The eBay Monopoly Issue – The Small Fish DIES And The Big One Lives On To Scam!
A few friends of mine are eBay entrepreneurs and have been for over 14 years, however in the recent past months eBay has been dealing very unfairly with sellers in particular. This is not a rant because I am mad at eBay, but this is a simple, truthful review of how eBay is dealing unfairly, and supports those that are not doing business well. eBay is truly a sad monopoly that could end soon if they don’t get their act together.
eBay is one of the biggest used market places on the internet where you can sell iPhones, smartphones, and generally anything from cars to fresh rocks from your back yard. While eBay may be the biggest, they aren’t the nicest, and are defiantly dealing unfairly with sellers around the world. You may ask WHY? The answer lies in how they deal with sellers who they don’t think are “good” in there eyes. Its sad, because eBay is a great place, but their policies ban users even if they are good! Please read the story bellow:
The Story of a fellow eBay Seller: “I have been a loyal eBay customer for over 14 years since 1990. Not only have I been a good eBay customer, but I have paid fees in excess of $50,000 in the past 4 years alone! Yes, I sold around $500K, but the fees are very high. Not only that, I have lost over $5000 in scams led on by people claiming that I sent them an empty box. However the box was defiantly not empty and the weight in the postal system did not change. The main point is that eBay cares about the buyers and doesn’t care a lot about the seller. What is seller protection if they don’t protect you? Thats the question I have asked every time that they let a scammer do me in. I wish this could stop, but eBay still doesn’t care. eBay also is the only real place to sell used items, so you honestly have no choice other then to conform and work with the system or die. Recently after all these problems I have encountered an even worse problem occurred! I got an email stating that I was banned indefinitely! After years and years of selling, and now I am banned FOREVER? This must be madness I thought, however I thought it must be wrong. So I called a representative to talk to them about the issue and the email. She did some looking on her computer and after awhile and muttering of the vocal cords, she had no real answer. She stated that even though I was improving my seller standing, I was not improving it enough? I was very surprised because my feedback was not that bad at all compared to other people that were selling just fine and I did EVERY thing I could to keep everyone happy. I even offered people the most ridiculous things to make them happy. I remember one time sending a care package to a buyer that was unhappy because he didn’t receive a cord in the auction that I listed and said that was not included. But because eBay is so HARDCORE about making the buyer happy, they fail to realize that they are actually making a unhealthy buying environment, where people will buy just because they know they can extort there way to anything they want after they buy it. You are essentially controlled by the buyer. If they don’t like ANYTHING, EVEN if it was listed down to the T, they can leave negative feedback that does not represent the seller. The seller is then left with NO recourse other then to be indefinitely banned for NO reason, and FOREVER, on no actual terms. Its a shame that such a great way to sell has to be the worst way to sell, however its the only way to sell. Thats why I think its getting close to a selling outlet monopoly re-labeled as eBay. One time I sold a blackberry. It was sold as “NEW-OTHER” and it was brand new. It was never used, and it still had the plastic pieces from the factory on it, however I didn’t have the original box, or the headphones. Obviously I wouldn’t say that I would include them, because they were not included. I of coarse said how there was “NO original box, and NO headphones” I also went on to state in the listing that everything in the picture you would receive is all that you would receive. The picture only included the picture of the blackberry phone itself. That is all! Then I see that the seller has left a negative feedback because they say there was “no original box” and “no headphones” I thought it was madness! How can eBay let someone leave feedback for something that you disclosed perfectly? It just doesn’t make sense! Then I asked the buyer If I could do anything, and they wanted a partial refund of $40 so they could cover the cost of the things that they thought were missing but in the listing were actually not there. Then I was VERY mad! So I contacted eBay, and they cant do anything, because they say that I “opened the line of communication” This gets crazier! I have this same thing happen over and over, and because I cant make any money if I buy peoples happiness and positive feedback I will fail. And this is about the time that I get an eBay saying that my account was “indefinitely suspended” Do you think this was fair? Because it is defiantly not fair! In fact I am almost starving now due to the fact that I cant sell on eBay. eBay just doesn’t care, and I called many times and they wont do ANYTHING about the “indefinitely suspended” eBay account.”
eBay problems and possible solutions:
- People leave feedback for any reason and this is not monitored by eBay. eBay needs to monitor buyers and their feedback to see if it is appropriate.
- eBay does not honor seller protection and DSR feedback protection on the behalf of the seller. eBay needs to honor what they say they will.
- eBay wont reconsider “indefinitely suspended” accounts for any reason, even if it absolutely for no reason and no cause!
- eBay allows actual extortion through the ability of sellers to ask unreasonable things of you in return for “positive feedback”
- eBay allows other account users with lots of negative feedback which could be legitimate negative feedback with out a notice, because they are selling more quantity. The little guy dies and the big one lives. eBay isn’t fair fair and square!
Here is an account that has recently been banned for no good cause:
Here is an account that is STILL active with WAY more negative feedback:
As you can see, its unfair. Many sellers don’t even have enough items and sales to really get a better negative-to-positive feedback ratio. The truth is, that everyone would be happy if eBay didn’t encourage buyer’s to leave negative feedback for no reason through the huge marketing effort of eBay to advertise “Buyer Protection”
Summary:
eBay needs to treat all sellers the same, they need to treat incorrect feedback left on a seller as a bad nock. Its a privilege to BUY on eBay, not only to sell. eBay should ban users for leaving negative feedback for no reason. eBay should also ban users for not communicating when the poor seller is doing everything he/she can to make the buyer happy. It isn’t fair for eBay to treat sellers the way they do. Its time for a change. The only sad thing is that it wont change. Most likely eBay will either piss a lot of people off, or they will continue to treat and abuse the small business sellers to the point that small business in the U.S. and other countries is stifled.
(source: eBay)
(Source whyebaysucks)