Among Friends

[Q4u]

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@excpa wrote:

I had a bad experience on eBay as a buyer.  I bought the object and paid immediately.  Weeks later, I still had not received it, so i contacted the seller and asked her to check with her Post Office to see if they had forwarded the item.  (It was shipping from Canada and it showed the initial in fo on tracking but no activity beyond the initial receipt.)   I got a strange response telling me that Canadian Post might take "a little longer".  Meanwhile, tracking was still showing no movement.  Another week or two, and I asked again.  I got back the nastiest email, strongly criticizing Americans for being impatient and going on and on how I need to learn to be more patient and so forth.  The attack seemed very personal.  By this time it was well beyond any normal delivery time, even from China.  She eventually refunded my money, with more nasty comments and a great deal of sarcasm.  It took a couple of years before I recovered enough to buy on eBay again.  I still run shy of anything from Canada.  Clearly, the woman had issues.

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That's awful.... don't take it personally, she was dumping on you for her own inability to not get the item to you.  BTW, it may cost more from Canada, China, Japan, etc, but they can get the item to you in a matter of days, not weeks!!  I hope you reported her to eBay and left a negative, she deserved it..... 

[depglass]

DD and I have been selling on and off for years.  One has to learn to relax and not take everything so seriously.  Often people buy something Sunday night and plan on paying for it on payday, Thursday or Friday.  So we don't get into much of a yank about it.  But when there is finally no action and no explanation we file unpaid bidder and they get a strike.  Enough of them and they are banned from Ebay,. so don't fail to complete this step. 

[Sunshine Kate]

eBay has changed so much I won't have anything to do with them -- not that it was perfect before all the changes. 

[moon_gazer]

I only list items as "buy it now" and payment is required immediately before transaction is complete. Makes everything so much easier.

[noodleann]

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@Q4u wrote:

It's true, unfortunately a Seller can't leave a negative, but they can leave a soft negative if they aren't reported.  It'll show up as a green positive but something like "Buyer never paid, unresponsive and reported to Ebay",

Also, put the ID on your blocked bidders list (on your Site Map, you'll have to look for it).... that'll stop that particular buyer from trying to buy your items again.

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Soft negs can get you smacked by eBay, since it's a violation of the rules. Any buyer who gets FB like this can contact eBay and have it removed, too.

I agree 100% with the blocked bidder list. I don't know why more people don't use it. If you're a specialty seller, you might be smart to put all your competitors on it, too.

[bonnielu]

Before I buy I research the seller.  I look at feedback.  I even ask questions to see how they respond.  And I buy from sellers who have specialities such as someone who only sells books, or hats or whatever but I keep it to a seller of like products. 

As a seller.... I was taken advantage of... especially after the rules changed.  I could not leave negative feedback and it seemed a license for the  buyer to do as they pleased knowing they were safe (I could block them.  but that was all).  I do think Ebay should bring back the feedback in both directions. Not really fair as I see it. 

I buy but no longer sell.  Some of the antics I had to go through caused me to quit.

[Tinkrbl44]

@Meowingkitty

Has the buyer paid for the item yet?   

[Q4u]

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@noodleann wrote:

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@Q4u wrote:

It's true, unfortunately a Seller can't leave a negative, but they can leave a soft negative if they aren't reported.  It'll show up as a green positive but something like "Buyer never paid, unresponsive and reported to Ebay",

Also, put the ID on your blocked bidders list (on your Site Map, you'll have to look for it).... that'll stop that particular buyer from trying to buy your items again.

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Soft negs can get you smacked by eBay, since it's a violation of the rules. Any buyer who gets FB like this can contact eBay and have it removed, too.

I agree 100% with the blocked bidder list. I don't know why more people don't use it. If you're a specialty seller, you might be smart to put all your competitors on it, too.

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You're absolutely correct.... however there are instances when it's just worth it.  I had a buyer buy an LV (limited edition) with the intent to switch bags and send me her counterfeit one...  (long story, but I had proof thanks to 2 on line friends)....  it went into arbitration (she reported it was counterfeit) and I wouldn't accept a refund (I also had proof it was authentic).  I won the dispute! She was furious and left me a scathing negative (eBay would not take it down) which lowered my percentages at no fault of my own. So I decided to "respond" to her feedback to me!  And I left a carefully worded positive.    

[moon_gazer]

I just yesterday posted a new thread on an issue I had with a return item. I had purchased a ring and it was a little big. So, I took it to a jeweler to have it sized and while there I just asked him to give me his opinion on the color and clarity of the diamonds. He said I/J color, but seller had said it was H in color. So, based on the fact that the ring was a size 7.5 and not a 7 as he had said and color wrong, I decided to send it back. It was 2 days past his window of return, but I thought since the ring was not as described, I would try anyway. Seller accepted the return and it then took me to the screen to print the return label. I did so and immediately took the package to the post office to mail. When I got back home, I had a message from seller that he would not accept the return. He had opened a case with Ebay and Ebay sided with him telling me that I would not get a refund. Well, here I had already put the item in the mail.  I talked with Ebay and they told me I would just have to try and work it out with seller.

[Ilovetea]

I had 2 extremely negative things happen to me. I won the items and paid within 5 minutes of the end of bidding in both cases through PayPal. This will be me venting about my experiences after this paragraph so read at your own risk

In the first case, the seller posted immediate positive feedback and shipped the item quickly. I posted positive feedback in return within 24 hours of receipt of item. It wasn't the end of the transaction apparently because 2 months later the seller issued a complaint with EBay that I had never paid after they had sent the item in good faith and wanted me banned for life. This took three months to resolve after that because eBay, despite my having provided confirmation of payment through PayPal which they owned at the time was not even responding to the individual case. They had standard responses which did not address any facts and was geared toward the buyer being at fault. EBay is linked to PayPal and both websites showed time stamped payment information. Three times, despite everything supporting my having paid, eBay was going to follow through with banning me for some period of time and all of their responses to me were form letters. They have or had some kind of final conflict resolution group that it finally went to and the PayPal payment transaction information was finally really looked at by a person at eBay. Before they resolved the case, they went back to the seller who finally acknowledged that it was another buyer they wanted to ban and they had confused us because we were both in Denver but still thought I should be banned because I did not agree quickly to pay them a second time. EBay finally dismissed the complaint against me after that. The item cost was under $20. The seller was a Japanese company and it took almost 3 weeks for me to receive it. I repeat, this was a Japanese company fairly new to eBay with over 20,000 items listed for sale. I had no negative, much less neutral feedback and had been doing business with them for years. The system is in no way geared toward looking objectively at the facts until a human looked at it and immediately dismissed the complaint.

Second issue was with a new seller. The woman had sold maybe 4 other items at the time and had mixed feedback. This purchase was for a pair of boots with a $60 price tag and $10 shipping and extra for insurance. I paid right after the auction ended. She provided immediate positive feedback but never sent any communication. After two weeks with no boots and no emails from the seller, I sent her an email inquiring about shipping status. No response after a week so I emailed again and this continued sending status request emails for 4 more weeks. Six weeks after winning the auction and paying the seller, no communication or response from the seller other than positive feedback so I sent her another email asking for either a confirmation of shipment or my money back. The seller sent me a long six page response about what a disgusting person I was for not allowing her time to grieve the suicide of a family member and telling me my money was being returned minus the shipping and insurance fees. She told me she earned that having to put up with my repeated emails. I immediately responded that I have full empathy for her loss but at no time did she ever provide any response other than her long email ripping into me about something I knew nothing about. I also mentioned that if I did not receive a full return of my money she would be reported to eBay. I got all my money back but not after getting another long email about how terrible a person I am. I monitored her items for sale after that and she relisted the same boots for $200 as a buy it now and sold them in less than 24 hours. She posted positive feedback for that buyer and approximately 2 weeks later they posted positive feedback for the seller mentioning that they were new in box.

Sorry for venting.