Suzy Jagger and Jonathan Richards
Posted on 02/06/2008 8:42:06 AM PST by Stoat
All buyers and sellers are equal in the virtual auction world of eBay, but buyers are about to become more equal than everyone else.
From May, eBay, the world's biggest online auction house, will block sellers from posting any negative or neutral comments about buyers who purchase their goods to coax more of them on to the site.
The move means that anyone selling an item will have little recourse to complain that the purchaser of their Britney Spears T-shirt or antique Whitby egg-timer had been a late payer, or had become a persistent troublemaker, grumbling unfairly about their acquisition.
At the moment, eBay buyers and sellers are encouraged to give a rating about their counterpart on the auction site's feedback system, which alerts other customers about bad experiences and helps to self-regulate the auction site. A buyer or seller with a bad rating is effectively blacklisted. At present customers can scroll through several months of comments about both buyers and sellers to decide whether they feel comfortable doing business with them. Frequent gripes include a seller over-charging for postage, a purchased item delivered late or one party being generally dishonest.
EBay has defended the move, claiming that buyers need more protection than sellers because they have to send money to a counterparty they do not know.
A spokesman for Ebay said yesterday that the auctioneer wanted to stamp out an increasing practice where sellers who had received a bad rating would retaliate by posting a poor rating on the buyer. "Some sellers are gaming the system. And some buyers in turn have been turned off," the spokesman said.
The group added that it is rare for buyers to renege on payments. But sellers have claimed that the new system leaves them vulnerable to extortion with buyers wielding the ability to blacklist them without the opportunity to defend themselves.
A week ago eBay - which makes the bulk of its revenue from commissions - announced that it cutting the amount it cost to list an item on the site by a third, but increasing the commission it charged on completion from 5.25 to 7.5 per cent.
For the vast majority of sellers, this had the effect of increasing the overall cost of shifting goods on the site. For instance, to sell a £100 camera now costs £6.70, where previously it would have cost £5.85.
The higher commission means that sellers of high value goods now also pay more.
Sellers have claimed that the new system leaves them vulnerable to extortion, with buyers wielding the ability to blacklist them without the opportunity to defend themselves.
A week ago eBay - which makes the bulk of its revenue from commissions - said that it was cutting the amount it cost to list an item for sale on the site by a third but was increasing the commission it charged on completion from 5.25 to 7.5 per cent.
The new pricing structure unleashed a torrent of complaints on eBay's message boards, where its sellers - who have long been a vocal community - vented their anger.
One said: “The fees are deceiving: lowering the front-end cost, then adding it to the final fee. Anyone who can do the math can see that they are not lowering the fees, they are increasing them.” Another said: “As a seller, I have been kicked in the head.”
The latest upheaval comes at a difficult time for eBay. Its core business has struggled against slowing growth rates and it is trying to combat issues such as fraud, as well as increased competition from vendors, such as Amazon.
Last year it said that it was taking a $1.4billion (£712 million) charge in relation to Skype, the telephony service that it bought for $2.6 billion in 2005 and for which it admitted it had overpaid. Analysts have also expressed concern at the failure to increase the number of users, which remains static at 83 million.
It really is a problem, though. I had a bizarre and unpleasant experience with one seller of pretty high ticket and unique antique item — cancelled my first bid leaving an apparently menu-selected reason that “item is no longer available for sale”, though he was continuing to accept other bids, did not reply to a request for an explanation, had an obvious shill bidder who I decided not to try to out bid, sent me a “Second Chance Offer” one day after the auction closed saying the “winner is unable to complete the transaction”, and did a dangerously poor job of packing this very fragile antique.
His overall behavior was such that I was quite confident he’d leave retaliatory negative feedback (marring my 100% positive rating) if I left honest feedback on him, so I gave him a “positive” and just hinted in the text of my feedback that he was less than stellar. I’m nearly certain he got suspended from selling for 2 months as a result of the complaints I sent to eBay, and yet I felt I had no choice but to give him a “positive” rating.
EBay seller usually charge some premium on postage to recoup their fees. Technically this is forbidden by ebay, but the reality is costs are just going to be passed down to the customer. Just like these new fees.
No doubt.
I use Amazon a lot more than I used to and eBay a whole lot less.
This move is crap. I sell on eBay and I expect to be able to leave bad feedback if I don’t get paid. Now buyers can ding me and I have no recourse. That is stupid.
Do retalitory feedback happen? Yes it does and sometimes it is warrented. If you buy from me and I delver and did nothing wrong, then leave me negative feedback. Why shouldn’t I dod the same.
There’s a lot of little turds that get off on leaving negative feedback for no reason. Also newbies are particularly bad about negative feedback for no reason.
I almost always leave feedback now for buyers immediatly after they pay, except for those with 20 or less feedback. They are the ones who would try to scam me the most. Now I can’t even protect myself that way either.
Ebay has been getting more and more expensive for sellers and less useful. I will probably wrap up my selling by June and just quit for a while.
You’re just wrong. Not about your particular experience, you were blackmailed. You are wrong about the money part of it. The scam is to pay via paypal, claim it never arrived, paypal reverses the money back to the buyer, seller is out the money and the item.
Happens all the time. Vast majority of instances the seller loses. It’s why I don’t accept paypal and for expensive items require delivery confirmation or registered mail.
Not BS...it happened to me...not a great big deal, but it was irritating.
See if Postaroo is available in your area. You can post stuff to sell for free. I have also heard that Google checkout is gaining in popularity with sellers as there are more protections for sellers with this than paypal.
Don’t know why anyone would bother buying new stuff there if you can get it elsewhere - quicker, surer, and without the hassle or worry.
I trust Amazon over eBay. And when I’ve checked, there was little or no savings on Ebay. I have bought used items there and bargain shopped, but only if I couldn’t find it elsewhere first. It’s too much hassle for usually, too little savings.
Unless you enjoy the bidding thing.
You are so right-I know many people this has happened to...and one of the reasons I won’t sell on ebay.
So now if the buyer cheats you, you have no recourse. (Of course, you could leave “positve” feedback with negative comments as the substance, right?)
Must be a self-esteem, PC thing. Can’t have buyers feeling bad. They might buy elsewhere and eBay might lose its commission — so we’ll be nice to them, whether they screw you or not.
I’ve already moved some stuff to WAGGLEPOP.COM
The package was insured and I told him to make a claim with USPS and explain to me how I’m supposed to handle and rectify a complaint of “etc?”
He wouldn’t file the claim with USPS because he said the outside of the box wasn’t damaged. When I told him that was irrelevant, that the inside contents could still have been damaged by rough handling and he should make the freaking claim with USPS, he turned around and instead gave me a negative rating. Buttressed between his negative were all kinds of accolades by others for my “quick service,” “well-packed item,” and “timely mailing.”
All this for a $15 item.
You always wind up with a drama queen who won’t follow eBay procedures.
Looks like many here have never sold much on eBay and had to deal with all the scamming bidders. The weird thing is most of my problems are on the cheap stuff (less than $5.00). I rarely get any issues with the higher priced items.
“Amazon sellers don’t leave feedback for buyers.”
Yes they do, and Amazon typically sends follow-up e-mails asking the buyer to rate the sale.
The reason that they do that is that while eBay charges a fee (their commission) on the purchase price, it does not do so on the postage. So people reduce the price (sometimes) and inflate the postage so they can keep more of the money.
Check it out....it's getting more interest.
Might not ever take off....but it could. : )
Same here. We have shifted our gun related items and are looking at shifting our books over to Abebooks.com.
I’m done with the lefties at the ‘Bay.
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