That's weird.  I've won several auctions recently that I'm paying for by a money order.  I wonder if Ebay is going to give the seller a hard time if the auctions are not officially paid through Paypal at some date?

I wonder if the buyer and seller don't say anything specifically about a money order (or I guess even a personal check), working out the details outside of Ebay, whether Ebay will then be tracking the seller's auctions that aren't finalized through Paypal?

It just seems wrong to obligate all sales through a method (Paypal) by which they extract futher money from the entire transaction.

Mike.

bbarsh wrote:Time for a short rant...

Ok. Loaded up 64 items on ebay last night (a personal record for me). Well, I thought I did. I load through turbolister so I hit the upload all key and went about my business while the process was going.

About and hour later I checked the laptop and noticed that instead of all 64 items being uploaded, it actually said only about 42 were successfully added. So I hit the screan and notice 22 items were unable to be uploaded due to an error.

WTF. Ok, a few seconds later I track the error and it says that my auctions indicate that accept payment methods outlawed by ebay! Now, I already had my experience with "you can't take checks or money orders because ebay doesn't get its cut" deal.

So I checked the rejected auctions to see if I made a mistake and had something in them about taking checks and money orders. NO. NOTHING.

In fact, the payment / shipping notes are no different from the auctions that were accepted.

Now I am getting pissed.  

Then I see that I have line that says "Check out my other auctions for ..."

Nah, can't be that...Oh yes, it can...

So I change the "check" into "see" and bingo they upload.

You have got to be kidding me. I had to go into all 22 items and "check" that the word "check" was nowhere in sight.

Uploaded again and now seven get rejected for the same F.....g thing! Other than the item name and descriptiion there is no freaking difference from the ones that are up. Not too mention 42 of them still have the word "check" in them.

Now I get rid of a line stating that I will mail within five days of payment clearing. I suppose the word "clearing" must be ebay objectionable. Upload again. Finally go through.

That took me almost an hour in total to fix...

Yeah, ebay sure loves its sellers... A-holes.

LOL.  You see, I KNEW how lazy and ham-handed an approach ebay would take in this matter, so a couple of months ago I changed my last line in my auctions from "Check out my ebay store" to "Remember to visit my ebay store". Saved myself some work by not underestimating the level of stupidity of the Ebay Approach to doing business....

Mike B.

TheMilford wrote:What about "cheques"?

Or how about "Czech out my store" and change your Ebay name to Badmikeskalowsky...

mbassoc2003 wrote:A little eBay advice needed here from all you guys with more experience...

A guy sets up a brand new eBay account, and immediately buys an expensive item from me...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=110300404250&ssPageName=STRK:MESO:IT&ih=001

The PayPal account is also listed as being unverified. Now eBay have already hit me for their Final Valuation fee, and if I pull out of the transaction I lose money to eBay. And if I ship the item I stand to lose a lot more.

The only solution I can see is to refund the buyer his money less the final valuation fees and complete the refund if and when eBay provide a refund to my account.

There is no way of stopping zero rated buyers or unverified buyers at all, is there?

And I don't suppose anyone here lived is Redondo Beach, CA, do they?

I'd refund his payment and tell him that you can't ship it to him until he pays you from a verifed Paypal account.  If he won't do so, just report it to Ebay and file a NPB. IIRC, that is one of things that they will actually side with the seller on.

mbassoc2003 wrote:
And I don't suppose anyone here lived is Redondo Beach, CA, do they?

I'm real close to Redondo Beach.  Let me know what I can do to help. PM me.

Mike.

mbassoc2003 wrote:Phoned eBay - They have no future intention to allow sellers to block zero rated buyers and unless the buyer agrees to withdraw from the sale, they will not refund the fees incurred.

Phoned PayPal - They say the seller has a 'confirmed' adress but is 'not varified'. F@ck knows what the difference is. They say it will be eligable for PayPal seller protection and that in their opinion I should complete the transaction. They will not confirm how long the PayPal account has been open, or whether it has ever been active in the past.

E-mail sent Mr.Spock.

Currently I am of the opinion that I should complete, on the hope that PayPal will protect me if anything goes bad (Naturally a fully trackable fully insured package). But I will take another day to think about the risks associated with selling such items to eBay newbies.

Going forward I am think possibly of selling only to UK buyers and 'Known members of Acaeum and Dragonsfoot only'. That way an interested party from the US or Canada could e-mail me and I cound delist and split the saving with the respective member, and we both win. It's a possibility.

Dirty little secret:  Buyers can "NSAD" anything sold and get a full or partial refund with no recourse for the seller.  All the buyer has to do is say the item was not as described, no proof is necessary, paypal will hold your funds and then "determine" how much they need to refund the buyer. Paypal will then, at some future date, keep back that amount (which may be the entire amount) to give back to the buyer and put the rest back in your account. Again, you have no recourse through ebay (no negative feedback, remember) or paypal (you submit to this binding arbitration when you agree to use paypal).  Only if you have insured the package yourself do you have any kind of hope of getting your money back.

In a dispute I was involved in a few months ago, I learned several interesting things, including that the buyer is allowed to lie on feedback.  In my case, the buyer was allowed to state the item was late and hadn't arrived, even though the USPS records showed the buyer had actually picked up the item from the post office the week before.  Ebay stated that they did not want to selectively censor buyer comments so even though there might be proof they have lied, they wouldn't remove or change it. However, even though I left positive feedback for the buyer (no choice) but warned other potential sellers away in that feedback, it was removed because per Ebay rules you are not allowed to leave a negative comment in positive feedback.

Ian, you have no recourse if the buyer gets the item and decides he wants to steal from you...he merely has to say it was damaged or not in the correct condition, and he gets to keep the item plus a refund.  To add to the fun he can then leave you incorrect negative feedback "Seller sent me an item torn to pieces" and there is nothing you can do about it, not even leave a retalitory feedback. At best, he could keep the item, file a chargeback, close his account, and even though (eventually) you can prove you were in the right, there would be no money in his account (and no account) for them to refund you the money...so you would rely on the niceness of paypal to refund you. I've heard of cases where they will do this; I've heard of cases where they tell you "Sorry, man".   Once again it's up to the whims of whatever paypal agent handles your case.

And yes they will not let you block zero-feedback sellers.  You can leave a note in the text of your auction saying you will not sell to zero feedback buyers, but guess what?  You are just relying on that to scare them off, because Paypal considers that "non-binding" and will eventually ding you if you decide to hold back a shipment from a zero feedback bidder who bids "in good faith".  

I'm shocked after all the warnings and bitchings that are going on here long-time sellers are still discovering the pitfalls of the "new" way Ebay is doing things, which is to screw over sellers at the expense of buyers....

Mike B.

mbassoc2003 wrote:Possible alternatives....

Photograph/film the item and it's condition being packed.
Sign the seal on the package.
Fully insure the shipment.

As I see it, the seller has to declare the item damaged in the post, and you have to be given the opportunity to offer a resolution. You simply ask in open forum (PayPal dispute console) for the seller to provide photographic proof of the problem and with that proof you then have a claim against the post office.

Negative feedback....

Post the sellers name and phone number in the feedback forum. MI.. Mr James Smith. You LIED in your comment. I tried to call you on +1145678239.  Ebay will them remove the negative comments.

Finally....

Set up a worldwide network of silent baseball bat weilders to deal with issues that can't be resolved by eBay and PayPal.

I think insurance is the way to go. That way, even if the buyer or Paypal dorks you, you can still get your money back through the post office (not through paypal) and as a bonus if the moron keeps trying that scam he'll eventually get nailed by postal inspectors.

The negative feedback "leave his name and address" doesn't seem to work anymore. I tried it, and just got the negative feedback I left removed, without a reciprocal removal of his negative feedback to me (yes he also left me negative feedback).  

Since Ebay and paypal don't help anymore it's more important than ever for Acaeum sellers to communicate bad buyers....a network like this is one of the only ways to protect ourselves.

Mike B.

Hi,

Vigilantism - don't ya just LOVE it Bubba?

So much in that post to comment on...

But how about:
1 items can genuinely get lost in the post
2 mistaken identity ( aguy in the UK was murdered cos he looked quite like a paedophile who lived in the same street as him)
3 your kid (or someone else) buying stuff under your name and getting it delivered - are YOU the first person to your post every morning?

etc etc

However yeah, paypal are sh*t to sellers.

Cheers,
Malc

mbassoc2003 wrote:There is no way a seller should lose out 'cos some redneck asshole can't control his ferral offspring. In situations like this, either the buyer should suffer the damage and deal with his sperm problem, or the family should be excluded from eBay until they learn to take their responsibilities in society seriously.

Yeah, and people who live in shared houses, students, people in flats and apartments, those looking after mentally deficient people or alzheimers sufferers, etc etc.  

Maybe you could just send them a parcel bomb instead.  

I think I mentioned on another thread about the rise of extremism under harsh economic conditions...  

Cheers,
Malc