I've had an eBay account for nearly 20 years. Mostly I use it once or twice a year for small, random purchases, but every once in a while I have some items to sell. And while money is a secondary concern - I do aim to recoup about 20% of the original purchase price - my primary motivation is reuse: I'd like to send this stuff to people who want to use it. I have a rating of about +120 with a 100% positive rating to date.
Recently, I listed a few items I had laying around the house. My experience this time has been so jarringly awful that I am never selling anything on eBay again.
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It's loaded with bots. I get realtime notifications of bids, and I've been surprised to see a bidder put in 20 bids in a row, all incremented by $0.05 or $0.10. It has happened on maybe 50% of the items I'm selling.
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I'm receiving a lot of bids from zero-reputation users. Several of them have been "administratively canceled" without explanation. Also several "oops didn't mean to, cancel my bid" demands.
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About 20% of my auctions so far have ended with nonpayment by the winners. One of them sent me several messages through two accounts, and posted to several of my auctions - first claiming "my toddler bumped the keyboard and put in a bid of $50 at the last minute," then badgering me to cancel the auction in exchange for paying whatever fees I incurred via PayPal (yeah, no thanks). The other was just a straight-up no-show.
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The kicker happened tonight: I sold a piece of computer equipment and shipped it off about twelve hours later. The winner now claims it doesn't work and is demanding a refund. eBay's rules require not only that I give them a refund - but that I choose between (a) abandoning the item (letting them keep a $280 piece of equipment for free) or (b) paying to have the item shipped back to me. What are the odds that the item will still be working when the winner - who has no incentive to pack it well - ships it back at my expense? I'm going to be out about $50 (fees + shipping both ways) and will probably get a damaged piece of equipment back.
I have no idea what happened to eBay, but it is no longer a place for people to sell things casually in a reasonable atmosphere. I'm done. All of my purchasing will occur through Amazon from now on.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/ebaysucks/comments/aghrqh/my_final_ebay_experience/
In the past year and a half, it's been every single day with me. "I didn't read the description/look at all the photos but it's YOUR fault for not putting the issue in the title or not putting a close-up of that miniscule scuff on the first photo." Now it's gotten to the point where buyers can file whatever claim they want and send back part or none of what you actually sent them and you don't get shit. Had a guy last week buy a rare $1200 vintage item from me. Was complete, no issues, took photos, described in detail any defects (there were none.) Sent it with signature confirmation and ensured. This weekend, he gets it and complains that it didn't work with the item he bought it for, despite the item being made for a specific brand and myself even mentioning that it didn't work with other brands. But no problem, I sent him a return label and told him to send everything back for a full refund. Got it this morning. All the valuable parts were clearly missing. I contacted the seller and was told "well those were missing when I got it. I clearly sent you a message about it in our exchanges." Which he DIDN'T. Naturally, he opens a case against me, which feeBay IMMEDIATELY accepts. In all my years dealing with them, I've never seen them accept a case so quickly. I spend all afternoon with their customer service, where I mention taking the buyer to small claims court. The person on the other end told me that if I did, they'd suspend my buying account. On top of that, thought I'd sell my laptop to get some extra cash... big mistake. Sold it to someone doing a private freight-shipping job. Guy gets the item, repackages it, and tries to send it to his client... in RUSSIA. Where apparently it's illegal to ship it to, because it was confiscated. And of course, not only do my cries of "reshipping is against eBay's TOS" fall on deaf ears, they refund the reshipper without return out of MY pocket. FEEbay is a joke. I'm so sick of this site it's not even funny...
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/ebaysucks/comments/ausw5r/i_am_so_sick_of_ebay_99_of_its_userbase_are/
I buy and sell on eBay. Had issues with both. Seems like here, everyone thinks the buyer always wins in a dispute. Simply not true. It is the person trying to be honest, that usually is on the shortened, regardless of buying or selling. With in the last month I purchased an item, that was never delivered, even though tracking said it was. I have seen other negative feedback for this same buyer since, stating the same thing. I opened the case, seller said it was delivered, to contact the USPS. I did, tried filing a claim with USPS, they said have the seller call an (800) number, to initiate claim. Made sense, since I had no company name on order details, or a street address, just a city and state. If I had the sellers info., I could have done it from my end. Long story short, seller went silent, eBay closed the case, without a refund to me. I am out what I paid, out the item and time waiting, and had to go buy the same item from another seller. *I have been a member since 2007 in good standing, with a 100% feedback score, and I am fed up.
Source: http://whyebaysucks.info/a-ebay-buyers-horror-story/
I sold something on ebay, and for some reason at the kiosk I was at, would not let me add tracking to the item. The post office is closed by the time I get off work, and are not open when I leave for work, so I just use the kiosk. I figure, okay, it's a $15 item, I have never had an issue before, it should be fine.
Well, god dammit, the one time I don't get tracking, what do you think happens? The buyer says they never got it, they escalate it and it gets put in their favor. Sure, they can't prove delivery, BUT, I just knew something was up. I FB stalk the broad and bitch makes a post about her recent purchase on ebay-WHAT I SOLD HER.
If I took a screenshot of this, and showed ebay, would my chances at getting my money back be high? I mean, sure they could say that she got it from somewhere else or whatever, but come on...it's so clear that she lied, and I got screwed.
source: https://www.reddit.com/r/ebaysucks/comments/3fsiid/buyer_said_they_never_got_the_item_ebay_ruled_in/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x
This case seems to be the same buyer bought 2 items and got a refund on the more expensive one, typical. Good plan and i’m sure we seen it before a few times here :/
Sold an item on ebay in well described rough condition for $60. Later I sold a similar item in excellent condition to the same bidder for $290. He said it was wrong and returned the poor condition item but got a refund for the excellent item. I called ebay AND PayPal. PayPal made me call the police and get a police report. I did that and submitted everything they asked for for their “investigation”. They didn’t do anything for me. He kept the item and the money and didn’t even get kicked off the site.