What percentage of ebay buyers are just plain stupid?

[Exhibitman]

I differ with most on the partial refund issue. If it is a buyer's remorse issue, that's one thing, but sometimes there is a good basis for the request. I can recall at least two occasions where I received a card that was improperly packed and ended up slightly damaged--a crease or a ding [and always when the seller has charged me for shipping]. The conundrum arises when there is a rare item for which I have been waiting and for which I paid top dollar. I'm not going to send it back for minor damage that kills the technical grade but I am definitely going to reach out to the seller and make it known that he messed up and I am disappointed. If that makes me a "refund fisher" so be it, but my view is that if a seller messes up and he and the buyer can reach a reasonable accommodation that leaves both sides satisfied, it is better than having a disappointed buyer, especially when ebay so closely ties performance rankings to discounts and other benefits, or an unwound transaction that disappoints the buyer. If it makes you feel better as a seller to know that you will never be victimized by a 'refund fisher' than it does to issue a partial refund for a genuine issue you caused, that's entirely your decision. Me, I'd rather reach an accommodation that all parties can accept and not waste my time relisting, reselling and reshipping an item. Also, the vast majority of people I've dealt with are honest and of good intent, and I prefer to assume that to be the case when I enter into a deal. Plus, my goal is to have a satisfied customer who will order from me again, not someone who had a bad experience and won't look at my next listings. If all that takes is a discount when I am at fault, I'm doing it.

One other point is that for a buyer it is often quite costly to send back an item, especially if it is large or heavy, and some of the derided 'fishers' may have been legitimate people who did not want to incur the cost. I had to return a large item that arrived in a Beckett slab that had been damaged in transit and it cost me 25% of the item price to send it back.

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

I differ with most on the partial refund issue. If it is a buyer's remorse issue, that's one thing, but sometimes there is a good basis for the request. I can recall at least two occasions where I received a card that was improperly packed and ended up slightly damaged--a crease or a ding [and always when the seller has charged me for shipping]. The conundrum arises when there is a rare item for which I have been waiting and for which I paid top dollar. I'm not going to send it back for minor damage that kills the technical grade but I am definitely going to reach out to the seller and make it known that he messed up and I am disappointed. If that makes me a "refund fisher" so be it, but my view is that if a seller messes up and he and the buyer can reach a reasonable accommodation that leaves both sides satisfied, it is better than having a disappointed buyer, especially when ebay so closely ties performance rankings to discounts and other benefits, or an unwound transaction that disappoints the buyer. If it makes you feel better as a seller to know that you will never be victimized by a 'refund fisher' than it does to issue a partial refund for a genuine issue you caused, that's entirely your decision. Me, I'd rather reach an accommodation that all parties can accept and not waste my time relisting, reselling and reshipping an item. Also, the vast majority of people I've dealt with are honest and of good intent, and I prefer to assume that to be the case when I enter into a deal. Plus, my goal is to have a satisfied customer who will order from me again, not someone who had a bad experience and won't look at my next listings. If all that takes is a discount when I am at fault, I'm doing it.

One other point is that for a buyer it is often quite costly to send back an item, especially if it is large or heavy, and some of the derided 'fishers' may have been legitimate people who did not want to incur the cost. I had to return a large item that arrived in a Beckett slab that had been damaged in transit and it cost me 25% of the item price to send it back.

I should make it clear that I will refund if I feel it is my fault...I have sometimes refunded the full price and let the buyer keep the item. I take lots of photos, or scans in the case of baseball cards, and pack extremely well. The refund fishers are almost always easy to spot by checking the feedback they give to others.

And if someone is just blatantly dishonest I don't care for their future business. I had a lady buy a Nebraska pinback button from me which she said was in horrible condition, water damaged, et cetera. I have tons of experience with pinbacks, there was no water damage, and it was in excellent shape. Did she want to return it for a refund? No, she wanted half her money back. On a whim I checked the feedback she gives to others, it was almost all negative positives and neutrals.

Overall though my experience as a seller is a good one...I sell a ton of items on ebay and it's way less than 1% of buyers that give me a headache. I also believe that the pendulum is swinging back towards protecting the sellers a bit better than they had been.

[earlywynnfan]

I usually sell baseballs, and my listings almost always start off with "Official ONL Coleman ball..." Yet almost weekly I get "What kind of ball is it on??"

Paragraph three states: "I do combine shipping, add $1 for each additional ball won." (This was just cut and pasted from an actual listing.) Again, weekly: "Do you combine shipping?"

Sometimes I think people ask just to drive me nuts.

Ken

[Fuddjcal]

Originally Posted by earlywynnfan

I usually sell baseballs, and my listings almost always start off with "Official ONL Coleman ball..." Yet almost weekly I get "What kind of ball is it on??"

Paragraph three states: "I do combine shipping, add $1 for each additional ball won." (This was just cut and pasted from an actual listing.) Again, weekly: "Do you combine shipping?"

Sometimes I think people ask just to drive me nuts.

Ken

take a picture of the back anyway Early and it will lesson the confusion. They give you 12 free pics these days and there's no reason not to show the legal morons on e-bay what their getting. If the balls nice, take a pic from all sides and you'll get more bidders. Unless you're trying to hide the giant toning marks all over the place which most sellers love to do.

[Fuddjcal]

I especially love the sellers who insist..."NO RETURNS" LOLOLOLOLOL. ( my weeks worth). They are usually the jerk offs that pack the item like an erratic 3rd grader causing damage to the item. Spend a week thinking about sending it. Send a $200.00 item with-out tracking that doesn't come for 3 weeks or not at all. NO RETURNS SELLER = IDIOT and the first sign of trouble with the item, such as damage or Not close to the description....the item is IMMEDIATELY going back to them with tracking at my expense PERIOD. I just open a case at the drop of a hat. I am so sick of idiots that you just have to take a stand against jack-offs. No wonder the country is so f'ed up. They can't string together a sentence or put pictures that accurately represent what they want to sell. But I'm not Bitter

[BigJJ]

My wife sold a $600 handbag on eBay via auction a few weeks ago. The buyer asks to send it back. Even though we had listed "no returns", and a dozen high resolution photos, we agree to take the bag back.

The bag arrives back in a box with a hole the size of my arm.

The bag was severly damaged by the shards of the cardboard hole, and hitting surroundings while in transit.

I email the buyer to inform her about the damage in shipping, due to the gaping hole in the box. She writes that she didn't think the hole would cause damage.

In other words, she purposely shipped a $600 bag in a box with a big hole. and with no insurance.

And here's the kicker, even though she admitted via ebay messages to sending back the bag in a box with a gaping hole, ebay's initial decision was in her favor. I am now in the appeals process, trying to explain to morons at eBay, that just because someone makes a (bs) claim of 'item not as described', that this does not give an individual the right to destroy the item, and then receive a full refund.

How does the buyer, and apparently at least one person at eBay, think it is reasonable to ship back an item, and an expensive delicate item at that, in a box with a huge hole?

[BigJJ]

And then eBay asked me if I had filed an incident report with the police.

What? I guarantee you the NYPD is not properly involved in this handbag shipping matter.

It's not criminal, it's civil.

Who is misdirecting these eBay morons that you're supposed to file an incident report with the police upon receipt of a damaged eBay item.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by BigJJ

My wife sold a $600 handbag on eBay via auction a few weeks ago. The buyer asks to send it back. Even though we had listed "no returns", and a dozen high resolution photos, we agree to take the bag back.

The bag arrives back in a box with a hole the size of my arm.

The bag was severly damaged by the shards of the cardboard hole, and hitting surroundings while in transit.

I email the buyer to inform her about the damage in shipping, due to the gaping hole in the box. She writes that she didn't think the hole would cause damage.

In other words, she purposely shipped a $600 bag in a box with a big hole. and with no insurance.

And here's the kicker, even though she admitted via ebay messages to sending back the bag in a box with a gaping hole, ebay's initial decision was in her favor. I am now in the appeals process, trying to explain to morons at eBay, that just because someone makes a (bs) claim of 'item not as described', that this does not give an individual the right to destroy the item, and then receive a full refund.

How does the buyer, and apparently at least one person at eBay, think it is reasonable to ship back an item, and an expensive delicate item at that, in a box with a huge hole?

Yeah, of the few returns I've gotten back, in almost every case it was shipped back way flimsier then I sent it out in, and damaged in the process.

I had one guy buy a boxing record book from me. For some reason he didn't look at the picture or read the description because he called and complained that the book was a softcover. A Hardcover of this book doesn't exist. He wanted to return it.

I sent it to him in protective packaging in a box, he sent it back to me in a paper bag. The cover on the book was completely trashed. At first I thought it got trashed in shipping, but after looking at it closer I became convinced he simply upgraded his lower condition copy with my higher condition copy and I got a piece of trash in return.

Had another guy send me a Muhammad Ali iron on back to him because it wasn't a decal. Reinforced packing on the way to him. Put in a letter envelope with a stamp and completely trashed by the time it got back to me.

[thecatspajamas]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

I differ with most on the partial refund issue. If it is a buyer's remorse issue, that's one thing, but sometimes there is a good basis for the request... If it makes you feel better as a seller to know that you will never be victimized by a 'refund fisher' than it does to issue a partial refund for a genuine issue you caused, that's entirely your decision.

FWIW, with my "no partial refunds" policy statement, that was with the understanding that I can and do make exceptions when I screw up. I've also been doing this long enough to know when I'm either being falsely or improperly blamed for something that was fabricated or not my fault.

As others have said, approach me with a legitimate complaint and without cursing in your e-mail, and I'm far more likely to work with you than if you open your message with "Hey dummy!"