ebay: Totally immoral abuse of power

PolishBigSpender

EdBrown wrote: »

1. Although listing fees have seen some reduction, fees based on the final selling value for private sellers is now a whopping 10%, a huge commission rate for a selling service which mostly fully computerised.

So. Who pays for the computers, who pays for the computers to be online, who looks after the computers and so on? Magic fairies?

If you don't like it, use someone else.

soolin

Arnie_Mac wrote: »

How's this for customer service. I sent goods to Israel costing me £66 postage. I told the buyer that via royal mail surface it could take up to 12 weeks, as per website. After only 5 weeks he started moaning and filed a dispute with paypal. I sent them the proof of posting and receipt but they immediately took the £184 out of my account leaving it £145 in the red. The result of this is they hold you to ransom. Unless I pay in enough money to put me back in the black all my current sale items default and the buyers have to send me cheques, having been frustrated by trying to pay paypal a number times. Even better as they cannot pay into my account thanks to the idiots in paypal, I cannot resolve the negative balance. If they had allowed payments in I could have resolved this weeks ago. As it is if I transfer funds from my bank account it will take 7 - 9 days to clear. I disputed the buyers claim several times with no effect. Paypal simply quote policy about how you need tracking information. All good and well but the buyer came back last week and acknowledged he did receive the goods. Hurrah you think, justice, he can pay the money back and resolve the negaitve balance. Oh no, paypal don't bother to contact him and he cannot pay it into my account for the aforementioned reasons. I have emailed them countless times telling them to contact the buyer, but just get a rubbish automated response quoting their policies. The good news is I now have my money, no thanks whatsoever to paypal, who are absolutely useless. I have been using them for over 6 years and they treated me like a common criminal. I have had no apology and my account remains unusable. I'm not paying in money from my bank account, when they could have resolved this weeks ago. I know this is a bit long and rambly but if you know any other companies I can use in stead then I would be grateful., as receiving cheques in the post is not the best way forward. Arnie

Simply reading and understanding the rules would have saved you the loss. You did so much wrong it is difficult to know where to start with advice:

1) You are the seller and YOU need the protection, so surface mail is no good at all as a paypal chargeback can be opened as early as day 7 from payment.
2) Proof of posting is no good agaianst a chargeback for item not received, it never has bene and probably never will. If your Tesco order didn't arrive one day would you write it off because Tesco say they have proof they loaded it onto a van?
3) Refusing paypal and asking for cheques instead will get you suspended, no argument.
4) Did you bother to read the RM policies about postal requirements, are you aware that all standard post in the UK and overseas is only covered against loss up to £39? If so why didn't you use a tracked service and pay extra to protect yourself against a chargeback.

Some points really, never ever let a buyer dictate postage terms to you, you have to stand the loss if something goes astraty so protect yourself.

Read the basic ebay , paypal and RM policies. You appear to be using all three services with no basic understanding of them and this is dangerous.

Without paypal you can no longer use ebay as a seller, so looking for a new payment emthod is no good. You will need to find a new auction site instead.

Unless you resolve your paypal problem they will pass the debt to debt collectors and that soon starts to run up huge extra costs.

My main problem with ebay and paypal has always been that they advertise it as a simple and easy place to sell for anyone, this is so not true.Unless people are the sort that read at least the basic terms and conditions when they sign up and agree to them they should avoid ebay and paypal entirely.

hoyles10

I do think it's a bit harsh that you can't charge for postage on certain things. I bought a book recently for 99p and the seller couldn't charge postage. When I got the book I noticed it cost them £1.64 (or there abouts) to post out to me so I contacted them and sent them the postage cost through paypal as well. I don't think it's fair that you can't charge postage for some items but they should maybe cap it so people don't get ripped off.

missymugwump

I find these days that many thing are cheaper new from other internet companies now than they are second hand on ebay

I buy but no longer sell as I think that the system is too biased to the buyer now

And I don't like being forced to use Paypal so I voted with my feet and will do a big car boot in spring

soolin

hoyles10 wrote: »

I do think it's a bit harsh that you can't charge for postage on certain things. I bought a book recently for 99p and the seller couldn't charge postage. When I got the book I noticed it cost them £1.64 (or there abouts) to post out to me so I contacted them and sent them the postage cost through paypal as well. I don't think it's fair that you can't charge postage for some items but they should maybe cap it so people don't get ripped off.

It was capped for about a year, you couldn't charge more than £2.75 per book but of course that just meant that many sellers charged £2.75 regardless.

Also no one twisted your sellers arm to make him list at 99p, he could easily have started it at a price that would have covered his postage as well. I don't understand sellers who risk 99p starts when they know that postage is going to cost them more, it's madness.

hoyles10

soolin wrote: »

It was capped for about a year, you couldn't charge more than £2.75 per book but of course that just meant that many sellers charged £2.75 regardless.

Also no one twisted your sellers arm to make him list at 99p, he could easily have started it at a price that would have covered his postage as well. I don't understand sellers who risk 99p starts when they know that postage is going to cost them more, it's madness.

You have a fair point, I think I was just in a generous mood that day. If it had cost a tenner I don't think i'd have done it though :rotfl:

MegaGun

Had sim happen to me

fantasy_dreams

soolin wrote: »

It was capped for about a year, you couldn't charge more than £2.75 per book but of course that just meant that many sellers charged £2.75 regardless.

Also no one twisted your sellers arm to make him list at 99p, he could easily have started it at a price that would have covered his postage as well. I don't understand sellers who risk 99p starts when they know that postage is going to cost them more, it's madness.

because 99p listings are free, if you sell your book at 2.75 you have to pay a listing fee.

soolin

fantasy_dreams wrote: »

because 99p listings are free, if you sell your book at 2.75 you have to pay a listing fee.

People have short memories, the free listings on 99p items only came in this year. Only a couple of years ago listing a book at 99p would have cost 15p, listing it from a £1 - £4.99 would have meant 20p plus in each case an aditional 15p for gallery.

Maybe people woild prefer we all went back to those old days. or do people truly not remember how recently these free and cheap listing costs were brought in?

I still think it is a dim seller who starts something at 99p with free postage knowing he'll make a loss purely to save a 10p listing fee?

biscit

hoyles10 wrote: »

I do think it's a bit harsh that you can't charge for postage on certain things. I bought a book recently for 99p and the seller couldn't charge postage. When I got the book I noticed it cost them £1.64 (or there abouts) to post out to me so I contacted them and sent them the postage cost through paypal as well. I don't think it's fair that you can't charge postage for some items but they should maybe cap it so people don't get ripped off.

We saw someone listing loads of textbooks for free P&P. Didn't realised P&P was banned on books- thought it was because he was a new seller and not savvy.