eBay gripe!

[cjvitek]

Okay, I am trying to sell my old iPhone on ebay.

I put it up for auction, the auction is won by someone, who sends me money. One day after the money is sent, eBay sends me a notice saying that the winning bidder has had their bids cancelled, due to suspicious activity. But rather than giving me the opportunity to relist the item, or offer a second chance offer, eBay has completely removed the item from the records - it never existed!

Okay, so I put it up for auction again. Someone clicks the buy it now and sends me money right away. But yet again, eBay (in their infinite wisdom) cancels the transaction due to a suspicious bidder (ironically, in their email on how to prevent fraud, they suggest using buy it now, with immediate payment, which is what this buyer did!). Again, rather than just cancel the transaction and let me relist or offer a second chance, the auction is removed from my account.

Every time I have to recreate the auction, the average selling price has gone down, so eBay is costing me money. Every time I create the auction again. the people who may have bid, or were watching my auction may have moved on to other auction - so eBay is potentially costing me money.

And yet when I call to ask, all I get is a message saying "this is for your protection".

Why is it for my protection when these fraudulent bidders can place a bid or use buy it now in the first place? Why not stop them BEFORE the transaction takes place?

Why is it for my protection to REMOVE the auction completely? Why can the transaction just be cancelled and I can relist, or make a second change offer?

Now I have to go try again, for a third time, to sell this phone!

And now, while on the phone to try and resolve this issue, they hang up on me.

Angry Chris

 

[BrindawithanI]

Change your buyer limits so that people with little or no feedback are prevented from bidding. It's not the perfect answer but it will help. eBay used to be my only source for selling, but I agree that they're a little lacking in the "seller" protection department.

 

[cjvitek]

I looked into buyer restriction - you can only have limited based on feedback if it is negative, or if the person has been bidding on a lot of items.

I couldn't find any "do not sell to unregistered buyers" (which would make sense) or "do not sell to anyone with less than ___ feedback".

I am all for protecting sellers from fraudulent buyers, but let's be reasonable!

Chris

 

[cardfan]

Weird. Never had that happen to me. I've sold hundreds of items.

 

[Garz]

my problem with selling devices on eBay is they winners never pay. I dont use eBay anymore to sell.

 

[Ginbill]

I've been trying to sell my Evo 3D on eBay. First time I had a seller message me saying they didn't mean to bid... the next one didn't pay. Third time was the charm, they paid this morning and I've got the phone into the mail. I've never had any issues prior to this week's though. I was disappointed to say the least. But the price of my phone actually increased during the auction that was actually successful.

 

[BrindawithanI]

I looked into buyer restriction - you can only have limited based on feedback if it is negative, or if the person has been bidding on a lot of items.

I couldn't find any "do not sell to unregistered buyers" (which would make sense) or "do not sell to anyone with less than ___ feedback".

I am all for protecting sellers from fraudulent buyers, but let's be reasonable!

Chris

They've changed it again then since the last item I sold. Ive had someone win and then not pay as well @Garz. Don't you love how you can no longer give negative feedback to a buyer?! It's BS. I sent them a scathing email about the fact that it's the SELLER who creates their income so where's the love?!

 

[paul-c]

Selling things on eBay is not fun at all.

 

[Buggy11]

Screw eBay!! You should look at the sites that will buy your old electronics! No hassle! I read somewhere that apple has there own buy back program as well but never used it!

 

[E_Brown]

I used to sell a ton of items on eBay, but it really has gone down hill lately, and works against sellers. My last 2 selling transactions on eBay have been bad, and now I'm not selling anything on there anymore. I strictly use craigslist, or I list on crackberry (never tried yet on Tibp). The selling price is usually lower, but there is a lot less headache associated with it.

 

[anon(4698833)]

eBay is a joke these days...it is completely against sellers and basically makes the scammers run rampant around the place. I quit using it about 2 years ago when they changed their feedback abilities for sellers, which allowed sellers to at least have some recourse towards the twits and scammers.

Craigslist isn't much better though...outside of getting to meet the people face to face, i've had no less than 5 different situations where a buyer on craigslist showed up to buy what i was selling with less money than we agreed to and tried to low ball me and caused me to walk away frustrated and a hair away from punching them in the face. Then there's the weeding through the emails you get from the buyers to find the legitimate ones vs. the scammers.

It almost makes you want to just resort to the companies who offer to buy your stuff from you for a lower price just to avoid all the headache...almost.

 

[BrindawithanI]

Current Craigslist issues: selling iPhone 3GS for $150 OBO. Get an email yesterday from some woman offering me $250 with a PayPal link so I can log in to send her an invoice... I know SO many people who would fall for this!

 

[E_Brown]

Current Craigslist issues: selling iPhone 3GS for $150 OBO. Get an email yesterday from some woman offering me $250 with a PayPal link so I can log in to send her an invoice... I know SO many people who would fall for this!

It's true, I had the same friend almost fall for something of the same nature twice. I have a rule when I sell on Craigslist. Cash only, no shipping, and we meet at a public place. Never had a really bad experience like I have with eBay.