Ebay Feedback

[michaelman2]

Hey guys..has anyone else wondered why Ebay does not change its policy on Feedback. As far as I am concerned as a buyer my obligation to the Seller is to pay promptly. It is the sellers responsibility to pack accordingly , ship as soon as possible. I think feedback from the seller should be at the time of payment rec'd and verified. I have had a problem with a Seller where they were a complete sham and after I gave poor feedback (second time in my 102 transactions), they waited 45 days and then retialiated giving me a strike. After 45 days you can not leave a note. Really pissed me off. A creep can always work the system. Ebay likes to wash their hands of any problems. Paypal is of course the same.

 

[nurdlinger]

I've been seriously disillusioned with the eBay feedback system, and I have pretty much stopped giving any. One guy sent me an E-mail after a month and said "Hey, give me a good feedback so I can give you one." Since I feel like the rules should be as the original poster stated, I consulted the eBay terms-of-service to see whether extortion of this type was valid. It is, because what he did was to "solicit feedback". He made no threat. In this particular case I was not happy with the item but it was my own damn fault because it was a used electronic device and had the as-is qualifier in the auction. I gambled and lost.

I wrote the guy back and told him why I was unhappy and was not going to leave him any feedback. He responded with this cover-his-butt message designed to calm me down in case I was foaming over it. Result: no feedback on either side.

 

[DADoES]

I make it a policy to stay away from eBay after the first (and last) ruckus. I ordered some used books through Amazon a few months ago, and was quite pleased and left appropriate feedback.

 

[whirlcool]

Michaelman2:

What you experienced was retailitory feedback. I agree with you totally about Ebay's feedback system. As a seller, I always leave feedback as soon as the payment is received, as it should. When I ship an item, I expect the buyer to leave feedback after the item arrives. I use this to verify arrival of the item at the buyers location. You wouldn't believe how often I have to remind buyers to leave feedback.
I REALLY hate it when sellers withold feedback until you post yours. If they pull that crap, I don't leave feedback. Sometimes I will send them a note asking them why they haven't left feedback for me when I know damn well that they have received the payment. They usually respond that they have been "burned" by the Ebay feedback system and don't want to take any chances.
BTW, I leave really negative feedback for sellers who way overcharge for shipping. I once bought a memory card for my digital camera and they charged $6.00 for shipping. When the item arrived it came in a plain white envelope with a grand total of $.60 postage on it. I asked for a refund of the excess shipping, and they refused. Negative feedback was left.
When I am the seller we have a very unique refund system. If the actual shipping charge is more than $2.00 less than what we quoted we actually give the difference back to the buyer. They truly love it.

 

[frigilux]

DADoES-- After much skepticism, I also began ordering used items (mostly CD's) from Amazon and have had excellent experiences. I was pleasantly surprised. And saved a lot of money, to boot.

 

[gansky1]

Overall, my experiences on ebay have been very good but there are a few that just burn me. I've had damage in shipping due to poor packing and sellers take no responsibility for it, one seller in particular (hudsonvalleycollectables) took my money and never sent the item, after two months I called the local police and they showed up at their door questioning their ebay practices and my refund was mailed out the next day. After that, I emailed every one of their customers who left negative feedback for the same situation and advised them to call the police as well - several have but the worst part of the whole thing is that they are STILL allowed to sell on ebay - even with 12 negative marks this month alone and 25 in the last 6 months!

As a buyer, Ebay offers no protection whatsoever. They could care less about the buyers, it's all about the listing fees. There are no protections in the ebay system to protect unsuspecting buyers for being ripped off by unscrupulous sellers. One of the other buyers that I emailed about this seller and contacting the police has contacted me again and is starting a website devoted to ebay buyers and trying to organize them into sort of a "lobby" group to deal with Ebay. I suspect it won't have any effect, but you've got to hand it to the guy for trying.

 

[bethann]

I've bought a lot of things and have had only one problem. I bought a vintage ashtray, it was packed crappy, so it was shattered. I even bought insurance. It didn't help though. They said the person that bought the insurance is the person that has to make the claim, but the seller wouldn't reply to any emails, so I got screwed! Really pissed me off. Come to find out they live only 30 minutes from me. Guess it was their lucky day that I didn't show up on their doorstep!

 

[magic clean]

I recently had an item arrive damaged, due to the sellers unbelievably lousy packaging. Fortunately, the shipper DHL came to the rescue without too much fuss. Frankly, I'm surprised they accepted the carton to begin with. Within 2 weeks I had a full refund for the purchase...(less that $100). When I left feedback for the seller after everything was settled, I selected "neutral" and told my story. The seller subsequently left some cryptic message for me, but it was favorable. Fortunately, this is the 1st bad experience.

On another note, sometimes you have to wonder if some sellers have another e-bay account where during the last minutes they start bidding up the price on items that have languished with a low bid or two.

 

[maytagbear]

*and this, chillun,

Is why Unca Maytagbear doesn't Ebay anymore!*

I had good luck with the few items I bought, but one seller overcharged for shipping, and wouldn't rebate, even though I could have gotten a ride to her location.

Plus, as others have said ^, the whole dammed feedback system is corrupt.

When I do buy things from secondary markets, I prefer face-to-face (Goodwill, Sally Ann, garage sales, flea markets, newspaper ads, Craigslist), or Amazon.

Next time I need replacement dishware in a hurry, I will grit my teeth and call Replacements. At least they are fair about shipping costs.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[filterflo]

The feedback system is very poor indeed. Ebay offers almost no protection for the everyday bidder or seller such as us. Even worse are the foreign bidding scams that go on, with very little protection from ebay. Its gotten so bad that about 50% of US sellers wont even sell to foreign bidders anymore. I was scammed twice on the same auction by a bidder in Singapore and also in Puerto Rico. The scam made the auction end early and ebay charged me for the listing and absolutely refused to refund the listing amount unless I would RE-list the item, and then would only issued a refund IF the item sold (it did). Trying to get someone from ebay to assist is like pulling teeth. I went round and round with form letter responses from them for days. So now I just sell to US only, much to the chagrin of many bidders who email me nasty notes for blocking foreign bidders. I always email them back and tell them its nothing personal against them but just too many problems with foreign bidders. I had also gotten a few fake money orders. Ebay is getting a rather bad reputation about all this lately and has made many leave it for good. The time is about ripe for ANOTHER online auction to come on the scene and really take off. Competition along this venue could only be a good thing for all of us..........

 

[Cybrvanr]

I have had a few people fuss at me for expensive shipping charges. I try to package the stuff good, and my time and materials do cost money. For instance, I sold a dozen keyboards for old Amiga computers, and the buyer was fussing that the shipping calculator said that the 35 pound package could be sent through the USPS for $12.00, and that I was unfair by charging $40 for shipping. I stated in the auction that shipping would be $40-60 depending on where the stuff was going.

First of all, I didn't ship USPS, I ship UPS because of their tracking system, and I have a daily pickup at my office. The UPS charge for the shipment was about $25. Second I bought a crap-load of bubble wrap, and a heavy duty cardboard box to ship it in. These materials cost about another $15. I wrapped each keyboard individually and taped them up before putting them in the box. I then added extra bubble wrap to fill in the empty spaces in the box. Likewise, the product made it to it's destination on it's predicted time (something that UPS if famous for) and in the condition it left my office in.

Yes, I charge a little bit more for shipping, but I want to make sure that the product makes it to it's destination, and makes it there in one piece....and there's NOTHING saying that you can't use packing material again for another shipment. I always use new material, but heck you paid for the stuff on my auction, go ahead! I do admit though, $6.00 for a memory chip in a cardboard envelope is a little stupid!!!

 

[whirlcool]

Fortunately, only one time did I have a case where a seller took my money and did not send the item. They claimed they "lost it" before they were able to ship it (A laptop PC). I suspect that they weren't happy with the low winning bid, and rather than lose money they just didn't send the item. Fortunately, I paid with PayPal and once I filed a claim with them I had my money back in about 5 days.
And everyone here is right, Ebay's policy of "Each transaction is between the Seller and the Buyer and NOT Ebay" sucks.
Another thing is that Ebay's membership database has been hacked over and over again, but they'll never admit it. How else do all those "phishing" fake e-mails get sent out containing your Ebay Account name?

 

[michaelman2]

Have read all of the posts and it seems that I am not alone here. I had a rash of buying glass on Ebay and having EACH parcel delivered smashed. All due to crappy packing. Then when you try to make a claim (if at all possible) the shipping company (USPS, UPS, FEDEX) all will say that the package did not meet their packing requirements. I would always counter with " well your driver/rep accepted it. They would say "they are not trained to know if the package is acceptable" I would always say "neither are your customers trained to know". If anyone else has noticed that the Sellers on Ebay have become quite arrogant in their disclaimers (I am a Seller as well by the way, but not arrogant). They have all sorts of hoops and guidelines to jump. I have gotten to the point of placing the following note in my Paypal payment :
NOTICE TO ALL SELLERS: Please be advised that to be fair I request that you SEND the item(s) at least 5 days after you claim my payment. I also request that the package be packed appropriately and with care. Any question on how something should be packed, please consult the shipper. A shipper will refuse insurance claims due to poor packing.
WHIRCOOL..I have had the crazy emails as well!!..

 

[whirlcool]

The worst package I ever got from a seller was a SAE amplifier (large and heavy) that was just dumped in an oversized McIntosh Computer box without any kind of packing/wrapping at all and sent via USPS Media Mail. The total cost of shipping was $21.00 and the buyer charged $50.00 for "packing materials". It was only by the grace of god that it arrived undamaged almost 60 days later. Needless to say, their feedback from me was not pretty. I look at it this way, if I take the time to properly pack and ship an Ebay item, others should do the same.

When we auction an item we just look at the cost of packing as part of the cost of doing business. We price out items appropriately and so far so good.

The seller who sent us the memory card didn't even use a cardboard envelope. They used a standard sized white paper envelope.

As far as UPS goes, we stopped using them after they damaged one of our computers several years back. Of course they told us it was due to the way we packed it. But the damage was that the box was literally speared by a fork lift truck and put a hole right through the system. How could this be due to packing?
I consulted my attorney and he called UPS and said that if they didn't pay the claim he would supeona their damage claim records to see how often they actually pay insurance claims. He said that this would demonstrate the fact that UPS takes money for insurance with no intentions of paying and that would be in violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade act and then UPS would be subject to up to three times the amount of damages. The very next day a courier arrived at my house with a check from UPS for the price of the entire computer system. We have swiched to FedExp ground with excellent results, and they are slightly cheaper.

 

[Brneyedgrl80]

Ugh...

The only truly bad experience I ever had was with this buyer named bigbosnian.

I sold some brand new bottles of Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific shampoo and conditioner to them through ebay and the buyer wanted a second set for the same price as the first (which was $30) and I agreed to do this, again, all through ebay for both transactions. I just set up a private auction for him.

So everything came to $60 plus what ever shipping came to. I waited for awhile and he finally emailed me indicating that he was not happy with the products, that they were opened, and that the formula inside was not the normal formula, that it had been tampered with and he was wondering if I would do an exchange. I said that I would, but he would have to send the products back and pay for shipping.

I sent a second batch, after checking the received batch, and again he claimed the same thing. I told him that the products were purchased directly from the company in the Philippines (sp) and that they were brand new in the bottle. I refused to re-ship a new order as it was against my policy in the first place. Of course he left me negative feedback as I did him.

The funniest part though, is that about a month later this idiot sends me an email asking if I would reconsider reversing the feedbacks and send him a new conditioner. I didn't even bother replying and I blocked him from all future auctions plus I blocked his email address.

I still have those emails to chuckle at.

 

[petek]

I only started selling on Ebay a few weeks ago and so far it's been good and a goldmine. I learned from sending Lawrence something a few months ago that perhaps I didn't package an item good enough, I thought I did, but only used crumpled up newspaper. still though from what he says I guess the box got crushed. Since I started selling stuff though I've gone out to Staples and Office Depot and bought new boxes and new packing peanuts, and they're not cheap but I don't want to take no chances and for what people are paying me for the items I'm not going to cheap out, it's not worth any future aggravation. I found a place the other day though, driven by numerous times but finally stopped in, called SS Inc. (shippers supply inc) and they sell everything for packaging and considerably cheaper than Staples and Office Depot.. link attached

http://www.shipperssupply.com

 

[magic clean]

I spoke too soon

Well, boo-hoo. I had a pending e-bay purchase that was delivered intact today. So far-so good. Trouble is, the item advertised, described in detail and displayed with a photo, is not what was shipped. I received a similar but lesser quality item. I messaged the seller regarding this discrepancy, and she informs that I'm wrong and she is right. In fact, she state I got "exactly" what the auction item was. Well her photos and description prove her wrong. She offered to refund my money if I elect to return the item at my expense. Fortunately, the amount of money involved is small, therefore not worth the bother of the return, however, its most annoying when sellers are fast & loose with the facts misleading e-bay auction participants.

 

[stainfighter]

like magiclean said...

I just heard about the other day on the Wall Street Journal radio program something called 'sniper' software. I don't use it but when I have bid on things have also wondered too, why at the last minute it suddenly takes off. This s/w supposed assists the 'buyer' with landing the winning bid at the last moment. I am a recent e-Bayer buyer and seller. Only one so-so experience with a buy - overseas too! Although we eventually got the items claimed he didn't receive our US check; several emails and days later said he was backed up with correspondence and thought our check was drawn on an AU account (not my prob bro' !). Eventually left f/b b/c item was what I wanted. Like anything else I am learning you can't be too careful. So far overall I have felt sellers were fair with s&h. As a seller I sold in the fall a used car and thought I had been accurate in my details. The person's SO was not happy after the vehicle arrived home but I worked out a partial refund and they were very happy with the compromise. TYVM about the tip of used CDs on Amazon!Got to give them a try...

 

[michaelman2]

One thing regarding shipping, marking the parcel "FRAGILE" does nothing. People thing that they can put something in a box, label it "fragile" and then some miracle will happen and it will arrive undamaged. I think with enough complaints to Ebay and its other company Paypal they will have to change the feedback and refund system.