PSA: Don't sell on eBay

[winb83]

eBay has a money back guarantee for buyers. If the buyer says what you sent them isn't exactly what you said it was eBay will refund the buyer, force you to pay return shipping, and reverse your PayPal payment.

Notice I said "if the buyer says" which means they can lie. Also what the buyer actually sends you back is irrelevant. The process is mostly automated and whatever you tell eBay will be ignored. They will side with the buyer and you will refund them.

If the buyer is a decent person you might actually get back the item you sold them in functional condition and if they aren't you won't even get that back.

 

[winb83]

 

[satam55]

eBay has a money back guarantee for buyers. If the buyer says what you sent them isn't exactly what you said it was eBay will refund the buyer, force you to pay return shipping, and reverse your PayPal payment.

Notice I said "if the buyer says" which means they can lie. Also what the buyer actually sends you back is irrelevant. The process is mostly automated and whatever you tell eBay will be ignored. They will side with the buyer and you will refund them.

If the buyer is a decent person you might actually get back the item you sold them in functional condition and if they aren't you won't even get that back.

eBay is still safer than Craiglist.

 

[winb83]

eBay is still safer than Craiglist.

No it really isn't for a seller. You can take steps to protect yourself on CL. Meet in a public place and bring people with you. Meet at the police station. There's nothing you can do to protect yourself on eBay. The only thing "safe" on eBay is you don't physically meet the buyer. The odds of you as a seller getting robbed on eBay are way higher than on CL.


Guy sold his shyt the buyer gutted it and sent it back. He recorded himself opening the package that was returned. eBay basically told the seller yeah we know fukk you you're paying him back.

 

[morris]

eBay is still safer than Craiglist.

Nope.

I have bought phones, handheld systems, ipods and even a laptop. I always meet the seller in a public place and test the item. I make that clear before leaving. All transactions have been great too

 

[Clark Wayne]

eBay is still safer than Craiglist.

Nope. I agree with the others on using Craigslist. Been using it since high school and never had any major issues. The only problems I ever had was people who were late or didn't show up.

 

[Splash]

That shyt happened to me, didn't help that I threatened the buyer

I told them I aint paying and they just said before I can use my account again I have to pay So I use my sisters

 

[MrDavidAlexander]

Yeah this happened to me with a subwoofer. I already spent the money I got so my account was overdrafted

 

[Ruck]

got the memo 4 years ago. what paypal/ebay is doing is downright fukked up. they will only protect power sellers, but if u just random person trynna sell shyt, ur fukked.

 

[chemicalsword]

got the memo long time ago. Their refund policy is easily exploited and diminishes the brand considerably. The main reason i don't support ebay in any way...

 

[Audemar]

got the memo long time ago.

This. I used to buy broken Xbox 360 consoles, the RROD ones, and do quick repairs on them. Since cats were practically giving them away, I could easily make a few extra dollars by selling them as seller refurbished. I sold one to a guy and shortly after he received the console, I saw an email regarding a claim; the guy said that it was showing signs of RROD--I knew what time it was. End result: I had to reimburse the buyer and he was supposed to return the console but never did, of course. I closed my account after that.

 

[Noni]

eBay has a money back guarantee for buyers. If the buyer says what you sent them isn't exactly what you said it was eBay will refund the buyer, force you to pay return shipping, and reverse your PayPal payment.

Notice I said "if the buyer says" which means they can lie. Also what the buyer actually sends you back is irrelevant. The process is mostly automated and whatever you tell eBay will be ignored. They will side with the buyer and you will refund them.

If the buyer is a decent person you might actually get back the item you sold them in functional condition and if they aren't you won't even get that back.

You can get hacked by people who want to use your seller account and have you foot the bill for the listing fees. If you are not using your seller account get rid of it! An be sure to tell paypal as well.

 

[winb83]

This. I used to buy broken Xbox 360 consoles, the RROD ones, and do quick repairs on them. Since cats were practically giving them away, I could easily make a few extra dollars by selling them as seller refurbished. I sold one to a guy and shortly after he received the console, I saw an email regarding a claim; the guy said that it was showing signs of RROD--I knew what time it was. End result: I had to reimburse the buyer and he was supposed to return the console but never did, of course. I closed my account after that.

You can tell him in advance the console is a former RROD. Even tell him it's for parts only and he could still force a refund. It's crazy.

 

[Noni]

You can tell him in advance the console is a former RROD. Even tell him it's for parts only and he could still force a refund. It's crazy.

To be honest though, I'm really surprised they haven't cracked down on the Chinese scams on ebay. All the clothes and jewelry I buy from China is broken or doesn't fit like they advertised. I think they need a star rating system like amazon, and people need to start posting pics of the products. I got scammed as a seller one time because the a$$hole waited months upon months after the product delivered to file a complaint that they never got it--well after I had discarded the shipping information. Never again.

 

[num123]

Its not just small sellers powersellers get hit too. I used to sell enterprise networking equipment for a company i used to work for and while i had no issues, for the other items there was some type of issue. It ran from someone not knowing how to use the product, to someone not reading the listing and getting angry, or scamming. You could sell something as "parts or not working" and say exactly the reason why you listed it that way(did not test it all of the way, item is defective,....), the customer can buy it and get a return even if the return is for a reason you have already noted on the item.

Now with the actual scams, for example we would get people buying 600-1k macbooks and swapping out the logic board and sending back the mac with a dead one. Even when we put tamper stickers or marked certain parts with a UV pen, eBay would rule in their favor. So the only thing we could do is block them from our store, but that does not stop them from using a different account.

We had to deal with "baby" scams, for example where someone would buy an item, decide they do not want it and open a case with eBay. If they say the item does not work, the seller has to pay for the return shipping. We also had to deal with people buying an item, getting it, then making some bullshyt story up to get something extra(more RAM for a desktop) to either get their positive feedback or to remove their negative feedback. With how powersellers work, you get perks like discounts on different things, the biggest one being ebay fees. But you have to cater to every stupid or fraudulent case your way so your feedback wot drop to a point you lose the powerseller status. And even with the status, ebay 99.99 percent of the time will side with the buyer. The buyer would have to be an idiot and admit wrongdoing on their part which happened 1 sale for every 5000 sales.

And last as fukked up as eBay is, at least they require the buyer to send the item back for a refund. With Amazon the buyer can claim whatever they want and not only get a refund, they are not forced to send the item back if they do not want to.