Ebay Shafting Sellers Even Further...

Going into effect on June 19:

"A provision has been added stipulating that in some cases we may refund part of the cost of an item to the buyer, and receive reimbursement from the seller, to cover differences between the item described and the item actually received, such as items received with small parts missing or minor repairs needed. Buyers may be asked to provide written proof from an authorized third party detailing the cost of such repairs. In these cases, we will not require the buyer to return the item to the seller."


So the seller loses out on both the merchandise AND a portion of the original sales price... at ebay's determination. This is as bad as ebay's "if we decide the item is fake, we'll have the buyer destroy it at the seller's expense" policy.

I hope to heck that the seller has the option of saying "return for full refund ONLY". Otherwise, what if ebay, or this supposed "authorized expert", which presumably the seller will not even have access to, decides that the damage/missing parts/shortfall in condition is a much higher proportion of the original sale price than the seller does? Does the seller have any recourse?

ebay is yet again overstepping its bounds, especially in the world of collectibles.

I can think of no other venue that interferes between buyer and seller as much as ebay does. In what other world does the venue and the buyer get to determine what the seller's merchandise is worth and completely nullify his or her sale?


-Dan

Amazon. They tell you what you're allowed to charge for shipping too and if you don't like it... tough.

It just never ends- As much as I think the amount of medium to small sellers is or was the backbone of ebay it is truly looking like a megamart mass only type situation. I get if you say an item is new unused it should be exactly that but if you clearly describe an item and properly show pictures then take it or leave it. Maybe I'll start car shopping on ebay- when I get my corvette make a claim for new paint job since there were 3 extra scratches and knock $5k off what I paid. Man some things just don't need any more fixing or they will break. Sad but this year alone I tried 3 other venues for my fishing tackle and not 1 sale so I'm almost a prisoner.

ebay also does this in certain categories.

I don`t know, if ebay considered asking for example the FIP`s opinion. Question: how reparation affects the stamps value? A stamp with a minor fault may worth if it`s left so.
I try to translate one sentence from an article from the `Belyeg Lexikon`(Stamp Lexicon), issued in 1988, Budapest.

`repaired stamp:...The repaired stamp, depending the degree of reparation is having diminished value.

So I sell a stamp with minor fault. Buyer decides, that the stamp needs to be repaired. The `third party` I guess will happily agree with that (he`s going to be paid for the reparation). Basically buyer will diminish the items value (CV or market value)...I think that serious philatelists oppinion would be needed. Anyway, stamp restoration, reparation is very questionable as far as I know...
-edit: anyway, I guess this new rule won`t be applied to stamps. Stamps are different