Ebay failing sellers scammed by fraud buyers

Infinite Chaos · May 22, 2017

ast November Clive Rose* sold two handmade Japanese swords on eBay, worth a total of £1,940. The buyer, once he had received them, demanded that the cost of the more expensive sword be slashed. Rose refused to haggle and asked for the items to be returned and a refund issued.

Eventually a box arrived. “We couldn’t open it until we had signed for it,” says Rose. “On the label it said two items were inside. When we had signed and opened it up we found the cheaper £540 sword badly damaged because of poor packaging, and a brick. The other £1,400 sword, for which he had been trying to barter, was not there.” Link.

I actually had something similar happen when a buyer pretended something I sold him wasn't as described and even arrived damaged. I launched a complaint against him which Ebay luckily followed through and I got my money but this story shows others are not so lucky.

Anyone here sell on Ebay? Will you continue to sell on Ebay? Personally, I'm cutting back and looking for other platforms but am interested to know what others think.

Crovax · May 22, 2017

Infinite Chaos said:
I actually had something similar happen when a buyer pretended something I sold him wasn't as described and even arrived damaged. I launched a complaint against him which Ebay luckily followed through and I got my money but this story shows others are not so lucky.

Anyone here sell on Ebay? Will you continue to sell on Ebay? Personally, I'm cutting back and looking for other platforms but am interested to know what others think.

Ebay turned to **** about 10 years ago if not longer. Too much counterfeit merchandise, too many users/bots to get any deals and eBay always sides with seller/PayPal over buyers.

Rexedgar · May 22, 2017

Infinite Chaos said:
I actually had something similar happen when a buyer pretended something I sold him wasn't as described and even arrived damaged. I launched a complaint against him which Ebay luckily followed through and I got my money but this story shows others are not so lucky.

Anyone here sell on Ebay? Will you continue to sell on Ebay? Personally, I'm cutting back and looking for other platforms but am interested to know what others think.

Years ago I was very involved, buying and selling. Mostly satisfactory transactions. Ebay has gotten greedy, charging 10% on the shipping as well. I always lose money on the shipping. Now I only use them for special items or something that would be hard to move on another venue.

cuban smokes · May 22, 2017

I have been on feeBay since July 2000; back then and & for several years afterward feeBay was a good place to buy & to sell.

Over time feeBay became more & more greedy, continually increasing fees & eventually earning the name feeBay.

John Donahoe took over in late 2007 & in May 2008 feeBay NO LONGER allowed sellers to leave buyers negative feedback.
This move effectively destroyed the feeBay feedback system & was a huge contributor IMO to feeBay becoming an ever increasing POS.

feeBay is ALL ABOUT THE BUYER; the seller gets ****ed waaaaaaay too often.
feeBay is also about feeBay too; they ALWAYS have their hand out for OPM ............

I sell guitars. In 2007 I sold over 40 guitars; this is a hobby mind you, not a business.
I sold 75% of those 40+ guitars on feeBay & 25% I sold via private sales.

I joined Reverb about four years ago & finally listed my first guitar on Reverb this year.
The buyer that bought that guitar purchased four guitars from me in the space of about seven weeks :mrgreen:

I currently have two guitars listed on feeBay & once those are gone I may not list there any longer; not sure yet.
All I know is feeBay is a huge POS, and for many reasons ..................

SDET · May 22, 2017

Infinite Chaos said:
I actually had something similar happen when a buyer pretended something I sold him wasn't as described and even arrived damaged. I launched a complaint against him which Ebay luckily followed through and I got my money but this story shows others are not so lucky.

Anyone here sell on Ebay? Will you continue to sell on Ebay? Personally, I'm cutting back and looking for other platforms but am interested to know what others think.

About a decade ago when Ebay started going "PayPal Only" I stopped selling. PayPal wants the ability to drain your bank account and wants your Social Security Number. I just don't trust PayPal. PayPal Complaints

Infinite Chaos · May 23, 2017

cuban smokes said:
~ John Donahoe took over in late 2007 & in May 2008 feeBay NO LONGER allowed sellers to leave buyers negative feedback.
This move effectively destroyed the feeBay feedback system & was a huge contributor IMO to feeBay becoming an ever increasing POS ~

This is exactly the problem, as a seller, you can't see from feedback whether a buyer is a fraud or has a history of complaints against him / her.

RetiredUSN · May 23, 2017

I have been selling and buying woodworking hand planes, saws, chisels, and golf clubs on EBAY for 20 years and never had a issue.

I will continue selling and buying from EBAY until something better comes out, and so far there isn't anything close to the amount of buyers/sellers that EBAY has, other than Amazon. But people don't go on Amazon looking for for antique woodworking tools and used golf clubs. They go to EBAY first.

The PayPal thing...... meh!

cuban smokes · May 23, 2017

Infinite Chaos said:
This is exactly the problem, as a seller, you can't see from feedback whether a buyer is a fraud or has a history of complaints against him / her.

that is exactly correct! feeBay has taken away the ability of the seller to 'police' those that purchase from the seller.

Whenever I used to receive a question about an item I have for sale from another feeBay member, the first thing I would do is check their feedback for any 'non payment' issues.
If I found the member had negative feedback issues for non payment I would put them on my 'blocked bidder list' and that was that.
Get a bid from a member? Same thing; check their feedback ...... got NEGs for non payment? = blocked bidder list.
Haven't been able to do that for 9 years now. The feedback system at feeBay has been DEAD for 9 years.
feeBay also has something called "Buyer Protection" but I don't recall anything that applies to seller protection.

feeBay caters to itself & to buyers; the seller gets the shaft ............ **** feeBay ...............

americanwoman · May 23, 2017

Infinite Chaos said:
I actually had something similar happen when a buyer pretended something I sold him wasn't as described and even arrived damaged. I launched a complaint against him which Ebay luckily followed through and I got my money but this story shows others are not so lucky.

Anyone here sell on Ebay? Will you continue to sell on Ebay? Personally, I'm cutting back and looking for other platforms but am interested to know what others think.

I used to sell a lot but I also had a couple of bad buyers and then with the fees they charge just wasn't worth it anymore.

I was actually going to look into it again to see if anything has changed but by the looks of it, has only gotten worse.

Captain America · May 23, 2017

cuban smokes said:
I have been on feeBay since July 2000; back then and & for several years afterward feeBay was a good place to buy & to sell.

Over time feeBay became more & more greedy, continually increasing fees & eventually earning the name feeBay.

John Donahoe took over in late 2007 & in May 2008 feeBay NO LONGER allowed sellers to leave buyers negative feedback.
This move effectively destroyed the feeBay feedback system & was a huge contributor IMO to feeBay becoming an ever increasing POS.

feeBay is ALL ABOUT THE BUYER; the seller gets ****ed waaaaaaay too often.
feeBay is also about feeBay too; they ALWAYS have their hand out for OPM ............

I sell guitars. In 2007 I sold over 40 guitars; this is a hobby mind you, not a business.
I sold 75% of those 40+ guitars on feeBay & 25% I sold via private sales.

I joined Reverb about four years ago & finally listed my first guitar on Reverb this year.
The buyer that bought that guitar purchased four guitars from me in the space of about seven weeks :mrgreen:

I currently have two guitars listed on feeBay & once those are gone I may not list there any longer; not sure yet.
All I know is feeBay is a huge POS, and for many reasons ..................

I sold one of my gits on eBay. A Guild D-50. The transaction was good. I was a nervous wreck waiting for the item to be delivered safely and get my positive feedback.

I collect Ventura guitars, lawsuit era, (amongst others.) I have picked up a few of these on eBay. No complaints so far.

I will be more cautious after reading this thread.

justabubba · May 23, 2017

caveat emptor

if not the motto of ebay, it should be for its customers

Renae · May 23, 2017

Infinite Chaos said:
I actually had something similar happen when a buyer pretended something I sold him wasn't as described and even arrived damaged. I launched a complaint against him which Ebay luckily followed through and I got my money but this story shows others are not so lucky.

Anyone here sell on Ebay? Will you continue to sell on Ebay? Personally, I'm cutting back and looking for other platforms but am interested to know what others think.

I sold a PC on ebay once, and the seller went ballistic because he said the Hard Drive wasn't what I said it was. It was, but he protested to Ebay and they said he sent "photographic proof" I lied. I haven't sold a thing on there since.

Cephus · May 23, 2017

SDET said:
About a decade ago when Ebay started going "PayPal Only" I stopped selling. PayPal wants the ability to drain your bank account and wants your Social Security Number. I just don't trust PayPal. PayPal Complaints

Actually, the government requires them to have your SSN because you have to pay taxes on the money you make and PayPal has to issue the appropriate tax paperwork, both to you and to the government.

radcen · May 23, 2017

I bought and sold a lot from 2000 to 2005, probably over 1,000 items, then it started to go to crap. Since 2005 I've bought and sold maybe 4 items. I don't think I've touched it since 2011.

eBay used to defend itself against lawsuits as nothing more than a conduit between buyers and sellers. Now they got their nose so far in your business they don't even try to make that claim anymore.

Crovax said:
Ebay turned to **** about 10 years ago if not longer. Too much counterfeit merchandise, too many users/bots to get any deals and eBay always sides with seller/PayPal over buyers.

Agreed, though I'd say about 12 years ago.

Rexedgar said:
Years ago I was very involved, buying and selling. Mostly satisfactory transactions. Ebay has gotten greedy, charging 10% on the shipping as well. I always lose money on the shipping. Now I only use them for special items or something that would be hard to move on another venue.

I wasn't aware of that. It's been probably 5 years since I last listed anything there.

I have a couple old Mustang restorations body parts that I want to sell, though, and am considering listing them there, if only because they're so odd.

cuban smokes said:
I have been on feeBay since July 2000; back then and & for several years afterward feeBay was a good place to buy & to sell.

Over time feeBay became more & more greedy, continually increasing fees & eventually earning the name feeBay.

John Donahoe took over in late 2007 & in May 2008 feeBay NO LONGER allowed sellers to leave buyers negative feedback.
This move effectively destroyed the feeBay feedback system & was a huge contributor IMO to feeBay becoming an ever increasing POS.

feeBay is ALL ABOUT THE BUYER; the seller gets ****ed waaaaaaay too often.
feeBay is also about feeBay too; they ALWAYS have their hand out for OPM ............

I sell guitars. In 2007 I sold over 40 guitars; this is a hobby mind you, not a business.
I sold 75% of those 40+ guitars on feeBay & 25% I sold via private sales.

I joined Reverb about four years ago & finally listed my first guitar on Reverb this year.
The buyer that bought that guitar purchased four guitars from me in the space of about seven weeks :mrgreen:

I currently have two guitars listed on feeBay & once those are gone I may not list there any longer; not sure yet.
All I know is feeBay is a huge POS, and for many reasons ..................

One of my major complaints and why I essentially stopped using them.

SDET said:
About a decade ago when Ebay started going "PayPal Only" I stopped selling. PayPal wants the ability to drain your bank account and wants your Social Security Number. I just don't trust PayPal. PayPal Complaints

Another one of my major complaints. I wonder if I could get by by offering a 10% discount for payment via USPS money order?

Ebay failing sellers scammed by fraud buyers

Infinite Chaos

Crovax

Rexedgar

Yo-Semite!

cuban smokes

SDET

Infinite Chaos

RetiredUSN

cuban smokes

americanwoman

dangerously addictive

Captain America

Jedi Master

justabubba

long standing member

Renae

Cephus

radcen

Phonetic Mnemonic ©