Posted By:
Patrick HelfrickI could not agree more with James Gallo. eBay is all about the buyer. In fact, I recently had a PayPal rep tell me that they (eBay/PayPal) can always find more sellers - it is the buyer they have to treat with kid gloves.
I have been buying and selling on eBay for over 10 years and I am ready to call it quits. I have 5500+ positives (should be about triple that but only 1 in 3 leaves feedback) and up until last week, only 2 negatives (both were from international buyers who claim to have never received the item). I just had one buyer who bought three (3) cards from me in late November for under $10 and waited until the end of January (over 2 months) to advise the cards were not received. I sent him a scan of the USPS receipt and after being threatened with negative feedback, agreed to refund his payment. The day after agreeing to do so, the buyer left me a negative for each transaction. I also received a negative from a customer in Germany who claimed to never have received his merchandise. He filed a dispute with PayPal and even though I provided proof of shipping, they ruled in his favor since there was no signature required for delivery. I recently sent a replacement for the "lost" item and still received negative feedback. Contacting a rep at eBay, even if you are a Power Seller, is useless. You can't send an email to eBay with an attachment and they will not allow you to fax any documents that support your case to remove feedback. I'm tired of the feedback extortion practiced by buyers on eBay and now we won't be able to leave them feedback? Crazy.
Like James, I could write a book about the problems of doing business on eBay. Yes, they are a corportation but even by corporate standards, they suck.
Patrick