Distance Selling Regulations and Ebay!

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Later this year from Autumn eBay will require certain sellers to use the process with the view that over time all business sellers will do so.

This was part of the seller spring update, full details on returns here:

http://sellerupdate.ebay.co.uk/spring2014/managed-returns

Sellers can use it now but there is a question of abuse as the program also covers change of mind but the buyer pays for the return and the concern is some buyers may say the item is not as described to avoid paying for a change of mind return, for this reason (and maybe other reasons such as it's too expensive at the moment) some sellers may not use it until forced to.

theoretica

Just to add for clarity that the Distance Selling Regulations do not apply to auctions, but should to buy it now purchases from a business seller.

RFW

theoretica wrote: »

Just to add for clarity that the Distance Selling Regulations do not apply to auctions, but should to buy it now purchases from a business seller.

It's actually one of the situations where Ebay give more than the law as the majority of the time Ebay treat auctions and fixed price items the same as far as consumer rights go.

theonlywayisup

Knowyourrightsandusethem wrote: »

Yep, I'd like to get the support of somebody who is high profile, has the resources and the required knowledge to get EBay to clean up their act. That's been my sole intention from the outset! - You see, not a rant. - An intention to try to 'stimulate' a positive outcome.:rotfl:

Perhaps the first objective would have been to establish if there is an issue.

You had no need to 'stimulate a positive outcome' when one was already planned.

Pierre_De_Grenoble

Knowyourrightsandusethem wrote: »

Yep, I'd like to get the support of somebody who is high profile, has the resources and the required knowledge to get EBay to clean up their act. That's been my sole intention from the outset! - You see, not a rant. - An intention to try to 'stimulate' a positive outcome.:rotfl:

I regret to say that posting on this forum will not achieve your aim. There are other sites/fora such as "tamebay" that ebay do watch but take no notice of anyways long term..


Ebay really don't care about anything raised on fora such as here..


their CEO is on record as regarding it as "noise"

Knowyourrightsandusethem

This comes to me as no surprise whatsoever. My own (fortunately rare) experiences of being on the end of poor EBay policies have been that they really don't give a toss (and why would they- they have built a very successful monopoly.)

My aim was never to expect EBay to look in and take any notice of a posting on here. I acknowledged from the outset that I am a mere 'minnow.' - I would like to see them'forced' to clean up their act in the UK by some high profile consumer rights organisation. Some bad publicity wouldn't go amiss either. - I doubt that even Max Clifford would now believe that there is no such thing as bad publicity.:rotfl:

RFW

Knowyourrightsandusethem wrote: »

This comes to me as no surprise whatsoever. My own (fortunately rare) experiences of being on the end of poor EBay policies have been that they really don't give a toss (and why would they- they have built a very successful monopoly.)

You don't appear to be a seller so why would you consider Ebay to have a monopoly and of what do they have one? Last time I checked there were several other websites you could buy stuff from.

Knowyourrightsandusethem

RFW wrote: »

You don't appear to be a seller so why would you consider Ebay to have a monopoly and of what do they have one? Last time I checked there were several other websites you could buy stuff from.

OK perhaps 'Monolopy' is not exactly the correct term to use if we want to be pedantic instead of 'generalising', in which case I apologise again most profusely once again to anybody considering the forum to be an 'on line higher education for the English language' as opposed to a place for 'chat'. And again, I would like to highlight in the clearest terms possible if indeed I wasn't exactly throrough in my choice of words;) (Being new to the forum could anybody please point me in the direction of the appropriate section of the forum for apologies and admissions of failure a guilt )

Anyway, back to the point, - whilst I am aware that there are other 'on line' auction sites that I have tried, none of those that I have tried are as 'slick' as EBay. Additionally, through time and 'marketing' I would think that like me, most people automatically think of EBay when they think of on line shopping. I have no doubt that somewhere there is likely to be a survey which 'may' (careful choice of word) prove this to be the case.

Other similar sites are just not so professional, easy to navigate etc. etc. So for anybody that may have been thinking that I may just anti EBay, that's not the case. I just personally, believe that they should be forced to clean up their act in the UK in terms of supporting buyers on the wrong end of unscrupulous sellers and as some other multi nationals making a huge amount of money from the UK, pay an appropriate amount of tax:money:

ballisticbrian

To me though, the law is there to protect in cases when you really need it often when big deals go badly wrong, and people being pedantic about 99p to return an item, are really as bad as people that take something back to a high street shop, complain and then say they want the £1.50 car park ticket and 75p for the petrol it cost to take the item back. You'll never get it in the high street.
However, you are happy enough to take all of the benefits of online shopping and the convenience of your arm chair shopping experience and it arrives through your letter box without the need for Petrol and waiting around in traffic jams.


Something seems to blinker people to their own costs (once had a guy want to drive from Brighton to Dunstable for a 3.99 item "to save on postage"), but are extremely sensitive to postal costs - like they think they are not getting service for the money but it is being wasted somehow.


Some may slate me for this post, go ahead. The law is the law, I'm not denying it. I am purely stating that using it to nit pick small eBay items was not the spirit behind the law. And at the end of the day, eBay don't have your money for the return , which is why they can't enforce it.

RFW

Knowyourrightsandusethem wrote: »

Additionally, through time and 'marketing' I would think that like me, most people automatically think of EBay when they think of on line shopping.

I'm quite surprised by that. I use Ebay every day but it certainly isn't the first or only place I look when shopping online. I use Amazon far more as a buyer but also use lots of other websites.
Ebay's online sales share is vast but percentage wise it is quite small, somewhere around 10% in the UK when last I saw any figures.