eBay in action- unbelievable.

[Raphael]

George,

Thanks for enlightening me on the eBay/Amazon connection, something I wasn’t aware of. And yes, I looked later and found the same keyboard directly on Amazon, for $10 less.

On another note, I have a number of items being delivered by USPS that are, in some cases, 60 days overdue. The COVID situation seems to have caused major bottlenecks in some of the routing systems. Two of my customers, who are only about a week overdue in getting their delivery, have filed complaints with eBay. Both were for very cheap items (isn’t that always the case?). Both shipments were made via the eBay/USPS portal and tracking shows they were picked up and are in transit. Both customers are demanding refunds, even though I have shipped the goods properly and have no control over USPS. It will be interesting to see how eBay handles these claims.

Raphael

[gramophone-georg]

George,

Thanks for enlightening me on the eBay/Amazon connection, something I wasn’t aware of. And yes, I looked later and found the same keyboard directly on Amazon, for $10 less.

On another note, I have a number of items being delivered by USPS that are, in some cases, 60 days overdue. The COVID situation seems to have caused major bottlenecks in some of the routing systems. Two of my customers, who are only about a week overdue in getting their delivery, have filed complaints with eBay. Both were for very cheap items (isn’t that always the case?). Both shipments were made via the eBay/USPS portal and tracking shows they were picked up and are in transit. Both customers are demanding refunds, even though I have shipped the goods properly and have no control over USPS. It will be interesting to see how eBay handles these claims.

Raphael

Raphael, if these buyers open a case but you can see the items are still in transport, put that info including the tracking number into the case, then go to one of eBay's business pages on Facebook and get their attention. They shut down the call center (which was pretty much useless anyways) so you have to go thru Facebook (which, if you think about it, is a competing marketplace which just makes me SMH at eBay, LOL).

Do you have Concierge service? I'd think that, with your average sale amount, you'd qualify. If you do have it contact your concierge.

The short answer is that eBay SHOULD take care of it, but it's not their money so there's no sense of urgency about it- the seller has to waste time and be proactive. Besides, they are too busy shipping severed bloody pigs heads to critics.

And yes, UPS, Fedex, and DHL have been slower than normal, and USPS has been SUPER slow. International parcels are taking weeks to months. It's starting to remind me of the old mail order days when we were kids and you saved your cereal box tops for a coveted prize, and then sent them in with the admonition that you must now wait 4-6 weeks for delivery.

[Raphael]

I sold this cheap stuff on another eBay account that I use just for that purpose - cheap stuff. It doesn't have eBay's "concierge" service. Whatever plays out with these orders is OK with me, I'm just curious as to how eBay will handle the complaints. And I'm taking the rest of the cheap stuff I was clearing out and giving it away.

I have items in transit for almost two months with USPS. The buyers in these cases haven't complained a bit, even though the purchase amounts were each in excess of $1,000. It just proves my old theory, that customer demands are usually inversely proportional to values. Sell somebody a $100 clock, and he says "the paper label inside is faded". Sell a $100,000 clock and the buyer says "thank you for allowing me to own this museum piece".

Raphael

[gramophone-georg]

I sold this cheap stuff on another eBay account that I use just for that purpose - cheap stuff. It doesn't have eBay's "concierge" service. Whatever plays out with these orders is OK with me, I'm just curious as to how eBay will handle the complaints. And I'm taking the rest of the cheap stuff I was clearing out and giving it away.

I have items in transit for almost two months with USPS. The buyers in these cases haven't complained a bit, even though the purchase amounts were each in excess of $1,000. It just proves my old theory, that customer demands are usually inversely proportional to values. Sell somebody a $100 clock, and he says "the paper label inside is faded". Sell a $100,000 clock and the buyer says "thank you for allowing me to own this museum piece".

Raphael

Yup- that was always my experience too. Bottom feeder mentality vs. serious collector mentality.

eBay's whole corporate culture is just toxic, IMO. I have a friend who sells used PC and laptop parts- lots of tomes as "for parts or not working". Can't tell you how many times he got zipped by a scammer sending their old part back as "not as described- 'hey this thing doesn't work'!" eBay sides with the buyer every time. Well, more accurately- eBay sides with eBay, with the buyer as unintended beneficiary. For eBay, even a known prolific scammer is a cash cow, because eBay knows that as long as they keep the scammer happy with money that's not eBay's, that scammer will keep generating fees for eBay with their "purchases". Resellers are notorious for pulling this. If the scammer costs EBAY money somehow, though, eBay will kick them out of the Money Back Guarantee program tout de suite... which is a scam in itself, because that "buyer" can then just open a case with PayPal. It's just that then it's PayPal's problem.

[Raphael]

My two cases with cheap stuff sold on eBay and delayed in transit by USPS played out as follows:

1. One shipment was returned to me as “undeliverable” and returned to me. I immediately refunded the buyer and the case is closed.

2. The second shipment is still in transit to the customer, according to the USPS tracking. It is now only slightly overdue, as the listing showed delivery by June 19-22. Yet, eBay refunded the user and backcharged me. Nice. Now the buyer will have his money back and eventually get his goods for free.

I mention this, as a heads-up to other eBay sellers, to be careful. For the foreseeable future, I will no longer offer USPS shipping as an option.

I consider this, after 23 years of selling on eBay, to be a major warning sign of their ongoing desire to rid the site of “nuisance” individual sellers as they transition to volume sellers and corporate alliances.

Raphael

[fmblizz]

Raphael what will happen when Ebay see's that in the USPS tracking system the item was delivered? It would seem obvious that they should replace the back charge but we know that's not the way Ebay works...

blizz

[gramophone-georg]

My two cases with cheap stuff sold on eBay and delayed in transit by USPS played out as follows:

1. One shipment was returned to me as “undeliverable” and returned to me. I immediately refunded the buyer and the case is closed.

2. The second shipment is still in transit to the customer, according to the USPS tracking. It is now only slightly overdue, as the listing showed delivery by June 19-22. Yet, eBay refunded the user and backcharged me. Nice. Now the buyer will have his money back and eventually get his goods for free.

I mention this, as a heads-up to other eBay sellers, to be careful. For the foreseeable future, I will no longer offer USPS shipping as an option.

I consider this, after 23 years of selling on eBay, to be a major warning sign of their ongoing desire to rid the site of “nuisance” individual sellers as they transition to volume sellers and corporate alliances.

Raphael

File an appeal.

They're not supposed to do this if they can see an item is in transit online.

[Curt A]

eBay's "Global Intelligence Center"? Are they trying to win the oxymoron of the year award? They're probably monitoring the Forum for complainers, so watch what you say or they will set up an occupied zone in your neighborhood...

[epigramophone]

I ordered an item for my wife. It was not as described and on 23 May the seller offered a refund if I returned it.
I did not receive the return label until 29 May and I returned the item on 1 June i.e. within 48 hours. I have a Certificate of Postage confirming this.

The refund was not made, so I opened a case with eBay who have rejected my claim on the grounds that I did not return the item within the time limit. The amount involved is very small, but why should eBay and the seller get away with robbery? All I have been able to do so far is leave negative feedback for the seller. Unfortunately I cannot do the same for eBay.

[soundgen]

I ordered an item for my wife. It was not as described and on 23 May the seller offered a refund if I returned it.
I did not receive the return label until 29 May and I returned the item on 1 June i.e. within 48 hours. I have a Certificate of Postage confirming this.

The refund was not made, so I opened a case with eBay who have rejected my claim on the grounds that I did not return the item within the time limit. The amount involved is very small, but why should eBay and the seller get away with robbery? All I have been able to do so far is leave negative feedback for the seller. Unfortunately I cannot do the same for eBay.

Reverse ! I recently sold a spring clearly labelled as eye / hub , buyer returned it saying wasn't eye / eye as they wanted , I refunded less the postage to them , they complained to Ebay I hadn't fully refunded so Ebay gave them the postage back and you can't leave negatives to buyers !