Did eBay help customer steal from Seller?

For two weeks now, I have been following the case of an eBay seller that lost $1,295.00 plus the furniture and shipping making his total loss of $1,995.00.

Transaction:
-Seller sold a bed with storage drawers for $1,295.00 including shipping.
-Buyer received bed with out storage drawers / contacted seller
-Seller made arrangements to ship the storage unit the following day
-Sent confirmation to Buyer

(in the meantime)

–Once the information was relayed to the Buyer of the shipment, the buyer contacted eBay and opened a claim of Item Not Received.
–Seller responded, accepted claim and informed eBay that storage was to ship that following day.

However, after the SELLER spoke to the claims department over at eBay, SELLER did not feel that the BUYER was honest. SELLER had responded and replied in a timely manner to the Buyer and provided Buyer with shipping information. The BUYER failed to acknowledge any of it.

The SELLER asked eBay to have the BUYER return the bed for a full refund. The representative over at eBay insisted the SELLER should ship the storage and once the signature was provided of delivery to the BUYER -  SELLER  would GET the FUNDS BACK.

A few days passed, finally the storage arrived and signature was obtained. The BUYER failed to close the claim as had stated in an email to the SELLER. Instead the BUYER escalated the claim and demanded a FULL REFUND claiming that the item was NOT AS DESCRIBED.

SELLER accepted to receive the entire bed with storage. HOWEVER, eBay DID NOT ask or DEMAND that the BUYER return the entire BED. Instead eBay ONLY sent the BUYER ONE label for 150lbs box.

SELLER advised eBay that bed itself weighed 450lbs plus the 150 lbs for the storage. eBay IGNORED SELLER and ADVISED SELLER to wait and eBay would ONLY reimburse BUYER for the storage unit. At this point SELLER had no choice but to accept.

TWO weeks later, eBay has issued a FULL Refund in the amount of $1,295.00 to the BUYER!

Seller has spoke to at least 5 representatives in the CLAIMS office of eBay, each provided a different information and made false promises. The SELLER is OUT the BED, Storage, Shipping and to top it off $1,295.00 PLUS a FEE imposed by eBay called CREDIT CARD FEE.

When running a business, you should make room for the those transaction that just do not work out. Call it a loss, file it as such in your taxes and move on.

I cannot help to see that eBay facilitated the BUYER to steal from the SELLER.

Do you think eBay helped customer steal from Seller?

Increase online Sales

It seems to me that many still fall under the eBay crutch category. Offering their items on eBay only limits their exposure and sales. Yet, they wonder why they are not generating any sales.  My response is called though love……..Are you kidding me? If anything I have repeated over, to the point of sounding like a broken record is that you MUST drive traffic to your site and offer your items outside eBay. That can be your webstore, blog or another platform.

Now, when you place so much effort to attract buyers to your eBay store it does not make sense that on top of doing all the labor; you share the profits with that platform. If you are going to spend efforts driving traffic whether it be free classifieds or paid Ads (such as Adwords) then do you think it would make sense that you benefit?

There are many sites that allow you to build a Free online store; such as eCrater or Bonanzle. The freedom you find offering your items on your own site or blog are unparalleled.  Yahoo Stores is user and SEO friendly or Volusion. These sites offer good customer support and easy tools to create a webstore overnight.

All that hard-work and dedication you are placing selling in other platforms should be placed sending the traffic to your own site. Think about the opportunities of spending half of your eBay fees in Adwords….. seems to me that your traffic/sales would have the potential to double…..

Selling on eBay Questions & Answers

I have received many emails with many of the questions similar to one another. I am only posting the question, keeping personal information private, if you have additional questions please keep sending them in. I will respond to the questions every Thursday on my blog. If your questions really needs an immediate response, just let me know in your email and I will respond to you within a day.

Questions &Answers

Q: My account has been limited on eBay and PayPal. How can I open another Paypal account?

A: First of all, you need to have any issues with both eBay and PayPal resolved. I do not suggest that you continue to sell without resolution. If you have tried to resolve all issue or have resolved them and they will not reinstate your account. They only way for you to have another eBay and PayPal account would be to ask someone you know to open the account for you. Open the PayPal account as a business. Keep in mind that PayPal will again and can limit your account due to the lack of history. Ultimately, your goal should be to have sold on eBay for at least 6 months with a good track record to avoid lengthy limitations. Also, look into getting your own Merchant Account and opening and account with

Q: Sales are slow on eBay, where can I list my items that would provide the same traffic as eBay?

A: Amazon. From my sales at Amazon and others that I know, Amazon is the alternative marketplace to eBay. They are a bit more expensive, payments are processed through them and the listings system is not like eBay. However, they provide you with Customer Service support, high traffic and many tools to help you analyze your competition.

Q: How can I get images to appear larger on my listings?

A: You can accomplish this several ways. On eBay you can pay a fee for a larger image to appear during search. For larger images inside your template you can insert the HTML code from photobucket or where it is you host the images. You can indicate to link on the image for Larger or you can simply just insert the image at 600×600 pxls.

Example:  This image is small than 300 pxls

(click to for larger image)

Q: My account with eBay was suspended. The email said it was found to be related with another suspended user……………….?

A: This has happened to me in the past. I worked for a large volume seller that sold on eBay. One of the employees’ there also had her own account selling on eBay. She apparently logged in from the companies computers to check her emails, auctions and PayPal account. When she started having problems in her personal life, so did her eBay account. Eventually, eBay suspended her account. A few days later my employers account was suspended.

The reason offered was the employees account was delinquent and had several complaints for Non Shipment.

First, ask eBay for the information of whom they are associating you account with. Find out who has used your computer or ISP to log into their accounts. You best bet, is to contact your Account Manager with eBay and ask for help.

From now on, once this is resolved. Do not allow anyone to log in using your Computer or Internet. If you have employees; it would be best to post it on the wall as a reminder and have them agree in the Employment Agreement.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————

I hope you find this information helpful. There are many more questions I have received and will address some next Thursday. If you have any questions and do not want to comment, you can always use the contact form above to reach me. I always look forward to comments and suggestions.



Is eBay Confused?

Auction Bytes has an interesting post. If you recall eBay has removed the option to pay with Checks on their site. They informed sellers NOT to accept Checks or Money Orders only Paypal (Considering, they had not approved any other payment method).

eBay does NOT allow sellers to accept Checks or Money Orders. Here is a story of a seller that complies with the Policy of No Checks.

A buyer emails the seller to inform them that they have NO Paypal account and must mail them a check. The Seller informs the buyer he cannot accept a Check as form of payment.

Note: eBay responded to the SELLER not the Buyer

Buyer Complains to eBay that Seller will NOT accept Check for payment.

eBay response:

If you’re still unable to reach the seller by email or by phone after a reasonable amount of time, we encourage you to leave appropriate Feedback. This will alert other bidders about your experience. Here’s how to leave Feedback,…

Are you kidding me?? eBay’s representative for one, sent the email to the wrong party. Secondly, to encourage the BUYER to “leave appropriate Feedback”. Why? The seller is following eBay’s Policy. Scenarios like this are not uncommon. If you recall back in October, I shared with a story about Ben an online seller that had a bad experience with eBay and Paypal. eBay sent his buyers a damaging email. You can review the posting eBay & Paypal crush seller.

You can read the full posting of titled “eBay Not standing with Sellers…..” HERE

Have you had any similar experiences such as this? What are your thoughts on eBay and their NO Policy to Stand behind their Policies?

Emotional eBay Live

This video was just emailed to me. I am not suprised to hear such passion from the Angry Seller. He makes a point (or several) and of course eBay’s Agent is speachless. To say the least.

Now if that seller could focus that passion into something positive……… :)

I am posting this because I am sure many of you will be able to relate and to thank Renee for the email.

The sellers voiced his opinion and let it all out. Here is hoping that he is over it and found that he can sell anywhere he wants online and find success!  :)   Never place all your Eggs in one basket.