Another reason why eBay sucks

[SandEagle]

http://www.consumerist.com/2012/02/...ndictive-abusive-extortionist-ebay-buyer.html

I used to make a nice living on eBay until they changed their policies
and fees a few years back. Once they rid the marketplace of sellers
being able to leave negatives on buyer I left as every transaction
would go unpaid and as a seller I had no recourse.
Fast forward to a month ago, in this tough economic times my
buddy wanted to liquidate some of the gold coins his family had
been keeping for a while. I started selling gold coins on his behalf
without trouble for about 25 transactions, until I had a horrific
experience with [the buyer from hell] on ebay. Side note: until this
point my friend had been receiving the money directly to his paypal
and he was shipping the items. He went out of town and left me
with three coins to ship while he was gone. [BFH] pays for the item
and I ship his coin. I place it in a white regular envelope, seal it and
then place the sealed envelope inside the UPS cardboard envelope
(the document sized ones) and ship it with signature delivery, and
insurance for the full value. If anything should happen, I should be
covered.

Man was I wrong, a few days go by and I receive an email from
[BFH] saying "The Envelope was empty" and immediately starts
harassing me from there, using profanity and becomes increasingly
threatening. He even looked up the address of the business I
shipped the coin from, (my family business) then took it upon
himself to go plaster our Facebook fan page cursing and
threatening.

As I try and talk to him all he says is "go fuck yourself" etc. I tried
explaining to him that I did indeed ship the coin and if there was a
mistake then everything is insured and all will be right, but no the
tirades continue. Without being able to resolve anything, he
disputes the coin though eBay. Without speaking to anyone, eBay
grants him his full refund.

The tirades continue, time and time again I explained to him he now
has a full refund, he has not been screwed out of any money and
someone obviously stole, or misplaced the coin during shipping. I
would like to claim insurance on the package, so I am not out $450
as well.

Up until this point, it is just a typical eBay transaction gone wrong,
but now is where I become upset with the process of UPS and
eBay.

After numerous pleading emails to the buyer, he now understands
that I need him to cooperate in order to receive my insurance claim
from UPS. Under their terms, they must inspect the envelope
before they grant an insurance claim. The buyer now tries extorting
me for money in order for him to cooperate with UPS. He wants
$100 delivered into his bank account or else he says he will never
pick up the phone.

After countless calls to UPS & eBay they will not help. I've
submitted documents to UPS and eBay explaining how he in writing
has said he will not help without being paid. UPS continues to say
that without inspecting the package or at least talking to the buyer,
they will not grant insurance. I understand this is a common sense
policy, but there MUST be special circumstances! I have in writing a
customer that is basically telling me to go fuck myself because he
has his money.

Moral of this story is, if you want anything for free on eBay just
purchase an item, say you have received the item and the package
was empty, never help the buyer. They will grant you a full refund,
and the seller will be out money.

Unbelievable.

It is hard to put into words the frustration I have had with eBay and
UPS and this story doesn't even do it justice. I am being scammed
by a user and then extorted to cooperate and UPS and eBay just sit
back and do nothing!!!
I am out a gold coin, $450 plus $20 shipping UPS and I receive a big
Negative from the buyer in my perfectly clean 1440 feedback!

stopped selling a year ago because of BS like this.

 

[allenk09]

I've been on eBay for 3 years, only 12 transactions though, with all good feedback.

They hold my money for 25 days now. So as poor as I am, I can't even take money out of there to pay for shipping and I have to just ship my item to the person for basically...free, because I don't actually have the money.

 

[MotF Bane]

Why people still use Fleabay is beyond me.

 

[FelixDeCat]

When I sold $40,000 worth of Extreme Edition Pentiums, I only got taken for about $400. My problem was that I trusted another powerseller and sold them 3 CPUs. Two were sold through CC Paypal with seller protection, the third was not.

After dealing with uncooperative postal employees to get copies of signatures of receipt proving delivery at different locations, faxing and arguing with Paypal I got a refund for 2/3rds of what I was out.

The Ebayer in question sold computers and had lots of feedback over a year. Then they fell behind on orders and didnt deliver the orders. The buyer had no money in their Payal account for refunds, so they went around taking money from people they bought from (like me) saying the money was fraudulent funds.

Now nobody can buy more than one item at a time from me within a 90 day period.

 

[Blackjack200]

According to the story in the OP, doesn't the seller at least have the address of the buyer? I would make sure I did at least $470 worth of property damage for that shit. 4 broken car windows and a broken windsheild should about do it.

 

[Rage187]

ebay sucks if you are a seller.

 

[waggy]

no suprise. assholes do stupid shit and get away with it. like claim they never get the package even though they know for a fact ti was on the porch.

the amount of fruad and bullshit that goes on Ebay is the reason i stopped using it. I used to go to auctions and put stuff up. i had fun and made enough a year to upgrade my computer or do something fun. but ebay was getting to be a hassle

 

[ViviTheMage]

Did we just figure out SE is a TROLLBOT?!

 

[Mixolydian]

I've never had a single problem with eBay as a seller.

 

[janas19]

When I sold $40,000 worth of Extreme Edition Pentiums, I only got taken for about $400. My problem was that I trusted another powerseller and sold them 3 CPUs. Two were sold through CC Paypal with seller protection, the third was not.

After dealing with uncooperative postal employees to get copies of signatures of receipt proving delivery at different locations, faxing and arguing with Paypal I got a refund for 2/3rds of what I was out.

The Ebayer in question sold computers and had lots of feedback over a year. Then they fell behind on orders and didnt deliver the orders. The buyer had no money in their Payal account for refunds, so they went around taking money from people they bought from (like me) saying the money was fraudulent funds.

Now nobody can buy more than one item at a time from me within a 90 day period.

This.

No, Ebay does not suck if you are a seller. The moral of the story above is that you have to take precautions to protect yourself against scammers. Do not sell to anyone before carefully reviewing their transaction history. Do not sell more than one of an item to any buyer until you have established a history with them. These stories are cautionary tales that there are bad people on eBay, just like anywhere else. But if you pay full attention to the details, the likelihood of something this audacious happening to you is very slim.

 

[Gillbot]

That is exactly why I stopped selling on there completely. I'd rather take a loss and sell via craigslist or just throw the item away as opposed to go through a hassle like that (again).

 

[Gillbot]

This.

No, Ebay does not suck if you are a seller. The moral of the story above is that you have to take precautions to protect yourself against scammers. Do not sell to anyone before carefully reviewing their transaction history. Do not sell more than one of an item to any buyer until you have established a history with them. These stories are cautionary tales that there are bad people on eBay, just like anywhere else. But if you pay full attention to the details, the likelihood of something this audacious happening to you is very slim.

You can't protect yourself from everything or everyone though, and it only takes one screwing to end your good streak no matter what you do or how hard you try to protect yourself.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

no suprise. assholes do stupid shit and get away with it. like claim they never get the package even though they know for a fact ti was on the porch.

Yeah that's a shitty move there. Thing is though that karma is real. Ever notice how many dirtbags happen to be dirt poor and always have shit for luck? It's not a coincidence IMO. I'm not saying I'm some humanitarian or anything but I won't fuck someone over like that.

 

[darkewaffle]

Why did they remove the ability for seller's to leave negative feedback to the buyer in the first place? On a whim I'd probably say there's more shitty buyers than shitty sellers.

 

[Saint Nick]

I've been on eBay since 2001 and I can't say I've really had any issues. I'm more than honest with those I deal with, and others do the same with me.

 

[basslover1]

Why did they remove the ability for seller's to leave negative feedback to the buyer in the first place? On a whim I'd probably say there's more shitty buyers than shitty sellers.

Because as far as eBay is concerned, as a buyer all you're required to do is pay for the item. If you pay for the item in a reasonable amount of time then you should get positive feedback.

It was probably designed as a way to prevent sellers retaliating against buyers who leave crappy feedback. For instance, if I buy something and pay instantly but the seller doesn't ship the item for two weeks I'd leave him negative feedback for being so damn slow. Before the change, there was a good chance the seller would then leave me negative feedback for calling him out, which isn't really fair I did everything I was required to do.

But, when someone abuses the system as the story in the OP, the seller gets screwed. This is also why I only go to eBay as a last resort CL all the way even if I have to sell the item for less.

Usually I find a reasonable selling price on eBay, minus eBay and paypal fees and then list it for that price on CL.

 

[Bird222]

Why did they remove the ability for seller's to leave negative feedback to the buyer in the first place? On a whim I'd probably say there's more shitty buyers than shitty sellers.

I'm not sure but I think they were trying to prevent retaliation by sellers which in turn would make buyers less inclined to leave negative feedback when it was appropriate.

 

[dud]

ebay sucks if you are a seller.

Agreed. The wife just sold an item for the first time in years. She was unaware as to how badly things had changed there since her last sale. She was totally shocked to find how little she got for her item after all the ebay/PP fees.

Egay has become the place of last resort to sell. Even CL is better ... and that's not saying much.

 

[dud]

I've been on eBay since 2001 and I can't say I've really had any issues. I'm more than honest with those I deal with, and others do the same with me.

How do you feel about the fees and the inability to leave "honest" feedback for a less than stellar buyer?

 

[MaxFusion16]

got his address?

take him to small claims court, don't let this bs fly, somebody needs to make an example of those frauds.

 

[SandEagle]

Did we just figure out SE is a TROLLBOT?!

hey man, for some reason this thread disappeared when i first created it, so i recreated it with a different title. only to find out that the first thread did indeed post and we were all stuck with two threads. you all should be happy that i provided additional venues to vent your frustration.

 

[Saint Nick]

How do you feel about the fees and the inability to leave "honest" feedback for a less than stellar buyer?

I can't have an opinion on that because all of my buyers have been great. I'm hoping they continue to be great. I don't do a lot of selling on eBay, though. Mostly just trying to buy sweet audio recording gear!

 

[Stuxnet]

The seller needs to get this asshat's address out and into the open. Given that the buyer started harassing his business, all gloves are off and it's time to fight fire with fire.

Also, IANAL, but isn't extortion like this illegal? Sounds cut and dry to me...

 

[Analog]

I use fleabay for junk I don't need. Never any high $$ items. Too many problems - why those gold coins weren't sold locally I don't understand.

 

[Texashiker]

Why people still use Fleabay is beyond me.

I use ebay for military surplus camping gear, such as backpacks, canteens, pouches,,, stuff like that. Even then I only buy from sellers with a high ranking, or if the seller has an online store besides ebay.

As for selling stuff on ebay, I would rather give the stuff away, or sell locally then sell on ebay. This morning I gave away a stack of vinyl albums dating to the 1950s and 1960s. Some the records were selling for $5 each on ebay. $5 is not worth the hassle of running into a bad buyer. They can keep their $5, I will have peace of mind, and a lady my wife works with can have the albums.