I sold some goods through Ebay. I stated in the add that I had no expertise in the item I was selling and no one should be unless they were happy with the information. The buyer said that it was incorrectly described. To avoid problems I offered a refund when the goods arrived back.
PayPal refunded the buyer even though I have not had the goods back and come out in favour of the buyer. I now have lost my goods and no payment thanks to PayPal. What a scam!

In the last two weeks I have had to give away 8 items to buyers just to try and keep my 100% feedback rating. I have been with Ebay as a buyer and seller since 2001 and I cannot believe how much they have flushed a good thing down the toilet. Not only can I not leave negative feedback for buyers who have clearly used Ebay’s new policies to their advantage I have also been out PayPal’s Fees Ebay’s Fees and the items I was selling including the shipping fees I have to eat because Ebay puts a block on shipping fees. For instance, a book going from MD to CA cost 7.98 with insurance (because God forbid you send something uninsured) but Ebay only allows you to charge 4.00. And if you ship it media mail the buyers are mad because it took too long to get to them. Well, after these few things I have listed end…in two days, it is so long for good to Ebay and PayPal…I hope they sink in to the pit they created. Hey Ebay..here’s a clue…without sellers you won’t have buyers..it takes two!

I find ebay business practices unethical.
They can create the rules irrespective of UK law as they are based in Dublin and the USA. UK Trading Standards can not intervene. You either agree to their rules or you do not trade with them. This is fine if you are a business and you can subscribe to the Sale of Good act etc. but if you are a private seller they can insist you become a business seller or you cannot sell. I listed a lot of items on the free listing days, and then (as happened to me) are instantly required to change from a private to a business seller whilst listings were in progress. This happened to me this month and I found myself unable to revise or alter my lisitngs before they ended. As I am not running a business but selling off possessions – I can’t ethically register as a business. Ebay has suspended my right to sell until I comply with their policy. It is unethical to require a non-business seller to trade as a business with all the restrictions and legal obligations this imposes. This is bullybay tactics. Obviously no person in their right mind would continue to sell under these conditons when you could set up your own website or use another internet auction site. I’m now waiting for my recent fees to be invoiced to me and then I’ll terminate my account. The people who have lost out most are purchasers and ebay. My advice -
Ebay business practices are rubbish – don’t touch it with a bargepole! Sell elsewhere.
Ebay changes the legal rules in the middle of a contract – well I think this is against the law – except who is going to take them to court?
you cannot talk to a senior manager who can make decisions – the minions on the end of the phone fob you off
ebay listing charges are high
feedback from buyers can’t be challenged
If you don’t like their practices and decisons – tough! There no independent arbitration proceedures – they are GOD and you are dirt
In conclusion:
Ebay is not a good business to trade with unless you are a very large company
So I say – Ebay SUCKS – take your business elsewhere.
You have been warned!

My wife has worked really hard to build up a successful ebay business in her retirement, she sells on auctions and has a shop. She charges a fair price for the goods, packages everything beautifully, measures everything and takes indepth photographs and puts detailed descriptions, and I take everything sold to the post office at 4pm each day and send by whatever method agreed with the buyer. My wife has no issue with the ebay fees other than that she is paying money and getting no support from the company.

Despite this, she still gets bad feedback from some purchasers; they complain if they cannot get into an item; it is not my wife’s fault that they have ordered the wrong size, she tells them to return it, gives full refunds for postage, and sometimes even sends a gift, ……but they still have the option to leave bad feedback, eg wrong size. She measures the length, but then they say it’s too short or too long……what more can she do? There are some people who just do not read the descriptions properly, eg, this dress had 3/4 length sleeves measuring .. . from under arm to end of sleeve, then………someone complains that the sleeves are too short or too long or dont look the same as the photograph. What more can she do??

Then there are the people who have a dress for the weekend, wear it and then send it back saying it is stained, or ripped, or not the right size. It is obvious it has been worn, it is brand new when sent out and has deodrant marks when returned and even smells of sweat, one was covered in red wine when returned. There is absolutely nothing that she can do, if she refuses to refund then they open a dispute, which the buyer pretty much always wins and they still have the option to leave bad feedback stars even if she returns all their money and postage. On one occasion I purchased an item from the Woollen Mill for my wife’s birthday and she sold it on ebay because it wasn’t to her taste and the store is a long way from where we live in Scotland. The person who bought it said it was a fake and had been worn and returned it, and left very bad feedback stating that my wife had sold a fake. My wife was so upset and she was unable to do anything about it. I took the item back to the store where I bought it and they gave me a letter of authenticity which I sent to the buyer, she never replied.

I have been looking at some seller’s history and have a theory that some unscrupulous sellers are buying cheaply priced items from their competitors and leaving bad star ratings, this gets rid of them and puts them at the top, I can’t prove this though as ebay do not let the seller see who gives the ratings. I also wonder if ebay manipulate the star sysem in any way? How would we know as it is all anonymous? I am sure that such a ‘highly thought of’ multinational company would not stoop to such practices!

It’s time ebay realised that they need both buyers and sellers to make their business successful and if the sellers leave and all theyre left with is the big multi national stores how long do they think that they will survive? The multi nationals use ebay because of the little sellers, if they leave then the multi nationals will soon go as well and just run their own websites and ebay will die a death.

I used ebay a lot in the early years of my retirement, I bought and sold all the time, specialising mainly in model cars, I would not touch it with a barge pole now. I am just so disappointed that they have absolutely no regard for sellers such as my wife who has put her heart and soul into her business and risks losing her livelihood if they do not begin to support their sellers.

Of course there are some unscrupulous sellers out there, but Ebay must realise that there are also unscrupulous buyers and some who just think it amusing to leave poor feedback for a seller. Unscrupulous sellers soon get weeded out because people do not buy from them. Thousands of buyers have bought from my wife and many are regular customers. I have told her that she should bypass ebay with them and deal on the phone, but she wont do this, she is a lady of integrity.

I often answer the telephone calls from some of these buyers and find some of them rude abusive and ignorant, all the seller can do is block them, but there is nothing stopping them from coming back under another name and starting a vindictive campaign. Someone telephoned and asked a question and was abusive to me because she could not understand my Scottish accent.

Then you get the ones who just do not understand the system, like the lady that I drove and delivered an item to her personally that she wanted for a wedding. She was absolutely thrilled, My wife gave her a gift to compliment the item to wear at the wedding, she sent me a lovely card thanking me via my wife………….her feedback was neutral!!!!! I obviously have no idea of what the star rating was. I think she did not understand the importance of the feedback.

So come on ebay get fair please!!!! Orrrrrrrr if you don’t I think that someone soon is going to usurp you.

It is so sad that I am unable to give my name and address, the reaon that I can’t is that my wife would be scared that ebay would delete her account for critisising them. And………she doesnt actually know I’m writing this

What sort of a way is this to run a business? It’s ‘bully boy tactics’ and intimidation.

Brian

Had a perfect record until I had to end an auction after a couple of hours due to the thing I was selling got fried while plugging it in. (Freak accident) so I attempted to contact the one bidder and canceled the bid and the auction.

The buy guick tried to use “Buy it now” to get the item anyway.. (I have no idea why if it wasn’t working) and gave negative feedback. I filled out all the forms, contacte who needed contacting,all through ebay, and no help at all.

Finally got the “Trust” department on the phone and they said. “The sellers do not need protecting, the buyers do”

Sellers will get screwed, even by non paying bidders, and there is nothing anyone can do.