AIBU to be really unimpressed with Ebay

[rabbitwoman]

I did start a thread in the Ebay forum on my specific problem - there is no traffic, though - but basically, i have only joined eBay in the last month to clear out my attic. one of the first things i sold was a very nice collectable doll very cheaply to the first person who made me an offer, only for them to claim it didn't match the listing because it was was absolutely filthy - oh, but she would keep it and clean it, if i was prepared to refund her what she paid for it for her trouble..... hmmmm

i assume she thought i would not want to spend the money on the return postage, or that i would be worried about getting negative feedback, but i stood my ground - i called eBay several times for advice and they said to accept the return anyway and when i received it back it was, indeed, perfect and lovely and very collectable - i only gave her a partial refund, to cover my fees, but she opened a case to eBay they refunded her the rest anyway and took the money out of my paypal account!

I naively thought that eBay had policies in place to protect sellers like me from these practices - especially when there is plenty of proof that she was being dishonest, such as plenty of photographs, and lots of messages between us on Ebay - for instance, i asked her several times for photographs which she did not provide, she just kept reiterating that it was filthy and not fit for her children to play with. You would have to ask, who would buy a 35 year old doll off of eBay to give to her daughters to play with WITHOUT expecting to wash it first? However, clicking on her user name, she herself sells vintage dolls, very obviously after having restored them - they are all immaculate - so i find it hard to believe she would not have known how to clean my dolls dress properly? Or that she would not have mentioned this? Or that she would be buying vintage dolls to give to her daughters to play with when she knows their real value?

A bit of research has shown that this is actually very common, and lots of people have fallen foul of similar practices., some to the tune of hundreds of pounds. I am lucky that got my doll back and was able to resell - for a lot more - and that i was only out of pocket a relatively small amount of money, but if this is a known and much reported tactic, why on earth aren't eBay trying to do more to stop it?

There are lots of forums and blogs on the internet i have read the last few days saying that eBay are awful at tackling these issues - but it would seem quite easy to me to be able to demonstrate when someone is being fraudulent in this manner? It is so blatant! Is it because most people would just shrug their shoulders and not bother with reporting?

It just seems so easy to defraud casual sellers like me - what can i do to protect myself? I am only halfway through my pile of stuff to put on eBay and have not even started with the really valuable stuff yet - is it worth it? If there is absolutely no protection for sellers, if eBay nearly always finds in favour of the buyer even when they are blatantly lying, why does anyone ever sell anything on Ebay in the first place!

Less than delighted. Am i unreasonable to be really disillusioned with eBay and want to give up?!

I sold an old laptop recently. .99p starting bid.

I was watching the last half hour of the auction. The bid had gone up to £40 or so and stayed like that for a few days.

Then,in the last minutes of the auction, the price suddenly shot up to £80. The auction ended.

Then I got an email from eBay saying there had been suspicious activity and cancelled the bid. Their advice was to make a 'second chance' offer to the bidder below the 'fake' one. Which I did.

I wrote to the bidder and explained what had happened and did he still want the laptop for £40? He accused me of being a scammer. That I had deliberately done it myself to 'up' the price.

He then left me nasty negative feedback. I asked eBay to remove it, but they weren't interested. All I could do, was leave a comment under his feedback.

I then had to re-list the laptop again. Sold it for £35.

I've since sold many things through Facebook market place, no problem at all.

I won't sell stuff on ebay any more, only on FB marketplace, and only for collection in person. I didn't even sell that much on ebay, but recently I sold 3 pairs of used running tights in a bundle for £30 ie £10 each. They were expensive ones which all cost over £70 each new and were little worn so I described them as being in good condition.

The buyer complained that one of the pairs had "loose threads" and wanted a partial refund. I refused, as there was nothing wrong with them for used running tights. She then wanted a return, and although my terms and conditions said no returns, when she raised a case with ebay, they automatically found in her favour, without even contacting me.

I then had to paypal her the return postage. Of course, they never arrived back, but somehow she convinced ebay that she had posted them. So I ended up minus 3 decent pairs of running tights, plus 2 sets of postage (I did free p&p). Plus I had to deal with numerous whiny emails from that woman, whom I later saw was mainly a seller of "unused" sports gear...

Its just not worth the hassle of selling and posting.

Did you appeal ebay's decision?

I did appeal it - ebay found against me. I also reported the buyer - no response from ebay.

Can't believe all that fuss over 3 £10 pairs of running tights. Even if one of them had been bad (there was nothing wrong with it), she admitted she was happy with the other 2 pairs. Why do people even bother buying second hand used clothes if they are so fussy about things like a few loose threads (even new items can have those)?

Wow! Because I had started to think that because the guaranteed refund is pretty much automated, which is fine and would save ebay running costs, that the appeals process was where an actual human looked at the evidence and made a decision? I mean, if that's the case then really, I might as well give it all to a charity shop.... (and feel good about it too, there is a couple of hundred quid there....)

I barely ever even use ebay as a buyer now because it is flooded with cheap Chinese crap, the filters/categories are all broken as they have tried to "mobile-friendly" the site and it's become impossible to search easily due to a combination of those things. And I've noticed when I have used it as a buyer there is hardly any competition. I got a huge set of mega bloks for 99p, I was pleased but I felt a bit bad for the seller!

FB marketplace is the "online car boot sale" of today. No hassle about refunds because you just do cash on collection. If they don't want it they have one chance - when they collect - to refuse in which case it doesn't cost you anything. Later they have no comeback and you don't owe them anything.

Use it occasionally for purchases, but rarely. I sold stuff on it a few years ago when I had a clear out - when I added up the hassle and time taken, the money I received wasn't worth it.
Think someone in china that wanted to pay UK postage for a very average ancient badminton racket, dozens of emails from a woman that wanted me to measure every dimension of a pair of trousers within an hour of bidding closing , someone that went apeshit because I spotted moth holes in a woollen skirt as I was packing it and said it wasn't fit to sell, arguments that P&P too high (postage + 20p to cover the cost of packaging - and hardly reflected my time to post it on a Saturday........)
Too much hassle, took the rest to a charity shop.

I sell a few things on ebay, usually clothing and books. I had a buyer say the item hadn't arrived and went on a full rant about ebay always favouring the buyer etc as she has had a lot of items go missing recently. Item was only sent as a large letter so no tracking available. Anyway, I contacted ebay and reported her as it seems she is doing this a lot and they closed the case in my favour as she is scamming a lot of sellers. Buying items that a re small and unable to track then claiming they never arrived.

I use eBay to sell some bits that I know would be harder to sell on Facebook as not many in my local area may be interested however I am extremely cautious after recently selling an item where delivery had been delayed. I sent it to be signed for and tracking showed it had not been delivered.

Buyer contacted me to say they didn't have it, I waited the correct timeframe, refunded the buyer and placed a claim with Royal Mail for the item. Royal Mail delivered the item 4 days after I claimed and buyer claimed they still didn't have it. Meanwhile, I have no money and also don't have the item. Impossible to get through to anyone on eBay and I had done everything by the book.

I've also been having a clear out but now sticking to selling local for cash on collection even if I do get much less for the item. It just isn't worth the hassle

Also despite having refunded buyer in full, eBay haven't even credited me the selling fees so not only out of pocket for item and postage but also owe them money for fees. Ridiculous

On the other side of the coin, twice I've purchased items from ebay from business sellers, and they haven't arrived. I raised cases and ebay found against me because the buyer provided proof of posting and presumably proof of delivery. Except that they really hadn't arrived.

One I managed to get sent out again by contacting the business directly, the other seller was pretty nasty actually.

I think I'm going to stop using ebay completely. It introduces a third party into the equation who isn't particularly helpful or useful.

I also had a bad experience selling on eBay and now mostly just take things to the charity shop, give it away or Facebook market it for cash.
I'm sure my buyer only wanted 1or 2 of the set of 3 I sold her. One was smashed to pieces when it arrived apparently but the others were fine. She wanted a full refund and keep the undamaged stuff. We ended up agreeing a partial refund but I was livid. I couldn't see how only 1 would be that badly damaged and I'd packed them well.
I suspect she broke it on purpose to claim a refund.
Would rather have given them to charity.

Ebay is shit these days. Everything protects the buyer leaving the seller open to scams, and often out of pocket.

Even the fees are shit.

I've sold more things on FB Marketplace these days.

I have been selling on Ebay for over 10 years and can only remember having problems with a buyer once. I take lots of clear photos of the items I sell and everything goes by Hermes tracked - again you hear loads of negative stuff about them but I've had an item go missing once which they refunded very quickly. I have never had negative feedback. I don't sell expensive items though, mainly clothes that my children never wore; they are heavily discounted and the buyers who purchase them are getting real bargains. I currently have an absolutely beautiful, stylish, velvet girls coat on sale with tags and labels that I am going to delist as it cost me over £70.00 to buy from a quality retailer and I have not been able to shift if for a year even though it is listed at under a third of the cost. I would rather take a punt on one of my children having a daughter in the next 10 years than sell it for less than a cheap piece of tat from Primark.

I actually spoke to customer service this morning about the 'false positive' feedback and asked about how we can protect ourselves as sellers from this issue. I explained it to him and said that from reading a lot on the Internet, including ebay's own forum boards, this seems to be a really common problem that a lot of people experienced, isn't there something we can do to protect ourselves? He replied that making sure that the product was clean packaged nicely etc and I said, yes, but we do all that and then all a customer has to do is say that it was filthy, they don't even have to prove it, its a way for them to get the item for free or a free return at least and it's common practice, what am I missing, is there something I can do to protect myself.... I could hear him scratching his head, then he just repeated that making sure the item was as discribed and clean and well packaged and..... I tried again, that it seems to be a common scam, isn't there anything ebay can do, isn't there anything we can do to make sure it does not happen..... Gave up.

I said, very nicely, that I would have to think really carefully about whether to continue selling on ebay because it doesn't seem safe and we may as well give our stuff away!!!