Potential trap for eBay sellers

I have stopped selling on Ebay, it just is not worth the hassel , I have a feedback of over 700 and 100% and did sell all over the world (my old camera kit) with no bother, but seeing how it is run now, you are open (As a seller) to black mail from the scammers.
Amazon is just as bad and it costs more.
When I get round to it I will list some of my surplus kit on this forum site. To like minded people that I can talk to.

I have 2 accounts, I used to buy and sell mobile phones on Ebay and one was 100% @ 900+ (the selling account) and the buying one had about 700+ and the feedback was not so good.
This was due to sellers sending (sometimes) total rubbish after advertising as new condition and I used to leave the appropriate feedback and get one in return for no reason.

Because of that I can see why Ebay brought the new rules in but it could have been done in a more sensible way as it's totally loaded against the seller now.

My 100% was destroyed last year by someone who I bought something from by mistake with my seller account, the item was faulty and I won a paypal dispute and he had to refund me. A few months later he bid on an item I had on, refused to pay and left negative feedback.
Ebay totally refused to withdraw that negative and it was then I stopped selling on there.

Some tossers around with nothing else to do and things like that show their honesty and integrity. One of the main reasons, for me, that eBay is not what it used to be.

Hows This one Mike, Early last year, no names mentioned but a seller of Nikon/Canon cameras suddenly bought all the “refub” cameras from “Clear our gear,” Jessops ebay shop, he must have had a total of £5000 worth.
His ebay “Shop” disappeared over night leaving buyers/sellers out of pocket.
I do know he is now trading again on Ebay with a “front name” not his own.
As far as I know he has done this several time before, renting industrial units, and when the time is right he does a moonlight flit.
I just wonder how many more are like him?

It's like everything else, with good and bad points. It is still the best way to sell photographic gear all over the world because nowhere else would there be such a large pool of customers who are actually looking to buy. If they weren't they wouldn't be reading the listing.

The trouble comes with those who don't understand what they are doing and how to deal with people and those who are villains of one sort or another.

As far as the seller goes these days things are rather stacked against, regardless of how careful we are. But what's the alternative, sell nothing?

Sadly when things do go wrong there is No Saving Throw for the seller...

I agree there John, I worry when I sell stuff and always contact buyers to advise despatch etc.

So far I've been lucky.

As for dealers, I'm currently watching 3 MEF cameras, all three have dealer bids and the last 2 that I watched went for far more than I wanted to pay. An unknown body with a faulty shutter went for £41, if it worked OK, but the vendor was honest and said he didn't know if it was OK.

The buyer had 300+ feed back as a buyer, non as a seller. This guy must be stocking a shop with these kind of figures.

I don't mind being outbid, but when the other bidder is WAY over the odds it spoils everything ebay is supposed to stand for.

Oh and a lot of european dealers are starting to bid on UK items now, weak pound and all makes it worth while for them!

I have my PayPal and bank accounts linked, so hopefully I won't have the particular problem mentioned.

I am still worried about the possibility of getting scammed, though. Even if there was no direct financial loss, as well as damaging negative feedback, a "strike" can be made against your PayPal and eBay accounts if a dispute is upheld.

Scammers order an item (sometimes with a hijacked eBay account) and claim it was never received, then obtain a refund through PayPal. It may not always be possible to prove the item was received even when using "Signed For" delivery services - if the postal services don't, or aren't able, to cooperate.

Other than that worry, I don't have serious problems with eBay and it's been very good for me indeed, both as a seller and a buyer.

I don't like some of the new procedures and rules, but that's countered by some new things that I do like.

Hi,

John...firstly, the ebay max p+p charges for books, dvd's etc introduced on 27th Jan 2009 has nothing to do with improving things for sellers or buyers...it has everything to do with ebay getting more fees.

Try and sell almost any book that weighs over about 400g, ie all reference books.. and the ebay sytem will now not let you charge anywhere near enough p+p for it...so the sellers of such items will be forced to ADD the p+p shortfall onto the start bid price...so buyers wil pay the same (roughly) but ebay get more fees, because they will get higher FVF fees from the higher item prices.

Secondly, re the paypoo system...they have for about 2 years now, made it ever harder for any paypoo user to pay or use credit cards via the paypoo system purely because the cc companies charge a fee to paypoo and paypoo do not like that...which is why I use a credit card EVERY time I use paypoo these days, especially as I then get credit card protection if the deal goes pear shaped...NEVER rely on the very dubious paypal protection.

The paypoo system is misleading and ever more difficult to use. They utterly mis-lead every user/buyer who pays with a paypal echeque for example...they do not give the correct and normal clearance times, nor do they let buyers clearly know when they have paid with an echeque, often without even wanting to.

The whole paypal system has been changed over the last two years, it is more difficult to use, slower to use, more expensive to use and more mis-leading then ever.

cheers Steve.M.

I'm glad eBay are trying to limit the amount that sellers charge for p&p. Excessive p&p is annoying for buyers and unfair competition to more reasonable sellers.

However, eBay have been stupid with the limit for books as books are so often heavy items.

Hi John

Have you contacted this buyer and asked why?
Having 0 feedback and claiming a dispute sets alarm bells ringing to me.
If he/she is new then finding the dispute bit is somewhat tricky, it was for me. Seems they know there way around.
You have their address and can get their phone number from eBay
Good luck John.

Stephen

Hi,

I have been BUYING and selling on ebay for 7 years, but I fundamentally disagree with this :

"I'm glad eBay are trying to limit the amount that sellers charge for p&p"

...ebay is in their own words 'just a venue for sellers'. They should not be in the business of trying to fix ANY p+p charges for any sellers...WHY?

1. Because no buyers are forced to buy or win anything..they have free will, if the p+p is too high..DO NOT BID..end of story...if the p+p is not on the listing..ASK before you bid..if you get no reply...do not bid.

2. Because ebay cannot foresee the differing p+p overheads of different sellers...POSTAGE is not the only cost and the other costs can vary widely from one seller to another.

IMO you are missing the point..ebay may say they are doing this to make p+p cheaper (do you really believe them?)...but as I said, the total cost to a buyer will not be any cheaper...sellers will not pay the shortfall themselves and ebay know that. This is all about MORE FEES for ebay.

cheers Steve.M.

It is in the interest of Ebay to limit postage, not the seller or buyer as a seller you don't get charged on the "final value fee" for postage so if Ebay can stop sellers from inflating postage, the seller has to sell higher and a bigger % profit for Ebay. and less for the seller.

While I don't like it that eBay are making so many billions of dollars of profit because they have such little competition, I think the way they do things is generally good for both buyers and sellers.

I am an experienced and regular eBay seller as well as a buyer, so yes I know that p&p is excluded from the Final Value fees, but that does not mean eBay doesn't have other good reasons as well to minimise and even-out p&p charges.

Though not being more expensive for the buyer, excessive p&p charges are annoying for buyers. It makes price comparison more difficult, and creates bad feeling.

Excessive p&p charging is also unfair competition to other sellers who are more honest and fair, and therefore pay more in Final Value fees.

This offence to both buyers and honest sellers damages both the experiences of buyers and honest sellers. It is in eBay's and eBay users' interest to make buying and selling experiences as pleasant as possible so people will carry on using it.

So I welcome eBay's general policy to minimise and even-out p&p charges. They just haven't got the detail right yet.

No one can deny that there are millions of eBay sellers who wrongly bump up their p&p charges to avoid fees - and create bad feeling and unfairness as a result. Something desperately needed doing about it, and finally something is starting to be done.

ps. By coincidence, I've also been buying and selling on eBay for 7 years. I've enjoyed the experience overall, and I'm proud of my 1312 points and 100% positive feedback. I must be doing something right.

I take care to minimise my p&p charges to create good feeling for the buyer, and just charge for the actual cost of postage stamps + packing materials plus usually no more than £1 for my time, often less. It helps a lot to use recycled packaging whenever possible.

Whereas lots of other sellers bump an extra few quid on top to cheat the system. For whatever reasons, the fact is that buyers do not like that, as well as honest competing sellers.

My point is, that Ebay have just made the rules to suit them and no one else.
Also have you noticed they are leaning toward the "Big Boys" with big turnovers they get very competitive rates far better than the average guy selling.