Beware of Ebay: Recently they changed their "Buyer Protection Guarantee" here's how it affects sellers. A person purchased a complete running engine from me for $500. Paid with Paypal. I the seller paid the shipping cost. and my ad clearly said "no returns" and to review the pictures and ask any questions. However once the buyer received the engine he "opened a claim" asking for a refund without even citing a reason. The funds were immediately "frozen " on my PayPal account. I appealed to Ebay as to what the problem was.....and was told the seller had the option if not completely satisfied to return the engine. At my expense paying the return shipping, Ebay explained that once I received it I could further appeal the case. Well, once I received it the same day Ebay sent a message to me "closing the case" in favor of the buyer......no questions asked. What I received was a box with a cinder block in it....not even the same box i used to ship the engine in the first place. I have made several attempts to have Ebay explain how this is even remotely fair.....crickets!
I quit as a seller on Ebay a few years ago because they were just starting this bias towards the buyer then. Now I either use Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace or list with my local club.
Do you think this kind of stuff is a result of Amazon? You can return just about anything to Amazon, no questions asked. Lots of times you don't even have to return it, you just say you didn't get it, and they'll send you another. I've had stuff that didn't get delivered, got replaced, then the original did show up, and Amazon said to keep both.
I sold a new Dainese back protector I had laying around. Buyer claimed that he needed a different length after he received it. Well, I only had the one so I suggested he sold it locally since he got a good deal on it - so that he wouldn't have to pay return shipping. What does the guy do: Makes a claim with eBay that it was a fake so that I had to eat the return shipping. WTF! It's easy for buyers to weasel out of a deal on eBay!
Funny story... Amazon sent me a tube flaring kit by mistake. $150ish retail. I called and told them, they said to keep it. So I sold it on ebay...
Well, I quit selling on eBay in 2014. Sold a ton of stuff with no issues. Of course, my selling policy was if you didn't get what you paid for, I'd give a full refund and pay for the return shipping. That didn't happen often. Guess I must have gotten out just in time.
That's what I was getting at. Amazon is ebay's biggest competitor, but with Amazon, you have a warehouse full of the same thing so it's easy to deal with returns/exchanges. The individual sellers on ebay probably only have one item, so this "give the buyer whatever they demand" policy cannot be applied in the same manner.
Rember those iPhones opened fraudulent in my name back in August? After repeated attempts to give back to Sprint, I got tired of moving them around my desk I listed it as new in the box PARTS ONLY, WORKING CONDITION NOT GUARANTEED. No refunds Complete with the story and fraud letter from Sprint. Dumbass buys it, says it doesn't work and wants a refund. I say no He ships it back, I have to eat all the cost. Fuck ebay
For every shitstorm story, there are thousands of successful, mutually beneficial transactions. There aren't many venues where I can take a couple of pictures of an item, type in a description, and with a couple of clicks put that item in front of hundreds of millions of potential buyers. You have to go into it with the right mindset, understand that you will be ripped off on occasion, learn how to minimize those occasions to the extent possible, and price your merchandise properly so that the honest transactions pay for the ripoff and still leave your margins intact. (this is AKA business 101)
