Comments on: eBay sellers to be banned from criticizing buyers
Online auction giant's move to ban seller feedback on customers is praised by buyers but criticized by sellers.
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FIGHT BACK - Join the Online Seller Cyber Union!
I purchased an item from someone who never sent it, who never replied to any emails, and who then ignored the emails from PayPal when I tried to get a refund. As soon as I got my money back, he left a negative feedback. So this seller tried to steal my money, and got mad when I took it back.
eBay is great about protecting the sellers... and usually leaves the buyers hanging. This isn't an ideal solution, but it's better than the lack of protection buyers had before.
I paid a seller for a shirt. Never came. Eventually, to get the seller's attention I had to file a negative feedback. BOOM, I immediately received a retaliatory negative from the seller. For a while, I dogged people who were bidding on other auctions by the same seller with the tale of this injustice, but after a while, I got tired and there was nothing eBay would do to fix it.
I suppose it's a bit naiive to say that, in some instances a paid seller can't be aggrieved, but the general rule should be - if you've been paid, you've got no complaints. When a buyer is unreasonable, perhaps there should be some seller recourse, but in a bricks-and-mortar situation, the seller would just have to smile and suck it up. Sellers always have the right to complain about non-paying bidders, and no one is suggesting that recourse be foreclosed.
So, good idea. Maybe I'll start shopping more at eBay (which, BTW, is no longer just a simple auction site).
Buyers will rejoice knowing the lowly seller who has been verified as a business often with Square Trade, etc., is squirming to please the buyer or the buyer can destroy the sellers business quickly and easily with a red mark.
The funny thing is EBAY is a place where it is beyond safe for buyers. They can buy something and wear it to a party like a dress, a ring, a necklace a watch and then on Monday after a party just say they do not like it. Paypal secures their payment so no matter what or how long even up to 45 full days the seller must give the buyer their money back. Even if the seller refuses paypal takes the money out of the bank accounts of the seller.
Ebay also gives yet another 45 days under their new policy to leave feedback. The general public going to a retail store has generally one week in most normal transactions, not six weeks, and then the ability to throw red paint all over the persons store front on main street and say hey I trashed your business. Lets face it ebayers are not always the most socially responsible people that are main stream people.
Ebay has lost touch with their alleged community. They want money and revenue from buyers and they want buyers to buy. The sellers are not viewed as partners,employees or sound boards. We are viewed as expendable overhead that will eventually be used up in a cycle. My feelings are that ebay should be fair to both sides.
Two sided feedback is essential. Nobody has to or is forced to leave feedback in a two way commnication. Ebay is a billion dollar enterprise and they surely know commnication goes two ways. So they are smart enough to know sellers will need to maintain 5 star detailed feedback for commnication,speed of shipping, accuracy of product,desription and anything else they throw at a seller.
Ioffer.com has become an alternative for sellers and allows two way commnications ebay is likely going to buy them out eventually to prevent them from losing market share but in the interim ioffer is a small place where your sales will surely drop to a snails pace but you will have some possibility of a two way fair communication.
By the by, retail businesses have to deal with stuff like this all the time - someone buys an expensive item, wears it to a party, then returns it for refund the next day. Most consumer laws allow a customer to return an item for up to 30 days in most cases, and up to 90 days in others (barring damage to the item, of course).
And if you think a Paypal refund demand is nasty, try dealing with a credit-card chargeback sometime... you'll find that the real world is a hell of a lot less forgiving than eBay's.
IMHO, you've actually got it better than the brick-and-mortar crowd.
/P
His retaliatory feedback was literally libelous - it took two weeks of contact with eBay (and eventually a C&D demand) to get it removed (the seller disappeared shortly thereafter - it turned out to be a 'shop', where the seller bangs up a lot of auctions using part-time help and scripting).
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The whole feedback system has been broken anyway - buyers who got a less than pleasant experience dare not leave anything but positive feedback for fear that the responding feedback would be negative and/or worse. Sellers can literally do whatever they want just short of outright fraud, and without fear of a negative feedback.
For those sellers who whine and moan? Suck it up.
I sell things on occasion there too, and unless you're prepared to handle it professionally, you don't belong there.
/P
1. dishonest sellers will open a buyers account
2. buy products from competitors
3. leave untrue feedbacks - i.e. inferior quality, don't buy, scam etc etc etc
Is this what it will come down to ?
Why have feedbacks then ?
PayPal provides the dispute center for all forms of disappointment - from something broken in shipping to a box stuffed with rocks. From honest mistakes to obvious fraud. eBay always suggests that the other alternatives are used first.
While I don't agree with this decision from eBay, I do think that the feedback system is being abused. It should be a place to rate the transaction, not a place to force communication. People claim that is the only way to get the company to reply, but I have found that most companies will respond immediately to a PayPal complaint because PayPal can and will remove the funds from their account should the buyer win the dispute. The only disputes I have lost are from buying items without the protection policy. Now that PayPal has extended that policy, it should be simple to get your money back without abusing the feedback system.
People need to call, email or chat with eBay and PayPal first and only as a last resort leave negative feedback.
Just my 2 cents.
on a couple of cheap t-shirts ($2/piece) 2 different auctions
from the same seller. I wound up have to pay $9/shirt shipping.
The thing that angered me the most was she even put them both
in the same mailing bag. That's when I lost it!!! I simply left a
neutral comment about shipping being a little high. 450% isn't
that bad is it? She left me negative saying I some awful things to
me in derogatory emails. I cracks me up how some people
relate their personal self worth to their ebay feedback. I hope
that ebay also sticks it to the seller's who don't ship until you
leave them feedback. I want to get my item and make sure it
came quickly and packed safely before I leave feedback. I had it
out w/a seller who told me even though I had paid within
seconds of completion that I was the worst buyer she ever dealt
with b/c of her oversight on noticing my payment!!
But until then although sellers will be unable to leave negative or neutral RATINGS, sellers can still leave less than positive comments....
When that's done s/he has earned and is entitled to a positive for completion of that side of the "contract".
If a seller turns out to be abusive, slow - late or even worst then s/he gets what they've earned.
What so bad about that?
Why they don't start doing something about a person who had 30 or 40 negative or neutral feedbacks first. That is where they need to start. If they take away their selling power for awhile, or longer, maybe that would help the situation, instead of not letting the people who do pay and do ship on time getting their messages across to those who DO NOT!!!! I have refunded customers who have just hinted that something was wrong with what I sent them, telling them I would rather do that than have any negatives or neutrals. Out of almost 800 sales and buys, I have only 3 negatives, and I tried my best to work them out, but could NOT!!!!
Moral to all this is "be careful whenever you buy or sell to or from anyone be it brick and mortar, on line, ebay, or whatever." Do the research-if you do not feel comfortable don't buy.
I am a seller on ebay. I am honest about the items I sell on ebay. I treat my customers the way I would want to be treated. I charge $6 to ship items that weigh a couple of pounds. Sometimes I have to pay out of my own pocket to ship packages (like today for instance). I ship from my home within a couple of days of receiving payment. I am a good seller.
I want to explain a few things. I am also a buyer. I buy things all the time off ebay. These new changes are not good, not good at all. Just how many of these pissed off sellers are EBAY BUYER'S as well? ALOT! More than half! Good going there ebay...
I could give 2-cents about my buying feedback. I don't work hard as a buyer. I don't pay the bills with my purchases off ebay. I buy my ___, then leave... Now as a seller, I care, I care alot. My livelyhood is ebay! Ebay is my income. I need good feedback to be able to eat, have shelter, clothe & feed my babies, etc.
Do buyers even understand that it costs me about $8 to auction their item and accept payment through paypal? And that's for less than a hundred dollar item. Ebay is expensive! And it's about to get worse. If I get ONE NEGATIVE WITHIN A 30 DAY PERIOD, accompanied by a couple low dsr's (stars), my paypal account will be frozen. FROZEN! So let's say, you (buyer) likes my ___ that I have for sale and you bid on it and win. You send instant payment through paypal and think everything is fine and dandy. But wait, there was a scammer who bought an item from me last week that left me negative feedback and freaked up my star rating, right before you paid for your item. Well guess what?!? My paypal account is frozen WITH THE FUNDS YOU JUST SENT ME FOR ___. I can't touch that money until this other scam, buyer is taken care of, which paypal/ebay is now saying it can take 21 days to do. Do you think that's fair? I don't. It's not fair to me as a seller, and it's not fair to you, as a buyer. Then John-Q-Buyer comes along right after you win my item and wins another one of my auctions and sends his payment to my now, frozen account, and so-on and so-on. My point is, is that ONE BAD BUYER can ruin it for everybody. It's ludacris what ebay is expecting their sellers to put up with. But that's their new and improved plan and gosh-darnit, it's great. (sarcasm there)
Oh and I am not one of those sellers who hold feedback hostage or whatever.
Unfortunetly, I am too small of a seller to matter to them. Even though I am honest and very, very trustworthy. It doesn't matter in their big greedbay eyes.
P.S- I have been a powerseller.
The powerseller program is gay!
There are too many sellers out there who do. I was blackmailed by one a few months ago after she canceled out on a sale. She refused to go through with it after I had paid and been billed by PayPal. She did for no other reason other than I questioned the amount of postage she was charging me. I have a right to ask her about that.
The seller had violated Ebay's non-compliance policy and I threatened to leave negative feedback because of it. Even though she refunded my money, that wasn't the point. I wanted the item but I also wanted clarification on the postage.
She threatened to retaliate with negative feedback in return even though she didn't have a pot to_**** in. I didn't give in and left the negative feedback anyway. She did the same, however I did say that Ebay did warn her about abusing negative feedback when I countered her remark in the feedback.
She did it out of pure spite, nothing more.
I'm glad for the change. If you can't handle the change, danachristine, then I suggest you sell on amazon.com
I closed my auction, (at the dismay of one person who said they wanted to bid on my item)I took the offer of $20,000.00 for an old tractor and received the check.
i deposited the "Bank Draft" and sent the tractor with the extra money I received for that purpose.
The check bounced, of course and I was stuck without the tractor and money.
E-bay hounded me for nearly a year to pay them for the advertised item and refused to accept responsibility for their recommendation.
Their only response was,"It is an automated recommendation and we have no control over those.
We are truly sorry, but you still owe us $350.00 for the use of E-bay's auction site.
Needless to say, I never went back.
- Buyers Are Always Right?
- by SanityMad February 7, 2008 1:20 AM PST
- http://www.cafepress.com/sanitymad
- Like this Reply to this comment
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- An old saying...
- by Penguinisto February 7, 2008 8:38 AM PST
- "The customer is not always right, but he is still the customer".
- Like this View reply
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Showing 2 of 5 pages (178 Comments)EBay was built on the concept that buyer and seller both had incentives to please each other. Feedback should be left open for change for 30 days allowing the two to work it out in the open. This way the incentive to do the right thing would go both ways.
Meanwhile, check out my graphic opinion of the new one sided correction. Sellers might want to pick up a few reminder items. The mousepad would help them every hour with their online selling. Grin and bear it, friends!
Sanity
/P