Whats going on with EBAY

[vesarious]

Getting really tired of EBAY's lack of proper policing and the planned difficulty in coordinating  solutions for issues. As a private buyer I frequent many sales sites but you seem to have sellers lieing on the posts by showing pics that arent the same as the products they are selling and while we are all seeing crooked listings from time to time its worse when you do nothing about it... kind of bait and switch and according to ebay they are allowed  You have sellers that list a low price for an expensive item.. but the cheaper item is included in there selection through drop down choices.. only many sellers are listing only one item and when selected the cheap price disappears.   I have had 3 scam sales you cancelled and refunded, I have had bids disappear with extreme difficulty in finding why. I have had to request refunds on blatant false listings that you dont fix or remove.. You sent me an email that tells me what to look at with no explanation of how to get there when bids are cancelled... purposeful ?.. I think so.. as its easier for people to get mad and forget it and you know it. Dont know if the sellers read these things but every time this happens it makes me walk away for a while and hand out orders to the more deserving. Some orders are personal but many of these orders are test orders for much bigger buyers who want to test before factory contact and prefer to be anonymous to test the products prier to contact.  When ever these things happen my clients find out in a report. FYI

[recped]

I agree that there are a lot of "bad" sellers (and buyers), some are that way because they don't know any better and some know exactly what they are doing.

This is not a good thing for eBay or any of it's "good" users (both buyers and sellers) but I'm not sure what can be done under the current setup.

Right now anyone with a pulse and an email address can come here and do their good or bad, there is no honesty or intelligence test and that's the way it's always been. With millions of new listings every day it's very difficult to institute stricter controls on sellers and pretty much no way to control buyers actions.

I don't have the magic answer, many sellers think already think eBay is too controlling and there is virtually nowhere online (or offline for that matter) where buyers are forced to "prove" themselves worthy of being allowed to spend their money.

eBay......it's like herding cats!

[momcqueen]

The solution to your situation lays with changing your online shopping habits on ebay. Limit your purchases to sellers from Europe or North America (or searches to North America only) and I predict you will see a complete turnaround. 

[femmefan1946]

@vesarious 

You have sellers that list a low price for an expensive item.. but the cheaper item is included in there selection through drop down choices..

I agree.

I don't know why this form of 'variation' listing is allowed.
Colour or size makes sense, entirely different items does not.

I have had 3 scam sales you cancelled and refunded,

I think you should give eBay credit if they spotted, cancelled and refunded you on a fraudulent transaction, without any other action on your part.

I just wish they made it easier when a fraudulent transaction is cancelled and they require the buyer to take action, without giving them the means. All too often the fraudulent transaction disappears entirely, and the buyer is not given explicit directions as to her next step.

(Go to your Paypal payment is that step.)

I have had bids disappear with extreme difficulty in finding why.

I suspect that eBay's legal department has decided to avoid possible libel cases by not telling buyers that the seller is an active crook.

Annoying but understandable.

Sometimes a bid cancellation comes from the seller . For example, bidders with Strikes for non-payment can be automatically Blocked by sellers and some sellers will look at a bidder's feedback left for others and Block that bidder if the FB is scary.

I have had to request refunds on blatant false listings that you dont fix or remove.

Sellers who get Defects for failed transactions (including Disputes) may have their fees raised (from 10% to 14%) , or be restricted in the number and value of their listings. It does take some seriously bad behaviour to have a selling account closed even temporarily, and criminal behaviour to have it closed permanently.

Then there are dropshippers.

These are lazy sellers who list from a catalogue without having any actual stock.

Yes, it's legal. (That's how your Avon Lady works for example.)

The supplier gives the dropshipper pictures and descriptions of the product. The supplier packages and ships.

In theory all the dropshipper has to do is upload and collect money.

But if the supplier supplies garbage, or is slow to ship, or doesn't ship at all, the dropshipper takes the blame.

Not the supplier, who may have hundreds of dropshippers, not all of whom are caught by eBay. And he continues to recruit more lazy and naive sellers.

And getting rid of those is an ongoing battle.

[retroman_studios]

Yes and no.

I would say the inundation of foreign products to which the poster alludes (and the sales culture that accompanies it) has landed in North America. There are lots of sellers who import en masse these delightfuly cheap products to push on buyers.

The good news is that most of the time the pricing, lack of quality photos and lack of intellectual description usually give these away.

There are some good companies that sell on eBay and import products, but they give full specs and don't copy and paste what the supplier gives them. They usually have staff who understand the product unlike other sellers who import products and always complain when buyers have issues because the product is garbage.

[sonometrics]

Are any of the problems mentioned in this thread more likely, or less likely, to be associated with an ebay vendor that has an ebay "store"?  And if there are,  say, several hundred to several thousand items listed in that store? 

And if that vendor has, say, a greater than 99% positive feedback rating and has many thousand (even up to 50,000) positive feedback, a few hundred neutral and a few hundred negative feedback in the past 12 months?  Are these feedback numbers trustworthy?  If Ebay says the vendor has been an ebay member for more than 3 years, again is that meaningful and not fake-able?

[ypdc_dennis]

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@sonometrics wrote:

Are any of the problems mentioned in this thread more likely, or less likely, to be associated with an ebay vendor that has an ebay "store"?  And if there are,  say, several hundred to several thousand items listed in that store? 

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Sellers that have an eBay "store" do so to save money (on listing costs and selling fees).  Any seller can have an eBay "store" if they can pay the monthly fee (starting at $19.95 on eBay.CA).

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Having a "store" has nothing to do with how good a seller they are, although there are penalties if they have too many problems.

https://www.ebay.ca/pages/help/sell/storefees.html

[sonometrics]

I just thought that perhaps if you have a "store", and (apparently) feedback numbers in the thousands, that you're more likely to be involved in legit business on ebay vs fraud business.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@sonometrics wrote:

I just thought that perhaps if you have a "store", and (apparently) feedback numbers in the thousands, that you're more likely to be involved in legit business on ebay vs fraud business.

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Feedback is an important clue.

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Feedback in the thousands needs to be broken into feedback as Buyer and feedback as a Seller (ebay allows you to select which to look at) to be meaningful. You look at the selling negatives and neutrals (also selectable) the Seller has gotten in last year to see what they've been up to.

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Also you check to see how much feedback the Seller has had in the last year -- thousands over a number of years but only 1 in the last year means you treat them as a new Seller  (with possible suspicion of a hijacked account).

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