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Some people just have no conscious. I cannot imagine being able to sleep at night when you STEAL from people. Just dont understand these people. IF they would put the smarts they use to steal from others to better use imagine what they could do.
Blessings.
I'm a big Ebay buyer, for unique stuff and great buys you can't beat it. If you use common sense it's fantastic.
Read the feedback
What have they sold in the past (not related?)
Only communicate through the ebay site
Only pay through a trusted source - Paypal has put a hold on payments made for me until the issue is resolved. I have not tried others to comment
Send an email through ebay with simple questions prior to bidding, if they can't answer or don't - stay away
Once again you are in control,
Bid what it's worth to you on the first bid, don't get in the war
If you don't feel good about it, don't bid
Well come May 1st eBay is going to take the ability to leave neutral or negative feedback from sellers for just that reason. I don't think it's fair but I agree that the retaliatory feedback issue is a problem. I think that this will open sellers up to all kinds of feedback extortion and other problems.
In your example above, if you had paid for Priority shipping and I had accidentally sent your item First Class, I would hope that you would have given me the chance to correct the error before leaving a negative. That is why a lot of sellers leave retaliatory negatives, because the buyer doesn't communicate their dissatisfaction. In this case I would have apologized and refunded the difference or maybe the whole amount.
My one and only negative was from a woman who neg'd me because the US postal service lost her package. Did she email me and tell me about it? Noooo, she just left a negative feedback. That first one hurts the most. If she had emailed me I would have replaced her item right away. But for the failure to communicate with me she earned herself a matching negative feedback.
My solution would be for the buyer or seller to go through an eBay communication program much like the unpaid item/item not received process where they would have to communicate with the other party before leaving a neutral or negative. If the issue isn't solved to their liking then they can leave the bad feedback. It's sad that bad sellers on eBay have forced eBay to implement a policy where sellers cannot leave negative feedback and to make it necessary to have a forced good customer service policy. Everyone is afraid that the other person is ripping them off.
eBay has made alot of other changes that might hopefully get rid of some of the bad sellers. We will see.
I actually didn't leave a negative feedback, I left a neutral feedback. And I agree with what you said but, let's face it, you know if you're paying for Priority mail versus less than a dollar for first class so I think the seller in my case was just looking to make money off the shipping...especially since she left a nasty feedback for me (something along the lines of "you should have asked about the shipping fees" which, no, I shouldn't have had to because they were spelled out in the listing!). But anyway, it was a lesson learned. I continue to do business on eBay but mostly with sellers that I have had numerous dealings with. Unfortunately, there are "scammers" everywhere and eBay is ripe for the picking!
Jen P. you're probably right in your case where the guy was looking to make a buck off the shipping. And you are right that most average sellers would know if they are paying for Priority or not because they usually go into the post office and buy their postage. I use an automated system and it really speeds things up, there is one flaw though, the class of mail doesn't flow through to the final process. So I have to make sure that I know which packages are Priority or Express mail so I can upgrade the shipping. If I don't they they will go out First Class. That is how I can accidentally send a Priority mail package first class. Not a perfect system, but even as it is it makes my life so much easier. I only hope that my customers will let me know first if I goof up.
Unfortunately you are all right eBay can be a fun, low cost place to shop but it is ripe for the picking and the scammers are there. I just found a discussion thread on eBay's discussion board (Trust & Saftey Board) it spells out all of the popular scams, it's tacked to the top so it's easy to find. You should check it out if you shop there regularly.
I just found out that another seller stole 4 of my pictures and is using them in his listings. I've reported him to eBay but all they did was pull those listings. He has stolen the pictures of several other jewelry sellers and when I alerted one of them, she said she has reported him several times and eBay hasn't kicked him off. He is also misrepresenting the items as silver/white gold mix. We all buy our merchandise from the same vendor it's easy to spot and he is lying. I'm going to be spending the next couple days watermarking several hundred pictures.
I did buy on Ebay but my last purchase through them has left me cold in which case I'll probably not ever buy through them again. I know it's not EBays fault, however I purchased an item, paid by Paypal, waited 2 weeks for my item, contacted the Seller who gave me a Tracking # The post office stated they did not ship the item. Long story short, after 7 weeks I did not get my item, I contacted the Seller 8 times in which case he never returned my emails. I contacted PayPal & EBay. Did get my money back, but I really wanted the item. I did leave a negative feedback but stated facts only and he leaves me with a negative feedback and called me a Thief. Today's May 1st but that doesn't erase bad feedback left for me. This seller sold so much that the 100 plus negative feedback he received did not hurt his rating.
I know there are many great Sellers out there - I just wish that EBay could have come up with another alternative about Sellers' not leaving feedback. Thanks for letting me sound off. It still makes me mad.
If you buy and sell on ebay, people will look at the situation when it comes to feedback. I personally do this. I know that doesn't make you feel better, but ebay has too many cool things to give up on it...haha. I would have withdrawals.
I've never had a negative ebay experience yet, but always check feedback prior to bidding. Let us all know the user name so none of us have the same problem,
I've been purchasing on eBay for a couple of years, and after the first couple of times that I didn't receive an item or it took along time to ship (I usually give a little extra time because I live in Canada) I started looking at the feedback, any feedback that is less than 98% I usually look to see if someone else has a similar item for around the same price and better feedback. I have also had people hack into my eBay account and when I reported it and delt with the situation through eBay live chat I was told that it is a good policy to change your eBay and PayPal passwords on a regular basis (appox every couple of months) so that it isn't as easy to hack into the account. I love purchasing on eBay especially retired stamp sets but I try and find out what the price of the stamp set was when it was in the caddy or the cost of it at the store and I won't pay any more than what the original price was.
Apparently, some scammers like to hack into seller's accounts that have GOOD feedback. They know that people like to check the feedback before bidding and may not bid on an item from a seller with lots of negative feedback. It is always a good idea to check feedback, but it is not a sure-bet way to avoid being scammed.
I bought a stamp set from someone on Ebay last year. (not Stampin Up). For some reason it never came. Many emails later, the guy said it was returned to him. I said, please mail it again - how much more postage do I need to send you? I emailed that to him at least 8 times - NO answer. I finally left him negative feedback and he left the same for me. Bottom line - I never got the stamps and he kept my money. What a rip-off. Never again.
