From eBay/US Seller Central...this OP was pulled QUICK, but I got a copy first.
eBay is scared!
wholesale863
Posts: 1
Buyers ability to "Bully" Sellers and Sellers Lack of Support.
Oct 10, 2009 10:04 AM
I recently put some items up on eBay so I could try to clean up my storage unit. Everything went well, I packed and shipped about $1000 worth of merchandise... I Figured everything was done... There was 1 Buyer who had not payed like 8 days after the auction, I sent him another invoice just to see if He still wanted the item, To be honest i wasnt concerned about the fees or whatever I was happy with the stuff I was able to get rid of. I paid my ebay fees, and after that occasionally checked back on eBay for shopping.. A couple days later I decided to go ahead and give an eBay Store a shot, Listed a couple dozen items and let it be, hoping to grab a couple orders a month maybe....
I never realised when he did finally pay, after sending 3 invoices... He sent me an email asking where his item was, I checked paypal because I had bought tracking for every item, I noticed his order diddnt have a tracking number so I told him I think his order was overlooked, I was sorry and would be more than happy to ship it out for him tommorow or issue a full refund...
The buyer immediatly came up with an excuse about having to "Hire" someone to sit at his office and wait for this... get this... $12.80 package INCLUDING SHIPPING... I thought this was rediculous but whatever... Then he goes and DEMANDS priority shipping saying this is my fault and I HAVE to make it right because he was going to be out of town the following week. To make a long story short we exchanged a couple emails and after seeing how demanding this customer was and his unwillingness to work with me... I decided I dont even want to deal with a customer like this and refunded his money. He Left me Negative feedback seconds after I refunded his money saying I "Scammed Him and comitted fraud", sent me a letter saying he was reporting me for fraud to ebay, and saying a refund is "UNACCEPTABLE", demanding the item and saying that he wanted what he bid and paid for and telling me to enjoy the short time I would be spending on ebay. I simply sent him a "I GAVE YOU A REFUND, THERE IS NO FRAUD HERE, I HAVE THE ITEM BUT REFUSE TO SELL IT TO SOMEONE LIKE YOU" letter...
I tried to leave an honest FEEDBACK on this transaction... What is this? Ebay WONT LET ME LEAVE NEGATIVE FEEDBACK? Ok fine I will just leave my feedback as positive... maybe someone will read it even though it doesnt reflect the negative he deserves... I simply stated the buyer was UNREASONABLE and DEMANDING and that I refunded his money, ALL TRUE FACTS....
The next day I log into my account to check on things... The buyer had my feedback REMOVED, and I now had 3 Strikes against my account for various reasons.. I thought about how much I would rather not deal with another customer like this... and shut down my ebay store. I now REFUSE to sell on eBay ever again. I tried to find a way to report ANYTHING against this buyer, I tried getting the feedback removed, I tried whatever I could to get this Nightmare $12 transaction to just go away...
You know what I found out? EBAY HAS NO SELLER SUPPORT TO SPEAK OF. Ok, they Have a few processes.... That I tried to work on but OBVIOUSLY this buyer had more experience than me with reports and such, I simply couldnt figure out what ebay wanted me to do about this to fix it. As far as im concerned all the processes ebay wants you to go through arent even worth my time. Im simply AMAZED that the buyer has all the rights but the sellers are the ones paying all the INSANELY HIGH EBAY FEES, and get NO SUPPORT.
No way to leave an honest feedback or ANYTHING.
To any of you reading this, I just needed to vent. As far as im concerned I will stick to Google Adwords and Affiliate Marketing to make my living which I do.... Its not worth being bullied by a $12 order.
It is pretty obvious that ebay is only concerned with the Money they are owed, Not the people who are actually paying them.