No Negative Feedback for Buyers

[Mordan]

Hey,

Does it bother you? As a I buyer I prefer this new system because before the seller had too much power. I have seen sellers bully buyers into positive feedback, the buyer fearing the seller's negative feedback.

It happened to me before. Some crappy bastard sold me an incomplete head light set for my car. He wouldn't answer. I read some of his feedback and he was replying angrily to any negative feedback, calling the buyer names. This scared me and I did not post a negative feedback.

In the end, ebay should favor the buyers. I don't see how sellers can be scammed or cheated. They send the packet only when the money is in the bank anyway.

[playgen]

The seller can still leave bad feedback in the text, athough it won't change your percentage obviously.

Unless buyers start abusing it, the change is a good thing I suppose. In the past I've also refrained leaving any feedback for sellers who really deserved a negative for fear of getting my own feedback spoiled.

[Mister X]

Alright, ebay's new policies are fun, and here's how.

Sellers MUST accept Paypal, no exceptions. Paypal almost always favors the buyer in a dispute, so all a buyer has to do is wait for the seller to ship the item, then file a dispute with Paypal. Seller loses item and money, buyer gets refund and item.

Sellers CANNOT leave negative or neutral feedback for buyers. Leaving negative comments in positive feedback will get your account banned. Say you're selling, oh, say, a Sega Menacer with the pack-in game. The auction ends at a satisfactory price, and you wait for the buyer to send payment. What you get is an envelope with a letter that says "fuck you, send the item or I'll give you negative feedback and ruin your 100% rating". Well, there's nothing you can do, now! You can file a complaint, but you'll still get a negative, and ebay shut down the service that removed negative feedback.

And the best part is, these combine to form WHAT THE FUCK. Yes, if a buyer gives a seller a negative or a neutral, the buyer is awarded a discount on their next ebay purchase to keep them happy! Yes, ebay is quite literally paying people to leave bad feedback, no matter how smoothly the auction and resulting transaction went.

Hooray! Now ebay fully supports theft, fraud, and extortion, all in the name of DA CUSTUHMER IZ ALWAYZ RITE.

[Rusty Venture]

Ebay was going down the shitter when "ebay stores" started showing up.

[Smii]

Sellers MUST accept Paypal, no exceptions. Paypal almost always favors the buyer in a dispute, so all a buyer has to do is wait for the seller to ship the item, then file a dispute with Paypal. Seller loses item and money, buyer gets refund and item.

This is exactly the problem, and the reason I am loathe to sell things anymore. I've not sold much on eBay, and never had anything like the above happen, but I've still had a few idiots - zero feedbackers with really obvious fake accounts who never intend to pay. To get any of your fees back (the final value fee, that is; they never refund the listing fee) you have to go through eBay's ridiculous "dispute" system and wait at least two weeks; eBay do nothing to intervene. Much time wasted, and those lost fees can add up.

I understand the fear of retaliatory negs - I've not left honest feedback for a couple of deserving people because of this - but eBay's system is very flawed. And in the end, what does it matter what feedback comments you receive? A good seller getting scammed has a lot more to lose than a good buyer - would you rather have a dent in your reputation, or your bank balance?

[Mister X]

A dent in your reputation can cost you more money than you think. While I have no problem buying from people with imperfect ratings (I read negative feedback, looking for bullshit whiner comments like "slow shipping" complaints three days after auction close), the average person is stupid and superficial.

They'll sooner buy from a person with 100% positive feedback from suspicious accounts (gee, same name, with a different number appended to each, all for the same item) than someone with 99.7% positive, the only negative being something like "RIPOFF! PAID $5 FOR SHIPPING, BOX SAID $4.75 ON IT, BAD SELLER! SCAM!".

[Melf]

I still buy from eBay, as it's practically the only place for me to get my Genesis games, but I'm loathe to sell there now.

[playgen]

Its about time someone came up with an auction site to take on ebay, and do a better job of it, and charge a lot less fees. A company like Google or Microsoft could do it easily, as the main hurdle to over come is brand name recognition, which they already have. So many people, sellers at least, are fed up with ebay but still use it as theres no complete alternative.

[Mister X]

Well, I forget if it was here, or another classic gaming board, but someone recommended this site for gaming auctions.

http://www.chasethechuckwagon.com/

It's lacking in fancy-schmancy web design, but it seems like a great alternative to ebay's constant parade of bullshit. I haven't used it yet, I just registered. Seems they give you a $5 credit for signing up. I guess that's used for auction fees or something. The display of this is confusing, though. It'll say your balance is -$5.00, but that's stupid, since it's actually +$5.00. Oh well, some weirdass countries use a decimal point to mark every 10^3 in currency.

[playgen]

The problem with game only auction sites, is that they're game only. So all the people who sell lots of different items on ebay, that just happen to include games won't be using the sites instead.

The sellers who use these game only auction sites are people who know the values of games, and price them accordingly, therefore wiping out the possability of getting bargains.

[Mordan]

dishonest buyers can abuse the system? not sure. Mister X, try doing your plan more than 3 times over only 10 purchases. You will get gunned down as a fraud by ebay, paypal and the insurance world, and once on their black list, good luck mate with your life.

I really prefer it now. Look it this way, the system forces sellers to fully and honestly describe the item they are selling. if everything is as described, you won't get problems. I got sold carts that are carbage, or did not work. If you favor the sellers, I'm screwed big time. Now, I just ask the seller to pay me back.
The seller cannot bully the buyer anymore : Go get *****.

the problem is not ebay shops, but people thinking they can make huge profits by selling old video games on ebay.

ebay however must set up something to prevent abuse by the buyers.

[Mordan]

also what are you supposed to do when an ebay idiot sends you the NTSC version while the PAL version was advertised?

just happened to me.

[Mister X]

Shit buyers are a worse problem than shit sellers. You have your pick of sellers, but you cannot ban bad buyers from bidding on your items. You cannot exclude paypal as a payment option. If you find you have a bad buyer who is bidding on one of your items, you can't very well kick them out of your auction to prevent being ripped off by a frequent non-payer.

With shit sellers, you can view their feedback and current auctions before even thinking about bidding on their wares. If you see a lot of dissatisfied customers with valid complaints, you can move on to someone else. But no! All people ever do is bid on the item; they never do their homework! Then they whine when they get burned by some scam artist, and beg ebay to protect them. Now everything is completely lopsided. Unequal protection. Hey, wait, when something is not equal, it is inequitable, which means that it is unfair!

With the old system, you at least could force people to address your grievances before slapping them with a negative. Now, the buyer can simply hit the seller with a negative for no reason other than to be a douche bag; the seller has no recourse.

But hell, you don't have to take my word for it, there are literally thousands of complaints of extortion on ebay's own forums.

[Zebbe]

You cannot exclude paypal as a payment option.

Is this part of the new rules? If so, that is just great. I hate it when I find auction items I want that don't allow PayPal. :p

[playgen]

Forced Paypal hasn't been introduced everywhere yet. I don't know how they are going to be able to get away with it on ebay.de, since Germans like using bank transfers as its cheap for them, and hardly any sellers there use Paypal, and just don't want to use it - even if you try and offer them extra money.

The Paypal fees are a joke, Paypal is part of ebay, even though they try and pretend it isn't really. So getting lumped with a further 3.4% + 20p off your payment is a joke, especially as they take 3.4% off the postage too. Since the ending fee is taken seperatly, your also paying a fee on money you don't really have, its ridiculous.

[Zebbe]

Sounds like Swedish tax laws under Social Democratic governments to me.

[Mordan]

The Paypal fees are a joke, Paypal is part of ebay, even though they try and pretend it isn't really. So getting lumped with a further 3.4% + 20p off your payment is a joke, especially as they take 3.4% off the postage too. Since the ending fee is taken seperatly, your also paying a fee on money you don't really have, its ridiculous.

sucks indeed. but then again Ebay is an auction site. It is supposed to be used for valuable items. ebay is not a game where you buy and sell. if you want to do that, go to the stock exchange or forex.

I don't understand sellers selling 1 pound gay EA sports games. lol

[Smii]

Hm, eBay's not been about the sale of valuable items in my memory; most of their adverts are aimed at getting people to shift their old crap.

"The kind of stuff you'd throw away
I'll buy on eBay"
Weird Al

[Mordan]

most of their adverts are aimed at getting people to shift their old crap.



exactly. that's what I had in mind.. crap that you might think expensive for collectors because you old grand pa said he bought it in India.