eBay

cello10 · ‎08-01-2006

Hey everyone,

I had a situation where someone contacted me via the trading assistant program and I put an item on for them and after it sold they changed their mind...I sent an email to the customer explaining what happened and refunded their money of course. Now I know I might get negative feedback on this one, not too worried about that, but does anyone know if I could get in any other kind of trouble for this with ebay?...Just wondering if anyone has any info on that. Pretty sure I'll be taking my name out of the trading assistant program after this experience.

Thanks in advance.

systemagic · ‎08-01-2006

If trading assistance is otherwise profitable, and worth your while, to you then you might want to adopt a strict rule of having all merchandise on-hand before you list it. There's no reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Whether or not to suffer the travails of being a trading assistant is a moot point for those of us here in British Columbia. The Trading Assistant Program in B.C. has never worked due to software glitches. I signed up many years ago to be a trading assistant and never got a single enquiry. Then, a year or two ago, I tried an eBay search for local sellers and the closest trading assistants found were in Washington and Alberta. I just tried a search again, right now, and the results tell me that trading assistants in Korea, Scotland, and Houston Texas are all within one mile of my home. How much potential B.C. business has eBay lost, year after year, due to this software problem? Is B.C. the only such area that turns up aberrant results?

cello10 · ‎08-01-2006

I did have it on hand and do have a strict policy in having the goods on hand first, but what do you do when the person demands the item(s) back and threatens to call the police if you don't return them? I guess now you need a legal team to be a trading assitant...lol

Still though, can anyone tell me if I can get in any trouble with ebay for this for not being able to honor a sale?

phoebescollectables · ‎08-01-2006

I am also a trading assistant. I have all my clients sign a contract first outlining ALL the terms and conditions. If you would like a copy let me know.

bad_manors · ‎08-01-2006

Hello all,

We used to do a lot of Assisting, but got a bit soured on it when a local person ended up essentially stealing $160 from us by standing on our front porch and screaming that we return one of 2 items we had sold for her for. We gave it back to her and returned the buyer's money. It gets complicated because one item was about half the price of the other. We had paid her for the more expensive one (the one she took back) but only got paid for the smaller piece.
It's a small town and she's very loud and very well connected, so we walked away from the money.
For a while, we only handled stuff we owned
We now use a simple "Letter of Engagement" but a more comprehensive agreement would be of great interest and much appreciated. We're at badmanor@nb.sympatico.ca.
Thanks
Brad

youreinthebook · ‎08-01-2006

If the buyer gets pissy about it, they could report you as a "Non-Performing Seller":

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/seller-non-performance.html

You probably don't have a history of doing this, so I would guess eBay wouldn't be too harsh for the first infraction. They could limit your ability to post listings until you take an online tutorial of theirs. They say they could pull your Powerseller status but I believe they only do that for sellers who have a history of repeated minor offenses.

It's hard to say exactly what would happen as it's mainly up to the eBay rep. who whould receive the report and we know how inconsistent the eBay carrot-and-stick process is.

Hopefully the buyer will decide it's not worth the trouble to report.

systemagic · ‎08-04-2006

I just looked up these "Non-Performing Seller" rules because of a new developement with a US Power Seller. I just won an auction for a Lalique plate from him/them for $25.49 USD whereas they typically appear to sell on eBay for closer to $75 USD.

I've made three requests for the S&H fee with no response. I suspect that they don't want to honour the sale.

According to the rules it looks like you need an email with a header (not eBay's messaging) from the seller with a statement clearly stating their intentions not to fulfill their obligation in order for eBay to take any action. The rules state: "If a complaint cannot be proven with certainty, it is possible that no action will be taken." I believe that this statement would more accurately reflect the reality if you remove the words "...it is possible that...".

Therefore it appears that if a seller is unhappy with the amount of an auction all they have to do is erase any communication, remain silent, and relist the item.

Trading feedbacks is the buyers only recourse.