Re: New Ebay policy of the week - partial refunds
upthereinmytree... I've used that tactic before... no partial refunds but allow the buyer to return the item for a full refund. It stopped some of the scammers because they'd only be wasting their time. However, apparently eBay's latest crap won't allow that.
Re: New Ebay policy of the week - partial refunds
Maybe we should start an "Ebay's Stupid Policy of the Week against Sellers" thread? The linked pictures in my auction item suddenly disappeared, showing broken links. Rather than try to figure out what Ebay is doing, I just decided to upload them to Ebay's normal picture viewer (and pay for each additional picture, it looks like they've gone back to making sellers pay to show their wares, after a few years of allowing pictures for free). It's not really related, but this standard popup displays as you are editing your auction:
"A listing may not include statements that discourage bidding activity.
For example, you cannot say things like:
"Find out more about our selling practices policy"
“Don’t bid if you do not agree with my terms”
This kind of information is unprofessional and may discourage good buying activity on your item....[Ebay policy popup]"
I've seen this popup before, it's a standard warning. But come on! So among the thousand cuts Ebay gives, we cannot try to filter bad buyers, or force them to abide by your terms??!! What purpose is putting the terms then (I'm sure they'd prefer sellers not have any)? And they dare say asking people to abide by your terms is unprofessional?! You wonder why Ebay doesn't ever stop Seller's Keyword Spamming and other tactics to give high sales? Because they don't care about all that, they want anything that gives them their high fees. And they force you to give them your bank account so if any buyer makes any unreasonable complaint, they pay them out of your money. But you won't ever see their fees get reduced, reversed, returned. Bunch of scammers, I can't even think of any analogy of another monopolistic, heavy-handed company from the past.
Rant over.
Re: New Ebay policy of the week - partial refunds
Quote:
Originally Posted by
goamules
Bunch of scammers, I can't even think of any analogy of another monopolistic, heavy-handed company from the past.
Any time you have a monopoly, you have problems. It's like back when there was one phone company, AT&T, and no competition allowed. Their motto was "We're the phone company. We care. We have to." Lily Tomlin had a long-running joke as a telephone operator, "We're the phone company. We don't care. We don't have to." It was one of those jokes that rang all too true.
Ebay's in that situation today. They don't care. They don't have to.
Re: New Ebay policy of the week - partial refunds
Oops! eBay has already increased the maximum Final value fee for auction style from $100 to $250 !!!
It's definitely tooooo high!
Not to mention their stupid 21 days period before funds availability!
But do we have another choice?!
Re: New Ebay policy of the week - partial refunds
Quote:
Originally Posted by
jumanji
Oops! eBay has already increased the maximum Final value fee for auction style from $100 to $250 !!!
It's definitely tooooo high!
Not to mention their stupid 21 days period before funds availability!
But do we have another choice?!
U
Wow! And i was almost used to the increase from 50 to 100. Damn.
Re: New Ebay policy of the week - partial refunds
eBay was built on the notion that it had no part of the transaction other than to put buyers and sellers together. But as they've tried to establish real retail operations and offer competition to Amazon, they've had to extend their business model to include processing the transaction. But they've tried to do that without assuming any risk, as if they were still just in the market-making role. I suspect it will shake out in the end, but during this early period in online markets there will be inequities that wander to and fro until it matures.
The problem, of course, is that eBay does not inspect the goods being sold, as any normal auction house would. So, buyers will always accuse sellers of misrepresentation, and sellers will always accuse buyers of breaking somethign after it was received. eBay's latest strategy tries to put this inspection job in the hands of independent third parties, but they do not define what constitutes independence nor do they define what it takes to be authoritative. This will get tested, and pretty soon, I suspect. And then the pendulum will swing again, or eBay will acquire some other service to fill the void, as they did with Paypal.
And as their role increases from mere market-maker to transaction processor to goods evaluator, they will want a higher price.
Anybody who has done actual business could have predicted all of this. I remember in the early days of eBay when people complained that eBay didn't provide a transaction service (which led to Paypal). And in those days the accusations of buyers against sellers and vice versa were probably quite a bit higher as a percentage of transactions as they are now.
Some people have made a sideline of selling on eBay. eBay made such sidelines possible. But then those people complain that eBay, who provides the store and who, at the request of both sellers and buyers, is now providing some of the protections that go along with a store, wants a higher price to do it.
I sold a few things on eBay in the early days, but frankly found it to be too much trouble for what I made from the sales. That train has left the station. If I had stuff to sell now, I'd go ahead and pay for the advertising and sell it direct, or target it to a select audience on forums like this one. I just find it almost amusing that the service people complained about bitterly ten years ago is now remembered fondly as part of the "good old days".
Rick "who would be happy if eBay would take down the 'Buyer's Guide' article that plagiarizes my copyrighted web page, including a photograph of me made by my wife" Denney
Re: New Ebay policy of the week - partial refunds
Yes...
Paypal fees, hold on funds policy, Ebay fees ....selling there is expensive...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
SamReeves
Buy on eBay and sell here. That seems to be the way to go.
Re: New Ebay policy of the week - partial refunds
I'd rather try to sell here and APUG first and pass on the savings to the buyer. Better they have it than ePay and PayPay.
Re: New Ebay policy of the week - partial refunds
Quote:
Originally Posted by
chopsteeks
Yes...
Paypal fees, hold on funds policy, Ebay fees ....selling there is expensive...
Compared to camera store consignment, it's still a bargain. 12%(the 9 plus 3) commission on sales is not that outrageous, in any type of selling situation. Consignment was/is typically 50%, with a lower gross resale. And your item is being viewed world wide, not just the people driving distance to your (previous) camera store, your prospective buyer pool is exponentially larger than any other type of local sales.
If you took Visa/MC yourself, you lose 2.5-3% on the sale. Roughly equivalent to PP's cut. And you still risk charge backs when you take credit cards.
My funds are released 3 days after delivery anyway. So that's not prohibitive, that's equal to a bank clearing a check for funds availability.
FVF on shipping is a crock. And so is this partial refund without recourse thing; But I will see how that plays out before I form a reactionary opinion.
Re: New Ebay policy of the week - partial refunds
If you look at it that way, good for you.
But there are other choices to sell. I opt to use other choices.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
RichardSperry
Compared to camera store consignment, it's still a bargain. 12%(the 9 plus 3) commission on sales is not that outrageous, in any type of selling situation. Consignment was/is typically 50%, with a lower gross resale. And your item is being viewed world wide, not just the people driving distance to your (previous) camera store, your prospective buyer pool is exponentially larger than any other type of local sales.
If you took Visa/MC yourself, you lose 2.5-3% on the sale. Roughly equivalent to PP's cut. And you still risk charge backs when you take credit cards.
My funds are released 3 days after delivery anyway. So that's not prohibitive, that's equal to a bank clearing a check for funds availability.
FVF on shipping is a crock. And so is this partial refund without recourse thing; But I will see how that plays out before I form a reactionary opinion.