Morons, morons, morons (ebay related) (1 Viewer)

[John_Berger]

My assumption is that it's to prevent credit card fraud. If you have the money in the account, then there is no possibility of using a fraudulent credit card account to get the rest of the money. PayPal does provide a certain amount of protection against that as long and both the buyer and seller accounts are verified AND confirmed. But that does seem like a weird requirement to add.

 

[MikeSerrano]

Did anyone else mis-read this topic as "Mormons, mormons, mormons"?

I need to get away from the warm glow of this monitor more often...

-Mike

 

[Aurel Savin]

The strangest thing I've seen was a recent auction where the guy would accept Paypal but ONLY if you had a positive balance in your account. I don't typically leave money in my Paypal account, so I passed on bidding figuring it wasn't worth the headache with the guy. Is there something I'm missing? Why would having a positive balance in your account be all that different than using it to transfer money from a bank account or credit card?

There are two types of accounts you can open on Ebay, PERSONAL and BUSINESS ... with a PERSONAL account you can only accept PayPal balances (no Credit Cards) ... this is why some sellers ask for "Paypal balances only"

 

[Rob Gillespie]

I've used PayPal once (as a seller) and would not use it again. The fees are just too high. In my case the buyer paid by credit card and I had to pay £7 just to get hold of the money. It also took almost a week to make it to my bank account and of course there were the Ebay fees on top of that.

We have a very successful transaction method over here called NoChex. You load up your online account from your bank account for which you get charged £0.99 (regardless of how much you load). You can then make as many transactions as you like for no charge. Only when you return money to your bank account do you get charged again (£0.99). Payment is instantaneous and the charges are a lot lower than PayPal. The only drawback is that the buyer can't pay by credit card, which I'm not bothered about anyway.

I accept payment by cheque (and I always wait for clearance before shipping the item), postal order, cash (if they're prepared to risk sending it), account transfer or direct payment into my account. I only ship to UK buyers now mainly because of the hassle of getting payment from outside the country. All of my payment and auction conditions are laid out very clearly. If anyone has a problem with that then they just don't bid. Either that or they risk me filing a breach-of-conditions complaint. Yes, I AM that much of a hardass when it comes to Ebay.

 

[David Susilo]

Honestly I don't understand with all of these animosity against Paypal and Ebay fees.

You sell an item through any auction site or auction house, you'll get charged with a fee. That's a cost of doing business.

Credit-card fees (both accepting and crediting payments) are also normal. Nothing 'weird' or 'unfair' about that.

 

[Brian Lawrence]

From time to time I will sell something on e-Bay and always make sure to put in large lettering "I DO NOT ACCEPT PAYPAL or SHIP OUTSIDE OF THE U.S.!!!"

Yet, I still get bids and questions from people that are too ignorant to heed the rules. I personally don't feel that my not wanting to go through the hassel of finding non-priority boxes or dealing with my pain in the ass post-office, makes me the lazy party, No the lazy person is the one that could not even be bothered to read my terms before placing their bid.

 

[Jon_Are]

Jon Are,
in the future I would suggest being a little more open to at least two different forms of payment as there are many who do not like PAYPAL.
I would suggest accepting money orders in addition to paypal in order to increase your potential bidders

Just to show y'all that I'm a reasonable guy, I'm going to give some thought to Kevin's advice.

I'm a very casual seller, though, and accepting Paypal exclusively is, to me, the epitome of convenience. I'm really not looking to make a killing here; more realistically, I usually just want to unload some DVDs I no longer want.

As for the international vs. U.S.-only shipping debate, no one is going to convince me that international shipping is a minor inconvenience. As I described my routine earlier, dropping a package off in the drive-through mailbox on my way to work in the morning takes all of five seconds. Standing in line at any post office I've ever been to takes a minimum of 15 minutes, often longer.

By the way, one of the "morons" (not Mormons) just wrote to me and related some difficult times she's been going through and apologized profusely, accepting all the blame for the misunderstanding. She seems like a nice lady who simply made a mistake. So I'm over it.

Jon

 

[Chris Lockwood]

> I use eBay very infrequently, but do NOT accept PayPal because of the 3% charge that comes out of the SELLER'S pocket.

Fine, get a credit card merchant account & see what you think of THOSE fees.

I won't bid on anything that won't take PayPal or CCs, because it's a hassle going to get a money order, those fees come out of MY pocket, & there's no protection for me if the item doesn't get shipped to me.

 

[Devin U]

When I sell the very occasional item on ebay, I will ship internationaly, but with a spesific note that the buyer will be responsible for all taxes, brokerage fees, duties, ect. I once sold a remote to a guy in Canada who wanted the remote shipped by UPS. I did as he wished. He refused delivery because he didnt want to be responsible for a C$55 brokerage fee (the biggest joke in all the world, but thats another thread). I then had to go and pick it up at a out of the way UPS office, and then the seller had the nerve to ask me to ship it USPS at my expense, and lie on the customs form to boot! After exchanging a few emails, he agreed to pay the USPS postage. I dont know if he had amymor problems, but I never heard from him again.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

You sell an item through any auction site or auction house, you'll get charged with a fee. That's a cost of doing business.

But there's fees and there's fees. If I can avoid or reduce one set of fees then I will. Ebay fees have all gone up recently and they also charge for things which used to be free. We also have to pay 17.5% VAT on all EBay fees now thanks to the wonderful (sic) European Union.

 

[Aurel Savin]

But there's fees and there's fees. If I can avoid or reduce one set of fees then I will. Ebay fees have all gone up recently and they also charge for things which used to be free. We also have to pay 17.5% VAT on all EBay fees now thanks to the wonderful (sic) European Union.

In Europe, PayPal and Ebay fees are definetelly outrageous.

I have an Italian record company that I do business with and they have a PayPal driven shopping cart on their website, but get this ... they cannot withdraw money from their PayPal account. They can only use it for sending money back and forth. They are still using it becuase it turns out, to get a regular merchant account that is for online transactions is near impossible in Italy.

 

[Matt Gordon]

So if you are using Paypal and get charged a 3% fee, then you are part of the real world of business. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. Somebody always pays, but sometimes the fee is hidden. Simply include the fee in your calculated minimum price, before you agree to sell. Trying to collect an additional fee for "credit card costs" is illegal in many places, and is specifically prohibited in most credit card agreements.

1.) No, I'm not using PayPal. And trying to get a "free lunch" would be wanting to use PayPal but trying to get around the fees! I just don't want the "lunch" because I don't agree with the price.

2.) Maybe I just want to sell something I own every now and then. Does that make me a part of the "real world?" Give me a break, just because I'm selling my old car doesn't make me an auto dealer!

3.) The PayPal fee isn't a "credit card cost," it's a PayPal cost. And I have no agreements with a credit card company.

 

[David Susilo]

The PayPal fee isn't a "credit card cost"

It's still just another "payment-method" fee. The difference is semantics.

 

[Matt Gordon]

It's still just another "payment-method" fee. The difference is semantics.

True. Either way, it's a fee I don't pay.

 

[DaveGTP]

Paypal is worth the extra bidders it gets you, IMO. All it takes is 2 bidders to bid something up. I've sold about 50-60 things (generally video game related)

I had a moron from Puerto Rico. They won my auction for a Super Nintendo and carrying case. I offered to ship for actual costs, $9 max. Normally I MORON-proof it with a GIANT statement saying Int'l shipping costs extra. This time I only had the blurb in my shipping costs section (not in the auction body). The seller emailed their address, and that "I send money order to you". I immediately (within 10 minutes of receipt, Friday night) emailed them saying shipping to Puerto Rico was extra but offered to shave a couple bucks off (It was like $18, I offered to bite $3, good customer service). They emailed back the next day 'I send money order soon' or something like that. I emailed again (all of these politely) saying shipping will be extra, I repeat, I will not send without the extra shipping money, did you read the last email!. Response, on Monday: 'Sent money order out in to you today, you will see soon". My response, basically, in CAPS, was I WILL NOT SHIP OUT THE SNES. I REPEAT, I WILL NOT SEND IT OUT WITHOUT THE ADDITIONAL SHIPPING AMOUNT AND WILL RETURN YOUR MONEY ORDER!

Finally, I get through to them - she responds saying basically 'There is misunderstanding, please send money order back, shipping too much'. I mail back the MO 2 days after receiving it (Next monday). They send 2 emails asking "WHERE IS MY MONEY ORDER", I assure them it is enroute. They leave me neutral feedback on Thursday - I quote: " Neutral : i'm waiting my money back!!! ".

The funny thing is, each email had my last email quoted in it, so I could tell she was getting it. It was like she just didn't bother to read it. I was going to let this thing go and be a nice guy with a Neutral (biting the $1.5 or so in fees), but after receiving the Neutral, I promptly left her a negative (taking her from 2 to 1). Upset my perfect rating of 80 something, 100% at the time.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

One of the best auctions I've had was for a Matrox graphics card. At the time I was still sending stuff overseas but only if the bidder contacted me BEFORE bidding to agree shipping rates etc.

Anyway, this Matrox card closed at around £40. A good price. The chap who won came from Vilnius in Lithuania. That country is considered part of the EU, so the shipping cost was only about £5 or so. No problem.

However the main thing I always stipulated for oversears buyers was that I could only accept payment in £GBP sterling and that any fees incurred in converting their local currency to mine was their issue.

This Lithuanian guy PHONES ME and explains in reasonable English (certainly much better than my Lithuanian) that he's getting a GBP cheque made out and it may take a few more days to arrive. He then phones me again later to say it has been sent and should arrive in 3-4 days.

So the cheque arrives and just as he said, it's made out in GBP. The guy had gone to the trouble of going to an English bank in Vilnius and include a note saying sorry it had taken so long (!) to arrive. I dread to tthink what he paid to get that cheque made out.

So the card gets packaged up and sent the next day. Three days later he receives it and he phones me again to say thank for you sending it so promptly and that he's very happy with the card.

I mean, anyone would think we're talking about a rare component, but it's just a standard Matrox G400MAX. Hardly cutting-edge even then.

Compare that to some of the downright morons I've dealt with in the past. Amazing.

 

[Nathan_R]

You guys have me beat.

I'm looking at my first ever non-paying bidder this week-- and probably my first negative feedback reliation in return on the 16th.

I put up my copy of MST3K: The movie (Normal View!) on eBay, which was purchased with Buy-It-Now on the 6th. After three email notifications, I haven't heard from the buyer (who previously purchased bootleg complilations of every MST3K season aired on SciFi). Blah. I sent out a nasty-gram tonight warning of negative feedback, etc. if I don't at least hear back from him befoer the ten days are up.

So, when all is said and done and I leave negative feedback then receive likewise, how do I get eBay to remove said undeserved feedback?

Best regards,
~~Nathan

 

[Brian Lawrence]

So, when all is said and done and I leave negative feedback then receive likewise, how do I get eBay to remove said undeserved feedback?

You can't. It sucks because I had a similar situation with someone. The funny thing is, that this person also received negative feedback from 5 or 6 other people within the next few weeks. Oh well, I relisted the item he never paid for and ended up selling it for $20 more anyhow

 

[John_Berger]

Yes, you can. eBay will remove feedback in a few limited situations.

Circumstances where eBay will consider removing feedback


* eBay is provided with a ruling or settlement agreement from an eBay-approved certified dispute resolution service. Such a ruling may be issued if the feedback recipient initiated a dispute resolution process and the member who left the feedback did not respond to the request for mediation.
* eBay is provided with a valid court order finding that the disputed feedback is slanderous, libelous, defamatory or otherwise illegal, or with a settlement agreement resolving such a lawsuit submitted by both attorneys and signed by both parties.
* The feedback, on its face, has absolutely no connection with eBay, such as feedback related to commercial transactions that were not conducted through eBay. This also includes feedback that contains any reference to another auction service or feedback that advertises the goods or services of someone other than the user for whom the feedback was left.
* The feedback contains any link to another page, picture, or JavaScript.
* The feedback contains profane or vulgar language, or adult material. Inflammatory language, such as "fraud, liar, cheater, scam artist, con man" etc. is strongly discouraged but will not be removed.
* The feedback contains personal identifying information about another user, including real name, address, phone number, or e-mail address.
* The feedback makes any reference to an eBay or law enforcement organization investigation, For instance, "eBay is investigating this person".
* Negative feedback intended for another user will be considered for removal only in situations where the user responsible for the mistaken posting informs eBay of the error and has already placed the same feedback for the correct user. This does not apply to a comment that was mistakenly marked negative instead of positive or vice versa.
* Feedback left by a user who provided eBay with false contact information during the transaction period (as verified by eBay), and cannot be contacted.
* Participating in an eBay transaction with the intent of leaving feedback as part of a campaign to harass one or more members.
* eBay may give special consideration to remove feedback upon request from members if the listing ended before the member was suspended, but the feedback was left after we reinstated the member.

 

[Jon_Are]

I'm looking at my first ever non-paying bidder this week-- and probably my first negative feedback reliation in return

This is where it gets sticky. Do you submit the deserved negative feedback and put yourself at risk for undeserved retaliation, or do you grit your teeth and let it go in order to (hopefully) preserve your own rating?

I know what the right thing to do is; I'm not convinced, though, that it's the smart thing.

Jon