eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

Subscribe to our 2 FREE Newsletters!

Web AuctionBytes

Home

Subscribe

Blog

Letters to Editor

Podcasts

Forums

AuctionBytes TV

ABU Back Issues

Sponsor

COOL TOOLS

Calendar

eBay Fee Calculator

Collectors' Links

eBay Promo History

Bookshelf

Fraud Resources

Auction Site Fees

Auction Management

Payment Services

Storefronts Chart

Sniping Chart

Consignment Services

Drop-Off Store Laws

Ecommerce Resources

Photo Tips

Marketing Inserts

Yellow Pages

Classifieds

AUCTIONBYTES

Our Writers

Write For Us

Partners

Press

Advertising

About Us

Link To Us

AuctionBytes Blog
News and insight focusing on
ecommerce and the online auction industry
by Ina Steiner, Editor of AuctionBytes.com

June 25, 2007

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

By: Ina Steiner

Mon June 25 2007 15:06:13

Sellers are reporting that they are being targeted by eBay for seller nonperformance ("breach of non performance policy"). While this may or may not reflect a new policy, it seems the level of enforcement has increased in the past week or so. As with other recent Trust and Safety initiatives, eBay has not announced anything about it, at least from what I can see.

Here's an example of just one of many threads about the issue.

As you can see, this seller has no telephone number to contact eBay. It appears to me that recent T&S initiatives (beginning last fall) have increased the demand for customer support, but from my understanding, capacity has not increased.

Making the site safer by cracking down on sellers sounds like a sensible idea, but eBay sellers know that unscrupulous buyers can give them unjustified negative feedback. By going purely on raw feedback, and not taking into account circumstances like deadbeat and newbie buyers, some good sellers may get caught in the net. And as usual, sellers are left wondering if eBay exempts their top sellers from such crackdowns.

I have inquiries pending, in the meantime, let me know if you have been affected by this issue by posting a comment below, or calling the AuctionBytes Hotline (see this page for the toll-free).

Comments (179) | Leave Comment | Permalink

Readers Comments

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Another Wronged Seller

Tue Aug 21 19:22:41 2007

To ''Bob H''

For ''Another Wronged Seller'' you said

''BTW, if you took an average on my ''buyer dissatisfaction'' for the last 120 to 150 days my percentage would fall between 2 to 3%! Just over 1% if you only look at negatives. It is only because of the timing of the feedbacks and the 90 day cycle ebay arbitrarily chose that causes my percentages to seem high.''

''Do you really think that having 2 to 3% buyer dissatisfaction is OK? Why are you getting ANY negatives??''

Do you honestly think it's realistic to have 100% satisfied buyers in this selling enviroment?

If the standard for being dissatisfied includes neutral feedbacks, newbies, feedback blackmailers,etc... then no.

My first neutral back in 2002 reads:

''shipping was quick, nice product, thank you.''

By ebay's standard this would reflect a dissatisfied customer. Care to explain?

My most recent negative was this:

''Junk parts didn't even match''

Interesting negative feedback considering he never paid for the item despite 4 invoices/ pmt reminders so it never shipped. How could he tell ''junk parts didn't even match'' Must be one of those psychic buyers.

Seriously, if this is typical of the kind of feedback buyers leave and this is the standard sellers are being judged by (that could potentially get me restricted), is it more likely that the problem is with the restriction criteria???

When sellers have NO recourse about unjustified feedbacks like the two examples above, but could still get you suspended, the restriction criteria is about as flawed as you can get.

The last negative above is one of the ones that caused me to be restricted.

Perhaps the sellers aren't ''whining'' as some here put it, but we are justifiably outraged for all the right reasons!!

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Jrdn

Wed Aug 22 04:09:24 2007

I've had my ebay seller account restricted for the following reasons ...

1 negative feedback left by buyer, a substantiated extortionist by ebay's standard yet ebay refused to remove her negative feedback and still permits her to buy and sell on ebay.

1 negative feedback left by buyer who is a non-paying bidder (NPB) and retaliated in feedback.

2 Item Not Received claims filed by same NPB who filed these two claims BEFORE I ever received her LATE PAYMENT and AFTER I closed two unpaid item claims levied against her. Her 'payment' turned out to be a folded piece of paper with a stamp slapped on it, no payment inside. I have pictures of her folded paper w/stamp if ebay actually cared about the truthfulness of these INR claims. I returned her folded paper w/stamp. She kept the two INR claims open until ebay removed her UPI strikes and then immediately gloated about getting the UPI strikes removed in a followup feedback comment.

2 Neutral feedback left by buyer who bought the wrong rack set expected a refund then bought the right rack set and then retaliated in feedback stating they weren't new. I only sell new items.

1 Neutral feedback left by buyer who claimed a color difference in the fabric that can only be explained by monitor color differences, all pictures I provide are of the item itself. A refund was offered and refused as buyer still wanted to keep fabric.

I sell to pay for medicines not for profit. I had a 99% and better feedback score. eBay restricted my seller account based on unsubstantiated buyer feedback-opinion from 1 extortionist, 1 non-paying bidder who filed two fraudulent Item Not Received claims, 1 buyer mistake-remorse and 1 no-fault neutral due to a monitor color difference in hue.

If this weren't bad enough, I was then banned from posting on the discussion forums because I gave a live ebay Customer support number to other restricted sellers and was so outspoken about my account restriction, ebay's SNP policy, lack in seller protection on ebay and ebay-owned Paypal and numerous loopholes in their feedback and claim system that buyers exploit. I guess telling the truth and being honest gets you booted.

In case people want ebay's live person contact number, it's 18003229266, press zero, zero, ask for store rep (don't ask for Trust and Safety, you'll get routed to automated message telling you to email). eBay corporate headquarter phone #14083767400.

I'm done with ebay as seller and buyer and family and friends are also cancelling their seller-buyer subscriptions. ebay is officially on our boycott list which I can honestly say is rightfully deserved, ie they've been placed on the botcott list as a result of ~substantiated evidence to their guilt of wrong-doing~ and isn't based on opinion alone.

eBay is no longer a venue by an active participant and it's time for a class-action lawsuit.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Jrdn

Wed Aug 22 04:28:51 2007

Forgot to give some valuable information about the SNP notice I received and being booted off the ebay discussion forums for sharing too much truth ... the emails they sent to restrict and warn me had links on them ... DON'T CLICK THEM!!! After each click, I found that my IE Favorites list had been altered and only showed my links to ebay - all my other links were GONE! It wasn't until I did a system restore to an earlier date and time that I was able to retrieve and UNDO whatever bug, virus, spyware, phishing whatever they put on my puter. I tested this phenomenon seven times to see if it would happen again and yep, each and every time! So, watch yourselves when clicking on any of the links on the emails ebay sends regarding your acoount restriction or suspension.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Mark

Wed Aug 22 08:54:26 2007

I've never understood ebays mathematics on feedback. To me, this is another example of ebay not looking out for its sellers, and of course its so-called elite Powersellers, of which I belong to. It seems to me that they worry less and less about the scams that are happening hourly, daily on ebay and more about those trying to run a professional establishment. Now counting the neutrals as positives is ridiculous. Why then can't they count positives from items of the same buyer as separate. As someone has mentiuoned its not an ebay democracy, but a dictatorship and they will soon realize it when the Powersellers and sellers in general start moving their business to other forums, where they look out for their clients, instead of supporting the scamming, internet fishing so called "good people". Thanks again ebay for puting the $money before the people.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Bob H.

Wed Aug 22 11:55:33 2007

For ''Another Wronged Seller'' --

I still stand by my comments. Do you REALLY believe that your actions don't contribute in any way to the number of negs/neutral comments that you get? I guess that you're just unlucky and maybe all the scammers, rip-off buyers, and people just out to ruin somebody's business must line up in wait for you to sell something! Could it be that ''bad things sometimes happen to good people?''

Yeah, sure. Your business practices probably have nothing to do with your feedback record (LOL).

Here are your own words: ''Following the 90 day average, I calculated at around 6.5% with no open disputes( 2 in the last 90 days for INR and both were received and the disputes closed) ... In fact another 120 feedbacks dropped off in the last 30 days since I was restricted raising my ''buyer disatisfaction'' rate to around 13% even though I had not gotten any more negs/ neuts since the restriction. ''

Come on, Another Wronged Seller, you ARE doing something wrong. Forget about the so-called timing of when you get poor FB, the plain truth is that you just plain GET THEM. You were tracking at 13% buyer dissatisfaction after earlier FB ratings dropped off the radar screen. WOW, you're upsetting your buyers at the rate of 13 out of every 100.

Whine all you want...you're just a POOR seller who needs to go.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Jrdn

Wed Aug 22 14:09:36 2007

Hey Bob H,

How about we give your selling account a dry run for undeserved buyer feedback and filing of false claims and ebay's SNP policy to give you an ebay whacking? If you think you're immune because you run a clean shop, give us your selling ID and let's test your position. C'mon, if you're such a strong believer in sellers always contributed something to their restriction, give us your seller ID.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Paul

Wed Aug 22 14:20:58 2007

Bob H,

===
For those of you who are whining about buyers deliberately leaving you a negative, I just have to ask...WHY would anybody leave a negative to ruin your business just for the fun of it? (Unless you're Paul, who admits he would leave me a negative because he can't handle the truth of my posts here).
===

It is definitely naive to say so. The business arena is similar to a battle field. If you and me are competitors on similar products why I didn't do it? I would just take it as marketing fee.

It is you who don't understand the situation here we are facing, and that is because either your transaction volume is large or you don't even sell or you are just lucky and the non performance warning not yet reach you.

The situation is IF my transaction volume is small, a few negative or even neutral feedback can kill my a/c. Even that's really my fault in the transaction handling OR it is because of filing final value fee claim OR whatever else reasons.

Do you know how strict that rule is? Do you know they are just using a COMPUTER PROGRAM and filter out those ''non-performing seller''? Even just a few neutral ''Thanks'' feedback to my profile already kills my account. You got that?

I don't know what you are defending for.
But think a bit deeper before bullshitting here:

why would I even waste my time typing here?
why would so many people posting their complains here?

WHY? WHY? WHY?

It is because many of us have already tried our best to recover our a/c but the f-cking Trust and Safety department just treat us like criminal and they even respond to my review request using a ROBOT PROGRAM that copy and pasting the same message again and again!!! My a/c have no negative/neutral feedback, no dispute but what?! No one is resuming my selling privilege. No one even seriously reviewing my a/c status, and I have nothing more else I can do except voicing out something in this blog! You got that?!

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Another Wronged Seller

Wed Aug 22 16:30:55 2007

To: Bob H

Clearly you don't get it. Your repeated arguments about ''whining'' shows you truly don't know what you are talking about or havn't bothered to think it through completely.

Despite repeatedly explaining WHY the timing of the feedbacks can be fatal to a seller with peaks in their selling patterns, you still don't seem to understand it.

Example:

May- sell 500 items, get 5 negs, 5 neuts 2% bad % Powerseller!

june- sell 50 items, get 5 negs, 5 neuts from earlier high sales period but left in following month. 20% bad

July-sell 50 items, get no negs or neuts.

August- Sell 50 items, get no negs or neuts

BAsed on the above example when May drops off the average, what you are left with for june, july and aug leaves you with 150 sales and 20 bad ones. In this example, you would be suspended because you are over 10%. The reality is if you looked at 120 days instead of 90, you would show 650 sales and your bad percentage would be less then 5% and you would be selling as usual.

You can dress up like a Ebay Cheerleader and shake your pom poms all you want. It doesn't change the facts I outlined here.

Another example:

Customer bids on something and wins it.
I send them an invoice- no reply
I send them a pmt reminder-no reply
I send them a 2nd pmt rrmeinder-no reply
I send them a direct email-no reply

Finally after 2 1/2 weeks I send a UPI.

Buyer sends me a negative feedback- 1st contact with buyer since the auction closed.

Negative puts me over the top and gets me restricted.

What did I possibly do to deserve the negative and subsequesnt restriction? Expect a person to pay for something they bought?

Instead of making vague references, tell me SPECIFICALLY what I did wrong ??

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Bob H.

Wed Aug 22 17:33:56 2007

Well ''Another Wronged Seller''...let's take a look at your own example:

May- sell 500 items, get 5 negs, 5 neuts 2% bad % Powerseller!

june- sell 50 items, get 5 negs, 5 neuts from earlier high sales period but left in following month. 20% bad

July-sell 50 items, get no negs or neuts.

August- Sell 50 items, get no negs or neuts

Gee, A.W.S....
2% BAD in May, 20% BAD in June and you call yourself a good seller? Using YOUR OWN EXAMPLE, you got 20 neg/neutrals out of 650 sales for all four months. Forget your arguments about the timing of the sales. Over 4 months, you are still only running 96.9% good FB. Good news, there's always September where you can hopefully get another 50 sales with no negs and then your FB can be 100% for July-September sales. And, since eBay is looking at the last 90 days, you can come back.

Unless, of course, you get some MORE negative feedback from customers who bought from you in January-April. After all, they're probably lining up and just waiting to destroy your business with unwarranted negative feedback. Based on your track record, you probably will get some negative feedback -- and it will probably be well-deserved.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Jrdn

Wed Aug 22 19:05:20 2007

IGNORE ALL TROLLS LIKE BOB H whose only reason for being on this and other boards where restricted sellers are posting is to get a rise out of as many as he can, typical TROLL behavior. No longer reading nor responding to posts from TROLLS!

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Another Wronged Seller

Wed Aug 22 20:20:56 2007

To: Bob H

How typical! You ignore my question about why The feedback that got me restricted was justified. Must be nice to ignore the facts!

You can lead a dumb *ss to water but you can't make him drink.

You know the old saying:

Why do you beat your head against the wall??

Because it feels so good when you stop!

Jrdn is right. Troll!

I'm done wasting my breath. You are probably not even a seller. You are either too dense to understand or you are deliberately baiting people on this board to get your jollies.

How pathetic is that?

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: cuteasabug

Thu Aug 23 10:30:45 2007

There needs to be a 12 step program for sellers that are still at Ebay. The abuse will continue as long as you stay there. Simply leave, it will be the best day of your selling life!

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Linda W

Thu Aug 23 13:24:38 2007

Ebay should take a look at the buyers having fun without regard to hurting the sellers, and the amount of negatives and neutrals these buyers give out, and receive, before ebay blames the seller. Buyers should have the same restrictions put against negatives received, as sellers do. Ebay would not be in business if they used the same ratings on themselves. Also, ebay should not charge to relist an item when a buyer has refused to pay for that item.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Jrdn

Thu Aug 23 14:39:28 2007

PROTECTING YOURSELF ON CANCELLED LISTINGS ...

For those who still wish to do business with ebay and list items on their biased-toward-the buyer-screw-the-seller venue, I'd like to suggest emailing a copy of all listings to yourself. Do it on current listings and do it after creating a new listing and keep these emails of your listings in a file somewhere.

After reading one seller's story on the ebay discussion boards, I emailed a copy of every listing I had to myself and it's a good thing too because I know how ebay is set up to sabotage sellers in making a restriction and/or suspension in the removal of their listings without notice as one of their favorite means of punishment. Protect yourself and your business and email copies to yourself of ALL listings. This way, you are one step ahead of their vicious game and it will save you time in getting your listings up again without having to reinvest the time to create them from scratch.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: restricted seller w/99.5%pos+3000transactions

Fri Aug 24 00:35:38 2007

Bob H.,
You sir, are a pompous ass. You are tweaking the tempers of many people and coming off as very righteous. Your insulting comments such as ''Let me do the math for you'' leave me, and others I'm sure, just a little irritated.

Go be ''big man on campus'' somewhere else please. I am a real seller that was caught up in an unfair sweep.

You are inflaming many tempers. Take your opinions elsewhere if all you want to do is incite arguments.

Eno, you are coming off as uneducated. Make your point in an educated manner and you may get some support.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Tom J.

Sat Aug 25 18:59:58 2007

I thought readers of this blog would be interested in the following data that I received from the Better Business Bureau.

"The BBB processed a total of 3165 complaints about this company in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period.Of the total of 3165 complaints closed in 36 months, 1230 were closed in the last year."

This means that ebay resolved 38.8 % of the complaints logged against them. So it looks like the monolith ain't so good at takin' care of customers themselves, doesn't it? Now if this isn't great fodder for the bloggers or a journalist looking to score their first big article that goes something like "Ebay Boots Off all 98% Sellers While Their Own BBB Ratings Plummet to a 39% Satisfaction Rating."

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Another Wronged Seller

Sat Aug 25 23:19:28 2007

Intersting statistic! Ebay should be instatnntly restricted. That meas that they are 7 times worse at recolving customer complaints as the standard they set for the sellers. Of course, are those numbers for both buyers and sellers I presume ?

What would be intersting to see is the status of the ebay accounts of the sellers who had filed complaints. I wonder if ebay took punitive action against them for filing BBB complaints.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: sjj

Mon Aug 27 12:00:01 2007

Ebay is using a VOLUNTARY feedback system to destroy peoples lives. There is no FACT to feedback. Most CAN NOT be proven to be fact or fiction. How can ebay punish a seller, and consequently put them out of business, on anything less than FACT? Are all buyers 100% honest?

I suppose as a seller, I could take the buyer to court that left me negative feedback because the color of the widget didn't look the same in person as it did on their monitor. If this buyers feedback caused me to fall below the 5% rule and I was restricted to selling less, this buyers feedback has cost me income and damaged my reputation, let alone caused me great emotional distress.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: laura

Tue Aug 28 19:33:21 2007

My problem with the new policy....

I have been selling since 2002 with a 99.9% positive rating. I pay over $1000.00 per month in ebay fees. I am a high dollar low volume seller. I currently sell about 20 items in a 90 day period. Under the new policy, If I receive 1 neutral feedback, I will be suspended. It has not happenned yet, but every morning I turn on my PC hoping I am still active. This policy should be based on transactions rather than 90 days. There are sellers out there that have more negative feedback than I have in total. They are ebays favorite sellers.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: ds

Wed Aug 29 02:06:42 2007

It is understandable why ebay put such stricter policy on non-performing sellers. The computer-based screening process wiped out possibly good sellers. Is there anything done by ebay to screen out those bottom 2% bad buyers? Can they also institute a similar policy on the buyers side as well? Say, asking why do buyers leave 5% of their overall feedback to their respective sellers in the past 90 days? Are they really suffered or they simply use this to communicate with sellers? Did they follow ebay's buyer guide to communicate with their sellers before leaving feedback (neutral/negative) to them as communicative means?

While ebay has innovative means to enforce selling policy, do they do the same or similar policy for buyers? I think there's a need to swipe out bottom 2% bad buyers who intended to be fraud at ebay market place. This is also detrimental to the success of ebay. At the end of the day, ebay earns their main stream revenue through sellers, not buyers. Why they want to exclude potentially good sellers by computers while keeping those bottom 2% buyers at their marketplace. Very confused!

Click to view more comments
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 [Next Page]

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives


Site Index Copyright 1999-2009. Steiner Associates LLC. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy.