I need to VENT! I am furious with Ebay and will now refuse to ever sell anything on their site again. Please feel free to pass this story along to anyone who sells on ebay.


This is a really, really long story, so I'm giving the abbreviated version- and it's still long!!

The buyer who won my auction sent me rude, harrassing emails several times AFTER he won the auction and demanded that I ship the item to him for less than what I clearly had listed in the auction. ($6.00 for 5 books via media mail.) I responded to his emails and referred back to the terms of the auction and told him S&H was $6.00. He then stated he was going to pay for the auction with my "inflated S&H" and then leave me negative feedback. WHAT???

I contacted ebay via "live help" and phone on several occasions to get help with the buyer. Ebay originally read the emails between us and said it was feedback extortion (their term- not mine) and assisted me with filing a claim. They also walked me through canceling the transaction. Meanwhile, the buyer is sending me a several more rude emails & I'm trying to answer each one the best I can.

Then I receive an email from ebay stating they can't find any evidence of feedback extortion. I call and ebay assures me that it's only because the buyer only threatened to leave negative feedback and hadn't actually left the negative feedback yet. They tell me to call back if he leaves the feedback.

He leaves the negative feedback. I call back and suddenly their whole story changes....... Here are some of ebay's responses:


1. Ebay told me I needed to communicate with the buyer.
WHAT?? I answered every email - even the harrassing ones- professionally. I can't communicate much more than that.

2. Ebay said they couldn't find evidence of feedback extortion.
Didn't the buyer demand that I change my fees or he would leave his "concerns" in my feedback? Isn't ebay the one who originally read through all of the emails, called it feedback extortion and sent me the link to file an extortion claim?

3. An ebay supervisor told me that the buyer can ask for lower S&H fees after the auction and sometimes the sellers cooperate with them and lower the fees.
If the buyer doesn't want to pay the amount of S&H shown in the auction, shouldn't he contact the buyer BEFORE he bids to see of the S&H can be lower? Or maybe just not bid on the item at all?


Last but not least:

4.. The ebay supervisor informed me that the transaction, buyer and emails were investigated and they found NO VIOLATION on the part of the buyer.
So I said to the supervisor "So you're telling me that I can bid on an item from one of your sellers, win the auction and then send demand that the seller lower his S&H fees or I'll leave him negative feedback and that would be ok with you? I would not violate your policy?? I'd like you to send that to me in writing."

The supervisor replied "NO! That would be wrong and you would be monitored and penalized. You can't do that."

I'm completely dumbfounded. I have all of the emails, live help transcript and phone call notes if you can't believe what I'm saying is true. (I can barely believe it myself!) And, due to ebay policy, the seller can not leave the buyer negative feedback.


Now I will NEVER sell on ebay again. I can not possibly list on here everything I went through with ebay. I hope you pass this on to other sellers so that they can be aware. Thanks for letting me vent. Now.... time to move on to better things.

I would ask to speak with Trust & Safety. They helped me when someone was threatening to interfere with my auctions because I had reported them for violating eBay terms and conditions.

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A deal is not always a deal - Some just make you pay in the end.

This was Trust and Safety! And, I even spoke to a supervisor during my last call. I was really, really upset about this (like I said, I can't possibly put down here all of the insanity that went on) but I finally ended up just laughing when the supervisor told me I couldn't buy an item and then demand the seller cut his S&H in half and leave negative feedback if he didn't because I'd violate ebay policy. WHAT?? Isn't that what this buyer just did???

Glad your situation was handled better than mine.

I am so sorry this happened to you! Ebays customer service is run by kindergartners!
I left Ebay over a year ago as a seller. I just couldnt risk all their stupid antics and rules. Ebay is for the buyer. Always has been. They stick it to the seller every time. The real proof came out when sellers can only leave positive feedback for buyers. I mean what in the world? Who thought of that??...

Hope it gets better for you...

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Paula
Some days are diamonds Some days are stone

http://paulajc.mycoupons.com/

Thanks Paula, but sorry you had to go through some of the same. I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone or something. It can only get better from here because.... I QUIT! lol.

I hope it works out. I have been offering free shipping mostly. They can't argue over free shipping. I add the shipping cost to my starting price now, sometimes it better now because they can't even combine shipping as well.

Kinda off topic but if you are looking for a good replacement for eBay, try Bonanzle. They are growing by leaps & bounds and everything is free until you sell. It's not an auction format, you set the price you want for you items. Some think that's good, others not so much.

If you want to check it out, the link is in my sig line. If you want to join, I can send you an invite (I don't get anything from it, just recognition I referred someone). Or you can just join using the link below but I won't get credit.

Sorry you had so much trouble with eBay but I stopped selling there in April when I joined Bonanzle. eBay fees were getting so high, no customer service to speak of and no protection for sellers. Now if I could only find a good alternative for Paypal...

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I cant stand Ebay, sorry that happened to you.
I like Bonanzle, but here is another place you can check out
YourHighBid.com | Online Auction Site | Free Stores | Free Listings
Great place and people, I sell there too

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gail

I, too have been done selling on ebay for a few years now. It is always more hassle than it is worth really. But if you clearly stated a shipping price, I would not think that was negotiable. If they wanted a lower price, they should have contacted you before the auction was over and asked if it was possible.
Good luck to you

Sadly this sort of thing happens a LOT now that buyers can't get negatives. It happened to me a few weeks ago and I got pretty much the same replies from Ebay. The trick is to outsmart the buyer and choose your words very carefully.

My best advice is that if you get someone like that ( if you decide to sell again), go on the Ebay boards and get help there, they know what to say and how to say it. I got rid of my buyer and informed every person she bought from about what she tried to pull with me, and found that she did the same thing with another seller who just gave in to her demands. We both reported her and she is still a registered user but I think I scared her enough not to bid anymore, I keep my eye on her now.

And how about his emails, were they harrassing and rude? You could have reported him for that too if they were.


Has he left the negative and how was it worded? Sometimes you can get that removed. And I would reply to it with the fact that S&H were stated clearly in the listing buyer threatened if i didn't comply with his demands. Did you leave him feedback?

Could you PM me his username I would like to add him to my blocked bidder list!

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"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer

I haven't had too much of a problem with Ebay, its been Paypal. Most recently, I sold a Burberry scarf, I received it as a gift and stated that in the auction. I took it to a Burberry store and had it authenticated. The person who won kept outbidding another buyer. She finally won, then proceded to email me with questions and asking for more pictures. After she was semi satisfied, she finally paid thru Paypal, then became promptly unregistered with Ebay. Fishy huh? She only had a 1 feedback with Ebay and it was over a year old and wasnt a verified user with Paypal. So I CALLED paypal and made sure it was ok to ship this scarf to her cause I was leary. They confirmed it was A-OK! So I sent the scarf. About a week later I get a significantly not as described case slammed on me and she claims it is fake and she took it to HER Burberry store. So we escalate the claime and wait and wait and wait. In the meantime her email changes about 3 or 4 times. Keep in mind, I have been on Ebay since 1999 and have been with paypal almost as long. I have a rating of almost 1000 all positive. Guess who wins the case? She does! I have no clue what justified it. I just think its ridiculous. So with everything that happened about 3 months spanned so I couldnt even 2nd chance offer the item.

[quote=JoriLDH;3288657]I haven't had too much of a problem with Ebay, its been Paypal. [:QUOTE]

I think ebay sellers are fed up with both of them! Frustrating when you do everything you're supposed to and still end up losing in the end. Some buyers get away with way too much right now. Just look at the feedback discussion board on ebay and see how bad it's gotten.

Wish you better luck with your future transactions.

And thank you everyone for suggesting alternate sites. I'll definitely check them all out and see if there's one that will work for me. I still have some things to sell!

I won't sell on ebay anymore either!

I agree with the others that like bonanzle.com. They are friendly, it is free to list and the fees when your item sells are reasonable. They also offer much more support than ebay!

http://www.bonanzle.com/joyfullycreated

Can you give some more samples? How great your info is! It really useful for me. Thanks.

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