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The Godfather · Feb 10, 2008, 11:31 AM

Outraged eBay sellers plot strike week - Feb. 7, 2008

If you are a small seller, you should really put more items in the strike week Feb 18-25. The pro sellers are planning to leave all the money to be earnt by YOU.

Honestly, this will have as much effect as the one-day illegal-immigrant strike: nothing. If they were serious, the strike should go on for 3 months, like the TV writers did.

rickey939 · Feb 10, 2008, 12:05 PM

Drama!

analogue SPRINKLES · Feb 10, 2008, 12:14 PM

I switched to craigslist years ago as ebay policies and fee's pissed me off to no end.

Buckaroo · Feb 10, 2008, 12:35 PM

What ebay is proposing is wrong.

They are proposing that the seller is NOT allowed to leave any negative or neutral feedback no matter what the buyer does. The buyer could scam you out of thousands of dollars and you can't do anything.

They can bid on your auction and win, and ignore your requests for payment. Ebay gets paid either way. You may loose out on other possible sales from other buyers that were out bided and have bought elsewhere.

This is a big mistake, and I know I will never sell on ebay again with this new policy.

Buckaroo · Feb 10, 2008, 12:37 PM

If a buyer leaves you negative feedback, you have to go through a expensive ebay process to get it eliminated (if you are lucky).

turtle777 · Feb 10, 2008, 01:06 PM

Ebay is a pest.

If you can, stay away from it.

-t

CharlesS · Feb 10, 2008, 01:13 PM

Originally Posted by Buckaroo

What ebay is proposing is wrong.

They are proposing that the seller is NOT allowed to leave any negative or neutral feedback no matter what the buyer does. The buyer could scam you out of thousands of dollars and you can't do anything.

They can bid on your auction and win, and ignore your requests for payment. Ebay gets paid either way. You may loose out on other possible sales from other buyers that were out bided and have bought elsewhere.

This is a big mistake, and I know I will never sell on ebay again with this new policy.

OTOH, with the current system, there's not much you can do if you get bitten by a fraudulent seller - if you leave negative feedback, they'll just get revenge by giving you negative feedback in return. My guess is that this would be the reason for the new policy.

Doofy · Feb 10, 2008, 01:21 PM

eBay makes me feel dirty. In a bad way.

Buckaroo · Feb 10, 2008, 01:24 PM

Originally Posted by CharlesS

OTOH, with the current system, there's not much you can do if you get bitten by a fraudulent seller - if you leave negative feedback, they'll just get revenge by giving you negative feedback in return. My guess is that this would be the reason for the new policy.

Most reputable sellers don't want any negative feedback and prefer to resolve the issue before it gets that far.

The problem is now, if you get ripped off selling your hardware, or anything for that matter, the buyer could scam you out of your hardware or whatever and be left with NO recourse.

There is NOTHING you can do after the policy change goes into effect.

I believe there are more scam buyers than bad sellers.

I have had a couple of my auctions outbidded by idiots that eventually say, oops I want out of the transaction. I was able to leave negative feedback warning others.

Mithras · Feb 10, 2008, 02:33 PM

Originally Posted by The Godfather

If you are a small seller, you should really put more items in the strike week Feb 18-25. The pro sellers are planning to leave all the money to be earnt by YOU.

Scab!

Buckaroo · Feb 10, 2008, 03:23 PM

Originally Posted by The Godfather

If you are a small seller, you should really put more items in the strike week Feb 18-25. The pro sellers are planning to leave all the money to be earnt by YOU.

This ebay policy change hurts the small seller more than the big sellers. They sell thousands of items. Several hundred items each month. One or two negatives doesn't affect them at all. It will be less than 24 hours and that negative is off their first feedback page and within 1% of their over all feedback. The small time seller/buyer is stuck with a negative that will be around for months, maybe years, and will have a huge impact on their feedback percentage.

This is one way to kill all small time sellers, leaving the market for only big time sellers.

Wiskedjak · Feb 10, 2008, 03:27 PM

Originally Posted by Buckaroo

Most reputable sellers don't want any negative feedback and prefer to resolve the issue before it gets that far.

Then why do most sellers require the buyer to leave feedback before they leave their feedback?

Eriamjh · Feb 10, 2008, 03:39 PM

While non-paying bidders are a nuisance, sellers can get their listing fees refunded. eBay should at least track sales vs. feedback since many buyers never leave feedback. I think buyers who leave no feedback should result in at least a neutral or positive "standard feedback" comment being generated automatically.

The eBay feedback system is broken. This is not the solution.

Buckaroo · Feb 10, 2008, 03:53 PM

Originally Posted by Wiskedjak

Then why do most sellers require the buyer to leave feedback before they leave their feedback?

This allows the seller to resolve any problems before getting a negative feedback.

I have a 100% positive with over 300 positive feedback, and two neutral.

There a some real wacked out buyers out there, that expect gold for the price of lead. Now that would not be a problem, except you advertised lead. You didn't mention gold, yet that is what some wacko's expect.

Peter · Feb 10, 2008, 04:22 PM

How are there no alternatives to eBay auctions?

Koralatov · Feb 10, 2008, 05:26 PM

Originally Posted by CharlesS

OTOH, with the current system, there's not much you can do if you get bitten by a fraudulent seller - if you leave negative feedback, they'll just get revenge by giving you negative feedback in return. My guess is that this would be the reason for the new policy.

I've had exactly that happen to me--I've been screwed by a seller, left negative feedback, and then they've done exactly the same to me. The feedback system is seriously broken, but I agree with the consensus that this isn't the way to feed it. I still think that the best way to do it would be to operate a double-blind system: both parties need to leave feedback before either can see it, and before it becomes active. That way, both parties are encouraged to leave feedback. There have been way too many occasions when I've left feedback and the seller hasn't bothered. That really winds me up.

ghporter · Feb 10, 2008, 07:53 PM

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES

I switched to craigslist years ago as ebay policies and fee's pissed me off to no end.

They have made it only useful for commercial sellers to use their services-useless for anyone but pros. What a stupid thing.

Originally Posted by turtle777

Ebay is a pest.

If you can, stay away from it.

-t

Pest is a mild term. They're dumb, and they have been spending the last several years behaving as if they were "socially conscious" or some junk. They've been socially "stupid" beyond belief, but they think they are doing something useful-despite the facts of the matter.

I have access to Craigslist, a couple of specialized forums, and of course MacNN. I can buy or sell anything I might be interested in-without fees. Why would I want to pay eBay to not help me buy or sell anything?

Originally Posted by Doofy

eBay makes me feel dirty. In a bad way.

Can't have that! Seriously, they're useless.

Wiskedjak · Feb 10, 2008, 08:16 PM

Originally Posted by Buckaroo

This allows the seller to resolve any problems before getting a negative feedback.

But, it also allows the seller to hold hostage the buyer's feedback. There are times I would have liked to comment in the feedback that the seller took much longer than promised to ship the item or didn't ship by the agreed upon method (ie: paid for 2 day courier and received the item in 10 days by regular post), but I haven't for fear of retaliatory feedback.

Buckaroo · Feb 10, 2008, 08:27 PM

Originally Posted by Wiskedjak

But, it also allows the seller to hold hostage the buyer's feedback. There are times I would have liked to comment in the feedback that the seller took much longer than promised to ship the item or didn't ship by the agreed upon method (ie: paid for 2 day courier and received the item in 10 days by regular post), but I haven't for fear of retaliatory feedback.

There's a little trick. You save the web page as an archive of both the auction and the page from that auction that you leave feedback. You save it to a folder and hold it for 90 days. When the auction drops off ebay as old and no longer on their server, you open up the archived file of the feedback that you wanted to leave, and you leave whatever feedback you want. Since they most likely didn't do the same, your home free. You can't wait too long, then it won't even accept it from your archived web page.

I have only left a few negatives, and each time after the 90 days when the auction has been deleted and no longer accessable.