A Prime Reason Why I Can't Wait to Get Off of Ebay

So.

eBay. You know the site. Sadly, it is little like the site many, many moons ago that created one of the most popular sites on the net. There is a darkside to eBay; it is the way they treat their sellers, the fraud they allow and even encourage, and how they try to shield themselves from any responsibility.

Besides blogging about fashion designers and finds, I also will be providing insight into eBay, its darkside, and how their policies conflict with their words and statements, and in most cases, create a hostile atmosphere where most sellers are lucky they are not financially raped on a daily basis.

Yes, it can be that bad.

But who am I? I have been on eBay in one form or another for over 14 years. Depending on the season, I am a Top Rate Silver Powerseller, or I have not had a listing in months. I have been chastised and threatened by eBay for interference for warning some of my customers that they were being shilled, and I know the ins and outs better than most.

Which brings me to my first topic... Lets talk about Jane Krouchick, non-paying bidders, and negative feedback.

Who is Jane. She is a rude and unresponsive buyer who was upset, because she did not contact me for 8 days, so despite 4 invoices, two emails, and no response from Jane, I made a second chance offer and sold the item to the next winning bidder. Jane thought this very unprofessional and decided to leave negative feedback. What a total bitch. But this case does highlight many of the non-defensible policies on eBay.

Only buyers can leave negative feedback. As a seller, my only two choices are positive feedback or no feedback. Why does eBay do this? It was not always the case. Many years ago, sellers could leave negative as well. eBay changed the policy because it creates, as they said, an environment where buyers were afraid to leave honest feedback for fear of retaliation. That is partially true. They also stated that it was because new buyers were getting hammered with negative feedback when they first were getting started.

Lets take a closer look at that last part.

So what was happening was a buyer would bid, they would win, and they would in many cases "change their mind." They got caught up in the bidding war, and oooops... They really did not want to buy that item at that price.

Or... As happened to me a few times... They wanted the seller to SHIP THE ITEM BEFORE THEY PAID. Yes, many of these people when I go back through my early negatives were from buyers who wanted me to ship the item first before they paid.

Unfortunately, the pendulum has swung the other way, and many buyers know this. In fact, many buyers make unreasonable demands because of this. The power of feedback is completely slanted in their hands, and they can cause sellers to pay higher fees, lose status, and even get suspended.

Lets look at this scenario. A buyer bids and wins an item. The seller tries and contact the buyer for a week and gets no response. The seller finally files a non-paying bidder to try and recover their final value fees. The buyer gets upset... How dare the seller file against them. They pay, and even though the item is perfect, they leave negative as retaliation for the seller notifying eBay that the buyer had not paid. The seller has no recourse.

And in fact... The buyer can say ALMOST ANYTHING in their feedback. As long as it is not vulgar, contains identifiable information, eBay will not remove it. The buyer can receive the item, and leave feedback that states... SELLER NEVER SHIPPED. AVOID. BAD SELLER. CROOK. and even though the seller has a delivery confirmation, or even signed receipt, eBay will not remove the feedback even though it is false and provable as such without a court order.

So how can this be resolved.

It is simple.

The minute a Non-Paying Bidder is filed, the seller should have the option of leaving negative feedback and the buyer should lose the option of leaving negative. After all, this means that the auction has gone over 3 days without a payment being made. This would encourage bidders to pay on time, as well as protect the seller from retaliation for filing a non-paying bidder.

At minimum, once a non-paying bidder has been filed, the seller should have the option to file a negative feedback.

The issue with the feedback disparity is more than retaliation feedback, it is also a warnin sign to sellers about bad bidders. In the last year, I have had 9 non-paying bidder awarded in my favor. That may seem like a small number, but that is out of just under 100 auctions really. So in short, 10% of bidders in my experience do not pay.

The kicker? The feedback of these buyers were all 100%. 4 of them are no longer registered (they have since been kicked off of eBay) In the past, when feedback was truly open, as a seller I could see a person's history and know they likely would not pay. In fact, I could monitor my auctions before hand, see that I had a bidder with a bad history, and I could decide to ban them from my auction and cancel their bids.

Those were the good old days for sure.

eBay, who will not remove feedback except for the most part only under court order, does offer the Seller the opportunity to reply to their feedback and try and explain their side. While this may seem reasonable, they give the buyer the final word, and again, they can say what ever they want, whether it is false, slanderous, or damaging to the seller, as long as it is not vulgar or contains identifiable information.

Again, the buyer has all the power, they can in fact leave TWO false and negative feedbacks against a seller who is only allowed one explaination. At minimum, the Seller should get the final say to defend themselves.

So besides the negative feedback, why does it matter.

Non-Paying Bidders also have other costly detriments. More often than not, it can take a week to two weeks to resolve a current auction. Even though there are other bidders, by the time you file a second chance offer, the buyer often has found a substitute auction to purchase. These other buyers are also suspicious at times. There is a TON of bid shilling that takes place (Sellers bidding on their own auctions to jack up the price either through secondary ids or proxies) and more times than not, a non-paying bidder can lead to re-listing several times before the item sells again, often for a lower final price, and at a higher expense in listing fees to eBay.

So why does eBay do such things.

Because, in my opinion, John Donahoe LOVES screwing the sellers. He knows he has them over the barrel, and it is more profitable for eBay to have 100 bad bidders than it is to retain one good seller. After all, that is why eBay has so many fakes and counterfeit items on their site. For everyone of these fakes, they get a listing fee, if it sells they get a final value fee, and since they force paypal down our throats, they also get a service fee on the money exchange. EVERY fake that is sold on eBay is a potential profit.

eBay and Donahoe knows that their biggest asset is the number of eyes that scour the site on a daily basis. eBay knows that they have sellers over the barrel, so they make sure they do EVERYTHING they can to empower the buyers and encourage new buyers and know they have the sellers over the barrel.

If fact, when you understand PayPal's policies, it is far worse than that. In fact one of the dirty little secrets I will reveal is how you can get almost ANYTHING from eBay for free or next to free. I am actually surprised more people have not figured this out, and it is what keeps me up at night anytime I ship a high priced item. But that is for a future blog. I actually want to be done with my selling before I reveal that, and when you see what it is, you will understand why