eBay Rant

Lowflynjack

Lowflynjack

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Jack Fleetwood
I've grown to hate eBay and only use it when I have to. They still have the biggest audience when you're trying to sell something, so sometimes it's the best option.

I just auctioned a Garmin aera 796. A guy won it, but hasn't paid. Maybe something has happened to this guy, so I'm not mad at him, but eBay makes this a real pain.
  • I listed the GPS for 5 days. He wins the bid. He doesn't answer me or respond to my invoice.
  • I have to wait two full days to file a case with eBay.
  • They keep the case open 5 days before they decide if they will refund my listing fees!
  • I can offer the item to the person who lost the bid.
  • If they don't take it, I can list it again for another 5 days and try again.
Even if you sell something and everything goes well, you're treated like a criminal and can't have your money for weeks. Why not have an option where the buyer can say everything was as expected and release the payment?

Not to mention my favorite eBay feature, the ratings. I can give you a review, or you can give me one as long as they're positive! How is that a rating system? Everyone is perfect!!
 
Lowflynjack said:
I've grown to hate eBay and only use it when I have to. They still have the biggest audience when you're trying to sell something, so sometimes it's the best option.

I just auctioned a Garmin aera 796. A guy won it, but hasn't paid. Maybe something has happened to this guy, so I'm not mad at him, but eBay makes this a real pain.
  • I listed the GPS for 5 days. He wins the bid. He doesn't answer me or respond to my invoice.
  • I have to wait two full days to file a case with eBay.
  • They keep the case open 5 days before they decide if they will refund my listing fees!
  • I can offer the item to the person who lost the bid.
  • If they don't take it, I can list it again for another 5 days and try again.
Even if you sell something and everything goes well, you're treated like a criminal and can't have your money for weeks. Why not have an option where the buyer can say everything was as expected and release the payment?

Not to mention my favorite eBay feature, the ratings. I can give you a review, or you can give me one as long as they're positive! How is that a rating system? Everyone is perfect!!
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Agreed. I only buy on ebay now no longer sell. I had one item that two separate buyers didnt pay. Such a pain in the butt and you generally lose money each time its relisted. I looked into what happens to people that don't pay and its essentially nothing. Ebay has become so unbelievably buyer friendly and seller hostile that I choose not to sell anything.
 
I used to sell my old cell phones on eBay. My last couple transactions have been horrible. At least 3 or 4 buyers in a row that didn’t pay. One wanted me to cover shipping to Europe, even though I had the shipping calculator on the listing. Another tried to scam me by putting a pending payment on my paypal account and then marking his winning bid as fraudulent so eBay would cancel the sale.

eBay needs to do a better job of account verification. None of these people care because they just open a new account for each scam. No consequences.
 
My squawk is that you pay them for an ad and then at the bottom of your ad they post a bunch of like items that may or may-not be cheaper than yours... WTF?
 
I hadn't used ebay in more than 15 years until last week. I bought a security system locally and liked it so much that I wanted to get one for dad. I MUCH prefer to shop locally, even if it costs me a little more. But in this case a new identical system on ebay is 40% less, and when you're talking $450, that's enough to get me to use ebay.

My old ebay account has long since purged and I didn't feel like creating a new one so it was a pleasant surprise that they've finally added a guest checkout and I can use a debit card instead of paypal. IIRC, that was why I left ebay 15 years ago - they tried to force me to use paypal, something I didn't have and didn't want.

I didn't know they'd eliminated negative feedback. You're right, talk about skewered results. Sounds like Enron's move to mark-to-market accounting.
 
I was planing to sell some of my old pocket watches on Ebay, since I don't wear them much anymore. Perhaps I should rethink that approach...
 
One way to avoid issues is to list as buy it now and require immediate payment when listing an item. that way Noone can buy unless they pay first.
 
There's no reason to wait. Just go ahead and re-list it as a new ad.

If no one takes the 2nd chance offer, then you've saved time at least.
 
Bonchie said:
There's no reason to wait. Just go ahead and re-list it as a new ad.

If no one takes the 2nd chance offer, then you've saved time at least.
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What if the original buyer comes through? I guess I just cancel the listing.
 
FORANE said:
One way to avoid issues is to list as buy it now and require immediate payment when listing an item. that way Noone can buy unless they pay first.
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I didn't know that was an option. I added "Buy It Now" but thought if they didn't use that option it didn't matter. I'll check it out.
 
When selling on E-Bay use the "Reserve not met" feature set it so high no one wins. then contact the highest bidder privately.
 
Lowflynjack said:
Not to mention my favorite eBay feature, the ratings. I can give you a review, or you can give me one as long as they're positive! How is that a rating system? Everyone is perfect!!
Click to expand...

Correction. Sellers cannot leave negative feedback to buyers. However, buyers can leave negative feedback to sellers. As a matter of fact, I just dinged one last night.

If you think eBay is bad, try Craigslist. I just gave away a perfectly functioning fridge for free. 3 people still flaked out on it. Then there's the old grill I gave away for free. I put it on the curb and told the recipient to come and get it. Got home and found all the bits he didn't want strewn about on my yard.
 
This is a very confused rant. Obviously the ranter is passionate about the topic but bemoans his own inability to avoid a situation. He voluntarily puts himself in the position of needing to rant. Finally the rant is in flightfollowing rather than hangar talk. Difficult to appreciate a rant of this nature. 3/10 because it’s a Friday.
 
Lowflynjack said:
I didn't know that was an option. I added "Buy It Now" but thought if they didn't use that option it didn't matter. I'll check it out.
Click to expand...
You can also list an item as having both an auction bid button and Buy It Now button.
 
Clark1961 said:
This is a very confused rant. Obviously the ranter is passionate about the topic but bemoans his own inability to avoid a situation. He voluntarily puts himself in the position of needing to rant. Finally the rant is in flightfollowing rather than hangar talk. Difficult to appreciate a rant of this nature. 3/10 because it’s a Friday.
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This is a very confusing rant about my rant. Clearly the poster has nothing good to add, but still feels the group will benefit from his comments! "Look at me, I can make a snide comment on the internet."

I'm complaining because they don't treat you like a customer, even though your sales are what keeps them going. I'm at an inconvenience because I can't say anything bad about the buyer, even though he's the one that didn't follow their rules. I would avoid the situation if there was a better service, that reached as many people as eBay does. I think they've become complacent. Everyone uses them, why change?
 
There doesn't seem to be any good way to deal with a nonpaying customer. I had an item for sale. Guy bid a great price and then didn't pay. When I contacted him (a pilot), it was "oh, I didn't mean to bid on that." Eventually relisted and is sold for about 20% less. Put in a complaint. Never heard anything about it.

The other one which irks me a little is that product reviews time out, but wanting a review right away, before you discover something is actually a piece of crap, is pretty standard in online sales (not Amazon, fortunately)
 
midlifeflyer said:
The other one which irks me a little is that product reviews time out, but wanting a review right away, before you discover something is actually a piece of crap, is pretty standard in online sales (not Amazon, fortunately)
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Agree with this one.

I also think you should give the buyer a couple of days to say if the product was as advertised and was a good sale. If they say yes, release my money. If they don't respond in two days, release my money. According to their website, I've got 100% satisfaction!
 
I’ve made at least a hundred sales or purchases on eBay over the years. Most recently the sale of an iPhone 6+ and a broken MacBook Pro.

I’ve had maybe 2 issues, neither of which ended up costing me money.

I think that’s pretty good odds overall.
 
FastEddieB said:
I’ve made at least a hundred sales or purchases on eBay over the years. Most recently the sale of an iPhone 6+ and a broken MacBook Pro.

I’ve had maybe 2 issues, neither of which ended up costing me money.

I think that’s pretty good odds overall.
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Me to. But it is interesting that that last two sales I made ran into trouble. So maybe it's getting worse.
 
Lowflynjack said:
I didn't know that was an option. I added "Buy It Now" but thought if they didn't use that option it didn't matter. I'll check it out.
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Yes you are correct but even with a buy it now they don't have to pay when clicking buy it now UNLESS when you list the item you click the require immediate payment button.

I suggest not listing as an auction and listing solely as a buy it now with require immediate payment.
 
Lowflynjack said:
This is a very confusing rant about my rant. Clearly the poster has nothing good to add, but still feels the group will benefit from his comments! "Look at me, I can make a snide comment on the internet."

I'm complaining because they don't treat you like a customer, even though your sales are what keeps them going. I'm at an inconvenience because I can't say anything bad about the buyer, even though he's the one that didn't follow their rules. I would avoid the situation if there was a better service, that reached as many people as eBay does. I think they've become complacent. Everyone uses them, why change?
Click to expand...
It a joke son, a joke I say. I am POA’s self appointed rant critic. It all started with Sac ranting about sports critics.

Anyway, your rant doesn’t belong in flightfollowing.
 
Clark1961 said:
It a joke son, a joke I say. I am POA’s self appointed rant critic. It all started with Sac ranting about sports critics.

Anyway, your rant doesn’t belong in flightfollowing.
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I wasn't mad, but 3/10 kind of hurt! I can rant with the best of them.
 
I used to sell a lot on eBay. They raised the cost of selling high enough that I just quit several years ago. All of the other changes they have made since are bad for sellers, in my humble opinion. I leave feedback for buyers... NOT ONE leaves feedback for me, and I can no longer remind them or ask them to do it. If you take payment via PayPal (which most people insist upon) you're down nearly 15% already, between eBay and PP. And of course everyone now expects free shipping.

I'll only list stuff on Fleabay if I know I won't be able to sell it locally, and there's not a subject-specific forum where I can sell it. Airplane parts -- no. Fancy PCB mount 2-color LED illuminated pushbutton switches or a few excess tubes of 28-pin sockets, yes - but only if it's the last resort before I toss it and there are no local hams interested.
 
I rant about people ranting about other people’s rants.

Just to contribute: Craigslist is also getting to be near useless. I know others have had better luck on Facebook’s marketplace (I’m not on FB, but a friend and my wife rave about selling on it).
 
Clark1961 said:
It a joke son, a joke I say. I am POA’s self appointed rant critic. It all started with Sac ranting about sports critics.

Anyway, your rant doesn’t belong in flightfollowing.
Click to expand...

455 Bravo Uniform said:
I rant about people ranting about other people’s rants...
Click to expand...

I was going to suggest a course on proper rant technique and form might be in order for some of us PoAers. With Professor Sac Arrow presiding of course...
 
So, eBay says you have 48 hours to pay before the seller can open a claim. After the claim is filed, the buyer has 96 hours to pay. If they don't pay, eBay puts a strike against them for a year. If they get two strikes, most sellers have a block that won't allow them to bid. I learned something new!

In my case, the buyer has now messaged me that he will pay me today. We'll see.
 
I sell most things on Amazon when I know what it's worth and don't mind it sitting for a long while, sometimes even shipping to amazon and letting them ship it if I have a batch of stuff to sell.

On the ebay side I've enabled every single option you can as a seller, all the things like "don't allow bids from countries I don't accept payment from" "don't allow bids from people with unpaid strikes" "automatically open dispute after X days on non-payment" I also don't ship out of the US and my paypal account blocks out of country payments too, don't care if I can get 10% more but every out of country bidder has always seemed like a fraud waiting to happen. And of course I have 2 items to list this weekend(maybe more as I clean the garage...) sigh.
 
Even as a buyer, I've had problems from time-to-time. Probably 90-95% of the sellers are good, the rest marginal or bad. Some of the stories of eBay not standing up for buyers are legendary. I've had issues with folks sending stuff "not as advertised" or pictured, at least two that sent pirated software (listed as "new in box"), and one that advertised "full unrestricted edition, new in box" that was an opened box of "for sale to military and veteran customers only" software.

Even a few dings against a seller these days make me suspicious, given the problems of dealing with eBay as a company.
 
asicer said:
Correction. Sellers cannot leave negative feedback to buyers. However, buyers can leave negative feedback to sellers.
Click to expand...
Ah, didn't know that was a rule now, good to know, thanks.
I remember from years ago where sellers would blackmail buyers, demanding a positive review asap otherwise they would leave a negative review for the buyer. fleaBay's policy clearly didn't allow this but fleaBay management did not enforce this (I assume they didn't give a sh*t about buyers since sellers are the ones paying their salaries)

I too have not sold anything on fleaBay in a long time, I don't have the patience with retarded monkeys.
 
FlySince9 said:
My wife does about $1000 in sales a month on Ebay... Rarely runs into issues with her customers
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Good for her. I've got a friend that sells somewhere in that vicinity on fleaBay - she's been stalked and doxxed repeatedly by one bidder.....
 
Lowflynjack said:
In my case, the buyer has now messaged me that he will pay me today. We'll see.
Click to expand...





wimpy1.jpg


I will gladly pay you Tuesday.....
 
Lowflynjack said:
What if the original buyer comes through? I guess I just cancel the listing.
Click to expand...

You have the option of canceling a sale based on the item being out of stock. If you are going to do another 5 day auction anyway, just relist it now. If your original buyer comes through, you end the auction early and cancel it.
 
I've had decent success selling stuff on ebay. I've actually sold two airplanes (one ultralight and one experimental) as well as some airplane parts. Only one non paying buyer (for the experimental), relisted and sold it to somebody else.

For stuff too heavy to ship, I've sold on craigslist. Yes, people are notorious for not showing. My policy there is I don't wait around, I only schedule a pickup time if I'm going to be home anyway, and I tell people to call me when they're leaving and I give my address only then.
 
Have purchased several boat parts,without any problems,was considering selling an airplane ,but gave up that idea.
 
Ebay is horrible for sellers. They've jacked up all the fees, and made it lean way too much in favor of the "buyers". They practically facilitate people stealing from you.
 
I buy and sell on EBay. No problems at all with buyers, several problems with sellers trying to scam me.
 
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