So, without wanting to air my eBay frustrations in public, I'm going to vent anyway.
As my business has developed, I am slowly but *surely* coming off eBay - 90% of the business comes through the website and I would rather save the stock for website orders as opposed to eBay orders. (zil fees) So most of my eBay listings are "sold out" despite being available on the website.
Anyway - gentleman orders a component on 27th March..............3 days ago I get a case opened against me stating non-delivery.
Fair enough....it can happen. That's strange as I scratch my head - its a very, very rare occurrence. Say what you want about the Royal Mail but they never let me down. Upon investigation, it is because his paypal confirmed address is wrong, so I have followed instructions and sent to his PayPal confirmed address. (he missed off the street name)
The item was returned to me a few days later by the Royal Mail, thankfully I always put a return address label on the package.
My gripe? Because the customer has opened a case against me, all of my ebay payments are pending and "under review"
Cheers fella!
Having re-sent the item in question, a couple of days later (tonight) he sends an offical ebay "returns request" as the item doesn't fit.
Ok not bothered....it happens, despite dimensions clearly stated in the listing.
The component was only £4.95 and I just refunded him without waiting for it to arrive back. For the sake of a fiver, not worth it.
Case closed.
I've been a business seller on eBay for a couple of years and take the rough with the smooth.
My gripe though, is despite providing ebay and paypal with the evidence...I still lost?? its in PayPal terms and conditions that sellers should only post to the buyers "paypal confirmed" address to qualify for seller protection.
Any other eBay sellers on here suffer similar experiences? Granted its only a fiver, so I refunded him without question....but if that was a £100 + item............
Comments
I've long since given up on ebay as a (private) seller - the last nail in the coffin was the 180 day return period for me - I just can’t risk a 6 month return period when I'm selling on amps, even Diezel / Mesa etc. don't warranty their tubes for that sort of period
I’ve moved to Reverb and have yet to have a bad experience TBH and the fees are a much more reasonable 3.5% of sale + Paypals 4%, much better that ebays 10% + paypals 4%.
As the seller, you have zero protection. I fully realised this whenever I sold my jmp to the Greek guy with a postage address in Manchester. I suspected a scam and contacted eBay. Even though I said on the listing that I wouldn’t deal with international buyers and places restrictions on the listing (0 feedback and international buyers were among them) this guy with 0 feedback in Greece still saw the listing and bought the amp. As a person he was genuine enough. But after speaking to 3 people at eBay for nearly an hour and being told “no mr Cameron, don’t worry. Your job is to ship it to his PayPal verified address in Manchester and your part is over”. The address in Manchester was his brothers. So, I asked them this... “if the amp arrives fine in Manchester but gets damaged en route from Manchester to Greece, am I still accountable? Because If it gets damaged in transit i simply have no way of proving where the damage occurred. Can he open a case against me for a refund?” Ebay (delayed response... “yes mr Cameron this is correct”. Okay... “so then he’ll have my amp, you’ll have my £1000 (which they’ll give to him) and I have nothing?”
The alternative seems to be Reverb but if I’m honest after listing a bunch of stuff in my shop I sold nothing and ended up withdrawing it all as it sold elsewhere, quicker.
Ebay allows people to hide behind usernames, fake accounts and a system set up to fully protect the buyer. It has been flawed for a long time. But due to what it costs me to list items every month it’s good advertising for me. Other than that they can sod off.
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