Since we all spend some time buying and selling on eBay, I wanted to get some thoughts on this issue.
I listed some video games on eBay, and they sold to a buyer from Canada. About 2 days after the auction ended, the buyer contacted me on a Saturday and said his PayPal account had to be "verified" and it would take 3 business days. (Which would be 5 more days since it was a Saturday.) I asked him when he had realized this, and he said it wasn't until that day. Since I asked a question about it, he suggested that we cancel the auction. I told him to just go ahead and send the payment on Wednesday.
I didn't get the payment on Wednesday, so late that evening I contacted him and asked if he had heard back from PayPal. More than a day later, he still didn't respond. I began to think that he didn't want the games. I knew that I could send more messages, but since he was in Canada, I couldn't track the item and it would be easy for him to say that he didn't receive it. Since he didn't seem to want the games, I logged on to eBay and offered to cancel the item. He accepted the offer to cancel less than 2 hours later.
eBay refunded my fees and the "buyer" left me a negative feedback! I didn't even know that you could leave any feedback when a transaction was canceled. I looked at his feedback--98. He had 1 negative that was 10 months old, but he had left 8 negatives. Many of those had responses from the sellers. Once before he had asked to cancel the item and then left a negative, and on 2 occasions he had ASKED for positive feedback and then left the seller a negative.
I contacted eBay and they said that this didn't qualify for feedback removal. I have only gotten 3 negatives in about 12 years on eBay and I can't see where this was justified. Should people be able to leave feedback when they agree to cancel a transaction?
earl that sucks,
ebay gives all the power to the buyer now,
with paypal being the only form of payment the buyer has to much power to scam sellers that use regular shipping without tracking.
the buyer also has all the power to leave negative feedbacks while the seller can only post positive feedbacks. so any friction you give a buyer these days,he or she will just take the easy way of complaining and leaving a negative if you dont kiss there a@@.
it has become terrible for some sellers to experience selling stuff on ebay if they dont know all the rules of the ebay game.sellers have to be very sharp/smart/honest and have excellent shipping coverage to cover there buts.
in conclusion ebay is great for the buyer though,now more than ever because they have nothing to loose.
in your case Earl there was nothing you can do,if you deal with a jerk your just screwed no matter what you do. it has happened to many of us here.
at least in one year that negative will clear and you will be back to 100%,were as before a negative would show for a very long time on ebay.
Earl ......... video games attract a whole new level (sub)species in which a seller should adjust his selling page to protect themselves accordingly. The buyer did purchase $600.00 +++ in the last few weeks without any problems. You must have pissed him off somehow ??? ~ most likely a 18-25 yr old buyer with too much testosterone. I agree though, that if both(key word both) parties agree to cancel a transaction feedback should be negated.
At the end of the day ~ ebay purchases and sales are based on honesty of a buyer/seller, and just like any retail outfit .... 5% or more should be incorporated into the budget for theft and/or losses.
Very unfortunate! Ebay should incorperate a system in which any negative feedback is easily accessed by the buyer and seller. We have all had unfortunate dealings and I always try to take some negative feedback with a grain of salt. I wish they had a system whereby a buyer could access all negative feedback in 1 page (search function) and make his own judgement as to whether feedback is a concern or not because many times it can be determined that it is from a moron. Some sellers have huge sales and panning 100's of pages back to see what it was all about is a little tough. Can you still explain the situation with you retort?
This guy angelo.514 on eBay buys cards, then either claims the "not significantly as described" or "item not received" through paypal. After he gets his money back, he leaves negative feedback.
The pathetic part is, he chose to spend a month on this scam with me through paypal and e-mail, for a $10 card. I was contacted by another eBay member after the negative feedback was left for me, saying the exact same thing happened to him.
Yo, Earl:I'm sorry about being so late to respond to this but my wife and I've been gone most of the summer on a two week cruise to Alaska and camping for six weeks in Michigan. I would imagine that a lot of E-bay sellers are not happy about the new feedback policy. However, as almost exclusively as a buyer, I am very happy about it. Everyone should realize that with some people, even Jesus Christ would get negative feedback. It always amazes me when I see a seller with hundreds or thousands of feedback and no negatives. There is one seller on E-bay who has changed his ID so many times to cover up his feedback score. He used to be something like hockeyknigtsincanada or something like that and has used several similar ID's. When I bid on several of his items and he didn't like the final bid price he tried to charge me exhorbitant s&h charges. When I complained to him he threatened to give me negative feedback. Now, he can't use tactics like that and I don't hesitate to tell any of my friends about him. There are many dealers on E-bay that I am more than happy to deal with. One tactic that a lot of sellers use that just grinds me is when they say that the BV of a card is $100. While that may be true if the card is NM it isn't true if the same card is only VG. I'm sure that when these dealers are buying from someone they don't use this same tactic. There is one seller on E-bay right now named wolverine. He has been having a lot of trouble with his feedback but I honestly don't believe he is purposely trying to rip people off. I think he's just trying to do too much by himself. I've dealt with ourguiya several times and he bends over backwards to give an honest appraisal of his cards. So much so that I think he actually loses some sales because his nitpicks his own cards! I've bought cards from terryssportcards and he and I definitely don't see eye to eye. Hey, thanks for giving me a chance to get some of this off my chest. A lot of it has been grinding me for some time. Ted
As a buyer, I am more than satisfied with the current eBay. Not only can I get what I want, but I can also get my money back and keep the merchandise, then give negative feedback with impunity to the seller that I double dipped. Gotta love it.
Larry,
That's why I have you blocked as a bidder in my auctions.
This forum is supposed to help buyers and sellers get to know each other and hopefully spread some goodwill among the hockey collecting community.
You are the poster child for what is wrong with the new eBay policy.
