Ebay, anyone here with more experience on their new policy?

[andreame70]

Technically, this is not a vent/whine yet. I have a gut feeling that it may turn into one. But for now, I just have a question. Ebay has fairly recently changed their policy to make it impossible for a seller to leave a buyer negative feedback, no matter what the circumstances are. I understand their reasoning about this to a degree, but I wonder if it is really fair.

Case in point, I listed several items last week that ended yesterday. Most everyone that won my auctions had a decent amount of generally good feedback, except for one. This person had a score of (6) by their name and after a closer look at their feedback, I see that out of 19 transactions, she has 4 that are negative, all of them stating non payment.

I have to give her the benefit of the doubt for now and hope that she pays as stated in the auction, but what if she doesn't? What would be my next course of action, reporting her to ebay for non-payment? Since I would not be able to leave her a negative for non-payment, how does that help the next buyer she gets involved in a transaction with?

It is obvious that ebay is not too concerned about her non-payments since she already has 4 and is still around to place bids (2 of them from the same buyer, the other 2 were different buyers.)

Before listing my auctions, I went into my buyer preferences area and created blocks on buyers who:

Don't have a PayPal account
Have received 2 Unpaid Item strike(s) within 12 Month(s).
Are registered in countries to which I don't ship
Have 4 Policy Violation report(s) within 6 Month(s).
Have a feedback score of -1 or lower

In my opinion, she should have been blocked from bidding because of the second restriction about unpaid items, but if the other buyers she stiffed did not actually report her, then they may not count.

Anyone have any other suggestions about what I could have done differently,
or any insight into what to do next if she chooses not to pay?

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[dv8grl]

I haven't been selling on ebay like I used to. I haven't listed anything in probably 3 months.

Ebay just wants those listing fees from you., so they couldn't care less if people don't pay up. Yeah...you'll get your final value fees back., but not the listing fee.
Its a scam if you ask me., like when you list something that you've seen listed before., then they end your auction saying that its against there policies (whatever), then they steal your listing fees.
They did that to me when I had a ton of cokerewards. I've seen cokerewards listed a billion times., but all the sudden they can't be sold due to them being a raffle or whatever.

I hate ebay. But they are a nessecary evil....


I hope that your buyer pays! Maybe those other sellers to whom she failed to pay were chumps (and not the other way around).

[Heidi]

I just had a non-paying bidder and I haven't had one in a really long time. It is very frustrating that you can't leave them negitive, meaning there is no way of warning other potential sellers to this person that they don't pay. From what I understand eBay will kick them off if they have a certain number of claims against them. If you do all the steps for non-paying bidders though then you will recoup some of your money at least.

[herother]

Not really sure what to tell you on this one. I used to rarely have to file a dispute for non paying bidders. The first time I listed after the policy changes I ended filing 9!! I haven't sold on there since until this past weekend I decided to list a few things, but I don't think I will after this. I was patient enough and waited up to 6 weeks for paytments on those things too and even with sending out invoices and emails it still took that long to get paid. If I had not of waited that long, I would have ended up filing more disputes.

[Anig2u]

Same thing here..I had 3 unpaid items last month, I filed non payment with Ebay just to get my final value fees back. I didn't even bother leaving FB because I didn't want them leaving me negative FB in retaliation. I think they need to come up with something better that is fair for both buyers & sellers. Also, after adding up all the Ebay fees & PayPal fees for everything it came to about $50!!

[andreame70]

I spent about an hour in live chat with someone from ebay today and I found out a few things.

Evidently, when I set my preferences to block those buyers who don't pay, I failed to click on another button that says "click here to set these preferences for all current and all future listings." So basically, I screwed up.

Any of you who decide to list on ebay any time soon, please take note that you must sign in, go to My Account and set these preferences up yourself under "Buyer Requirements." If you don't, there is no way to leave negative feedback for someone who stiffs you. It will however block them from being able to bid on your items, which is probably more helpful than the neg would be anyway. This is really the only way to protect yourself, because you can no longer tell if someone is a deadbeat bidder by looking at their feedback. Make sure you click that button that says, "click here to set these preferences for all current and all future listings."

Also, they told me that someone can accumulate 4-5 unpaid bidder strikes, sometimes more, depending on the amount owed and basically the mood of the person in charge when the NPB alert hits the account. To me this policy is unacceptable, they should be allowed 3 and be done with them, but ebay does not see it that way.

They told me that if the seller decides not to pay, they will credit me back the final value fee and allow me to relist the item again for free, so at least I will not be out any money over it.

[MsLynn]

i'm so sick of ebay, but they are the only place i can find some things i use alot...

can you put that she was non-paying in the feedback even though it has to show its positive???? will they allow that....

i hate their new feedback policy, the way they figure it now.. my 100% positive rating went to an 80 something because of one NEUTRAL retalitory feedback.