Comments On Ebay's New Fees & Policies

yechi, there are times when retaliatory feedback can be left on both buyers and sellers. There's a big difference in how that feedback affects the person though.

If a buyer receives a negative it basically does nothing other than tarnish his record. He can continue to make purchases, and as long as he pays for those purchases in a timely manner, the seller will most likely never even look at his feedback record. For all I know, I could have sold to somebody with 1,000 negative feedbacks...I wouldn't bother to check it as long as he paid me.

On the other hand, the seller will lose business if he receives too many negative feedbacks and ebay's new rules are making it VERY easy for buyers to leave that feedback. Here are some real-life examples I've had in just the past month where a buyer probably would have left me a negative feedback except for the fact that he/she was scared I'd reciprocate:

(1) This one happened TWICE this month...I shipped a package within 24 hours of receiving payment. USPS tracking proves that I shipped in a timely manner. USPS took 12 days to deliver one of the items and 6 days to deliver the other (which was sent Priority). The customers blamed me for slow service.

(2) VERY common situation here...customers purchase multiple items via Buy-It-Now, then argue that I should discount the combined s/h more than what I state in my listings. My listings are VERY clear. The customers pay, but then they either leave no feedback (which is fine) or they leave positive, but give me a 1 on the 1-5 scale for s/h. Under ebay's new feedback system, I bet most of these people start leaving negs.

(3) Buyer receives item and doesn't like it, found it cheaper elsewhere, or has some other unacceptable reason to want a return (even though my listings clearly state no returns unless I make an error). I guarantee you these buyers will start leaving negative feedback even though I did nothing wrong as a seller, other than decline a request to accept a return.

(4) Major situation I'm involved in right now...A customer made me a "Best Offer" on an item I had listed for $40 plus $15 s/h. Her offer was $20. I declined the offer. She re-submitted another Best Offer for $35. I was happy with the offer, so I accepted it with the one-click acceptance on the main screen. I didn't bother to click on offer details, because ebay gave me the one-click option and I was happy with $35. Next thing I know, the customer sends a Paypal payment for $35 total...she backed the $15 s/h out of her total. Apparently she buried an "offer price includes s/h" in her "terms" and I never saw it because I did a one-click acceptance. Her actions are contrary to ebay policy and I even have an ebay online help transcript backing me up on this. However, it didn't stop her from putting through a Paypal dispute on me the day after she purchased. Paypal only cares about delivery notification, so they gave her a 100% refund. She REFUSES to do a "Mutual Agreement To Not Complete Transaction," because she claims ebay is entitled to their fees since I backed out of our "agreement." ebay still hasn't refunded my fees even though I complained about her. And now she might leave a negative feedback on me. What will possibly stop her from doing this? The fact that she knows I will reciprocate. Under ebay's new policy, nothing will stop her from tarnishing my reputation, simply because she couldn't play by the rules.

As you can see, it's a LOT easier for a seller to rack of negs than it is for a buyer. The negs hurt the sellers more too...they lose business.

I understand what you are saying, and I had the exact same fears, but I started from scratch just last month and it hasn't been bad at all. I abandoned a powerseller account with close to a 10-year history and took over my sister's account, which had about 25 old feedbacks, all as a buyer. Much to my surprise, my selling prices remained stable with the new account. I might return to my old account simply because I have a strange attachment to it, but I'm not longer fearful of starting from scratch if I ever become of victim of ebay's buyer-protecting policies.

A non-US buyer read the new rules and thought that they were in effect already. Started buying in the US and threatening all the sellers with negative feedback if they didn't ship for free, and in some cases lower the price too.

This is posted on many forums around the Internet and some post the actual emails of this buyer. Some of them flat out said "or I will neg you and there isn't a dam thing you can do about it".

Well, the negs are rolling in for this buyer, since he didn't read the rule right.

So if it's happening already, what do you think will happen when it really goes into effect? This is the biggest act of stupidity ebay has ever pulled.

mycrob - I actually have a transcript of a text conversation with an ebay help representative agreeing that this customer circumvented the rules and I should not be required to follow through with the transaction. It was recommended that I file a Trust & Safety dispute, which I did. Unfortunately, I've had no luck getting my fees refunded up to this point.

ebay "Best Offer" rules clearly indicate that the offer does not include s/h. They go on to say that s/h fees can be negotiated if the seller contacts the buyer via email and makes such an offer. I did not do this. In addition, this seller had already offered $20 (plus s/h) and I declined. It was clear she was trying to be sneaky by then offering $35 shipped and burying her "terms" in the text section that the buyers don't see if they elect to use the one-click acceptance option.

It's very plain and simple why ebay likes it better.

ebay wants to maximize its own revenue. Customers complained about high listing fees and being charged $.35 for Gallery listings. ebay responds by lowering listing fees and making Gallery photos free; however, ebay also imposes astronomical increases in final value fees, which more than compensate for the lost earnings from the lower listing fees.

ebay knows the Powersellers will flip out over the new rates, so ebay leads them to believe that they will receive a special benefit, in the form of final value fee discounts of 15%. In actuality, the discounts are only 5% for most Powersellers and 15% for a select few (and even the sellers who receive the 15% discount will still be paying higher fees than in the past under the new fee structure). In order to make sure that very few Powersellers receive the discount, ebay ties the discount to the ridiculous "detailed feedback" star system, rather than just the overall feedback percentage. ebay knows that most sellers give low ratings for s/h cost even when the charges are reasonable, so ebay ties the discount to those ratings, making it almost impossible for most Powersellers to qualify for the discount.

Just in case too many Powersellers maintain decent star ratings, ebay imposes a new rule, which prohibits leaving feedback on buyers. ebay recognizes that many buyers want to leave negative feedback (for reasons that the seller doesn't deserve), but they don't leave the feedback out of fear of receiving retaliatory feedback. Under the new rules, buyers will leave a LOT more negative feedback and the seller's ratings will suffer...thereby lowering their star ratings and eliminating the Powerseller discounts.

Are you starting to see a trend here? ebay doesn't do anything without a strategy that doesn't benefit ebay in the end. ebay doesn't care about buyers and cares even less about sellers. All ebay cares about is the bottom line and maximizing profits.