof of cost paid, but these people aint interested.
Dear xxxx,
I am rly rly not happy at all wiv this item I have had to pay the postge twice because u forgot to put the stamps on it!! that means I have payd £10 for littel tube of glue wich I think is out of order the tub is no bigger then my finger end!! I am damding a full refund I an not happy at all!
So now we didn't put stamps on it even though he said it was underpaid ? Can't be both! We have postal proof, though he does not want to send a image of the package to prove otherwise.
He is complaining about the size of the pot when it is clearly listed dimensions on the ebay listing, If he actually took the time to look, he would see 100% correct and no fault on my part. He then demands a refund for a small pot, when we quote the size of the pot. Demanding full refund over something which we clearly list is just nonsense.
Dear xxxx,
hi agen just found the tub is empty can u get back to me asap
We fill them all up ourselves, I find this very insulting. If the tub was empty, it sure wouldn't have cost £1.50 in postage! I think as he alone, is demanding a refund on a size of tub which is clearly stated is enough proof that I am not at fault here. Considering all the emails came one after the other ( I may have missed some other ones) its just impossible for what he is saying to be viable. Maybe if he stopped complaining after the stamps he would have convinced me. Stamps do sometimes fall off, vary rate, but after him saying the pot is empty, no way!
I left him bad feedback for his false claims, Now he emails.
Dear xxxxx,
how dare u put tht on my feedback I compland because u did not put postege stamps on the parsal and I had to pay the postege twice plus product did not work intotal I payd £4 exstra for post it was awaste of my time and money an I wil be contacting ebay about this item
So if the product was empty which he claimed before, how can he use it to say it does not work ? Also how come the postage is now £4 ? His story keeps changing.
I also emailed other sellers on his list and one replied….
Dear xxxx,
Yes, I had no end of problems with this buyer. Claimed orders never arrived, think he even claimed the replacement never arrived. It was hard to know what he was talking about, given his abuse of the English language.
He then left feedback, I think negative, and I had to refund him (on top of all the products I had sent out) for him to revise it.
Needless to say he was banned from purchasing any more items from me and reported to eBay, but clearly that hasn't stopped him.
– electxxxxx
So that seller basically had to pay for the buyer to remove his negative feedback? Isn't that a violation of ebay's feedback extortion policy ? If you check the buyers feedback he has several feedback revisions so clear similar things are happening. What is ebay doing about all this ? It has been going on for some years now and sellers have been complaining about it for just as long. Ebay always seem to side with the buyers, not the sellers, yet again the sellers get blamed for it all and get stress from rubbish buyers and get told by ebay to "fix it" or get banned attitude. Though whos going to fix ebay ?
POSTAL WOO's
I setup a email system to force people to state they have read and understood how to use items as was tired of people not reading anything then complaing to me about its not what they expected! This one is a classic.
lets look at the facts shall we..
Ordered Sat, 28 Jul 2012 13:08:29
Post office is closed at 12pm, our cut off is 10am that day.
You did not state in checkout notes you read and understood first fault on your part.
Sunday, July 29, 2012 10:26 PM
Email sent as you failed to state you have read and understood how to use the item. We need verification otherwise item may be refunded. Items Can't be posted Sunday.
Monday 30/07/2012 18:02 pm
You replied. Cannot be posted then as post office shut 5pm.
You email telling us to hurry up and ask where your order is ? The fault is yet again on the buyers part. And yet again ignorant people who think ordering a item over the weekend will result in it arriving Monday.
Exactly the same thing over bank holiday weekend. A buyer orders late Friday, then complains as the item has not arrived yet. Item posted Tuesday and arrived Thursday. 2 days considering the backlog the post office would have had is good.
Though the buyer only sees friday-thursday 7 days inclusive. Its even more annoying as I send out emails explaining all this, and yet again people just do not read it. I shouldn't have to waste my time trying to educate people how the postal system works and more to the point, I shouldn't be held responsible for another companies issues and should not be held responsible for public holidays!
Thinking back over all these disputes, I can't even think of one where I have actually been in the wrong. I think I sent a wrong item once a few years back. It seems for some reason people just refuse to read what they are buying. Then they open a dispute as its not what they ordered, but how do these people know what they ordered when they did not read a single line ? Also again, being blamed for delays in the postal system.
One 1st class item took 5 weeks to arrive, needless to say the buyer wasn't happy, Though I sent him a replacement a couple weeks previous. He was actually understanding, the guy writes reviews on couriers and found the whole thing pretty interesting. Even so, I had to send a item free of charge for yet another RoyalMail messup. As to where the package was all that time is anyones guess. Once thing is for sure, I am tired of getting the blame for this and tired of ebay punishing me for slow delivery times when I do not even work for RoyalMail.
Today's Thoughts.
Considering I only sell the odd item I no longer need now, the disputes are on the increase even though I sell next to nothing now. Money is tight in current times and selling stuff I no longer need or want helps to contribute to my daily living. Though at what price ?
Days of my time can be wasted dealing with abusive people moaning about things which are not even my fault. Ebay sellers are just "piggy In the middle" between the failings of the postal system, ebay's ignorant system and problem buyers. Forget "cowboy traders" as shown in TV, what about "cowboy buyers" !
Considering I only sell the odd item now, and get all this trouble again and again. What about other sellers, selling 1000's of items a week. The internet is flooded with stories similar to mine, spanning years. All ebay are doing is tightening the rope around the sellers necks and washing their hands of as many problems as they can.
Another case opened.
"I received a card yesterday through the letter box saying that a parcel destined for my address required a surcharge payment as the sender had affixed the incorrect postage amount. I travelled to the postal centre and paid the above £2.70 (includes their £1 admin surcharge) to receive my package. Upon inspection it was the 4 black ink bottles I had ordered from yourselves with a large blue 1st class stamp attached (despite having already paid for £2.60 2nd class postage). Regards MH NB: The partial refund figure does not include my travel costs to & from the postal office but I can add that too if you are prepared to cover it. "
So now I am getting the blame for Royal Mail surcharges. Considering all our items are posted at the post office how can it be wrong ? I have sent many of the items over the years and we even check postal prices are correct. So why I am now getting blamed for something which was sent correctly ? Why did Royal Mail charge him and why am I getting the blame for it ?
I pointed out that he should take it up with royal mail as they have charged him for something unjust. He then replies
No I dont. As a legal adviser I can tell You, that as the Seller, you need to contact Royal Mail about it.
Well I gave up at that point. It will just result in throwing back and forth legal terms and just wasting peoples time. I am not going to spend days chasing up a problem between Royal Mail and a guy I don't even know. Ebay will refund him and he will leave bad feedback , but I really do not care anymore. So he will get back under £5 big deal. My account will not survive anymore disputes and cases and I am just not going to even bother to try to solve anything anymore. I do not work for Royal Mail customer services and sure not going to start doing so now.
Another email abuse.
I totally annoyed at what you are doing. how many days will it take you to send this fucking item. this is the 4th day and yet no item. nonsense!!
His item was posted same day he paid. Item sent 1st class. Royal Mail having issues in delays with postage and yet again I get the blame for it ? And again, what is ebay doing about all this ?
I frankly don't care anymore. Let ebay close my account and punish me or whatever they like.
The amount of stress buyers and companies cause myself is unacceptable. This causes myself stress and my friends and family. All of which over a few pounds worth of goods.
Getting up in the morning with a smile to go to customers houses for my day job is near impossible now. I goto sleep at night stressed out and do not sleep and wake up in the morning stressed. I then goto work all day and come home to a inbox full of total chaos. Well, not anymore.
06 June 2013 – Closed shop.
Ebay and its system and customers is beyond a bad joke! Honest people like myself are just trying to make a living and selling things on ebay is just a constant living hell.
Ebay should be renamed "pay for shit" as that is what it boils down to. You have to pay ebay vast amounts of money and they find you people to make your life shit.
Yet again I ask my self why I bother. On that note I have now closed my ebay account. Ebay are not getting another penny from me and good riddens to them and their trash buyers and terms.
Its amazing how many programs there are on TV about "cowboy traders", ebay is the largest one. In a close second "cowboy customers". Then the government wonder why so many companies are folding and going out of business. Maybe is customers wasn't such total dicks and had less rights more companies would still be trading.
Selling odds and ends on ebay is a way to help ease the pressure of paying bills. Though at least back in the day, I only had to have disputes with the bank, not a constant stream of people complaining about nothing just to get a refund.
There is simply too many variations which can go wrong with a sale. Many sellers I have brought from have long since closed shop due all all herein said issues. Its one thing to give good customer service and support, but with ebay, you are almost held at gun point to solve problems which are nothing to do with what the seller can solve. There is nothing "reasonable" about ebay, other than the fact the levels of "reasonable" abuse are pretty slandered now.
While the little money made on sales will be missed. I sure will not miss the vast amount of problems and ebay fees. Life is to short to cash in a few pounds for days of your life going though endless streams of stress.
The internet is flooded with such stories. Mine isn't even the tip of the situation. My deepest sympothies to all the sellers out there who have closed shop due to all mentioned problems. Considering the low sales levels I have to the amount of crap I have to put up with is a joke. I really do wonder how much longer ebay can get away with all of this. The once innocent auction site has turned into a multi billion pound living hell. The term EvilBay is what most people call it now.
Of course I have heard many stories over the years. What I have seen and heard is horrific. There are forums for people to get together to buy cheap items from sellers with the intention of leaving abusive feedback to put them out of business. Its a huge war zone. How can selling a few unwanted items result to such chaos ?
I sure will not miss the endless hours going though ebay's terms to try and find a solution to a problem which I did not create in the first place. Its great that buyers can sit on their rear ends all day making up all kids of rubbish and sellers having to spend hours defending against it all. Most buyers hide behind the distant selling regulations as set by law. Though I cant help but feel anyone in business is capable of writing their own terms. If buyers do not like them, they can always shop elsewhere.
The "top rated seller" is a good thing as it gets you better ranking in the search results. However, it also makes you a easy target for scams. The top rated search should be renamed "easy to scam search". Top rated sellers worked hard for their 100% rating. Scam buyers know sellers can only take a couple of negative feedbacks a month so it just enforces the scam for the seller to do everything to please the buyer. Best part is, ebay enforce all this, and even worse, ebay are backed by the distant selling regulations which basically enforce all this also.
The law needs to be changed to give the seller at least some breathing room. Postage is so high now it is a joke. Sending items recorded now can cost more than the items value. There should be a new law which allows buyers to make the choice between signed for and regular post. If the item gets lost and there is trackable proof of this, then fair enough, the seller is expected to sort it out. Actually even that is a little unfair as the courier lost the package and the seller has to solve this problem. Its another problem in itself. On the other hand, if buyers want cheap postage, then they take the risk with the postal system.
Unfortunately "back in the day" a lot of the sellers never sent the item in the first place and there was no proof, which brought about the whole buyer protection in the first place, Which ultimately just shifted the issues into other problematical areas. However, the DSR is still in place. A few bad feedbacks and your toast. That would actually be a way to solve problem sellers. Though if someone leaves bad feedback on non receipt of goods which are trackable, then ebay should remove that bad feedback and put a strike on that buyers account.
Over all, sellers have to deal with endless amounts of disputes which can take endless hours of time. Buyers can tell lies for days and we have to defend ourselves from this or ebay punish us for poor service. Sellers should not deal with such people full stop. Abusive buyers should get a automatic account suspension. Buyers who loose protection cases should not still get a refund from ebay. As to why ebay are refunding the scammers is beyond me. All the disputes I have had, the buyer has run into many other disputes. I have talked to other sellers and heard their version of events. The buyer gets bad feedback from frustrated sellers which does nothing. People like that should get a automatic ban. Bring back negative comments for buyers. If they get 3 bad marks in a month they get punished.. Its good enough for ebay to do that to the sellers, so why not the buyers ? T hese people are costing ebay money, costing the sellers money, and costing a fortune in wasted time. Whats the point in letting these buyers continue ?
I publish my story and hope others will do so. Good luck to the sellers still active fighting the good fight. As for anyone who is looking to sell on ebay. I suggest you don't. Just look around the Internet and see the endless years of complaints from sellers. I am just one person who used to sell a few unwanted items and look how much I have been though. I see all around the Internet other sellers stating this buyer problem is on the increase. I see ebay's share prices are starting to fall this past month. I hope they keep on going down. Maybe ebay will "get it" when they loose 50% of the revenue. Though I doubt it. Such complaints have been on going since ebay started. I do not see any hope of a resolution by ebay or the government.
Pretty much all of my disputes are due to the buyer not reading what they are buying. for a hypothetical example, If I sold a tin of metal paint, paint intended for painting metal, someone would buy it, open a dispute due to its rubbish item for painting fingernails with. Then send endless emails of abuse as I am a crap dishonest seller selling garbage products. In such case, you site perplexed and amazing at the mentality of the buyer. Either there is a common mental disorder with a lot of people or everyone single one is a scam buyer. I suspect its a equal mixture of both. They open a case, I prove beyond any doubt many times I am correct, and ebay refund the buyer, but to be fair, ebay wouldn't take the money from my account. Though after days of fighting the dispute, it would have saved me hours of time defending myself against pure bollox for the sake of a few quid.
Ebay force the seller to sort it out, but how can you sort out a buyers mental disorder ? In such cases you prove over and over they are wrong but they just then start to change story and start moaning about anything they can think of. At some point they would complain the item was hard to open, or is empty. Which is where the buyers contradictions start. As if the item was empty, how could it be a rubbish item in the first place. It just goes on and on and on and never ends. Days of time can go fighting these disputes, and I just think, why the hell am I even bothering ?
Item not as described cases are a joke. Go order a tube of super glue then open a dispute as its not the blue & yellow striped camel you was expecting, get your your money back no questions asked! Buyers expectations are increasing so lets all jump to please them.
I have had dealings with people as stated elsewhere, that they will leave bad feedback and only remove it if they get a full refund and keep the item. The sellers have no choice otherwise a few bad feedbacks and your toast. This is very very poor business ethics for ebay to allow this to continue. Its very disappointing on how many buyers are scamming sellers. There are so many scams about now that any buyer can open a a case about just about anything and get away with it. Ebay just take our money for the privilege of using their site, which is pathetic. Most sellers are refunding without question to save hours of trouble, but they shouldn't have to, and the government distant selling regulations being enforced by ebay is just condoning this practice.
Sellers are closing shop every day. They cant spend the time fighting disputes all day. They cant afford the costs involved and frustrated that the seller is hung out to try each time. Is it any wonder sellers/shops/companies are going bust ? I can see many more people claiming JSA as its far easier to get a few quid that way than to go though all these nightmares every single day. Then the government wonder why so many people are unemployed ? I rest my case.
Anyone who is looking to sell on ebay, don't! find another place to sell your goods. On the other hand, if you have days of time to waste fighting nonsense disputes over selling a 99p item, then ebay is the perfect place. Any sellers reading this who are in 2 minds as to keep going or not, my advise is close shop and go elsewhere. Ebay have hurt enough of us over the years, so its time sellers started to close shop and hurt ebay's pockets.
GoodBye ebay, No doubt you have not even noticed me leaving. You won't be missed and I hope you burn in hell along with all your fraudulent buyers..
09 June 2013 – Unable to close ebay account.
2 open disputes and unable to close account. Though it seems even when you close your account its not "really" closed for some time. So this hype can drag on for months more even when not selling anything. Even after years of helping buyers, giving them endless support, refunding items sending new items, I am will end up being reduced to a bad seller with lots of bad feedback. As to which, you would think ebay couldn't get rid of me fast enough. Though I have o endure even more torment as ebay will simply not let me leave. I will wait a few more days, either people escalate to ebay or not. Ebay do claim they will keep a eye on unusual numbers of escalated ebay cases, I would imagine genuine buyers will escalate the claim, but the scammers will no, as they fear of being caught out.
Today I have someone else stating goods not arrived after 11 days. Going by the number of disputes this past month, I can only assume either Royal Mail has lost every item I have sent over the past month, or all these people are telling lies. Either way, or a mixture of both, its horrific and just proves how unsafe selling on ebay is and how (probably) unreliable Royal Mail is. Going by one item taking 5 weeks to arrive, it hints as a fault to RM, Though dispute after dispute after dispute….. Last year I was spending days each week chasing up items. Though no more.
It starts out slow, the odd problem here and there. So each month the problems double. Until the point where you are dealing with disputes one after the other and not realising how much of your week has gone. Its also amazing if this problem is so common, why people NEVER pay for a signed for or trackable service.
I really wish I had realised how bad things were getting much sooner. Its just life to get a problem now and then. Though long gone are those days. "A Dispute a day keeps the seller away". I really wish I had closed my ebay account a long time ago. The amount of time I have spent helping people and writing instructions for people to explain even simple things is madness. Not many sellers would go to the lengths to help buyers as I have. In the end, what did it get me ? The more you do for people the more they "take you for a ride". It is amazing how many things a person can "make up" over a simple item and how many emails they can send about it.
Its amazing how some sellers can actually list items incorrectly and knowing the disputes I have had, its mind boggling why their feedback isn't flooded with bad feedback. Though after talking to a lot of sellers, its just the seller refunding and letting the buyer keep the item to keep the bad feedback off their page. This is a pathetic way to do business enforced by ebay, and it is only on the increase. It is so amazing how you can list something simple like superglue, then someone open a dispute that the item they have does not match the description and does not match the image. Even though it is 100% correct & beyond any doubt.
I have even seen disputes over items which are sold as faulty, or spares or repairs, and the buyer leaves a negative as the item does not work. This is the typical mentality of people who sellers are dealing with each day. The same buyers seem to have had similar issues, even spanning back years. It is just clear ebay is not investigating "unusual buyer behavior" like they keep advertising. The only thing sellers can do is refund and in effect "pay" for them to remove the bad feedback, all enforced by the crooks at ebay. It just proves again and again, ebay is not a safe place to trade.
I was once told by another seller that there are forums for buyers to get together and mass buy items in order to do harm to a seller. I really do wonder if I have been targeted. Which is pathetic as the items I sell are of not threat to anyone. Though as to how that system works I really do not know. Overall, it does not matter. It just further proves how dishonest people are and the lengths people will go to cause harm. I guess it was my first remark of a bad seller too! I have had a few dealings with bad sellers over the years also. Though this article is based on seller problems.
I see great feedback for sellers, then almost overnight, they start getting negative feedback. The seller replies with abusive comments and my first thought it, no way would I deal with that seller. Though , having gone though all this BS on ebay, I now think that the seller is just sick of increasing fraud & disputes. I have left bad feedback as a buyer and seller, ebay never removed the comments. This even dates back years. Of course leaving abusive comments is against ebay's policy, though its not like they are even enforcing it. It makes me wonder, what exactly do ebay do all day ?
Todays lovely email…..
hi, received the glue yesterday and I must say I was surprised by how little there was in the container but fair enough. But my issue is the container itself, as upon trying to get the lid off which wasn't easy, I ended up spilling the majority of the glue all over my shirt! Surely you have a better container than this. I am well pissed off.
So there was so little in the pot that he spilled it all over him. Normally things only spill when they are full ? Getting the lid of a pot seems to be a impossible task for some people. We even wrote it on the instruction sheets we send "how to open the pot" and still people cannot manage it. So this guy finally worked it out, no doubt spent hours trying rather than reading the line in the instructions, then got pissed off as he made a mess and blamed me for it. a great volume of people over the years had no problem so why does he ? Why do people fail in such a simple task ? I fear the thought of what he will do with the glue now he has it open. Amazing as he goes out of his way to blame someone other than himself. Classic case of "its anyones fault but my own". Very tiresome.
Going out of my way to find a easy open pot and write how to undo the pot was just a waste of my time. No doubt he will open a dispute about it. The pots are very common, young girls keep make-up in them among many other uses. Its amazing how youtube has young girls showing how to put on fingernail paint using the same pots, and yet, someone can order a technical item, and not be able to get the lid off. He will probably try and eat it next and complain it does not taste very nice. Hopefully it will be one more person out of the gene pool soon.
It is one thing for someone to ask for help, and I have spent endless hours of my time helping people over the years. Though I end up at the same conclusion, why do I bother ? Its not like I am selling 100's of items each week or anywhere near. Though from helping people with their purchase (free of charge I might add which can take anywhere up to 30 emails) to fighting disputes, my entire day and even week can be gone. I think to myself, sell a item under £5 in value, spend half the day helping someone use it, to then spending the other half fighting abusive people and disputes… There is no logic in it at all. Its not like I am even making any money on the stuff. Most of the stuff I sell , I never get back what I paid for the items in the first place. Considering that and the amount of items I have had to re-send over the years, I think, my entire day is taken up, to loose money. More logical just to loose the money and bin the items and not have it take up my entire day. I really cannot wait to get off ebay. I can regain some sanity and regain my life back.
You would think after years of being on ebay with 100% score that ebay would look after such sellers. Though I feel all around I am just treated like skum. Not only by ebay but also by the buyers. Its frustating that one stupid dispute which was fiction in the first place can ruin your score for an entire year. I lost my 100% score and it dropped down for the year. Now I almost got it back, and the disputes are flooding on. Its only going to keep going down. No use trying to stop it anymore. A few bad feedbacks and bang goes my account anyway. I am not even going to try to defend it, whats the point ? Anything I can do to get me kicked off ebay faster, ill be all for it! Let the problems esculate with other users on ebay, I will just sit back and let everyone get on with it.
I saw this on a website today "Want to make eBay a better place to trade? Disputes are the best way to do it!". Well clearly not. I was once a happy helpful seller, but due to disputes, I cant leave fast enough. I am sure there are some buyers who think "thank god im gone". So be it. Not many sellers would even reply to problems. Even less would offer support. Even less would offer endless hours of free support. All the disputes were bogus, ebay ruled in my favor, so any buyer who thinks I am the "bad guy" is mistaken. When I sold ink cartridges I spent weeks taken screenshots to give step by step instructions, documenting all kinds of messages,problems people may have. Programed a online help system to take users though step by step and much more. Other sellers just sold the items, and anything after that, they ignored. No other seller went to such lengths to give support to people. Such disputes are what has driven the good sellers such as myself away. So well done everyone! I never want to sell on ebay again, thats for sure!
(Apologies to the genuine buyers out there in advance.) ebay's buyers are just unreasonable people who have no idea about anything, who are joined with ebay who have no idea about anything, whos practices are enforced by our government! It is to be expected to get the "customer from hell", Though when you seem to get a flood of them…..! My time just gets sucked up.
Ironic thing is, I have also made £1000's worth of purchases via ebay these past few years. I think it goes without saying I will no longer be buying from ebay anymore. True that it may take a fraction longer time find the items I need. Though Its one thing I have not mentioned before, that I actually buy way more stuff than I sell. I know things all to well from a buyer point of view also. I will take my shopping elsewhere. Most ebay sellers I buy from have online webstores outside of ebay anyway. So any sellers I use regularly, I will make the effort and buy from their site direct. I suggest other people hunt for sellers shops outside of ebay, or even better, support your local shops in your own town.
Years ago there was so many sellers selling the same items, that everyone was just undercutting everyone else to get the sale. A few years on after all the sellers vanished, a few new sellers were able to sell items again. Though, the price wars on ebay are just impossible to deal with. I have seen sellers, for example selling ink, for the past couple of years. Most of which have long since vanished. The problem there is, price wars. I have seen sellers selling items for less than it costs to post them and have been doing for some time. Either they are just looking to sell the stock and shut down, or they decide to run at a loss to put other sellers out of business. Though with new sellers popping up all the time, it would seem pointless. However, 99% of buyers just go for the cheapest items.
I spent a lot of money and time in testing every ink I could find. I only sold ink that worked good and did not ruin the printer in under a week. Though trying to educate buyers about this is a waste of time. Why pay £10 for something when you can get the same thing for 99p ? Unfortunately paying 99p for a ink cartridge then having to pay £50 for a new printer is bad economics. I learnt this the hard way and only sold ink which I had personally used for a long time and tested. Though I was force to sell it for less than I paid for it to compete with the cheap rubbish ink. How so many sellers can sell so much rubbish and not have millions of pages of negative feedbacks is beyond me.
There are some buyers who would pay a little more for something, but based on 99p, someone may pay £2 but not much more. The ink I used to sell was about £9 a bottle to buy myself, I was having to sell it at less than that and offer free postage, which at the time cost about £3.50. So I was just selling at a loss the entire time. I recovered as much money as I could, and that was that. Other sellers did have some bad feedbacks about the ink was like water it was that bad, and yet, it was 99p ink, so what did they expect in the first place. People seem to expect the world for 99p, the thought of paying more for quality goods seems to escape most people. Trying to educate them is a waste of time. I ruined many printers with cheap ink in the past. I have not had to buy or unblock my printer heads in over 7 years now. It now costs me about £20 to buy a small bottle of ink now I do not buy it in bulk. Though its lasts a long time and I know it works.
Of course there are those out there buying such cheap items and never have a problem. I have been insulted about it in the past by people saying they have always brought cheap stuff and never had a problem. Going by how un-tehnical some people are, I doubt some would even know there was a problem if it smacked them on the head. Some will be happy to use poor ink and never have a problem and be proud of it and send me abuse saying I am telling endless lies. Of course some printers may well cope with poor ink than others, pure dumb luck thats all. Strange how I sold more printer cleaning flush than ink over the years. Laughable really.
11 June 2013
3 more INR ebay cases. After hunting around the forums its clear MANY people have having packages go missing. There seems to be many black holes up and down the county where all these packages are vanishing. In general the stories are the same. Had 1 or 2 disputes over the past year and over 30 this past month. Clearly something huge is going on. Some people saying after 30 disputes on ebay, Some sellers also sell on Amazon, and had zero disputes. Overall sellers are blaming Royal Mail for lost packages and sending complaints..However..
One seller pointed out he also buys a lot of stuff from ebay and none of the packages have gone missing. The thing is, I was selling a couple of items a week, and and had several disputes open the past week alone. Overall, its like 80% of the packages I have sent out never arrived. However I also buy 5 or 6 items off ebay each week and have been doing for some months. The interesting fact being that all the stuff I ordered arrived quick, and no packages have gone missing. How can that be ? How can the stuff which we buy seems to arrive without problem, and yet a high percent of items we send do not arrive ?
While RM may well loose the odd package now and then, there sure have not lost the 100's of items I have purchased over the past 6 months. Though they seem to have lost pretty much all the packages I have sent this past month. I think the fault isn't with Royal Mail at all. Buying 100 packages fine, and selling 10, and having 7 disputes… On that basis 70 of the packages I purchased would have gone missing. I can't help but feel there is mass fraud going on with ebay buyers. Other sellers also state 25% lost packages over the past month. Some sellers say 40% or more.
I have had to refund many buyers this past month. I have lost a lot of money already. I emailed ebay asking when my account can be closed and they replied…
Thank you for writing to us regarding the closure of your account . I understand you for being upset as you want this closure to be done immediately.
I have checked your account and can see from our records that you still have an active bids on your account that is the reason why we are unable to close your account at the moment. Because of this, we can only close an account when there's been no activity over the previous 60 days. Activity includes bids, purchases and sales.We feel this is a fair amount of time for all payments, including amounts owing to eBay, to be made, and for any potential difficulties to be resolved.
Please let us know once this 60-day period has passed in your case and we'll be happy to take the next steps to closing your account
Thanks for your patience and cooperation in the meantime.
Kind regards,
Margaret Thompson
eBay Trust & Safety
So I now have to wait 2 months before I can close my account. By that time I will probably be £100's out of pocket. A lot of the items I sold I was selling at a loss to start with. Plus all the packages I have sent out as replacements, plus all the refunds I have had to give. A lot of sellers also think the same, that this is not normal by far. There is no way the royal Mail are loosing such a high volume of packages, if they was, I would have lost at least 1 item I have purchased, Though I have had 100% delivery. 20%-80% loss on items which are sold by the sellers. The figure no where near tally. Clearly something else is going on. So In my opinion there is some huge mass fraud going on with ebay.
I do not know if this is limited to UK alone. I suspect ebay will not even noticed a problem even if UK disputes go up 50% and 50% of the sellers leave. On a worldwide scale it would hardly show up in their figures. So I suspect this will just continue for another year at least. Due to this, I again advise sellers who are starting to see INR cases to close shop, at least for now. Nobody wants to close shop, Though so far it is costing me around £12 each sale for items I sold for about £3. For small sellers such as myself this soon wipes out your paypal balance.
I posted this page on some forums not long ago. I got flamed to hell by other people. All being very abusive stating I was the worst seller they have ever heard of. It seems such people think I was "trolling" the forum or even spamming. Such people make me sick. They are very good at being sarcastic in order to provoke a angry response from myself. Then when I get mad (I was as mad as hell at the time) I thought, I see where all this is going. It would result in argument, and I would be branded as a troll for trouble causing and everyone else would join in and agree. Its happened before.
Such people just get their kicks to get a reaction out of someone. Then they become so pleased with themselves that they have caused a massive argument in basically being dumb and misreading things. I have seen it happen many times over the years, to myself and others. This, Unfortunately, is just how a lot of people on forums act. No matter what you say on whatever forum, chances are , someone will take offense. Then the arguments start and you waste hours of time trying to defend yourself. It is amazing how people people say "do not feed the trolls" when in some cases, the trolls are actually the people saying it. Of course forums are another issue…
A lot of people probably think I am the biggest troll out, well you probably don't "get it" and probably never will. I told my story, its all happened and all 100% fact. If people don't like it, tough. Nobody forced you to read it all. People who do "get it", will realize how much information I have given to which people can use it as useful advice. I can hear the trolls laughing away already, "useful advice on how to avoid such a insane poor seller". Some will just sit and pick fault with my punctuation or poor grammar maybe ? Always many people out there looking for endless way to pick fault and toatally miss the point. There is a point ? I hear you ask ? maybe yes, maybe no, who knows ? Everyone will read into this in a different way.If you use it as something constructive or not is your own choice. A constructive way to avoid such poor sellers maybe ? People should thank me for writing such a detailed view of my dealings with ebay and its buyers and taking the time to TRY to help protect sellers from going though the hells I have been though. There's none so blind as those who will not see.
I have been a much respected seller for the past 10 years, I am not going to waste my time trying to convince people of that. Just like the buyers, they do not want to listen. They are just looking for a fight as they have nothing better to do and so good at manipulation people they always appear so innocent. Its no doubt those people who are defrauding other sellers. I have had dealing with such people before many times over the years. My posts I had deleted. Lesson reminder – Just don't bother posting on forums. I posted some comments on the ebay forums, strange thing is, they got deleted within under a hour. Considering they have ignored me for the past year they sure don't like truths being told on their forum. It makes me wonder how many other peoples posts get deleted. So far, all the posts seem to be about Royal Mail loosing packages, and few now about it could be the buyers. Seems ebay are working hard to cover up the truth, why ?
12 June 2013 – Another ebay reply.
Thank you for writing back to us about your request to close your ebay account. I understand that you're unhappy and tired of being scammed by your buyers. You are a valued eBay member, so if there's anything we can do to change your mind, please let us know.
Please keep in mind that once it's closed, your eBay account can't be reopened. To protect your privacy, we permanently delete your Feedback, transaction history, and personal payment information. You also won't be able to use the same email address to open a new eBay account.
There are a few things you need to do to have your eBay account closed:– Make sure you haven't got any current bids or listings.
— Make sure your account balance is zero.Once you're ready, you can read more about closing your account and get things started by clicking the "request to close your account" link on this page:pages.ebay.com/help/account/closing-account.html
After we receive a request to close an account, we require a waiting period of 180 days before the closure is finalized. This helps make sure any transactions you made are complete.
During the waiting period, you won't be able to bid, make purchases, list items, leave Feedback, or change your contact information, but you'll still have access to your account information. When the waiting period is over, your information will no longer be visible to any eBay member.
We'll send you a confirmation email to let you know your account has been closed.
If you change your mind about closing your account, you can contact us within the waiting period, and we'll help you cancel the request.
Sometimes members think they have to close their account to fix a problem. If that's the case, please let us know what we can do for you.
If you have any other questions about closing your account, or if we can help you with any concern that led you to take this step, please let us know. We appreciate having you as a member.
Kind regards,
James Ellis
eBay Trust & Safety
The first line is laughable. Considering I have been telling them about all these problems for over a year and they have done nothing. Even other sellers who have had same problems with the same buyers, they do nothing. There are huge amounts of people on the forums complaining about all this. People have been complaining to ebay for years about problems. Ebay seem to do anything to keep the buyers buying, they do not seem to get that the sellers are equally important. So closing my account has now gone from 60 days to 180 days ? I do not want to trade on ebay and they will not let me leave for 6 months ? Seems I have very little rights when dealing with ebay. Most companies you can terminate contracts in under a month. Its just yet again something else which is unfair to the sellers. Ebay is unfair from start to end, literally!
Please post this page to your Facebook and twitter pages. Please send your stories to www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/gotastory/ This page and some others have already been sent by myself.
I will be setting up a option to post your story here in due course so please check back in a few days.
Some interesting links as I find them
whyebaysucks.info/ Ebay Horror Stories: True Experiences – Share your story with the world!
community.ebay.co.uk/topic/Business-Seller-Board/Issue-Regarding-Increase/18000500251 (2013) Serious Issue regarding Increase in eBay CASES being opened against Sellers
community.ebay.co.uk/topic/Business-Seller-Board/Ebay-Shot-Foot/1700130137 (2013) I'm sure everyone else is in the same boat with regards to the drastic increase of eBay Cases being opened. Since this new "improved" system was introduced, we've had around 30 cases opened. Prior to that, I had 1 case in 12 months! (well done eBay).
www.ebay.co.uk/gds/Paypal-Seller-Protection-is-no-protection/10000000002394015/g.html Paypal Seller Protection is no protection
www.ebay.co.uk/gds/detailed-seller-ratings-amp-english-abuse/10000000008401305/g.html Detailed Seller Ratings: & English Abuse
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10896007 Call for end to surcharges caused by Post Office errors
www.oreillynet.com/cs/user/view/cs_msg/69345 EBAY REALLY SUCKS AND I WISH I HAD THE POWER TO SHUT IT DOWN! (2005!)
Ebay got HUGE because of the seller's. If they didn't have sellers, they wouldn't have buyers. They have taken every right away from us sellers. We can't even leave a buyer a negative feedback. A LOT OF BUYERS ARE SCAMMERS. They use Ebay rules to intimidate and as extortion
epiclaunch.com/10-reasons-why-ebay-sucks-for-sellers/ 2009
Someone can buy your item using PayPal, receive the item, and then lie and say that it was not shipped. PayPal will then refund them the entire purchase amount.
www.thewholesaleforums.co.uk/threads/increasing-number-of-ebay-cases.173536/ (2013)
In the past week, probably 2 a day, thought it was just me, but this is a joke!
Tell me what royalmail state anything upto 15 business days for 1st class mail to arrive and 25 days for airmail, yet buyers are allowed to open a case after a few days, do ebay realise this is happening!
forums.ebay.com/db2/topic/Technical-Issues/Massive-Increase-In/5100150407 Massive increase in opened cases since last weeks update (2013)
Been on ebay 10 years and had more cases in two days than 10 years. absolutely ridiculous to have this huge waste of time.
forums.ebay.com/db2/topic/Seller-Central/More-Disputes-Coming/5200147175 MORE Disputes Coming, As They Become Primary Buyer/Seller Communication (1,027 Replies / 19,330 Views)
community.ebay.co.uk/topic/Business-Seller-Board/Royal-Maillost-Items/18000448732 Royal Mail…….lost items (2013)
I think its down to buyers getting wise on how to get freebies. We sent an item recorded delivery. The buyer signed for it and then emailed to say that the package was unsealed with no contents in it. The package was very well packed and taped. Trading on ebay for many years makes you very cynical so we checked this buyer out. First of all, why would you sign for a packet that was obviously opened and contents missing. Secondly, we emailed every seller on his feedback for the last 2 months and three other sellers replied to us stating the same thing happened to them.
community.ebay.co.uk/topic/Seller-Central/Dispute-Seller-Ebay/18000504390 (2013) dispute from seller and ebay refunded with no proof!!
"Don't sell junk for pennies, we have car boot sales for that. One of the reasons not to sell cheap tat is that cheap tat buyers are often a lot more trouble than buyers of more expensive things."
community.ebay.co.uk/topic/Business-Seller-Board/Time-Jump-Ship/1700133924 (2013) time to jump ship…
Ebay is not working properly, they are giving sales to a certain favoured few, why I don't know, the fact that I used to be at the top of the listings and have kept my sales reasonable for a small business and provided an excellent customer service counts for nothing. That's my experience..Something is VERY, VERY wrong with eBay. My sales are 50% down on normal and at this rate, will be 75% down come the end of the month, if something doesn't drastically change.The problem is the people that run ebay don't use ebay. its not about the seller or buyer, its all about the easiest route to making the most money for ebay.
whyebaysucks.info/category/users-horror-stories/ Ebay Horror Stories: True Experiences
www.pcworld.com/article/2039940/paypal-denies-teenager-reward-for-finding-website-bug.html PayPal denies teenager reward for finding website bug