Ebay Buyer Frustration

In the last 6 months,I have experienced three situations where items received were not as described. Had to send them back for a refund. Both from sellers with either a 99% or 100% positive feedback. Kind of a hassle and you don't really know if you will be refunded fully either. Another situation where seller claim they shipped item, never issued a tracking number and item never arrived. Refund issued.

I bookmarked a seller and was following their listings and feedback. A negative feedback they received claiming the item received was fake disappeared after a few days. So glad I didn't buy that item, but the seller still has 100% positive feedback. At that point, I figured the 100% positive feedback seller score was meaningless and I gave the 95%ers and 96%ers another chance. Then I buy something from a 95%er and the when you go to the listing, instead of the ebay item number that I purchased saying "Sold", it says "This listing was ended by the seller because the item is no longer available."

I've read that ebay is very pro-buyer, but are instances where someone gets 1 widget instead of the 2 they ordered and paid for and you can't prove it as a buyer or when you send something back that is not as described, you never get your refund because the seller claims it was returned "damaged." Can you always go to your credit card company and dispute a charge and get it reversed if you don't receive an item or only get 1 widget instead of 2 or a damaged widget?

If a seller doesn't ship an item for a close to week, do you just wait until the last day of estimated delivery and let the resolution center take care of it or do you contact the seller and keep requesting shipping confirmation details and believer whatever the seller says, such as if they keep saying "I will ship it tomorrow" but there is never any follow-through?

Do you think the positive feedback for the 95% or 96% sellers is overrated or the satisfied buyers just got lucky? If these lower positive feedback sellers know the money will ultimately be refunded to the buyer if they open up a dispute either with ebay or credit card company, then why go through the exercise of selling something only to have the money refunded to the buyer in a month and get negative feedback? The only possibility I can come up with for why a seller would go through the exercise of not shipping something or shipped something not as described and having to go through the refund process is that it's cheaper than a payday loan.

Have any of you taken a risk with a 95% or 96% positive feedback score seller and offered a low best offer with a message such as "Perhaps your item is taking a long time to sell, due to your low feedback score compared to most sellers. I will be taking a risk on you, hence my low best offer, but if you perform satisfactorily, I will leave positive feedback and that will help increase your feedback score, which will lead to more sales for you. If I am not satisfied, then I am well aware of my rights as an ebay buyer. Rest assured, I have a 100% positive feedback score over a decade as a buyer."

Apologizes if it sounds like I am venting, but in a nutshell, does feedback not matter (since people still buy from 95 and 96% positive feedback sellers) because buyers know they will always win and get their money back if something goes wrong, either through ebay or credit card?

Not sure how much you buy on ebay, do you use tracking mail or just standard delivery most of the time? If you have done 100 standard deliveries with 2 undelivered items, it is not bad actually.

I never pay much attention to feedback. I try to take a close look at the item, and I ask questions. If I don't get answers to my questions, I probably won't bid.

I always use pay-pal to pay for stuff. If there is a problem, which is not very often, I've never had problems getting a refund.

ebay Feedback system is near useless; it is a ebay marketing tool designed to only help buyers feel comfortable buying 'sight unseen'. And the situation is worse than just sellers being able to solicit ebay to remove the negative feedbacks. Additionally, anyone (i.e. convicted criminals, previously NARUed accounts) can go buy exiting ebay account with 100% feedback and thousands of transactions. ebay also supports a person having 25+ accounts, so it is easy to make a few hundred transactions to yourself to build your feedback score. Lastly, be aware that people can, and do, use the feedback system as a form of retribution against others. So if I have an axe to grind with you, I can buy a number of small items from you under different accounts with the sole purpose of trashing your feedback score.

Ignore the ebay feedback system and start talking to other hobbyists to better understand who the quality sellers are on ebay. Study this forum and use other tools like this http://stampsmarter.com/BuyingOnlin..._Buying.html to arm yourself with as much 'seller' information as you do with knowledge about the stamps.

Don

When buying from individuals who are not dealers, I tend to rely a bit on feedbacks even though I know they are a sort of marketing ploy. I am usually more comfortable buying from stamp dealers on ebay, especially those with a brick and mortar store and a long history.

Setting Don's concerns to one side for a moment, remember that it's very difficult for a seller to maintain 100% feedback. We all mistakes now and again, and we all encounter obnoxious buyers now and again (for what it's worth, there are far fewer of the latter on ebay than one would encounter across a real shop counter).

All my negative experiences have been with small time sellers. If a seller doesn't ship after 3 business days, should I email them or just wait until the last estimated delivery date if item not received and file an item not received case?

Many sellers don't mark items as shipped, so you won't know when they ship. One seller that I bought from clearly states in his ads that he doesn't mark items as shipped.

Why would a seller not want to mark an item as dispatched? Would it take a lot of effort?

No, it takes seconds. I take an armful of stuff to the postbox, post it and come back and tick the "despatched" boxes.

For sellers not to notify customers when items are shipped is just poor service. No reason for any seller not to do that.

It takes no effort at all to mark as shipped. I do it, reluctantly.

But - once you start doing that, ebay tries to force you to adhere to a standard (usually 2 or 3 days). With the global postal system being unpredictable, it creates false hope and buyer disappointment when purchases arrive late.

Hi

I agree with Don that the ebay feedback system is useless. When I started buying on ebay years ago, a buyer could rate the dealer. Then ebay removed that option (stupid comes to mind). I bought from known dealers after that and eventually I stopped buying on ebay altogether.

To me it seems that after ebay removed the buyer rating the dealer, all these dealer problems started to rise.

Jerry B

Some dealers list their items on ebay, those that you can't find on their online store, so you have no choice but to purchase from them on ebay.

I strive to see the other persons perspective and to be polite. Disagreeing is not impolite. If you go to the e-bay rules you will see that they constantly monitor to keep it fair. If you have a problem it is best to contact the seller first as most sellers want to do a good job. If being able to return items is a big deal to you look for seller statement that he/she accepts returns and offers refunds, though if you use pay-pal they will take care of the refunds including postage if you have a valid problem and, always let ebay know what is going on.
Now the letter you wrote indicates that you just do not like buying on ebay. Swell! See the answer to that is simple, don't. But if you do take time to read their rules.

Respectfully disagree with the above. ebay is not about 'fairness'; they have absolutely no desire to be a 'fairness' mediator. They have one objective, to make money. This is like saying that Facebook or Twitter cares about 'free speech'. For some reason(s) folks are confusing online companies with governing entities. These are free market, capitalistic companies who work for their shareholders/owners. They have no obligation to be 'fair' or ensure 'free speech'. A company like eBay/FaceBook/Twitter will market their services in whatever way helps they bottom line; this may include not being transparent or being in gray area of ethical matters. ebay also does not have paid humans monitors in every one of their location around the world. The humans only handle the exceptions that their system kicks out; this is the only feasible and cost effective approach.

But I 100% agree with the rest of Louise's post; when a user signs up for a online service they are agreeing to ALL of its terms and conditions. If a user does not like the terms and conditions, then they should not use it.

Don