ebay has turned into a joke with no punch line!!

Here's a good one for all you ebay haters to mull over.

So I sell my Fisher Gold Bug on ebay at the beginning of the month. I get more for it than I thought I would...$275. This is the original GB with no disc on it and super sensitive with a very fine tune ground balance. You need to know your stuff to run this machine at peek performance.

I ship it to this idiot who buys it and within a couple of days he says it's defective. Says that he called Fisher and they confirmed over the phone it is defective...if that is even possible?!?! Then says I made all sorts of claims about it that I never said at all. Listed it with one short sentence only. From emailing this idiot back and forth I came to one conclusion basically, he has buyer's remorse because he wins out on a bid for something that he had no clue how to use. Then you sell it on ebay...why is this now my problem?!?!

Then the A-hole opens up a complaint on ebay saying I sold him a defective item. I have to pay for the shipping back to me! He gets a refund! Then ebay send me an invoice for the transaction fees associated with a sale that was actually never made, because I got nothing for it and it actually cost me money.

I've had over 600 transactions on ebay in 16 years, but they don't give a hoot...their policy is that I still owe them the fees. I basically told them I gave it to Charlton Heston and they can go and try and pry it from his cold dead hands!!!

Ouch. I would say this is quite the exception to ebay. And isn't unique to Ebay. Ie.: @ss-holes exist on any venue. Not just Ebay. That could have happened @ the newspaper classifieds, a garage sale, craigslist, etc....

I know a store clerk at a shopping mall who has similar stories of customers who make their returns a living hell for a store. And realtors will have stories of buyer/seller home disputes , and so forth. So I would not blame ebay for this. As much as you think they should step in and "see the correct view", they are simply going by statements given by the parties. And unfortunately: Some pathelogical A$$holes are better liars than honest people like you. They will answer for their deeds when they meet their maker.

It's the cost of living the human life, that you will occasionally cross paths with dis-honest deluded folk

I would not be pissed at ebay if they dropped the sellers fees after they refunded the guy's money! I would actually re-list the item. But now I'm not paying their fee and I will find another way to sell it. They freeze my sellers account, but who cares...I ain't flogging that dead horse no more anywho!

Yeah eBay is a buyers market as a seller you always lose when a case is open. I bought on there for years, But just started selling this year. So far so good as had No returns. But know only matter of time till I get a buyers remorse. Had a Guy that took 3 weeks to pay but finally did. That was biggest hassle yet. There fees are way to high though.

eBay and PayPal both have the market monopoly when it comes to auction sites and payment. They are by far the most popular sites out there and the easiest place to "move" something or buy something. Like Harold said though...they are for sure a buyers market and will cater to the buyer. I sold a bow on there a few months ago and when I shipped it, everything was good on it. The buyer gets the bow and a few days later, he sends me a message saying the string is in bad shape on it. I say no way, the string set on it is just a couple months old and still had a lot of life in it. He sends me a picture of it and it looks like the guy has taken a razor blade to the string and frayed about half a dozen of the string strands. NO DOUBT he did it while putting in his peep sight. I told him that it wasn't like that when I shipped it to him and that he was out of luck from me. WRONG. He opened a case against me and by force, I ended up having to get that bow back and give him a refund! Not only did I have to pay fees, but I then had a bow that I had to replace the string and cables on before I could do anything with it....that set me back about $125 for the string set and then had to eat PayPal fees from when they originally took their 4% out of what I got.

Daniel Tn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> eBay and PayPal both have the market monopoly when
> it comes to auction sites and payment. They are b
> y far the most popular sites out there and the eas
> iest place to "move" something or buy something.
> Like Harold said though...they are for sure a buye
> rs market and will cater to the buyer. I sold a b
> ow on there a few months ago and when I shipped it
> , everything was good on it. The buyer gets the b
> ow and a few days later, he sends me a message say
> ing the string is in bad shape on it. I say no wa
> y, the string set on it is just a couple months ol
> d and still had a lot of life in it. He sends me
> a picture of it and it looks like the guy has take
> n a razor blade to the string and frayed about hal
> f a dozen of the string strands. NO DOUBT he did
> it while putting in his peep sight. I told him th
> at it wasn't like that when I shipped it to him an
> d that he was out of luck from me. WRONG. He ope
> ned a case against me and by force, I ended up hav
> ing to get that bow back and give him a refund! N
> ot only did I have to pay fees, but I then had a b
> ow that I had to replace the string and cables on
> before I could do anything with it....that set me
> back about $125 for the string set and then had to
> eat PayPal fees from when they originally took the
> ir 4% out of what I got.

These kind of experiences eventually catch up to you when enough sellers get the raw end of the deal and ditch the site. My mistake was allowing someone with only (1) transaction history buy it off me. I should have just stopped it right there!

eBay's been a joke since the day they made Paypal the ONLY form of accepted payment (approx. 9 yrs ago).

From that point on = sellers had/have no say, no recourse, can't leave a piece of sxxx a neg even if he/she deserves it, they get scammed constantly, and on and on.

Great buyers market/place but SUCKS for a seller big time.

I don't agree to their "terms of use/service" so I can't sell there because I won't check the box in agreement.

Basically you give up all rights as a seller and open yourself up to untold amounts of scams to which you agree to by checking that box and that you will always be on the losing end of in any scam so I told them to shove it after I found out the hard way

if I wanted to not have rights and be subject/target to scams where they FORCE me to lose/hand over my $$ = I'd move to a communist country

There's one selling strategy that can help a seller, and that is to say that the machine works perfectly, but that there are no returns--that is a box that you can check when setting up an auction, as well as stating it in the description-- and no guarantees due to the number of buying scammers. If a seller has 100% feedback on hundreds of sales, people will buy. I've been saying that the machine is guaranteed to work upon arrival, but no returns. In the near future I'm going to dispense with the guarantee and just say that it works perfectly, no returns.

I sold on Ebay as a dealer for over 15 yrs for a living, and finally just gave it up before retiring a couple yrs ago due to ebay's dishonesty and siding with random dishonest buyers along the way. I find its better to just sell face to face and advertise on CL and put up with the crank calls and tire kickers. I still will buy new merchandise for my own personal use off Ebay and Amazon, mainly Amazon. But thats about it. I sell all my old unwanted mining gear and detectors on CL face to face with a customer and do fine with that.

amazon is no better. 30 day return policy and people can give you a bad review who never even bought your product.

_________________________________

Nox600, CTX, CZ21, Excal II and White's DF with 920i stealthscoop...I live and hunt at the beach in Wilm NC

I buy rare coins every week off eBay. A "No Return" clause means little and only discourages potential buyers. An unwanted item can always be returned by claiming that the product is "Not as described."

Many uncertified rare coins are cleaned and not described as such in the description. I return such "No Return" coins all the time...

I no longer sell detectors on ebay. The buyer can try it for free, decide against it, and the seller takes a big loss. I only sell small stuff, but still buy from reputable dealers.
Ebay sides with the buyer every time in disputes.. It just is not right. Ebay is not what it used to be.

The advantage switched to the buyer in the late aughts when ebay eliminated the option of a seller leaving negative feedback for a buyer.

If you are going to sell on ebay, you have to look at the occasional dishonest buyer as a cost of doing business. Don't put up anything for sale that is going to give you a serious financial hurting if you wind up with a dishonest buyer.

Virtually all problems of dishonest buyers could be eliminated if ebay made people provide proof of identity when signing up. But that would mean less new users so you can bet that will never happen.

Arthur is right about buyers with zero or minimal feedback usually being the problem. Unfortunately, you can't stop them from bidding on your item(s). You can say a minimum amount of feedback is required on your listing, but someone with zero or minimal feedback can still bid on whatever you're selling if they decide to ignore your feedback rules and ebay expects you to honor their winning bid. The only option ebay offers is to not allow bids from someone with a feedback of -1 or lower.

Another problem, not directly related to this case is, dealers on eBay screw up, you open a case and get your refund and the seller is asking you to leave a good review anyways. A lot of buyers do that so it never really shows if a seller is crap. I recently bought some locksmith tools on eBay, it arrived defective. I contacted the seller and he promised me to send me a new one. i asked him to check the item BEFORE he ships it to me. He said he would. Well the item arrived 3 weeks later and was also defective. I asked for a full refund and the seller tells me to leave a positive comment first and he would refund me right away. i opened a case and let eBay know that this is blackmail. After opening the case with eBay, the seller contacted me right away refunded me and wrote me a nasty mail saying he would have refunded me and that there is no reason to contact eBay and that I am dishonest blablabla
It's not the first time it happend to me, so I always leave honest feedback even if it hurts.

Amazon is now requiring that your review be PC.

To wit: 4 years ago I ordered a 30x loupe that was advertised as"finest quality optical glass"--what I received was a cheap plastic lens that was so cloudy as to render it useless.I stated this in my review which at that time Amazon accepted..
A week ago,4 years later, I get an email from the seller stating that he wants to make it right,IF I will change my review--of course,so he sends me a replacement--which is what was advertised initially. I headline my review: "Patience is a virtue"--"-4 years ago I ordered a loupe--blah,blah-"--. I get an email back from Bezos stating,"your review can't be published because it doesn't meet our community standards". PS--anytime you see "community" in any form, BEWARE.
I am now trying to come up with a PC way of saying it took 4 years to replace the original POS you sent. Suggestions??

Make it plain fact:

On this date I placed the order
on this date i received the wrong item
on this date i received the correct item

There is a fantastic way to end all of this nonsense...start supporting your local dealers and retail stores and you will see how fast places like Feebay, Fraudbay, F-U-bay , etc. will start looking after all it's users.

Also, stop buying it's stupid stock!! That will cause them the most grief out of anything I'm sure. The greedy ones at the top don't want their coveted net worth dropping them off the Forbes list!!!!!