eBay Buyers/Sellers IMPORTANT

giveithere

EBAY STRIKE 01MAY08

As both a buyer and seller on eBay, I felt it important to give this little snippet a bit of exposure. Its from this weeks Sunday Times (20Apr08) and the url is:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3779829.ece

As you will see this is my first posting on here but feel so incensed about these 'bully boy' tactics being enforced by our biggest on-line auctioneer and its payment processor, PayPal.

I think if you take the time read the article do a bit googling you will find that eBay is not quite the amazing website it claims. The general gripes are primarily as sellers, we can no longer leave negative or even neutral feedback AT ALL!!! As buyers, we have to wait 3 days before leaving a negative feedback.

When you now search for an item, eBay is currently 'sifting' through the list of items for sale and is giving preference to sellers with good reputations and/or a feedback score of 100 or more. Its no longer YOUR choice, its being dictated to YOU by eBay!!!! On the outset, good, but hardly a fair market place......, and certainly NOT what eBay was built upon!

There are numerous other changes but users are planning a one day boycott on May 1st.

PLEASE do your bit to keep eBay a marketplace for all and not just the big established boys. There are tens of thousands of us out here trying to make a living on eBay and it just got a whole lot harder - consequently from May 1st I personally have a average price increase on my sales of about 10-15%!!!!

Please don't just look at eBay as your ONLY auction site, compare them to the other smaller but still established sites such as eBid or CQout. Sellers will list on other sites at a less price as the commission is lower!

Brooker_Dave

giveithere wrote: »

EBAY STRIKE 01MAY08

As both a buyer and seller on eBay, I felt it important to give this little snippet a bit of exposure. Its from this weeks Sunday Times (20Apr08) and the url is:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3779829.ece

Ebay needs some better PR people...

soolin

This is what the third or fourth strike this year?

Brooker_Dave

soolin wrote: »

This is what the third or fourth strike this year?

2nd?

It's the negative publicity in the mainstream media which will actually hurt ebay far more than any strikes.

soolin

There's definitely been two already but all that happened is that many sellers just took advantage of the fewer listings and uploaded huge amounts.

System

Paypal will hold all money for 21 days or until positive feedback is given to the buyer. If no claim after 21 days you get the money.

I am a 100% positive feedback ebayer and I live in fear of negative comments. Buyers have threatened me with negative feedback and have cornered me into giving full refunds and letting them keep items.

StaffsSW

candyflossing wrote: »

Paypal will hold all money for 21 days or until positive feedback is given to the buyer. If no claim after 21 days you get the money.

Only in a very few selected cases - new sellers, with low or no dsr ratings selling in a high risk category. DO NOT believe the hype around this change - it's not going to affect many people at all.

I am a 100% positive feedback ebayer and I live in fear of negative comments. Buyers have threatened me with negative feedback and have cornered me into giving full refunds and letting them keep items.

Simply report them for feedback extortion - if you have the emails, forward them to ebay - There is more information on it here - http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/feedback-extortion.html By refunding without a fight, then you are guilty of encouraging such behaviour from rogue buyers.

I too was initially worried about the feedback changes and being held to ransom, but in reality, the vast majority of buyers are "good" and from over 6000 sales, and around 500 or so purchases, I can honestly say that no more than maybe 25 or 30 have been "non positive" in some way or another. Yes, I've had a few unjustified (aren't they always!!) neutrals, I've had my only 2 negs removed as seller, left one negative feedback as a buyer, and left about a dozen negs for non-payment. On top of that, maybe 20 items I've posted have "not arrived", but it was my choice to send them untracked and I was aware of the risk.

Premier_2

They're the rules!

If we didn't have rules where would we be? France

If we had too many rules where would we be? Germany

... and if you don't like the ebay rules? ... list your items elsewhere!
Oh, there isn't anywhere else that gets audience of eBay. Perhaps eBay is as amazing as it claims!

(Apologies to Al Murray!)

Or put another way:
Their gaff, their rules!

System

The main problem is the buyers who claim that they haven't received items. Also, Royal Mail charges too much for recorded delivery. Neither myself nor my buyers will be willing to pay for it.

custardy

candyflossing wrote: »

The main problem is the buyers who claim that they haven't received items. Also, Royal Mail charges too much for recorded delivery. Neither myself nor my buyers will be willing to pay for it.

70p? pays your money,you takes your choice,
if 70p is too high then use a courier

Premier_2

Recorded delivery now costs 72p (in addition to the normal postage charge) - that was something else that went up on April 7th