Complaint Review: eBay-the art of hsitory-artman22 - Internet

Robert, you are trying to provoke me but I am not going to get angry or write a novel. But I should have a right to defend myself against these personal attacks.

First off, what inconsistencies or fiction have I posted that you can document?

Yes, I have a vested interest in ebay but I respond to many different reports and try to see both sides. I will defend a consumer if they were wronged, and I will defend a business if they were wronged. I do feel the banks should be held to a higher standard then a retail or an online auction because the banks have our savings, our direct deposits, are insured by the FDIC, and receive taxpayer bailouts. I don't know too many other "businesses" that are rewarded or bailed out when they fail. But this is not really the place for a discussion regarding other topics. I think I stated my case using no inconsistency or fiction. I happen to be very familiar with ebays policies so I can often help clear issues up and expose the truth.

In his case it seems, ebay took care of the problem. Sellers that are padding shipping costs to avoid paying a fair selling fee to ebay is certainly not something ebay condones. As a matter of fact, whenever I sell a heavy item and the shipping costs are higher then usual, I get warning before I am allowed to post the auction, so I imagine they are on to this.

The one thing I do not understand about the OP's report and Jims experience, is how do you pay for an item without knowing the shipping costs first? Whenever I buy an item, the invoice lets me know the total cost WITH shipping before I approve the transaction..I am given every opportunity to decline it if I don't like the price.

The reason why ebay may not have sided with the OP in this case, is because they may have determined that the shipping/handling costs were not out of line and justified. In my last post I explained that shipping costs are not always just the cost of postage. For me to send something that has a postage of 3 dollars...cost quite a bit more. You add in a ebay fee for listing, ebay fee for selling, paypal fee for payment, packaging, packing materials, tape, labels, trip to the PO which can take 45 minutes if they are busy, parking, driving time...well add all that up including time it takes just to pack an item..and you can see how the 3 dollars is absorbed very quickly. Then there is insurance and confirmation. With heavier more expensive items this is compounded.

I never heard of an ebay transaction where shipping/handling and the item charges are paid at different times. If there is anything like that going on, I have somehow after nine years of using ebay, avoided that issue.

Now as far as the consumer is concerned...it does not cost them anymore money whether you pay 1 dollar for something and 9 dollars for shipping, or nine dollars for something and 1 dollar for shipping. It is an ethics and principles issue, but not ripping the consumers off in any way shape or form..the total cost of the transaction was the same amount in the end..but ebay gets screwed.

I am glad however that ebay banned a seller for doing this as ethical sellers like myself lose sales over this, or have to offer free shipping to compete. Now correct, a seller can close shop and open up using a new name if they had bad feedbacks..but this is not a bad thing. First of all, the new name will not be established so they have to start all over. New sellers with no feedback score have a much tougher time making a sale. Then they have to do the right thing because the lower the number of feedbacks, the tougher it is to maintain a high feedback score. And then paypal is going to hold their funds for 21 days until the seller proves a trust worthy history of positive feedback. The seller gives up a lot when they have to start over again from square one so it is not so easy on them.

To avoid the whole mess, I simply only buy from sellers that have a substantial selling history and 100% positive feedback scores. If it is close to 100% I may look through the comments and read the negatives to see if the seller handled it the right way. Not every business can satisfy every customer, but often if the seller made every attempt to correct the situation, it can be forgivable.

First off I do agree with you in this case.  The user SHOULD have found out all of the costs beforehand.  By not doing that they were opening themselves up to many problems.

But this is the main problem with you, and yes I am directing this at you Ronny.  While others are very consistant throughout various reports on various businesses.  You are very inconsistant when it comes to something that you have an obivous vested interest in..Selling on EBay.  After all this is similar to other issues where you feel that a certain area of business is wrong and needs to be held accountable.  Where they have terms and there is a level of responsibility on the account holder/users part.  Yes, I do expect you to respond to this with probably something short of a novel why in your world you think that I am wrong and you have "debunked another one".   When in fact in the real world it is quite the opposite.  So can't wait until your bit of fiction.

But think of this.  Even if there are only "some" people that have problems.  There does appear to be quite a few more Ebay issues recently.  Where is your call for Class Action Lawsuits?  Where is your call for Government Intervention?  After all it is through E-Bay and if E-Bay wanted to(or was forced to) they could control things like this.  Instead you ask the OP why they agreed to purchase an item before they found out what the actual shipping cost was.

I really hope that I gave you enough words and phrases to "play" off of in your what is sure to be a very interesting response. 

I bought a game disc selling for one dollar, they tried to charge ELEVEN dollars "Shipping" WHEN i COMPLAINED THEY SAID Mandatory Government required Insurance BS,

so i refuesed to pay and filed a dispute, the first thing they did was leave a Very Bad Feedback saying I was a thief(Yeah sure) and when E'bay finaly looked at my claim

First I WAS EXONERATED, AND SECOND THEY WERE BANNED

the bad feedback remains,otherwise they flopped BIG

I noticed they changed names and were on E-Bay again, so look out.

First off, not all sellers do this, but many place a very large discount on the item, but increase the cost of shipping. The reason they do this is so they pay a much lower final selling fee to ebay.  They are not ripping off the customer..but actually ripping off ebay.

The other factor that you may not be taking into account, which is surprising since you state you have been in business for over 35 years, it that the shipping charges do not always just include the postage. The seller has to use a package or box, cost money, packing materials/bubble wrap, cost money, packing tape, cost money, label, cost money, driving to the PO/UPS/FEDEX office, cost time and money. Often that is factored into shipping costs...shipping/HANDLING etc. Takes time and cost money. Insurance as well will add to the cost and confirmation that many use to protect themselves from fraud and lost items.

Now what I should ask you, is why you agreed to purchase any items without agreeing to the shipping costs first. Every item I buy I find out the shipping cost before I pay, or use sellers that offer free shipping, which is generally how I sell since many buyers prefer it.

As far as selling, I always offer free shipping, or put the price of shipping in the auction. I request overseas buyers to contact me to agree on a shipping price so there are no surprises.

I really have no problems at all with ebay, buying or selling. I don't understand why some people do.

Tell me any other way I can sell nation and world wide so inexpensively? Do you know what it takes to open a retail store these days? Do you know what it would cost to advertise and promote your goods nation and world wide? If not for ebay, most entrepreneurs would never realize the American dream in this day and age were all the Walmarts have made it virtually impossible to compete on a mom and pop level, unless in a specialized service industry, and even that is starting to suffer due to economic conditions.

If you do not feel comfortable using ebay to shop that is fine...but you can't expect ebay to side with a buyer when the only reason is shipping costs. It is always up to the buyer to know what they are paying for shipping. If the item itself was received not has described that would be a different story.

You seem to be mad at ebay..but ebay does not make anything off the shipping costs. If you don't want to do business with someone who charges too much for shipping, then don't buy the item from them. Ebay does not charge shipping, and many buyers offer free shipping. So why are you blaming ebay for this? Am I being unreasonable?