So eBay and Paypal are great when they work. The problem is when any little bit of fraud or doubt about an auction comes into play an seller gets screwed. My latest issue with the dynamic duo of lets screw the seller is eBay’s relatively new feedback policy. In the good days of the past someone would leave you a bad feedback score, you could reciprocate. That way a total moron would feel the pain of being an idiot when they left feedback for no good reason. Now a day’s only a buyer can leave neutral or negative feedback. eBay’s thoughts are that they don’t want buyers to be afraid of retribution when they leave negative feedback on a seller.
Here is why that doesn’t work. I am finally selling my Treo. In order to try and decrease the number of potential fraudulent bids I clearly state in the auction that I am only looking for bidders with 5 or more feedback. In the scheme of things it isn’t much of a protection against scammers, but every bit counts. I had someone win the auction with Buy It Now, and paid via Paypal. I went in to my accounts to check out the buyer. To my dismay I noticed that the buyer had only 1 feedback. Then I went into Paypal to check on the money and noticed that the person had paid for the item but wanted to have it shipped to a PO Box. I immediately refunded the guy his full payment price and in the refund I left a note about why I was refunding the money. The bidder actually sent me like 3 notices on ebay confused as to why he was being rejected even-though I explained it to him. He then wrote back to say that I got my first negative feedback for screwing him. This is where I got mad at eBay. I went to leave him feedback explaining my side, and realized that I couldn’t because eBay changed the policy. I refunded the guy his full amount paid. 1 feedback and asking to ship to a PO Box are both clear signs of a scam. How am I at fault here trying to protect myself? He got his money back like 30 minutes after paying. How is that screwing him???
eBay is trying to protect buyers, but what about sellers? I am more protected as a buyer already. If you use Paypal you can dispute the charge if you don’t get your merchandise, and then get your money back. If I send a product to someone and they dispute it, I have seen Paypal side with the seller, and then I am out my money and my product. Jayson got screwed selling a Mac Mini because it was worth more than the Paypal insurance and he shipped to a non registered address, even though it was the buyers home address. How is that fair?
Don’t you just love a semi-monopolistic website like eBay (try finding as large an auction community in the US and I will use it) that lets one type of customer able to complain about service, but not another? I find eBay contemptible, but I am forced to use it because it is basically the only game in town.