eBay Feedback Profile -- have you had any problems?

About the only reasonable alternative competitor to Amazon is eBay. And in many ways, they are not comparable at all.

At any rate, easily for over a decade or so, I have occasionally bought and sold on Ebay. My total feedback score is 139 buys and sells, and my feedback rating is 100%. Yes, I think I have been lucky. I do try to accurately describe an item for sale, ship it within the 3-4 window, and package it carefully.

And I try to only buy from sellers that seem "on the level." I haven't yet purchased an item that was misrepresented to the extent that I returned it.

How about your experiences?

 

I used to do a significant portion of my screen printing business on Ebay but around 2008 when they began to make changes favoring buyers and giving sellers almost no protection, while the price of shipping simultaneously skyrocketed, it basically became a nightmare.
In addition to selling several thousand shirts a month on Ebay, I would flip high end musical equipment. The last straw was when I sold a 1966 Fender Deluxe Reverb. The amp worked perfectly, was in great condition and I supported all of this with numerous detailed photos, including one with the serial number clearly shown. Buyer pays, I ship it out, and a week after he received it he initiated a complaint saying the amp didn't work and was not as described in my listing. I told him he was full of BS but fine, send it back and I'll refund the amp and cost shipping.
A few days later I received in return another Fender Deluxe amplifier, this time a much newer reissue that was beat within an inch of its life and did not work, with PCB construction and a completely different serial number. He pulled a switch on me, kept the valuable amp and returned his POS reissue amp that was worth about 25% what the 1966 was when it was brand new, much less the non-fuctoning boat anchor this one was. I could prove through both Ebay and Paypal that it was an entirely different amp because I had the serial number as well as every other detail documented in numerous photos. Didn't matter, they sided with the scam artist, and I couldn't even leave him negative feedback on Ebay.
Long story short, I called the police department in his town and after several months of legal BS through the mail, got a judgement in my favor and my money back, and he was convicted of a crime. He had several similar claims against him. This was in 2009 and I haven't been back on Ebay since and never will.

 

I've had positive experiences on eBay as both a buyer and seller. I've been able to sell several music box sets for much better prices than I was offered from trade-in at local stores. I also love buying artist-specific CD lots on eBay and it has allowed me to fill out my collection for a fraction of the price. I've got 100% positive feedback as well.

I do wish it were a requirement that everyone leave feedback. I dislike when I ship something quickly with great packaging and I don't get any positive feedback as a seller.

 

I'm so glad to read that you persevered and got justice in this situation.

I have a love/hate relationship with eBay. I've had an eBay business selling a particular item since 2006. It started out well and business got better and better and by 2012 I managed to get my debt paid off and was able to buy a house. Right after that, a couple of sellers showed up selling counterfeit items which all but destroyed my business. I tried reporting them, but eBay doesn't care as long as they make money off them. The worst part is that within MY listings eBay promotes other sellers items, and (you guessed it) the counterfeit items are promoted within my listings. eBay is steering potential buyers to cheaper knockoffs that I can't possibly compete with!

 

Man, kudos to you for going after the guy! Did you throw it back in ebay's face after?

 

I've been on ebay since 2002 and have had mainly good experiences, though I've never sold a really high-dollar item of the type that might cause a scam situation.

The main difference now is that very few people take the time to leave feedaback. Not a big deal for me, but certainly different mind-set than the old days.

 

I absolutely did, and the cops demanded PayPal give me my refund so they got an earful as well. I've read from a few sources that there have been a few class action suits dealing with Ebay/PayPal facilitating this kind of behavior.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience. I am glad he was convicted of a crime. I am familiar enough with guitar equipment to know that vintage Fender gear (esp. a "blackface" deluxe reverb) is highly prized and valuable. (FYI: I have an Allen Sweet Spot = a Fender Princeton clone).

 

I've been selling on ebay since 1997. 5804 feedback points. I hate ebay with a passion, but its the only game in town.

 

My problem was overseas bidders/buyers when I state clearly I will not ship overseas. When I sell some of my NOS Opera Consonance stuff on ebay it seems only people in Europe or S. America know or want this brand. I get questions and promises that everything will be okay if I sell it to them, but I'm afraid of them wanting to return it and I have to pay for return shipping or, worse yet, they claim they never got it when in fact they did. I only ship USPS. Maybe I worry too much about this but I can't afford to be scammed. Eventually someone here in the US buys it though.

 

I sell a little vinyl on eBay and a few years ago I sold a 45 to someone in the UK for a decent amount of money. After he recieved it he gave me positive feedback but my shipping and handling rating dropped from 5.0 to 4.9. I know that he did this because I declared the full value of the record on the custom form. I actually got one positive feedback that said, Cheers great record shame about HMRC though. Call me crazy but I really don't want to lie on a federal customs form. I have no idea if anyone has ever been prosecuted for it but I don't want to find out!

 

Joined in 2010, 214 score, 100%, never a problem as a buyer, or seller.

 

Most folks seem to be pretty good, but there are some really picky troublemakers out there who never seem to be happy or have unreal expectations. Here's an example of a recent person who has given around 50% neg or neu fb and so there's a good chance the person will continue this sour trend with me.

Screenshot 2019 08 24 at 4 07 23 PM — Postimage.org

 

Same length of time, but I have yet to break 3000. My only problem with the eBay feedback system is that they weighted it towards the last year, so you can't really see that in 20+ years I have had only one negative feedback (which was over 10 years ago, and if you went to the trouble to look it up you'd see that the transaction never went through and no money ever changed hands). I think my long term feedback record should work for me, but it looks the same to a potential buyer as someone who had a boatload of bad feedback for 10 years and straightened out for one.

 

From eBay's perspective, it's less about helping sellers like you and more about covering up the bad history of poor sellers.

eBay also hates keeping past transactions in the public record - everything they've done over the years is to hide as much past information about auctions as possible from the public.

 

True, but oddly enough if I look at my own "Feedback as a seller" the history goes way, way back and shows the full buyer name, title and transaction amount for items I long forgot I ever had - certainly more than ten years.

 

The Police are in no position to make that demand.............or enforce it.

 

Joined in 1999................no issues.

 

OK...Cops....local authorities, whoever. I got my money back, I don't know or care the exact title of whomever filed the paperwork or made the call from ten states away. Obviously somebody higher up the food chain than myself.

 

256 feedbacks, 255 positive, 1 neutral... probably 2/3 from selling and 1/3 from buying

The neutral was from when I had a large shipment to multiple buyers going out the same day and swapped one record for another (two people got the wrong record). They were cheapies so I let the buyers keep the records and refunded them because any other way was cost prohibitive. This individual acted like I was running some elaborate scam with $5 records... so neutral, lol. Some times there's no winning. Another instance, I sold a sealed copy of Bowie's Blackstar with multiple photos. Guy initiated an immediate refund because there was a small corner bend that was shown in photos. Accepted refund and inst ablocked buyer. But overwhelmingly positive experiences. As a buyer, I give tremendous latitude before I leave negative feedback... pretty sure I've only done it twice.