Ebay strike

[crunchy superman]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=23TomS5--nQ&feature=related

http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/07/smbusiness/ebay_boycott.fsb/index.htm?cnn=yes

[Llama Gibbz]

*goes shopping on ebay*

[Yatta]

It's funny because I was thinking about selling some shit on Ebay earlier today (for the first time)!

[avatar_58]

Pfft, cry some more. I saw the policy change a good thing. Sellers were tagging buyers with negative feedback as retaliation - even when their own negative mark was warranted. How is this a good practice? Now a buyer doesn't have to worry and can tag the sellers if they mess with them.

Everyone wins except bitchy scammers who get off on tagging buyers just because they don't like their negative rep.

[Jiminator]

eh, read this.
http://consumerist.com/355224/seller-gets-scammed-on-ebay-despite-doing-everything-right
all someone has to do is claim the seller sent him a rock and you are screwed.

[Rider]

Meh, I never intended to use eBay anyway.

I tried to buy an MSX off eBay once, for my uncle who used to own the thing when he was younger (figured it would be a good gift) but he turned out to already own about 20 of 'em :)

So I sent a message to the person who put it online explaining the situation (I had won the auction at this point) and resolved the situation.

To this day (roughly 3 years later) I still get spam from eBay claiming that I need to update my profile, that I have unpaid auctions and that countermeasures will be taken if I don't reply ASAP.

Suffice to say, they're on my ignore list now. :)

[KaiserSoze]

I dropped Ebay/Paypal over a year ago because of similar issues. Doubt this "movement" will do any good though. If people want to facilitate change, they need to cancel their accounts and tell Ebay to stuff it.

[Joe Siegler]

Pfft, cry some more. I saw the policy change a good thing. Sellers were tagging buyers with negative feedback as retaliation - even when their own negative mark was warranted. How is this a good practice? Now a buyer doesn't have to worry and can tag the sellers if they mess with them.

Everyone wins except bitchy scammers who get off on tagging buyers just because they don't like their negative rep.

Agreed. I saw this thing as just a bunch of whiners whining.

Oh look - people complaining online because things aren't they way they want it. Gee, that's not new!

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

Ooooo they raised the fee's. Well that is a sign of what I like to call inflation. Guess what one does in this situation? You pass that additional cost to the end customer.

Problem solved.

[Tetsuro]

I've gotten screwed on ebay only once, as a buyer. Turned out that the seller didn't exactly have clean flours in his bag, and despite all the positive feedback, he suddenly seemed to have decided to pull a fast one on all his customers, and I suffered from the unfortunate timing of it. And paypal refunded me only a fraction of the cost and I ended up not trying to get it elsewhere. :(

[Ironhell]

Hmm, I see this just as eBay trying to level the playing field after a long bias towards sellers, they whine that they get the short end but they never detail how many ways they themselves can screw a buyer over, just the minuscule ways a buyer can. many more than the reverse. And many of em aren't in violation of any policies, the overcharged shipping trick comes to mind, allowed to continue even after its been outlawed, which was just recently mind you. these guys were allowed to do this for 10 years :doh:

Not to mention that most of these guys don't actually do any work, are drop shippers, use overly expensive proprietary shipping systems, often lie in the description to get views, use a friends account to boost the price of the auction (shill bidding) are allowed to hide a reserve price (cause yeah its not the buyers right to know whether he can afford the item before he enters a contract right?) can and often end the auction if it doesnt go their way, and about a dozen other tricks sellers use to skew an already lenient system in their favour.

Sure buyers can screw sellers over, but so can sellers, in many more ways, and if we as buyers try to get our money back we are lucky if 25-50% of it isnt taken as fees, I dont think the sellers fees are that large, given the majority of them arent charged taxes and make a load drop shipping and never even see what theyre selling. Then after that, the sellers will give bad feedback and often they themselves can take it having hundreds of positive, a buyer often has little and will affect him more.

Since ebays banned hiding feedback it makes it even harder, given sellers wont want to hide feedback anyways. I think its good that at least one recourse for buyers is open, if there were none, the sellers would have no reason to walk the straight and narrow.

ebay is a business and in business theres always gonna be risks, for both seller and buyer. The key is to make sure the reward is worth the risk. Sellers will whine but in the end theyll still keep doing business on ebay, because they know the reward is alot greater than the risk they take.

[Damien_Azreal]

Never really used eBay.

I do occasionally buy stuff off there... but maybe one or two items a year. I've always used amazon.com instead.

[HazMat]

I think only the power sellers will be effected by the change of rules. I dont really like buying from power sellers. I find it harder to talk with them cuz it takes them a few days to answer then they dont really value you cuz they sold 100 things that day anyway. The little sellers respond straight away and they do value you cuz they need a sell.

[Yenji]

I use ebay a little bit... but wouldn't it have been easier to force the seller to leave feedback for the buyer as soon as payment is recieved? At least then they could still leave negative feedback if the payment was never made.

I've only had one negative experience on ebay so far, but I still notice that the vast majority of sellers won't leave you positive feedback until you leave them positive feedback. So I do see how ebay thinks buyers are bullied into leaving good feedback regardless of situation

[Waiter]

are allowed to hide a reserve price (cause yeah its not the buyers right to know whether he can afford the item before he enters a contract right?)

What's this?? :confused:

[Ironhell]

What's this?? :confused:

The reserve price is hidden, right? well I think it doesn't make any sense to hide it, I think its the buyers right to know how much that item costs before committing to bid on it. Imagine a store pulling that, youre expected to just keep handing money until the guys satisfied? makes little sense.

[thefly]

Good point, Ironhell. I think the buyer is the one taking the most risk off of eBay.

[Jiminator]

its an auction, the hidden reserve prices are standard for auctions. if people had to start bidding at the reserve prices then many auctions never get off the ground. besides, there is a certain psychology to auctions. many people engage in an auction fervor which leads to prices being bid up more than retail. sure, its not the greatest for the buyer, but on the other hand you are often able to find things that you cannot otherwise get.

[Waiter]

The reserve price is hidden, right? well I think it doesn't make any sense to hide it, I think its the buyers right to know how much that item costs before committing to bid on it. Imagine a store pulling that, youre expected to just keep handing money until the guys satisfied? makes little sense.

I just don't know what you're on about. I'm an ebay noob. I have just bought some stuff there, paid and had it delivered. No problems and never heard of a "reserve price". Suppose I'll need to do some reading up... :o


many people engage in an auction fervor which leads to prices being bid up more than retail.

I noticed this. I tried to get some more memory for the computer and spent weeks trying to buy some in auctions. I was shocked when I realised that people pay almost retail prices for two years old memory that some John Doe has ripped out of his computer :eek:

[Ironhell]

its an auction, the hidden reserve prices are standard for auctions. if people had to start bidding at the reserve prices then many auctions never get off the ground. besides, there is a certain psychology to auctions. many people engage in an auction fervor which leads to prices being bid up more than retail. sure, its not the greatest for the buyer, but on the other hand you are often able to find things that you cannot otherwise get.

If they have to use subterfuge to make a sale then the sale shouldnt exist. You cant run a decent business off of deception.

I just don't know what you're on about. I'm an ebay noob. I have just bought some stuff there, paid and had it delivered. No problems and never heard of a "reserve price". Suppose I'll need to do some reading up... :o

A reserve price is a minimum price the seller is willing to let the item go for, though you cant see it cause ebay sees fit to make you gamble. If the reserve price is not met by end of auction, noone wins it. In a sporting sort of way its "fun" for people to do this with rarities, but over the years ebays turned into a shell of itself and more often than not this feature is used for just about anything, a way that the seller can guarantee a large cut on even mediocre items.


I noticed this. I tried to get some more memory for the computer and spent weeks trying to buy some in auctions. I was shocked when I realised that people pay almost retail prices for two years old memory that some John Doe has ripped out of his computer :eek:

Its gets worse then that when I look up 2 identical items worth 50 retail and ones over that and another's on buy it now for 20 bucks:doh: youll see alot of that happening, people impulse buying and not looking for the item proper.

[Detharin]

On the topic of reserve prices. I bought my Calico 950 through gunbroker. Had a hidden reserve, at the end of the auction i was notified it did not meet reserve. Got an email from the seller saying he was willing to take my bid.

The moral here? Well my grandfather always told me that something is only worth what someone else will give you for it. If the item is worth 20 dollars to you, bid 20 dollars. If someone outbids you walk away. If you dont meet the reserve price, walk away.

[Zero]

I have never been ripped off on ebay, so I can vouch for the "problems" people have been having.

[Ironhell]

On the topic of reserve prices. I bought my Calico 950 through gunbroker. Had a hidden reserve, at the end of the auction i was notified it did not meet reserve. Got an email from the seller saying he was willing to take my bid.

The moral here? Well my grandfather always told me that something is only worth what someone else will give you for it. If the item is worth 20 dollars to you, bid 20 dollars. If someone outbids you walk away. If you dont meet the reserve price, walk away.

Yeah, you can always walk away, but if auctions set a minimum bid instead of a reserve it would be more honest. It might not attract more business, but its honest, and the last thing eBay needs these days is more deception.

[Qbix]

On the topic of reserve prices. I bought my Calico 950 through gunbroker. Had a hidden reserve, at the end of the auction i was notified it did not meet reserve. Got an email from the seller saying he was willing to take my bid.

and if you accept that offer then you are so easily ripped off and you can not leave any negative feedback to warn others.

[Waiter]

are allowed to hide a reserve price (cause yeah its not the buyers right to know whether he can afford the item before he enters a contract right?)

Re-quoting. I th8ink this wasn't me not understanding, but you being wrong.

The seller can never force you to pay anything that you havenät agreed on. The only thing this reserve price does is giving the seller the possibility to NOT sell the product unless the price is high enough, but he can never force anyone to pay that price who won the auction at a lower price. He just has the right not to sell his stuff if the price is too low.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. :)

[Delicieuxz]

Pfft, cry some more. I saw the policy change a good thing. Sellers were tagging buyers with negative feedback as retaliation - even when their own negative mark was warranted. How is this a good practice? Now a buyer doesn't have to worry and can tag the sellers if they mess with them.

Everyone wins except bitchy scammers who get off on tagging buyers just because they don't like their negative rep.

Ebay operates outside of standard banking regulations, yet it acts as a private bank. People randomly have their money frozen, or stolen, and the list of those who've been incorrectly charged with a chargeback is huge. Ebay has no seller protection - all it takes is for the buyer to say the seller didn't deliver, or that the item was broken, or that they never authorized the transaction and the seller is screwed.

Theiving on Ebay is far too easy:
http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/Paypal


I thought Ebay and Paypal were pretty safe too, until they screwed me over, almost 1 year after the end of a legitimate and successful transaction, demanding I pay for the debt of another Paypal member who bought something from me, then failed to pay his bills, resulting in an automatic chargeback on all his transactions, and a locking of my account. Then Paypal sold my info to a collection agency, who called me every day, and threatened to continue to do so until I paid this other person's debt, as well as the processing fees for the chargeback (wth??). Some people are threatened to be sued.


It's clueless of someone to think Ebay and Paypal are fair businesses, there are countless sites out there of angry customers who've been charged for someone else's owed bills (from Paypal's Buyer's Credit) to Paypal, who've had their info sold to a collection agency who call 5 times a day, every day, who've had huge sums of money in their account outright stolen because Paypal out of the blue wrongfully decided them to be in debt, etc...


Just read a few of the "Paypal Horror Stories" listed on the left of this site:
http://www.paypalwarning.com/paypal_chargeback


Read this one:
http://www.paypalwarning.com/someone_gained_access_to_my_pay_pal_account

I was on the other side of that example, where the buyer's transactions were all automatically reversed to pay off their debt (by stealing it from other users). But of course Paypal is the judge and jury in these cases, and being also the one who initiated the chargebacks: do you really think they're going to side with the complaining cutsomers, and against the chargeback they initiated themselves?

Paypal and Ebay are thug operations. Just because you haven't been screwed yourself doesn't make them any less so, and sooner or later it will happen to some of you, just like it's happened to so many others, including myself.

[Qbix]

there is way too much advertising for a different online payment system :)
While paypal might have it's problems those websites you linked are probably advertising systems

[Ironhell]

Re-quoting. I th8ink this wasn't me not understanding, but you being wrong.

The seller can never force you to pay anything that you havenät agreed on. The only thing this reserve price does is giving the seller the possibility to NOT sell the product unless the price is high enough, but he can never force anyone to pay that price who won the auction at a lower price. He just has the right not to sell his stuff if the price is too low.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. :)

That true, the seller cant force you to buy it, but what he is doing is baiting you with an unknown amount for what you wanted. Its dishonest and with the minimum bid amount unnecessary. the only legitimate use for the reserve price is for the "sport" of it, but its abused too much these days, much in the same way that misleading auction titles are.

Again if you have to hide the amount you want for an item, you probably dont deserve to sell it. Im not going to walk into a store and buy something that I dont know the price of, and few brick and mortar auctions hide the price of an item to begin with. Its subterfuge and deception and that stuff doesnt belong in a marketplace.

[Waiter]

Yeah, but basically I think that's ebay's fault, not the sellers. If I want to sell something I also want a minimum ammount of money for it. If I don't make an auction with a one euro starting price, I have to pay extra fees to ebay.

I've been thinking about selling some stuff on eBay, but I've not dared sofar. The problem is that as a buyer I can check my sellers out before I decide to buy anything from them. As a seller you have no chance of deciding wether you think that the buyer is doing honest business or not.

[Ironhell]

Yeah, but basically I think that's ebay's fault, not the sellers. If I want to sell something I also want a minimum ammount of money for it. If I don't make an auction with a one euro starting price, I have to pay extra fees to ebay.

I've been thinking about selling some stuff on eBay, but I've not dared sofar. The problem is that as a buyer I can check my sellers out before I decide to buy anything from them. As a seller you have no chance of deciding wether you think that the buyer is doing honest business or not.

Yeah, you might have to pay a bit more, but the overhead and opportunity on eBay still makes selling there a good deal, and more profitable than other means.

you can always check the buyers feedback and as a seller, you have a retarded amount of control over the auction, like being able to ban buyers or remove bids, or cancel the listing entirely for no reason at all, theres little risk if you choose your buyers well.

[Damien_Azreal]

So... did this "strike" accomplish anything at all?

[Waiter]

Did it even happen? I mean, it was at least on the news before it was supposed to happen, and if anything happened at all I would have thought there'd be follow-ups.