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In every issue, readers soundoff about issues important to them. From feedback to payment services, from increased fees to posting policies, AuctionBytes Soundoff gives you a chance to air your views.
You can also read the AuctionBytes blog, which has a place for reader comments under every posting (http://blog.auctionbytes.com).
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Hi Ina,
I have also had problems with ebay vero. I don't know who reported to ebay and since I will never find out that is irrelevant. But, ebay took down Zippo, Tiffany, Cartier and sever other auctions of mine with no explanation. The only way to fight this I believe is what I did. I filed a formal complaint with the NYS Attorney General for restraint of trade. No one, especially ebay will force me to have anything to do with paypal which I was told is the only way to be able to list many brands. Since I do not sell anything new and am a fully qualified appraiser and expert witness there is absolutely no reason for ebay to ever stop any of my auctions. I am waiting to hear the outcome of my complaint. I think that legal action - not out of my pocket - is the only way to get anywhere. If the numerous other sellers that have had this problem would complain to their local and state consumer affairs and attorney generals it may have an impact. Individually it is a waste of time and effort.
Regards,
Joyce
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Dear Ina,
You can publish this if you want. I should have known better but somehow didn't and it has cost me dearly. Paypal strikes again.
I have had both personal and business accounts with paypal for over 6 years. I have two websites and most of my sales are now from the websites, not ebay. Somehow I thought I had protection, sending and receiving payments via paypal. Boy was I wrong. I am attaching the thread of a dispute I filed, which will explain the entire transaction. Bottom line, I paid a seller in Canada $1740 for 21 pounds of Mineral Makeup. A disagreement arose and she became angry. Without my knowledge or permission, she shipped 55 lbs of raw ingredients but nothing close to what I paid for. She provided a tracking number that never showed up in any tracking in Canada or the USPS. Out of necessity, I filed a claim. We exchanged weeks of emails and finally when the box didn't arrive, I had to make it a dispute. This is the first dispute, claim anything I have ever filed with paypal.
The first denial of refund came, stating it was not for tangible products. Immediately, I called paypal and after reading all the thread, they said "ah ha, it was product" and I was led to believe the claim would go in my favor. 48 hours later, I learned that since it wasn't an ebay transaction, it isn't covered at all. So she keeps my money, she has all the product and I have nothing. I guess I had just been lulled into believing that paypal protected us but boy was I wrong. It was a cash transfer from my paypal account so there is no credit card payment I can dispute. Please tell your readers, "Non-Ebay payments are NOT protected".
Ann
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Dear Ina:
I have been selling on eBay since 1999. I have sold everything from an old coca cola bottle to an RV. I am an Education Specialist trained by eBay and have sang their praises for many years. Bottom line, I believed in eBay and the power it provided for small business, making the playing field level.
Unfortunately, my belief in eBay is starting to waiver. I am losing students because of the eBay turmoil running rampant in the news sectors. Worse of all, is the blatant attitude that seems to be coming from eBay regarding the small seller.
Every day I run across a Power Seller who is not playing by the rules (no more than 10 identical items listed at once, no avoiding eBay listing and final value fees by selling items for $.99 with shipping costs of $29.00; even the ones who have a lousy feedback rating seem to go unnoticed. Unfortunately, no matter how many times you report them, nothing changes.
The thing that is bothering me the most is all I seem to be hearing is Power Seller. The straw that broke the camel's back was your article on the "eBay Dance" and the new search system. When it was suggested that one way to get a good search ranking was to become a "Power Seller!" Not everyone wants to become a Power Seller; not everyone CAN become a Power Seller.
It seems like all the changes in the past six or seven months has been divided. Everything seems to be good for Power Sellers and bad for the small sellers. At the rate it is going, there will be no small sellers. Can you imagine an eBay with just Power Sellers! I don't believe it could exist.
People come to eBay for many reasons, to save money, to find that one unique item that can't be found anywhere else, just for the thrill of the auction. If eBay were nothing but Power Sellers all those reasons would go out the door and the result would be just one more ignored internet mall.
There would be no auctions because there would be no competition. There would be no diversity, except for those few Power Sellers who sell a wide variety of liquidations. There would be no price savings, the prices would just keep going up until they reached the highest level they can sustain.
When is eBay going to realize that the small business owner and the hobby sellers really are the foundation of all things eBay.
I love eBay and I enjoy very much teaching others about eBay. But, if eBay continues moving in the direction it is, there will not be anything of which to be proud.
Regards
Dreams
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Hi Ina,
eBay is sending people off-site with their Yahoo ads, and continue to hammer away at small sellers.
Regards,
Dan
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Hello Ina,
First and foremost Your auctionbite email is much anticipated each month and I find it very enjoyable and have learned a number of things that have helped my business. Unfortunately I find my sales slipping lower each month on eBay... I have listed more items in my store, expanded to other offerings and listed more auctions in anticipation of bringing more potential buyers to my store... Something is not working??????? EBAy used to be FUN!!! I really mean that but as of late their lack of customer service, policy changes, fee increases (that goes for PayPal too) has made doing business maddening!!!
I have tried one or two other Auction Websites with no success either. I am in the process of setting up my own website in hopes that may generate sales but it's allot more work than I thought.... Can you suggest any other sites like eBay that I could try? What do your other readers have to say in this regard???
Thank you in advance for your reply to this email,
Best regards,
Keith
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Ina,
I've enjoyed viewing your news flashes much more since you began offering them in html formatting.
I do look forward to your news stories and updates, and visiting the solutions offered by some of your sponsors.
Colin
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Hi,
You may want to look into this further. Ebay has been having problems with Listing Designer ever since they upgraded to Turbo Lister 2. There are a number of different glitches, not the least of which is not being able to back up files. I've been trying to work with them since May and they can't seem to resolve the problems. If you want more details, let me know. I am an ebay power seller and have been using Turbo Lister and Listing Designer since 2004.
Jo
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Dear Ina,
I went to eCRATER and signed up for a store because of your article. I like it, but, the shipping matrix really sucks! BIG TIME! I think the people that set this up must have flunked algebra, probably more than once. If you go to the community board and read the threads you will see what I mean, everyone else doesn't know what to do with this either. The people that created this don't seem to realize how important the zip code is. Free and flat rate shipping doesn't always work well, and without being able to pinpoint the buyers location, you either over charge them or end up screwing yourself on shipping. I thought since you gave them a nice write-up in you news letter, maybe you could talk some common sense into them about the shipping matrix problem. I'm no expert in writing HTML or web design, but for someone who is, it's hard to believe that inserting the proper code for a decent shipping and handing calc could be that difficult.
I read your news letters all the time and get much from them, keep up the good work!
Regards,
Michael
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Hi Ina
Just a note to say I always find your monthly newsletter interesting and important and worth looking at. Thanks.
Mike
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Ina-
Last weekend I received FOURTEEN separate emails from emails addresses mostly originating from AOL the majority of which showed different ebay user IDs. The purpose of these emails was to "persuade" me to remove or revise a listing which they disagreed with.
These vigilantes continued non-stop over the weekend. And, after receiving the third email, I began reporting them to ebay Trust and Safety. I reported 14 different emails - some of which originated through the ebay system and some of which were direct responses to my responses to their first email - and presented Trust & Safety with all the information they ask for - email headers, text of emails, item number in question, user ID, etc.
This is another of several examples of a small group of what I call gemstone vigilantes who troll ebay for the purpose of interfering with listings they don't like or harassing sellers. I've reported them in the past, but they just pop up again with new user IDs.
This went ALL weekend. I finally decided to end the listing to stop the barrage of emails with the intent of relisting it as soon as ebay dealt with these jerks, but before ending the listing, I revised the product description and indicated (as ebay suggests) why I ended the listing..
When after 72 hours, I'd heard nothing from ebay, I filed under a different category of complaint to officially file under transaction interference and sent a new complaint through their web based system.
Finally more than four days later at mid-week, I received a scripted response from ebay indicating that I'd been solicited to buy or sell off ebay and that I shouldn't do it. I responded that that they had not thoroughly read any of my emails and asked them to re-read and verify the documentation I'd included in each complaint. This kind of non response, irrelevant ebay response is typical and infuriating to someone who will pay ebay more than $9500.00 this months in listing fees and who is a platinum powerseller.
As of this time and date, I have heard NOTHING from them. This is an expensive item that neither one of us will make money on because I refuse to relist it until they appropriately deal with either this one individual or a small group of self appointed vigilantes.
Words can't describe the frustration and anger I feel towards this corporation which I've come to believe literally borders on criminal if they haven't, in fact, already crossed the line.
Suzanne
PS: After emailing you early this morning, I finally received a generic, scripted email from T&S indicating that that had "thoroughly investigated" what "you believe is harassment" and had taken "appropriate" action although, of course, as usual they refused to disclose what this "appropriate action" was due to "privacy policies."
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Ina!,
Love your work! eBay is way too big for it's own good. The site is saturated with stuff to sell. If you buy an item for resale at a local Dollar Store and list it...you'll find 10 other people selling the same item. I did this for a test, spent a dollar and found the same item on eBay listed many times over. I found this item on a close out shelf at a local Dollar Store. Amazing. and the feeebays!..wow!...I'm off eBay and now selling on my own website and eCrater that I found reading your page a few weeks ago and already I have sales on eCrater!...and no fees, and I can list my items as long as I want and with no duration. With eBay, list, doesn't sell, relist, more fees, doesn't sell, lower the price, more listing fees, and on it goes. You'll owe eBay more in fees for an item, that it cost you when you purchased it for resale!..wow!...I closed my eBay store, my sales went from 5-10 per week down to ZERO when I put them in my store. No core search, no sales!!! I'm already tired!!! LOL Thank you for reading!
Vin
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