I need to vent about selling on eBay

[nuthin but a hacker]

The eBay fees suck and some of the buyers are morons but it’s the best of a bunch of bad options. It certainly beats spending an hour making an ad for the BST, loading pictures, and getting it all ready to post only to have it deleted over some sillily random rule.

[Z1ggy16]

I'm trying to use eBay less and less. Not only because they gouge any kind of profits I may make (so now I have to do a high flat rate shipping to make my buying prices lower) but basically a buyer can bone you for any reason and get away with it.

 

My nightmare is selling say a very expensive club in which a buyer uses once for a tournament, claims it came broken or something (break it themselves?) and returns it getting a full refund while I'm screwed.

 

I'm trying to use BST and other forums like Facebook marketplace, Letgo and Craigslist to sell stuff but the people are downright insane. They must expect because it's NOT eBay, they can offer you outlandish prices. I had a like new RTX 3.0 that I used literally 5 times that has a custom KBS shaft in it. I paid $150 for it and I was was asking $100 on LetGo. Guy offers me TWENTY bucks for it and when I said no, he got all mad. Wtf?

 

Fact is... eBay gets your product out there to many people in a short time. While LetGo and BST here may offer the Seller a better way to sell as far as fees and protection, eBay gets my stuff sold much faster and (usually) for more money.

[Bad9]

The eBay fees suck and some of the buyers are morons but it's the best of a bunch of bad options. It certainly beats spending an hour making an ad for the BST, loading pictures, and getting it all ready to post only to have it deleted over some sillily random rule.

 

I don't necessarily agree with all of the BST rules but given that they're all listed at the top of the forum I wouldn't call them random. They are also quite clear on the consequences for being in violation. And yes I have been in violation several times and each time it was on me.

[Middler]

My nightmare is selling say a very expensive club in which a buyer uses once for a tournament, claims it came broken or something (break it themselves?) and returns it getting a full refund while I'm screwed.

How about a buyer who breaks something long after their purchase - another easy scam? Orders the exact same thing from you, could be long after the first item was purchased, without having to worry about the price, and then claims yours arrived broken. They take a picture with your packaging, and their original (now broken) item, and file a claim with eBay. You’re basically stuck giving them a full refund including shipping, and they get a free replacement for the item. And sellers can’t see buyers previous purchasess, so proof is difficult. That just happened to me, though we can’t prove it. And eBay and PayPal couldn’t care less...

 

Good thing there are some honest people. We’ve been scammed twice in 84 transactions.

[KC13]

Sorry man. What a pain. Some people are just on the spectrum (Buyer and Ebay customer service).

 

I just use Ebay for buying purposes and don't sell any longer.

 

- KC

[whiteda6]

I sold a pair of Bose headphones, sealed in the box, on Ebay. Stated very clearly, NO RETURNS. Seller bought them, ripped them open, listened to them for a week then changed his mind and demanded a return. Ebay sided with him. I get back a box ripped open like he used a chainsaw. I told the guy, "Look, I am not Best Buy! Do your research before you shop on Ebay." His response was very blunt, he said "Look, I will get my money back, Ebay always sides with the buyer". So I was left with a used pair of headphones that were worth half what they would have been in a sealed box.

[Bece2117]

Felt like chiming in after my sale on there today.....buyer accepts a counter offer this morning that I sent night. Listing had 3 days handling time. I message the buyer to let them know that we are expecting 18-24 inches of snow tonight and tomorrow so it will be Wednesday (day 2 of the allotted 3 days handling time) when they ship, just trying to be courteous. Response - "Please ship sooner if you can, I'm going out of town"..........really? What part of 18-24 inches of snow did you not get??? Did you expect same day shipping after you accepted the offer mid morning????? Ebay is full of them....such a pain in the ###

[Middler]

I sold a pair of Bose headphones, sealed in the box, on Ebay. Stated very clearly, NO RETURNS. Seller bought them, ripped them open, listened to them for a week then changed his mind and demanded a return. Ebay sided with him. I get back a box ripped open like he used a chainsaw. I told the guy, "Look, I am not Best Buy! Do your research before you shop on Ebay." His response was very blunt, he said "Look, I will get my money back, Ebay always sides with the buyer". So I was left with a used pair of headphones that were worth half what they would have been in a sealed box.

I had a case where eBay said they told me they disagreed with the Buyer and would let him know. The buyer reported the item broken 30 days after he received it! About a week later, the item (damaged beyond repair) shows up on my doorstep, and PayPal immediately refunds the full amount with no notice to me. The break clearly happened because the item was dropped on a corner - but the molded styrofoam and the cardboard box didn't have any corner damage! It was dropped, but not in the box during shipping.

 

When I call PayPal they say if an item is returned, they have no choice but refund in full. I call eBay and they say they’re sorry, they’ll refund their 10% fee but that’s all they can do. Caveat emptor is done, it’s seller beware now...

[larciel]

we should thank Amazon and its success for ebay turning into buyer friendly service.

 

For high value items ($300+) I only sell on craigslist. cash

[jaymay82]

The fact that as a seller, you can no longer leave negative feedback for a buyer just goes to show how eBay sides w/buyers first.

[Lefty1283]

If you want to get even more angry, think about the fact that they were “kind” enough to offer a discount of 20% last week for about 12 hours. Helped them pad their Q1 pocketbooks with all those sellers fees.

 

It’s a shame sites like eBay and Amazon have eliminated the benefits for small time sellers.

[Ldub22]

I sold a pair of Bose headphones, sealed in the box, on Ebay. Stated very clearly, NO RETURNS. Seller bought them, ripped them open, listened to them for a week then changed his mind and demanded a return. Ebay sided with him. I get back a box ripped open like he used a chainsaw. I told the guy, "Look, I am not Best Buy! Do your research before you shop on Ebay." His response was very blunt, he said "Look, I will get my money back, Ebay always sides with the buyer". So I was left with a used pair of headphones that were worth half what they would have been in a sealed box.

 

There is no option for sellers to have the “No returns accepted” option. There used to be (maybe there still is) a button you could click to not accept returns. I did this on all my auctions. Come to find out - eBay doesn’t even recognize this option and will let any buyer return for any reason for a full refund. I have a buyer try to take advantage of me on a return and got a message saying I had to accept the return and the money for the buyers return was stripped out of my PayPal account. I called eBay and said what is this? I don’t accept returns and they said oh yes every buyer has the option to return. So just as as a heads up, even though they give you the option to say no returns - it doesn’t matter - they force you to accept returns