The Energon Pub

News Credits: 409 · Mon Apr 07, 2008 7:15 am

I went to sell some Transformers on eBay recently and found that they changed their policy. Now, sellers must have PayPal or credit cards as an option for buyers. No way around it. In addition they have set up an elaborate system so that PayPal makes the winning money inaccessable for 21 days. The seller cannot touch the money. This allows the buyer to receive the item then reclaim their money if their is a chargeback or dispute claim.

There is no protection for the casual seller anymore. It seems like the only people who can circumvent this issue are the ones who sell a lot of volume per year.

Ugg...eBay continues to make things more challenging and less desirable for sellers. I wouldn't mind this problem if eBay/PayPal looked at disputes equally, but they don't. This allows fraudlent buyers to win the item and then get their money back through their PayPal. It also allows credit cards an instant return of their money if buyers steal credit card numbers and use them on eBay. It's a complete sham.

Anyone else frustrated with eBay recently?

News Credits: 1 · Mon Apr 07, 2008 7:25 am

I've only sold a few things on ebay, I'm mostly a buyer and what I did sell was getting close to a year ago but what gets me too is the outrages fees and they will be enacting a new feedback policy too where only the buyer can leave feedback or some garbage like that so it looks like it's time to open up a Craigslist account for me.

News Credits: 2 · Mon Apr 07, 2008 7:28 am

Sometimes it does seem like a sad state of affairs but every eBay transaction is a risk, but it is a calculated risk.

Sellers can stipulate requirements for their buyers, if there is a buyer with low feedback say 0-5 or 0-10 they can stipulate that an item must be shipped with recorded delivery to cover themselves. Similarly they can opt to hold payment until it clears before shipping the item.

When you have buyers with lots of good feedback you pretty much know you can trust them to be honest and offer them the cheaper shipping alternatives.

Buyer protection is important to because buyers get shafted by bad sellers all the time. It's just another matter of taking a calculated risk and if you're new to eBay expect to be treated with suspicion until you've proved yourself trustworthy.

But even then, it's the nature of eBay to be risky. With so many different people it's never going to be a perfect system.

News Credits: 129 · Mon Apr 07, 2008 7:30 am

Stormrider wrote:Anyone else frustrated with eBay recently?

Only 30 days of completed auctions to look at or pay for extended service?

You're damn right I am.

News Credits: 5 · Mon Apr 07, 2008 9:47 am

Wow, I think I'm done with eBay from both sides now. The new feedback system is even worse than the old one. There were so many ways they could have gone about fixing that. They've decided that I can't see who I'm bidding against, which is just rife with problems. I've gotten more second chance offers in the last two months than I've received in the seven years that I've been bidding on things.

I really don't have a problem with the PayPal requirement. I've found more people are willing to bid on my stuff if I have it as an option. However, as a seller, I usually put stuff up in spurts. I'll have anywhere from 10-30 auctions going at once. So, if shipping all that costs me $30+ it has to come out of my pocket and I can't get it back for 3 weeks? Screw that! Also, what's to stop sellers from changing their policy to "Your item ships out when your money is in my pocket"? Sorry, eBay, you've lost me.

News Credits: 1 · Mon Apr 07, 2008 11:09 am

God Magnus wrote:Wow, I think I'm done with eBay from both sides now. The new feedback system is even worse than the old one. There were so many ways they could have gone about fixing that. They've decided that I can't see who I'm bidding against, which is just rife with problems. I've gotten more second chance offers in the last two months than I've received in the seven years that I've been bidding on things.

I really don't have a problem with the PayPal requirement. I've found more people are willing to bid on my stuff if I have it as an option. However, as a seller, I usually put stuff up in spurts. I'll have anywhere from 10-30 auctions going at once. So, if shipping all that costs me $30+ it has to come out of my pocket and I can't get it back for 3 weeks? Screw that! Also, what's to stop sellers from changing their policy to "Your item ships out when your money is in my pocket"? Sorry, eBay, you've lost me.

If that happens that will only hurt the sellers of course because for me as a buyer primarily I would simply refuse to do business with a seller with a ship out time of that long a period of time...ebay has lost it's way and is not being as fair to the seller and the buyer as they used to be.