Ebay 2017 - The new rules and buying scams... has already began.

[jerseyben]

This is not a scam. It is a disagreement/customer service issue. I cant advise you what happened or how to solve it, but it is not a scam.

This ebay policy is in place to force sellers to work with buyers when they claim there is a problem. That way, a seller cant just say "oh well" and claim "no returns" in their description, which is what a lot of people do. You assume the bonnet was not missing, but what if you are wrong and the bonnet truly is missing? Should the buyer be penalized for this?

Try putting yourself in the buyer's position for a second. Take a second to consider someone else's point of view instead of automatically assuming you are being scammed.

 

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[Xraywolf]

This is not a scam. It is a disagreement/customer service issue. I cant advise you what happened or how to solve it, but it is not a scam.

This ebay policy is in place to force sellers to work with buyers when they claim there is a problem. That way, a seller cant just say "oh well" and claim "no returns" in their description, which is what a lot of people do. You assume the bonnet was not missing, but what if you are wrong and the bonnet truly is missing? Should the buyer be penalized for this?

Try putting yourself in the buyer's position for a second. Take a second to consider someone else's point of view instead of automatically assuming you are being scammed.

About the "no return" thing, that hasn't been a factor for years, has nothing to do with any new rules.
People are and have been free to put "NO RETURNS AS IS !" in their auctions, if someone files a dispute it has never meant a thing.

As far as the OP, seems clear as day he isn't assuming anything - Did you even read it ?
Talk about assumptions, you seem to be assuming he is not telling the truth.

Could very well be a scam, I'll walk ya through it:

* Buyer buys item
* Buyer receives item
* Buyer would like their money back, plus get to keep the item
* Claims a minor piece missing, reasoning that the seller would opt not to pay for shipping to get it back - Doll gained for free
* If the seller did opt for return, simply send it back minus missing part - Nothing gained, nothing lost

Of course, you will say "You don't know that happened" - And I could very well say to you the same for saying definitively that it didn't.

 

[jerseyben]

About the "no return" thing, that hasn't been a factor for years, has nothing to do with any new rules.
People are and have been free to put "NO RETURNS AS IS !" in their auctions, if someone files a dispute it has never meant a thing.

As far as the OP, seems clear as day he isn't assuming anything - Did you even read it ?
Talk about assumptions, you seem to be assuming he is not telling the truth.

Could very well be a scam, I'll walk ya through it:

* Buyer buys item
* Buyer receives item
* Buyer would like their money back, plus get to keep the item
* Claims a minor piece missing, reasoning that the seller would opt not to pay for shipping to get it back - Doll gained for free
* If the seller did opt for return, simply send it back minus missing part - Nothing gained, nothing lost

Of course, you will say "You don't know that happened" - And I could very well say to you the same for saying definitively that it didn't.

Everyone on here always takes the seller's side. The OP has provided no proof other than his word as to the situation he describes. Are we to believe the OP's side with no proof simply based on his word? Why not flip it and take the buyer's side, again, with no proof?

If YOU read what I wrote, you will see that I am not taking sides. Read my exact quote, "Try putting yourself in the buyer's position for a second." I simply asked you and others to not automatically assume that everything is a scam and to recognize that there are 2 sides to every transaction. Good grief...

 

[Bud Aurum]

As you all know the selling rules changed for the worst this month. As a matter of fact i am at a point that i am wondering if it is worth it now. They keep raising fees and that is bad enough.

So i see ebay says that because somebody claims an item is missing they get a refund. If they want a refund then i want the item back. You don't get to keep the item and also get your money back. NOW , ebay states that if they return the item i am charged the return postage as well EVEN THOUGH the listing stated the standard " 14 days , buyer pays return shipping " Just a matter of time til ebay has a million buyers and no sellers.

Hello Oredigger, I feel your pain.

I mentioned this before, but this seems a better place. I had a watch returned to me that brought $37 at auction.
The buyer claimed there was no crown and used EBay's automated return process. I was forced to either send him return postage or let him keep it + full refund.
Thus I ended up paying postage both ways for this "Loser" to rip me off and had my item returned, now worthless with no crown.

I called Ebay to no avail.... They said they would make a note of this Buyer, whippie yea .... C'mon Ebay... a Crown does not easily fall out and was pictured in the listing.

This can burn at you for days....all you can do is move on... wished him bad Karma... Maybe his head was beat with a stick growing up...

Your Bud Aurum

 

[Xraywolf]

Everyone on here always takes the seller's side. The OP has provided no proof other than his word as to the situation he describes. Are we to believe the OP's side with no proof simply based on his word? Why not flip it and take the buyer's side, again, with no proof?

If YOU read what I wrote, you will see that I am not taking sides. Read my exact quote, "Try putting yourself in the buyer's position for a second." I simply asked you and others to not automatically assume that everything is a scam and to recognize that there are 2 sides to every transaction. Good grief...

I did read what you wrote.
I responded to it, and when someone posts a reply with a full quotation of what you wrote, I think its safe to assume it was read.
I don't know if "everyone here always takes the sellers side" or not, but with ebay renowned for screwing buyers, wouldn't shock me if a majority do. Their whole business strategy is geared towards enabling and accommodating buyers at all cost at the expense of sellers, and they have lost countless 1,000's of sellers because of it. They treat sellers like dirt, and think that sellers are so beholden and dependent on them [which alot of them actually are], they can do just about anything they want in their never ending attempts to make ebay "a more pleasant buyers experience" and never face any major seller backlash.

As far as the OP, he said:

as we were packing the african doll with the bonnet we decided to check the back of the head to see if we could find any ID marks and noticed that the bonnet was tied so tight and in a knot that it wouldn't move at all.

So it was on so tight in a knot that it did not move. It was on the doll, for sure, assuming the OP is telling the truth. And you propose that either:
* OP is lying and it was not on
or
* Was on, tight bonnet that previously wouldn't move mysteriously became detached from the doll in shipment and disappeared from the packaging, leaving the hapless buyer with no choice but to request a refund

Yes, I do take him at his word, why shouldn't I, and why don't you ? If I thought people were coming on here lying, I wouldn't even respond.
You are insinuating he is not telling the truth or, more charitably, maybe having a bad day and not remembering things correctly ,,, On the basis or what, a gut feeling ? You said in no uncertain terms [multiple times] "This is not a scam !" .. Once again, apparently based on nothing but a gut feeling. So you are taking sides, obviously. You are taking the buyers and ebay side and trying to frame that as being open minded and objective.

Which of course is your prefect right to do - Just don't feign shock when you are called out to at least clarify your reasoning.

 

[jamey]

ebay is for china,stuff made in china.i quit ebay a long time ago,it was fun but now it is not worth it at all,they will let them scam you.

 

[oredigger62]

I would agree with you jersey if not for the fact that things just don't go " poof " and disappear from a sealed box. Not too mention that the listing also said " clothing is dirty and needs washed or sprayed with febreze " as these were stored in the basement of an estate for a minimum of 15 years and smelled musty. 3 days after she received it she decided to state that the bonnet was missing. My guess and only a guess was it was put in the washer and vanished , which small items do , or she was trying to pull something. She claimed she doesn't want to send it back , so she isn't too unhappy with it . She just wants her money back AND to keep the item. That is why 2 parties are involved as verification that items match the pics.

And another case for you. back in 2004 when Volkswagon released the CC model car they came with " fuel use " charged written into the window sticker. The big engine was a $25,000 added to sticker. I had a whole case of the brochures as i worked at a dealership. They were selling on ebay at $18.00 and i was getting them by the case for free. You could walk into a dealership and get them for free. I sold one to a guy in Chicago. a week later he claims he didnt get it. I sent a second one out as i was getting them for free. a week later i get a message that he didn't get it. I send out a 3rd one. This time i paid the extra cost for tracking. Never heard from him again. So don't think for a minute that the buyer is always right , or even close to it.

If i should ever get stupid and go back to ebay i certainly would have to adopt the same policy i have seen on many other listings... Not to sell to anybody with a feedback under 25. And certainly not a 1 like she has.

 

[Honest Samuel]

Too much hassle for me to sell or buy on Ebay.

 

[oredigger62]

Too much hassle for me to sell or buy on Ebay.

I have 3 accounts , do i could keep my clothing in one , auto parts on one , and all the assorted stuff on the other. That was a real hassle. I probably used less than 100 bucks on myself over the last 20 years , but it bought a lot of bikes for kids in the neighborhood... and school clothes for some of those kids. And my wife always got the modern electronics. The only things i ever remember buying for myself with ebay money was batteries. I took 3 years off ebay and i am still alive so it won't be a loss. Just glad to be done with it. Posting this thread was helpful to me , BUT Xraywolf made me feel unbelievably good about all of it... if you read this THANKS AGAIN !!!!!

 

[Xraywolf]

No need to "quit" per se, sometimes a nice break is in order.
Any time there is a break from a routine in life it can be tough, so benefits have to be weighed vs the minuses.

Tough to control who you sell to, ebay makes it that was intentionally.
Not sure if it is even legal in their rules to reject a buyer based on feedback, though sellers used to state in auctions all the time "No 0 feedback buyers !". But whos to say a low feedback buyer may not snipe your action in the last second, then what ?

I got burned quite a few times by people paying with credit card, then shortly, after item was in shipment, would claim their credit card was used fraudulently and get a refund [all low/0 feedback buyers with very recent join dates]. After this happened 3 times in 1 week I started canceling those if they won my auction - I didn't know it at the time buy ebay red flags sellers that cancel auctions and it messes up your DSR, which I never really paid any attention to since I had near 100% feedback. [I was selling itunes cards a bunch of which I managed to get very cheap - I found out to my dismay that those things attract scammers like maggots to a rotting carcass].
So ebay suspends me because of that, I tried explaining hey, I'm getting ripped off here by absolute scam artists abusing your system and I'm the one suspended ? Got a rude form letter in return that looks like it was written by someone in Bombay saying basically, so sorry to hear about your problems, nothing we can do, have you considered trying somewhere else to sell ?
So I never went back after that and it was almost 2 years ago, don't even know or care if the suspension was ever lifted or not.

 

[oredigger62]

That's the hard part. NOT all "0" feedback people are out to pull anything. Everybody had 0 feedback at some point. I filed 3 NPB claims last year . 2 of them had feedbacks of 0 but both were in Russia... which i had blocked long before , but global shipping messed that up. The 3rd one had a feedback rating of 1 and after sending invoices for a whole week he finally emails me stating that he can pay for the item but not for the shipping . When their ID looks like : ofubsncblsa_uer and crap like that you know they dont plan on using it again. At least i don't have to deal with it any more. I will miss the customer service aspect of it. I have made numerous customer friends that have me locate things to sell them , some i have sold more than 10 items to. Just glad to be free of all the crap !!! Thanks again !

 

[Carl995]

Well, ebay started their anti seller strategy a few years back when they ended a sellers ability to leave anything but glowing + feedback for buyers no matter what.
That gave buyers a green to get obnoxious and scam as they please ,,, And its went downhill from there apparently.
I used to be a power seller, haven't sold a thing is years there and glad of it, really not worth the headaches it produced.

I once sold an item [$25 crafted silver piece], buyer left me glowing feedback and asked if I had any more. I wrote back and said no that was it. He sent another message and we got into an at first friendly back and forth dialog.
Started drifting into other areas and this guy impressed me as hyper opinionated and the type who can never be wrong about anything. We were on a topic [completely unrelated to the sale] that I happen to make a living at so I know a thing or 2 about it, the exchanges got increasingly acrimonious. He offered some unsolicited and condescending advice to me, I decided to end it there. I said thanks but don't need any advice from you, if and when I ever do I'll look you up.
That sent him into a tizzy and he flooded me with butthurt rantings, insults and threats. I said keep going like an 8 year old girl I'll just put you in my spam filter and you can whine to the wind.

He said aha ! You know the silver you sent me ? Well I already flipped it for a profit dumb ass ! And now, you are going to pay for it !

He filed a not received complaint, I wasn't worried a bit. Here, he had already left glowing feedback saying "Great item, great seller, quick shipping AAAA+++" And I had him on ebays own mail system admitting that he received it, sold it for a profit and then threatened to make me pay for it.
I forwarded all that to ebay thinking it was a slam dunk for me but nope, since I didn't have tracking they found in his favor and refunded him everything, so indeed he got the last laugh on me.
I was furious needless to say, even though he lived half way across the country I was seriously considering taking a trip. Wife talked me out of it, that was about the last thing I ever sold at that dump.

I started ebay in 96. I quit around 5 yrs ago. I sold mostly electronics. One of my last sales, person bought my baby lock sewing machine for $2250.. I looked up their address & it's in the middle of an orchard (no building) by Chicago. So i looked at other items they bought & low & behold they buy & sell a lot of sewing machines...............So heres the cool part.......I emailed others he bought machines from....every one I heard back from lost their machine & the money!!!.....................Item not as described. Now I called ebay (i was a so called power seller) to cancel the sale & they argued with me. I said i'm not shipping it to an orchard (I couldnt tell them I talked to other sellers). So I talked them into Googling the address & see for themselves, They did & i got free of the sale.............Now heres the kicker.................You know ebay knew what that buyer was doing for a long time & they went along with it & let them screw people because every seller that got screwed had called them. Prior to that i had a couple items buyer got a refund using "not as described" & never returned it.
That was 3 times & i'm out!!!! Just think I almost lost a $2250. sewing machine!!! I did sell the machine for $2200 cash later on, it was $3600 new.

Now I just look the item up, if it's worth $100. I just list it on craigslist for 60 or 70 bucks & let somebody else deal with ebay.

Just thought i'd put my 2 cents in!
Carrol

 

[Paleo_joe]

No matter what business you are in, there will be people trying to get over on you.

If I owned ebay, I might not do anything different than what they're doing, because my goal would be to maximize my profit. I assume that is why they do what they do. Corporations are created solely to maximize stockholder profit while minimizing risk. They have all the rights of people but none of the morals, by design.

 

[Bud Aurum]

I miss the good days of ebay. I am considering just using a local auction house for my items from now on. You get a 25% screwing but you don't have to worry about shady buyers, returns, feedback, claims or packing and shipping. If you start thinking about it, that 25% starts to sound more reasonable.

Even with EBay's siding with the Buyer ... most of the time
I find it still more profitable than an auction house or anything I've tried. Yard sales are more profitable than a auction house in my experience. We have a couple co-op stores that do well also.

Unfortunately it is hard to find anything that has more exposure than E-bay.

Your Bud Aurum

 

[AlienLifeForm]

Even with EBay's siding with the Buyer ... most of the time
I find it still more profitable than an auction house or anything I've tried. Yard sales are more profitable than a auction house in my experience. We have a couple co-op stores that do well also.

Unfortunately it is hard to find anything that has more exposure than E-bay.

Your Bud Aurum

I suppose it depends on the auction house. There are a few around me that can sell a pile of dog dung for big money - Ive seen prices absolutely smash ebay sold prices at some of these auction houses. I just dropped off about 20 items at one this afternoon - we will see how it goes. Big, heavy, antique and vintage stuff I would hate to pack and ship.

 

[jerseyben]

I did read what you wrote.
I responded to it, and when someone posts a reply with a full quotation of what you wrote, I think its safe to assume it was read.
I don't know if "everyone here always takes the sellers side" or not, but with ebay renowned for screwing buyers, wouldn't shock me if a majority do. Their whole business strategy is geared towards enabling and accommodating buyers at all cost at the expense of sellers, and they have lost countless 1,000's of sellers because of it. They treat sellers like dirt, and think that sellers are so beholden and dependent on them [which alot of them actually are], they can do just about anything they want in their never ending attempts to make ebay "a more pleasant buyers experience" and never face any major seller backlash.

As far as the OP, he said:


So it was on so tight in a knot that it did not move. It was on the doll, for sure, assuming the OP is telling the truth. And you propose that either:
* OP is lying and it was not on
or
* Was on, tight bonnet that previously wouldn't move mysteriously became detached from the doll in shipment and disappeared from the packaging, leaving the hapless buyer with no choice but to request a refund

Yes, I do take him at his word, why shouldn't I, and why don't you ? If I thought people were coming on here lying, I wouldn't even respond.
You are insinuating he is not telling the truth or, more charitably, maybe having a bad day and not remembering things correctly ,,, On the basis or what, a gut feeling ? You said in no uncertain terms [multiple times] "This is not a scam !" .. Once again, apparently based on nothing but a gut feeling. So you are taking sides, obviously. You are taking the buyers and ebay side and trying to frame that as being open minded and objective.

Which of course is your prefect right to do - Just don't feign shock when you are called out to at least clarify your reasoning.

You called me out?!? Ok then, if you say so. Man, you are exhausting.... As it seems you would be willing to go to nearly any lengths to defend the OP's story, without having a single shred of objective evidence (besides his 1 sided narrative), I am done wasting my time on obtuse folks such as yourself. Have a good one.

 

[Xraywolf]

You called me out?!? Ok then, if you say so. Man, you are exhausting.... As it seems you would be willing to go to nearly any lengths to defend the OP's story, without having a single shred of objective evidence (besides his 1 sided narrative), I am done wasting my time on obtuse folks such as yourself. Have a good one.

"1 sided", exactly why I spoke up.
When someone explains something that happened to them, of course its 1 sided.
What grounds do you have, if you are so unbiased and blessed with superior perception, to insinuate the OP is lying and the buyer an innocent victim ?
NONE, of course. You apparently just enjoy randomly playing devils advocate.

 

[DaytonaRacer]

I have been a seller on eBay since 1999 and had a few issues over the years, but nothing like what I'm reading here. Then again I haven't posted anything for sale on the site since early last summer. Was considering putting more stuff on there but after reading about the latest screw-the-seller regulations I certainly will think twice about selling anything there ever again. It used to be a great source of extra income for me but as time went on they got more and more seller-unfriendly and there's only so much I'm willing to deal with.

 

[oredigger62]

UPDATE : It has been 10 days since she opened the claim and i responded the same day to send the doll back if she wanted a refund. Each day since i emailed the same thing to her. still no tracking number and still no doll. Due to the fact that she filed and secured my payment i had to wait 6 days before asking ebay to step in. So I waited until today in order to give her enough time to at least respond. Ebay states that they will have a response for me within 48 hours... and it creates a new claim and claim number so we will see. I won't hold my breath... and i certainly just won't roll over either. I did that last month with the post office !

 

[huntsman53]

I have some items that I need to sell and are better suited for a market such as eBay. However, after reading here about the new rules biased towards the Buyer and how they can literally claim that an item is not as described or missing something and eBay/PayPal will issue a refund to them and they never have to return the item, then I am out. I decided to to take my chances with Craigslist and deal with the Scammers and yes I have had two already trying to scam me out of my' like new Tag Heuer Aquaracer 300m Diver's Watch (Way1110-BA0910) complete with inner case, outer box, extra links and pins, owner's manual and warranty card. I should have went along with the Scammer as they stated they wanted to pay via PayPal and once they had my' email address (PayPal User ID), they would send me a fake email with all of the appearances of having come from PayPal and stating that I received a payment. Well, I did not fall off the Turnip Truck yesterday and this has happened before, so I always log into my' PayPal Account and check and also call PayPal to check. I then forward everything from the Scammer and my replies to the FBI and when it warrants, the Postmaster General. My efforts has put one Scammer away in Federal Prison and the last time I heard from the FBI, they were hot on the trail of another Scammer.

Can anyone suggest another market venue to sell such items that doesn't have a lot problems and problem Buyers? I have sold a few items via some Facebook Groups for selling, buying and trading but Facebook recently did a wholesale delete of many Groups that I belonged to.


Frank