Pitting problem eBay users

The BBQ Pit
1

I admit it, I’ve been an eBay addict since 1997. I’ve used it for thousands of transactions, and, once upon a time, championed it as a source of Good Things. No longer. Over the last years I’ve had nothing but problem transaction after problem transaction, and I’m finally fed up to the point I’m taking a nice, long hiatus from on-line actions. So …

I pit eBay sellers who charge undisclosed “handling fees” and them short-cut packing materials, shipping, everything to make an extra buck. I particularly love the recent dodge of charging $3.85 (the flat rate one pound priority mail rate) to ship a tiny item, then throwing it into an envelope and mailing it for 60 cents. When the item (inevitably) breaks, the buyer is told that the extra is “handling fees.” Sure… their handling fees just so happen to be the exact amount necessary to mislead buyers into thinking they’re getting priority mail. Sure.

I pit the eBay seller who took a handful of rare miniature porcelain dogs, set them in the middle of a sheet of bubble wrap, wadded the whole thing into a lump, crammed into the tiniest box imaginable, shipped the whole thing first class for $1.06, and charged me $7 for the privilege of opening a boxful of broken pieces. This level of “service” is getting increasingly common, and I’m sick of it. Something like 25-30% of the items I’ve purchased over the last six months have arrived simiarly packed and damaged, even though I send sellers a link to packing instructions, and offer to send my own materials if needed.

I pit eBay itself for protecting non-paying bidders at the expense of sellers. It’s WAY too difficult to get kicked off for being an NPB, and often sellers are afraid even to file because the buyer will often retaliate by leaving negative feedback.

I pit sellers who photograph an item at the exact angle necessary to disguise damage, describe the item as “mint,” and then get nasty when a buyer receives the item and politely points out the (really obvious in person, up to and including missing pieces on a figurine) problem.

I pit sellers who insist on payment within a very short amount of time, then take a month OR MORE before they get around to shipping. Almost inevitably, these are the same sellers who also insist on PayPal or other online payments, so they don’t get to use the “delayed in the mail” excuse.

Related are the people who hold a check for three to four weeks before shipping. Can they be that ignorant of recent U.S. banking law changes that results in checks clearing quickly?

I have HAD it!!! I’ve been both a buyer and a seller, so I know all the excuses and buy none of them. Yes, things can and do go wrong, but there amicable ways to resolve all of them - but so few people bother to try to act professionally that I’m not sure it’s worth my while to find the few who do.

:mad: :mad: :eek:

2

So Far I’ve had good luck with items arriving packaged properly. But WHY can’t the damn sellers ever be bothered to answer questions?

I was very interested in something an Aussie selller had, but wanted to make sure that the shipping wasn’t going to break me. I asked her several days before the bid ended, and again a few days before it ended, and then again a few more times just up to the bid ending, hoping to get an answer.

Nothing, I ended up not bidding on it. Several times I’ve asked simple questions about the items themselves, and always several days before the end of the bid. Only about 1 out of 5 sellers answers.

3

My biggest complaint comes as a buyer. I buy at least 10 to 12 items a year off of eBay. I always pay within 24 hours of winning the auction. Why is it then that the damn seller waits until I put in feedback before they do? My part of the transaction has already been completed. You’ve received your payment. I am not going to leave you positive feedback until I have the item and am happy with it and until you leave me feedback.

Oh, and e-mailing me and threatening to leave me negative feedback if I don’t leave you, the seller whom I’ve already paid, positive feedback just serves to anger me more and put you on my blacklist.

4

I have to agree. I was the winning bidder on an item that closed on 12/3. I paid immediately. I got charged $8 for shipping, the guy didn’t ship it until 12/18 (and shipping cost him $2.50), but the worst is that he shipped it to me at work at an address I didn’t even know existed rather than the address I supplied! I am lucky I got the item at all, but it didn’t come close to getting to me in time for Christmas, which was what I wanted it for. :mad:

5

A couple of years ago, I bought a replacement power supply for an old laptop. The auction ended on Saturday night. I got an email Monday morning wondering where the payment was!

As for selling, I sold a resin model last year. It had already gotten a few bids when I realized the packaging may have been misleading. I posted a correction to the auction and even sent emails to the bidders explaining the error and told them I would understand if they retracted their bids. Neither did, but I felt better having informed them. The item sold anyway.

6

Because, unfortunately, many buyers wait until the seller leaves positive feedback, THEN slam them with a negative or some truly ridiculous complaint (my personal favorite was the person who didn’t like the factory paint job on the underside of one hoof of a toy figurine. Seriously). As a seller, I tell my buyers that I don’t consider a transaction complete until they have received the item and are satisfied. I do specify that I look forward to leaving them a positive once I know everything’s OK, so at least they know why they may not get feedback immediately.

But threatening to leave a negative because you haven’t left them a positive?! That’s a new one. :confused: What a tremendously stupid way to piss off a buyer who might otherwise have been pleased.

7

I’m wondering if the OP is checking the feedback of these sellers. I find it hard to believe that those people are doing all that stuff and never getting any negative feedback. I absolutely won’t buy from anyone with a substantial number of negatives. I also won’t bid on anything that doesn’t indicate what the shipping rate will be - not until the seller gives me an answer. The only times I’ve been ripped-off on eBay were when I didn’t heed the seller’s feedback profile.

I’m not aware of any rule that says the seller is required to leave feedback first. In most cases, they will be reluctant to leave positive feedback until they have some indication that you have received the item and are happy with it. Once they leave positive feedback for you, they can’t change it. They’re probably afraid that you will leave a negative because of some problem that was out of their control, or could have been easily resolved, or for no reason at all, and that they will have already given you a positive. A common comment I see in seller’s profiles is something to the effect of, “Buyer posted negative before even contacting me. I would have been happy to give a refund.”

Oh, well that IS wrong. That’s got to be against eBay’s rules, I would think.

8

Believe me, I check the feedback ratings religiously. Unfortunately, within the area of collectibles I deal in, most buyers won’t leave negatives because the sellers will retaliate. In fact, two of the worst sellers I know of, with dozens of problem transactions (up to and including outright fraud) each that I’m personally aware of, have almost perfectly clean feedback records because of their notorious “take no prisoners” approach used on the few who spoke up. (Which includes retaliation committed off eBay, but that’s another story altogether). I used to run a web site dedicated to a particular brand of collectibles, and the similarity of the stories I used to hear were striking. Word travels, but often too slowly, and I know people who were out hundreds of dollars on a single transaction but afraid to say anything publicly.

Even if shipping rates are stated up front, there’s nothing to prevent a seller from using first class even if the auction stated they would use priority mail, or for charging a fee for packing materials and using the cheapest, shoddiest, obviously inadequate materials available.

9

My favorite is charging upwards of $5 to ship a CD. A CD??? That’s like $2 TOPS. Give me a break! And I’ve seen CD shipping charges of $8 and more.

I do a fair amount of buying and selling, and right in my item title I put “low shipping” and in the description I put “Don’t buy from sellers who gouge on shipping- I only charge xx amount (if it’s an amount I know) or actual shipping to your zip code.”

I always ship within a day or two of getting payment, and if it’s going to be any longer then that, I upgrade the shipping at my own cost. I hate dishonest sellers in the worst way.

I hope that when that happens, you note it in their feedback (when possible). Even if they leave you a retaliatory feedback, you can leave a note for anyone who sees it that says “retaliatory feedback-shipping gouger” or something.

I love how E-bay works, but the very nature of it invites dishonest assholes. I have a list of favorite sellers and I pretty much stick right with it now.

10

Tell you what guys, buy stuff from me! :slight_smile:

As a seller I:

  1. Make sure items are packaged properly.
  2. Reply promptly to questions.
  3. Give accurate descriptions of items.
  4. I ship items usually no later than the next day after payment is received.
  5. Clearly state shipping charges and methods.
  6. Leave feedback after buyer has paid (as far as I’m concerned, once they’ve paid, they’ve completed their part of the bargain).

And you know what? It really ain’t that hard.

Fortunately I haven’t had too many problems with buyers. I’ve had only one NPB (already reported) and possibly another currently. One item was lost or at least the buyer said they never received it. I issued a refund as it was a low-cost item, but I’m thinking about revising my shipping to include an insurance-or-no-refund-if-lost policy. Not my fault if it gets lost. Another item, a CD, was scratched (for some reason I didn’t catch it prior to selling it). Gave the buyer a refund and he returned the disc. In both cases (the lost item and the scratched CD) I still received positive feedback due to my handling of the situations.

Not trying to toot my own horn so much as to show that there are still honest sellers out there! :slight_smile:

11

I just want to speak as a seller on this:

I charge a flat $5 fee to ship almost anything. Priority mail is (I think, it’s been a few months since I put anything up) $4.35 for up to a pound, and delivery confirmation is 40 cents. I have had bidders email me and ask why I can’t ship first class or media mail, and I’m honest with them as to why. I take everything to my local post office and each and every item is weighed and checked for zip code. If a bidder wants first class shipping because it’s cheaper, I have to go to the post office with their zip code and the item and have it weighed and priced, then email them back with a shipping quote. And I can’t use delivery confirmation with first class or media mail, leaving me wide open to claims that the buyer didn’t receive the item. When I have items up, I usually have lots of items, and I’m damned if I’m going to weigh each and every item for each and every potential buyer. Additionally, probably half of what I ship weighs more than a pound (a wool skirt in a plus size is a perfect example), and I end up paying on average $5.35 per package. And say I do all the above and the bidder sees three more of my CDs on auction, and decides to buy them - then after the auction complains because I told them the shipping was only $2, when four CDs would cost more than that to ship. Incidentally, I will combine shipping, as will most sellers - if it all fits in one box and doesn’t get too weighty, I see no reason to make a buyer pay separate shipping costs.

If I know in advance that an item I’m selling is particularly heavy, I will up my flat fee to $10. I am SO not making a profit on shipping. People who buy a single sheet of sheet music from me can either pay the $5 shipping cost or buy from another seller. And when I bid, I take the shipping into consideration as part of the price of the item.

Postage prices are never going to go down - so I just do my best to be reasonably fair.

12

Sorry to hear that. In the area I buy & sell, there’s definitely feedback “inflation”, but generally if someone has done a lot of business, and has a habit of screwing people, there will be at least some negatives on their record. As far as I’m concerned, if they don’t have a rating in the high-90s, percentage-wise, I’m gonna be very skeptical. But yeah, if their record looks really clean and they still rip you off, I don’t blame you for not wanting to use eBay.

The problem is one of pragmatism. Let’s say I sell a lot of stuff. Every negative point on my record is going to mean fewer customers. If I deal with a rotten person, I know there’s a good chance that if I leave bad feedback, that they will retaliate. So really, you’re cutting your OWN throat when you leave bad feedback for other people. It’s really bad business sense to do it, and I think a lot of people have trouble justifying doing something that’s good for the system, but is bad for them individually in the short-term.

13

Which is exactly what I do. There’s no way I’d pay $5 to ship a sheet of music. I think that whatever the actual motivation, it looks like money grubbing to me. All I can think is “Hey, way to score an extra $4 on your sale, pal” when I see that. That’s why I move along elsewhere.

14

So you’ll forgive buyers if they’ll be damned if they’ll buy from someone who can’t be bothered to work out the correct shipping rate?

With your MO, I would be surprised if this figure didn’t hit nearer 100% when buyers of lighter items refuse to be overcharged on their shipping - what will you do then?

In the eyes of the buyers, you are - they don’t have the overview of your shipping costs that you do, nor would they necessarily be willing to pay more so another customer can pay less. :rolleyes:

In fact, you’re doing the opposite.

15

Wow! I certainly didn’t expect to get pitted for explaining my reasoning.

I’m sorry if I sound unreasonable. I’ve been a Power Seller on eBay for a long time, and I have had truly minimal complaints about my shipping. I probably should have said that I have been willing to make exceptions and that I have 99.9% positive feedback as a seller (my one negative was from a buyer who claimed he hadn’t received his purchase, when in fact I had delivery confirmation for it AND he has several negatives from other sellers that all say things along the lines of “he says he didn’t receive this item, but I have delivery confirmation.”)

16

Count me in as not getting why the seller waits until the buyer has left feedback. I mean, we as the buyer pay, and pay quickly, OUR part of the bargain is over. Please put the feedback there for us, particularly if you can see that we have a good rating and don’t go around slamming sellers for no reason.

And what a tacky thing to do, the horse hoof incident just sounds petty, what a nasty thing to do to you.

One of the things that bugs the devil out of me is the ones that can’t seem to understand that yes, Hawaii and Alaska are actually states, and that we too send items to “the states” or the “lower 48”. We’re not stupid, we KNOW it doesn’t take twice as much postage, usually it’s a dollar or two more, depending upon the item.

Particularly when we recieve things from your fellow ebay sellers who give us the correct postage.

17

Excellent point, I do make it a point to check out their feedback profiles. The ones I have the biggest complaints about are generally the ones I email with questions and haven’t actually gotten to the bid phase with, and a few who waited til I received the item to leave me feedback. That didn’t really make me mad, but I did kinda wonder why, I mean, I pay the second the bidding process is over as a general rule.

I want my ebay stars dammit :smiley:

18

Do tell! My YIM is always available for offline messages, I’d love a warning against this type. If that’s acceptable that is, since we’re keeping actual names etc off of the dope.

19

Wow, okay then. Only one thing I need, do you sell Wheaton or Old Jersey Glass? Particularly the violin and banjo vases?

Some BITCH keeps outbidding me on the best colors!!! :mad:

:smiley:

20

Well, erm, no I don’t :o

Mostly DVDs with the odd CD/graphic novel/book. :slight_smile:

FWIW, I do make a small profit on shipping - I mail single DVDs (mostly what I sell) via First Class Shipping. I charge $3.00. FC shipping averages $1.50 but I mail the discs in Jiffy padded envelopes and I always insert something into the DVD case to keep the disc on its hub. Plus there’s the time spent going to and waiting in line at the Post Office. It’s a buyer’s market right now so I don’t feel too guilty about the profit on shipping as the buyers generally get a good deal on their purchases.