Worst Dealer You Ever Dealt With

Given ebay's policies, sellers are quick to ban people.

Angore, which policies do you mean?

A few years ago I returned a misidentified item to an ebay seller for a refund. Much to my surprise, the next time I attempted to buy from him I found myself blocked. Out of curiosity, I checked once last year and I found that I was still blocked. While he has missed out on a few sales as a result, all of the items involved would have been inexpensive. While I don't remember what the returned item was, I do remember that it was supposed to be a tagging-omitted error (it was tagged) ... so I suspect the cost of that one item was probably close to the total of any potential subsequent sales.

I was referring to ebay / paypal policy where buyer usually can get a refund and ebay's drive for no negative feedback so sellers protect themselves.

ebay "blocked bidder -buyer" system is permanent unless the seller actively goes back and unblocks. There is no system to have a temporary block, as far as I know.

And angore is correct -- the selling system is very unforgiving of negatives, so many sellers do protect themselves. only one of six negatives I've gotten in the last year (against nearly 2500 positives) is from a stamp buyer from Italy who called me a liar because I listed a set a NH when it was lightly hinged - my mistake and I would have happily given him a refund. Instead he is blocked.

ddaann posted "WHO CALLED ME A LIAR" -I am surprised how fast people go ballistic and run to ebay instead of trying to work out a problem with another member of ebay . Another problem is the terrible system ebay uses to resolve problems ,it is like every problem has a canned answer off of a check list . ebay doesn't read the answers or follow a discussion about a problem they make their final decision from a yes or no check list .

One reason I stopped offering many of my sales items to Eastern Europe was the repeated instances of some buyer apparently illiterate in English who couldn't read my description then going ballistic on me with bad feedback. I once sold a better souvenir sheet with a clearly described thin spot to a buyer in Poland who not only left a negative but demanded an immediate refund. I told him to mail it back, he then complained it came back to him when he did and sent me a scan of the envelope. He'd addressed it to my name and city, no address. By then I was sick of him and sent him a full refund telling him to keep the darn thing and learn to read English. He replied that maybe I need to learn Polish. He was just one of many.

There is a seller in Texas who offers better US material who just loves blocking people. Even if you've never done business with him. He apparently has time to burn and sends his days trolling discussion boards, etc and if he can get hold of your Eay ID and if you've posting anything he thinks is negative about any other seller he will block you. There was a discussion abiut him on here a few years back, we figured out that was what we had in common.

It is easy to have multiple accounts if a person wanted to by-pass being blocked by certain sellers.

But I am impressed on how well ebay marketing has brainwashed us into thinking that a person has to have 100% Feedback and that a few strikes against a seller is some kind of red flag. I defy anyone to find a local brick and mortar retail store that does not have a few unhappy customers. Why do we think that online selling is different? Because ebay tells us so? Because ebay is willing to allow the big sellers to do an end run around the feedback system by removing every negative feedback? Because they stupidly allow a seller to put in their listing 'don't leave a negative feedback but instead contact me'*?
Don


* While this might be good business it is inane for a feedback system. Why bother with a feedback system if it doesn't capture the actual facts? It is like Ford saying their fall out rate on the manufacturing floor is 0% because the QA department runs around fixing the production errors BEFORE they gather the metrics. Doh.

Yes, the ebay feedback system is essentially worthless, and the inability to respond to negative feedback makes it less than worthless. Many sellers, myself included, have positive feedback auto-posted so that when a problem arises later FB is already completed.

Hearing yet again of all the troubles and travails in dealing with ebay reminds me that the APS Store is always open and no messing around with feedback.

Climber Steve, excellent point!

Cheers

Stampmaster

Seven or eight years ago, I bought a few items on ebay from a seller in Australia. He had plenty of positive feedback, and I had already bought something from him before with no problems. Since mail from abroad sometimes takes an inexplicably long time to get here, I was very patient, but when I finally decided to stop waiting, I didn't get a response from the seller. I checked the seller's feedback again, and since I had made my purchase, several other buyers had left negative feedback for non-receipt of their purchases. It seems that the seller had built up a solid ebay reputation but then just stiffed all his buyers and skipped town. By then it was too late for me to file a claim with ebay or Paypal, and I was out $60.

While ebay has its challenges, I still like it over anything else.

Indeed, seems like there's just as many complaints here about dealers where the (bad) business was conducted face-to-face.

Yes, the number of bad ebay transactions I've experienced is insignificant compared to the number of good ones. I've bought lots of treasures on ebay that I never would have found otherwise, and many of them have been bargain-priced.