very upset with ebay

they make changes so often and when they make changes they send pages and pages of mumbo jumbo to sift through. i guarantee a lot of people don't read all these things when ebay sends them. regardless if i knew the policy or not, they should have contacted me first before they just remove my items. i am not some fly by night seller. i have been on ebay 13 years with a spotless feedback rating in that time.

 

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4 days before shipping shouldn't get neg'd, seems a little harsh. If it was a week or something maybe.

I don't sell much on ebay, but I always ship with a tracking number and wait until it is delivered before leaving feedback. As a buyer, I haven't neg'd anyone. I did leave no feedback on a couple occasions. One was a guy who shipped 10 "junk" silver dimes by scotch taping them to a piece of cardboard. I sent him a message letting him know not to do that anymore.

 

A few thoughts on this thread:

What's the big deal if FeeBay pulled a few of your auctions? It doesn't matter if the rule is good or bad, your violation was right in front of them in black and white. The listing of a coin that might be fake requires some expertise on coins. I can understand why yours were pulled when reported and the listings of coins you believe are fake might not get pulled.

Sellers leaving feedback. A lot of people think a seller should leave feedback as soon as payment is received. I disagree. I leave feedback after I receive word that the item has arrived and everything is good. Here's a good example of how a buyer has not met all their obligations simply by paying for an item: Buyer wins an auction and promptly pays for the item. I ship the item out with signature confirmation and the buyer signs for the parcel. Buyer files an item not received complaint. Sure, after all is said and done, FeeBay won't refund their money, but if someone tried to pull a scam on me like that, I'd love to be able to leave a negative feedback, or under the current rules, I'd at least not leave a positive feedback.

Last, the four day thing. In my early days on FeeBay, I used to transfer money from my bank account to my PayPal account and it would always take a few days, sometimes as long as a week. On a couple of occasions I would buy an item and then have to wait on the transfer, but I would ALWAYS communicate with the sellers to let them know what was going on.

 

However, this is where you err.

They did notify you in advance of the changes to their listing policies, last year when those changes went into effect for everyone. I seem to remember there was a thread started here discussing those changes, both pro and con.

If you enter into a written contract with another party and don't read that contract before you sign it, does that mean the contract is null and void and unenforceable against you? The answer is no it is not, and any court will hold you to the terms of that contract. The reason is because you have not only an opportunity to read the contract before signing it, and if you don't take the time to read it over, you're out of luck and are held to the contract's terms.

No different here. The fact you didn't read the "mumbo jumbo" in the new listing policies is a moot point. eBay is not obligated to notify you before they remove any of your listings because they are not in compliance with their listing policies.

Sorry it happened to you, but it really was your responsibility to make sure you know the eBay listing policies and make sure your listings are within those policies.

Just take it as a lesson and move on.

 

Why? Once the buyer has paid for the item...they have fulfilled their end of the agreement. Ensuring the item arrives safely is the sellers responsibility and in no way should be dependent on leaving the buyer feedback. I feel that once the buyer completes their side of the deal (by paying) they should be given feedback.

I personally have only left one negative feedback. It was for a seller who advertised free shipping and the item arrived with postage due (I actually had to go to the post office to get it and pay the remaining postage). I attempted to contact the seller three times and the seller never responded. Looking at his feedback (he was a "power seller" or whatever) he had a history of this happening. Since he never responded to my messages...I left him a negative. Of course, within 24 hours that negative was buried under 4 pages of positives.

 

i leave positive feedback for the buyer while i am getting their package ready to ship. i ship the item as soon as i receive payment.

 

That's what I do too.

As a buyer I don't leave feedback if the seller didn't. I scoll through my purchases occasionally to catch up with feedback, and if the seller is waiting for me to leave it I just skip right over it. Sometimes the sellers who are holding back actually message me asking if I could please leave them feedback first.

 

For a refreshing change in the selling experience, try Etsy. $0.20 to list an item for 4 months, super friendly user interface, lots of stats on site visits, easy sale process. The only thing missing is coin sellers, and with enough anti-eBay sentiment, perhaps we could change that.

 

Im a lazy seller, i wait til I have a bunch of feedback to leave and copy and paste the same stupid response. Personally I dont care about the feedback system, nor do I care if someone leaves me a negative or feedback at all. I dont read them, I just dont care. But again Im lazy.

 

That's cool. I respect that kind of honesty.

 

I think the problem with eBay is HOW feedback works.

1) DSRs. These are fairly useless. They essentially made 5-stars 100% and each star under that 20% off. Rather than admit this was broken, eBay made it possible for sellers to manipulate their star rating by ignoring buyer communication (can't leave communication feedback unless seller responds) and offering free one day shipping (can't leave feedback on either if seller sets things up right). This left the only non-tampered DSR to be item as described.

2) Feedback removal. I left a seller a negative feedback for selling an item that I won to someone else. Seller complained to eBay and their "100% feedback" was preserved.

3) Seller feedback removal. I don't agree that a buyer's only obligation is to pay. Buyer is also obligated to be honest... and thanks to DSRs and seller ratings, sellers NEED buyers to leave feedback. Thanks to removing seller feedback, I've noticed a lot of newer eBay users simply don't leave feedback at all.

If eBay wants to fix their broken system, they should ditch DSRs, ditch the powerseller model, and ditch a unilateral feedback system.

Oh, BTW, someone mentioned seller protection. This is the DUMBEST thing ever. I bought something and it was damaged. I sent it back. In the past, eBay would have refunded me as soon as the item was posted with tracking. They don't do that anymore. Now, eBay will wait until the item has been delivered back to the seller, and the seller acknowledges that the item is agreeable to them.

Since that seems retarded, rather than amend that policy, eBay has decided to force sellers to attach credit card information to their account, specifically for the purpose of refunding Buyer Protection cases. Of course, after two months of this, eBay will probably get a TON of chargebacks from sellers who complain about the random charges on their account. Then what will eBay do? Rather than fix this broken bandage, they'll probably make buyers keep a credit card on file to charge in the event a seller initiates a chargeback.

Slowly, Amazon is taking over eBay marketshare, as eBay's fees and structure force sellers to charge more for their products.

eBay's acquisition of Paypal was supposed to fix all of this.

As it stands, eBay charges ~13% for fees (auction + Paypal), and they'll probably start charging the 3.9% maximum allowed for a merchant to charge to "recoup" expenses for credit card processing. Since they OWN THE PROCESSOR, this means an additional 4% of free money that eBay will make with each transaction the qualifies for buyer protection with the new rules in place... potentially 17% in fees. At this point, it's starting to make sense to just sell at a real auction house.

 

As a seller, I don't mind you doing this, but, honestly, if you're going to make that a policy, you should inform the seller as a courtesy.

Personally, I think eBay buyer feedback shouldn't exist, period. Either let the sellers leave appropriate feedback (positive and negative choices) or don't have the feedback at all. Since feedback currently only affects sellers, there's no reason to have buyer feedback.

The other alternative is have two independent feedback numbers, but that will get complicated and confusing... which means it's the more likely route for eBay to choose.

 

I agree, buyer feedback is useless and it should be eliminated.
The downside to that is that buyers would be less likely to leave feedback.

Seller feedback is essential (it is an important tool that many buyers use).

 

If a seller does not leave feedback first [at some point] after I pay for an item then I don't leave feedback. If he/she never leaves feedback I do not buy again from that person.

I just don't play that game. It's just as easy to buy from a seller who leaves feedback once the item is paid for. There are plenty of that type and they get my repeat business.

 

I miss the old ebay, no final value fees on shipping, low final value fees period, customer service you could get a hold of and find a number to.

Yes, the new eBay as we have it, sucks. As a buyer it's a great tool, not only do you get basically whatever you want at your finger tips, but you also get eBay bucks for buying those items. What is it like 5% or something? As a seller you're hit with listing fees, final value fees, shipping final value fee, shipping and handling if you shipped it for free, and lets not forget about PayPal fees for receiving that money.
I think what would be logical,(final value fees for seller) take it right out of the as soon as the seller pays before the money is transfered to paypal. Not only are they screwing us in fees, but they're taking a percentage from the amount we have to pay back for the final value fees! As a seller, I hate eBay. As a buyer, I love it. As you can see, as long as they are buyers out there, people will continue selling on eBay, because they know the item will sell.

 

I'm only a buyer on ebay. I always pay right away, and sellers almost always leave positive feedback pretty quickly based on that, not that it matters that much to me.
After the experiences I've read about from many of you sellers, I don't think I'll become a seller, it sounds like way too much trouble. BTW, there's a slabbed coin I'm thinking of buying on there currently that only has a pic of the front of the slab ( I might buy it anyway, it's very cheap ).

 

What if the seller said the handling time was two days?

Me, I pay immediately when I buy an item and 99% of the time ship an item within a day of payment being received.

I definitely hate the feedback system now. I don't think I've ever left a negative feedback, but I liked having the option of leaving one on the buyer if need be.

 

The above is the essence of it all. Honestly, how useful is a feedback system where approximately 99.993% of all feedback is:

A) Generic
B) Positive
C) From sellers

Victor, you'll notice that the sellers who fall into your definition of a good seller are super store power sellers. Each and every one of them. Feedback for them is automated. They either have it set up to leave feedback as soon as you pay or as soon as you leave them feedback. If you like buying from drop-shippers and import outlets, so be it. You're the target audience for an online mall.

This is eBay's mission statement:

"eBay's mission is to provide a global trading platform where practically anyone can trade practically anything."

By creating a system in which the majority of users can't afford to sell on eBay, how are they accomplishing this mission? eBay was an okay place to sell (re: trade) on when their fees were $0.05-$2 on average to list and 6% final value. They had many individuals who, obviously had personality issues. This meant you often dealt with the 10/20/40/20/10 rules of feedback management. That was probably the biggest problem as a seller. As a buyer, your biggest problem was power-sellers using their size as an excuse to offer poor service.

Compare that to today:

eBay stores pay about 4-5% on average for sales in fees plus monthly "rent" to maintain store status. Powersellers get rebates on fees for hitting quotas. It's gotten to the point that it is more profitable for a powerseller to give a refund to ANYONE who complains for ANY reason, because that gives them a right to have negative feedback removed, than for them to provide good service/products from the start.

Essentially, eBay has gone from being an online marketplace, to claiming to want to be the premiere online auction site, to being an online stripmall. You know the type: You have your power sellers occupying the main spaces on the periphery, and you have everyone else in their mini-kiosks in the walkways.

Now eBay has decided to run it more like an optimized food court:
1) You are only allowed to purchase items using the food court card (Paypal).
2) Court vendors (non-Powersellers) are required to pay a processing fee for the cards (Paypal's merchant fee). Primary merchants (Powersellers) can use their own processor.
3) Court vendors pay a commission of sales structure to eBay. The more sales you generate in a month, the lower your percentage. Primary merchants are offered special rebates and discounts for generating revenues of 20-500+x the average vendor.

This is why corporate mission statements are often a joke. The difference is that eBay's is very specific and actionable. It's a good mission. The problem is that they're doing everything in their power to turn themselves into the exact opposite of that statement.

All in all, as I've said before, I don't mind buyers withholding feedback. I don't see how it helps the buyer, personally, but so be it. Maybe eBay should make it a contingency of "eBay bucks" to have buyers leave feedback on 99.97% of purchases made in the current quarter and 97% of purchases in the trailing 12 months. At least then, there would be clear incentive to leave feedback.

 

If they took 4 days instead of the promised two, that would be 2 or 3 stars for the specific category of expected shipping time or whatever it's called. Especially given holidays, weekends, and time zones, it's entirely possible that the seller met the 4-day window:

You buy item at 11:59pm on Thursday. Seller is one time-zone to the East, so they received your order at 12:59am on Friday. They now have two days to process the order: Friday and Monday. They ship your item out Monday after the post office closes. The post office processes your order Tuesday morning when it opens. You might view this as either being four days (excluding weekends) or six days (including weekends), but the reality is they processed everything within two business days. Also, throw in holidays, and maybe that bumps the day up another one or two.

Sometimes people make mistakes, and sometimes they simply forget. I've had orders where the seller simply forgot to ship my package. He offered me a free item of my choice from everything he had on eBay listed for under $15. I appreciated that, especially since my original order was $7, including postage. I didn't really see anything I wanted except an item that was $17. I offer to pay the difference, and he said it wasn't an issue and shipped it out with my order for free. When it arrived, it was damaged. Not his fault. Entirely the post office's fault; they even put one of those "sorry we screwed up" stickers on it. Yet, he refunded my money and told me to keep the items. That was a case of truly 5* service. I would have written a full review of the excellent service by that seller, but it wouldn't fit into eBay's 80-character limit, so I wrote something like "Great Seller. Truly the best on eBay." instead. Generic feedback for an extraordinary case of going "above and beyond."

Anyway, my point is that sellers rely on feedback to function on eBay. Buyers don't. A buyer choosing to withhold feedback and refusing to use a seller for not leaving feedback first is what makes it a game.

Edit:

I'm lucky to have 100% feedback under the new system, but I've received two negative feedbacks since 1999. One was due to the seller shipping me a print out of a copyrighted image and throwing it in a frame, claiming it was a limited edition print. I complained to eBay and got my money back. The seller negative feedbacked me for leaving them with a negative feedback. The other was a case where the seller said I never paid for my item. I was working 80 hour weeks at the time trying to run a franchise chain. I never got an email from eBay, nor an invoice from the seller saying I won or what I owed. I simply missed it. Seller never messaged me to ask what happened. He/She simply neg'd me for it.

 

e-bay's "rake" as I like to call it is crazy high. I've dabbled in selling on ebay for about 6 months now and concluded I'm basically subsidizing others collections...! In return I've learned a lot, and I don't regret the experiment, but after trying an e-bay store, buying and selling several hundred coins (and even getting into notes, when a small collection I bought as one lot contained a few), I still can't figure out how anyone makes any money there with coins at least. My only guess is, that like most things, if you aren't totally committed to it (its a hobby for me obviously, not my vocation), it isn't going to be time or cost effective.

What are the alternatives? etsy seems ill suited (I don't like paying for clicks - again it seems you have to have big volume and inventory to make that worthwhile), posting on craigslist seemed to only attract other sellers the few times I tried it. What else is there?