(no subject)

[meganbmoore]

You know, before ebay fixed it so that sellers couldn't leave neutral or negative feedback, I actually dealt with civil people there.

Comments

[kingcrankycat.livejournal.com]

I haven't placed any items on eBay since they took out our ability to leave anything but positive feedback -- honestly I find the idea rather frightening. Without that threat of negative feedback what do we have left? >.> (I'm listing books/DVDs through Amazon instead, despite the higher costs for those)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I decided to list a few more things, and have been receiving threats within a couple days of auctions ending.

[kingcrankycat.livejournal.com]

I wonder if eBay knows exactly what they've done by taking negative feedback away from us. And I wonder if they might not be shooting themselves in the foot, in the long-run, by screwing over their paying customers (seeing as buying is free).

It was bad enough when they passed on the PayPal fees to us, and then took away our ability to deny (the frankly moronic) eChecks as a payment type.

I'll still use eBay as a purchasing ground, but until they fix things I don't think I'm ever selling with them again.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

And they charge the credit card fee for every paypal payment, not just credit cards. Lining their pockets much?

[swanjun.livejournal.com]

Receiving threats? Egad. I've not sold much of anything on eBay, and certainly nothing since this policy change. I've a few things to divest myself of eventually; perhaps I'll go to half.com instead.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

half.com is owned by ebay. As is Paypal.

[swanjun.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know they are, but at least there aren't any fees for listing things. Upfront, anyway.

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

They did WHAT?!!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Precisely.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

What? Why would you get rid of this feature? I am sure some people misused it but it was useful to read sometimes especially about delivery times and the state of goods when they arrived.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Buyers can still leave negative fb, just not sellers. So if someone jerks you around for ages and never pays, you can't warn others. Fun!

As a seller, I may not lose a huge amount of money if I put up and auction and the buyer never comes through, as I will at least get my closing fees refunded (assuming I report it soon enough; if I trust the buyer and give them several chances to pay, I may miss the cut off point to report them by the time I finally realise they have no intention of doing so), but I am still out the listing fees, and of course my time and energy to write up listings, photograph items, try to chase down buyers, etc.

eBay has basically been slowly moving towards an increasingly anti-seller policy over the past few years, which assumes all sellers are scammers and thus buyers must be protected from them.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see. Still seems dumb, though.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Ever since it went into effect, every email I've received has included a threat.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

;_;

The last time I sold a bunch of stuff was last fall, which was right before this most recent batch of changes. I noticed a much higher percentage of entitled jerks even then.

Plus I noticed that I had been rated down on the five star thing for shipping. I ship next day after people pay, and I charge only the amount of shipping, usually not even covering any packing supplies, because I know that's a cost that customers don't think about (even though packing supplies are quite expensive) and thus see as overcharge. So why am I getting rated down for shipping? What could I possibly have done better that they are complaining about? And of course it's anon, so I can't see who it is, and I have no recourse for rebuttal.

I have a bunch of stuff piling up here that I would like to sell eventually, but I am going to try and sell as much of it on LJ as I can, with eBay as a last resort.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

No, buyers can leave whatever feedback they want. Seller's can't.

Which means buyers can threaten or harass sellers however they want (and some are) with no fears of it appearing on their profile.

[lillypuff.livejournal.com]

When I saw that they had actually gone and done that (they'd been whispering about it for sometime), I merely shook my head sadly, and thanked my lucky stars I'd already left eBay as a fulltime seller.

I have no idea what they are/were thinking.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Apparently that buyers are the ones paying them.

[shartyrant.livejournal.com]

Actually, you would think they would appreciate buyers more as when we "receive" money through paypal, they take a cut. They get a cut of the final value fee. They get the listing fee. Buyers acutally isn't where they make the money. I finally broke down and put 2 items up and they sold. I was hesitant because of the new policy. So far, I got one feedback positive. WAiting on the second.

I am glad they took that whole neutral affecting the percentage. I had one neutral which turned out be because the buyer hit the wrong button which is why the comment was good. Because you can't change it, the girl couldn't change it which was no biggie as it was neutral who cares, right? But when it counted it ticked me off. I am hoping enough sellers complain and a drop of business that they put up the FAIR practice of having feedback on both parts.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I already sent them an e-mail about it, though I'm sure it'll be ignored.

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

I've only bought things on eBay, never sold them, but even I couldn't understand why they limited sellers' ability to leave feedback. It makes no sense to me at all, unless you also limit what buyers can say.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Exactly. As it is, they're only making things difficult for their paying customers.

[southerndave.livejournal.com]

... This is completely insane. I've been buying books and stuff on Trade Me (the local internet auction site... from memory, Ebay tried opening up here a few years ago and failed spectacularly) and both buyer and seller can leave negative feedback; I simply can't understand what the point of leaving feedback would be at all if you can't leave a negative against a bad buyer (or seller). In all my time on Trade Me I've only ever left a negative once (someone didn't post me the old LP I bought and wouldn't reply to my emails) but I'd stop buying there if they took away that ability.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Buyers can still leave any feedback they want. sellers can only leave positive.

[jencatd.livejournal.com]

People are threatening you over auctions? o_O

I considered starting to sell stuff on eBay a little while back, then decided not to after the negative feeback ability for sellers was taken away. If you can't tell the eBay community at large that the buyer didn't pay or harassed you or whatever, why have the feedback option at all?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Because obviously, all buyers are perfect little angels suffering under the oppression of corrupt sellers, and sellers who say they have a propblem with a buyer are just bitter they couldn't scam the helpless victim.