The Reality of eBay Selling

123456789 · #1 07-22-2010

This is the typical story of an eBay seller:

1. They discover eBay and open an account and start buying things then they sell a few items.

2. Things go well at first and they start thinking of new ways to sell things, start making a few $$$ profit, think eBay is wonderful and a great way to make extra $$

3. They may go a year or so with on real problems but sooner or later, No matter WHAT you do, no matter HOW CAREFUL you are as a seller, Sooner or Later it will happen...

4. You get STUNG by a bad buyer who is out to scam you. They will claim the item you sold them is Not As Described and file a dispute against you with eBay or PayPal or Both.

You figure that things will work out right because your a good seller with hundreds of feedbacks right!! There's NO WAY PayPal is going to side with this 2 feedback buyer right!!!

WRONG. PayPal gives the buyer a FULL REFUND and they have to ship you the item back. When a package shows up a few days later, you open it and it's a BROKEN ITEM that is nothing like what you sold them. IT does not matter because the TRACKING shows it was delivered to you.

You just lost $500 on a Buyer SCAM...

NOW At this point the eBay seller decides 1 of 2 outcomes:

Option 1: They eat the loss and continue to sell on eBay as before and hope it never happens again.

No matter what you do on eBay, you CANNOT control who your buyers are. Sure you can add them to the blocked bidder list but you can't know ahead of time who is going to win your item. People can always start new accounts with zero feedback.

Yea, this type of thing is somewhat rare but the problem is, it will be that ONE item that is high $$$ Value that you get stung on... Is the RISK really worth it??

I mean why list something for sale on eBay if you stand a chance of LOOSING the item AND the $$$$???

It's just NOT worth it... So...

Option 2: They realize the REALITY of eBay selling, that no matter what you do your going to get Ripped off occasionally and that IF you sell your gambling with EVERY SINGLE SALE and you have no way of knowing what will happen so it's probably better to simply STOP SELLING COMPLETELY on eBay.

Just something to think about...

rsot · #2 07-22-2010

This is not a typical story of an eBay seller at all!

Does this happen? Yes - typically? no - lot of people are honest and we work together to sustain this concept. If what you reported as being "typical" happened, eBay would have tanked long time ago.

Your proposed idea of screwing people for $ might work for some time but sooner or later, you get caught - crackdown on internet fraud is growing...

I hope you aren't doing this but if you are, well, get off the forum and keep looking over your shoulder =(...

jeffweico · #3 07-22-2010

I agree. Don't stoop to their level!

You are CORRECT that eventually, everyone selling on eBay takes a hit. The trick is to make enough either through profit margin or volume (or both) to take an occasional hit.

If you do what you are talking about, nothing good can come of it.

pod · #4 07-22-2010

You had my attention until your final conclusion.... A few bumps in the road are frustrating when you are just trying to do your best, for sure. In fact it can truly suck. But to finally decide to just turn into a scammer because the system has flaws is ridiculous.

Has it occurred to you for a second that the reason its so easy for buyers to get refunds is because there are too many people out there running scams like yours???

Turning a difficult situation into a reason to become a criminal is not the answer

Idiot

MadSam · #5 07-22-2010

What a stupid post. This kind of thing is being cracked down on so much the FBI, Interpol and Australian Authorities are all working together sharing information, they have specific ebay dedicated teams to combat this and judges are handing out longer and longer jail terms for it.

rsot · #6 07-22-2010

For love of the forum, this thread should be moved or something.

MtnDew · #7 07-22-2010

I agree. I would never punish another buyer for someone elses stupidity. If someone buys from me and rips me off its my problem. I issue a refund and move on. think of it as a broken item in shipping.

Plus ive been duped (got nada) for a considerable amount by a seller with alot of feedback. Thats worse then getting a bad phake by usps anyday. @ least in that instance the seller tried

MadSam · #8 07-22-2010

It's the cost of doing business. All businesses suffer 1-2% losses in fraud, and that's the thing about platforms like ebay - it opens regular people up to these costs/risks of doing business.

What we don't do is arrive at the nonsense of this original poster in his first post on this forum. I suspect he's a scammer who's tried this before and has come here to test the waters with his plan and that annoys us all because there are a lot of scammers out there but the majority of the members of this forum are not one of them and it's people like Mr "123456789" that make things like ebay even more of a minefield.

Please, this is not our typical story at all.

waterproof · #9 07-22-2010

Wow! If you implement the words you spoke above into your everyday lifestyle, then 123456789, you may have a "miserable" day or find things difficult to accomplish!

Switch from Decaff to Black Caffinated Coffee or try a 5 hour energy shot.

waterproof · #10 07-22-2010

Aside all of the jokes...

A very "meaty" post for your first time aboard. I'm sorry that you were burned by Ebay/PP and strongly feel that it's best to stop selling on Ebay..

The fact of the matter is that we ALL have been burned or scammed by someone at some point on Ebay. It happens!

For some of us, selling on Ebay is our sole income, and for others its a way to make a few dollars to aid in our college tuition, help make a car payment or just to simply try to make some gain in the "blue collar" world that we live in.

That is the "reality of selling on Ebay". Things happen and we lose accounts or maybe item that we sell. Try different approaches with your communication to the buyer. He/she may be taking your responses personal or may feel threatened. Having said that, they no longer care about you or the item and its "game on". They win!

Everyone here on the Forum is angry at Ebay/PP for their own reasons. Take your anger out on trying to beat the game...not fall victim to it.

Keep selling and Good Luck!

waterproof

IDK · #11 07-22-2010

I've had more accounts than I care to remember, and I've never been scammed so your argument fails.

lyl797 · #12 07-23-2010

Sure, a cost to do business, agree !
However, this cost is going north on eBay, last year, I got around 5% disputes, this year till now is a whopping 10% already.
I know most of these are scsams because I sell exactly the same items on AMAZON, and believe it or not, my AMAZON rating is 100% customer satisfaction. No issue at all. Things are totally different on eBay, wrong shipment, wrong model sent, damage shipments ... Ha .. tell you what I thought, these are all bogus ... more and more eBay buyers know the way around it to get you. I am getting ready to reduce eBay sales and going onto my own WEB site .. after all, none of these platforms is better than the one you truly own.

slapped · #13 07-23-2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by lyl797

Sure, a cost to do business, agree !
However, this cost is going north on eBay, last year, I got around 5% disputes, this year till now is a whopping 10% already.
I know most of these are scsams because I sell exactly the same items on AMAZON, and believe it or not, my AMAZON rating is 100% customer satisfaction. No issue at all. Things are totally different on eBay, wrong shipment, wrong model sent, damage shipments ... Ha .. tell you what I thought, these are all bogus ... more and more eBay buyers know the way around it to get you. I am getting ready to reduce eBay sales and going onto my own WEB site .. after all, none of these platforms is better than the one you truly own.

It is Part of doing Business on Ebay, once in a While you MUST Got throught buyers like this, the threadstarer states that this is "Typical" That is NOT True. the reason we all go through it is simple because there is no where on the internet including your own website that So Many buyers are found for such a Large Variety of items All the time.

As for having a 10% Dispute ratio, I would seriously Look at whatever you are selling or How you are selling it, because that is Extraordinarily High, I in all my years have Never heard of such a High Dispute rate, Even with a 5% Dispute Rate How have you been able to last on Ebay and Paypal? I sell a Large Variety of items and my Dispute Rate is WELL Below 1% and it has been that way for Many Years.

lyl797 · #14 07-23-2010

"Dispute ratio", I mean buyers' false claims, not necessarily an actual eBay or Paypal dispute, I usually covered them before they actually become a valid eBay, Paypal dispute.

I also sell large variety of items too. On eBay and also on AMAZON, the thing is, once I compare these false claims from eBay and AMAZON , there is a whopping huge difference. and I actually have staffs to do all these statics for me .. We can survive because we calculate our cost carefully .. of course, these false claims are also been taken into consideration.

slapped · #15 07-23-2010

Well As for False Claims Truth is that I cannot disagree with you there, Ever since Ebay Took away The Sellers Power to Leave Negative feedback, I too am seeing More and More Scam Buyers on Ebay.

They Do Need to Address that issue,

gibsonton · #16 07-23-2010

If you have a store - you have to deal with shoplifters and people returning items as well .. you dont think walmart and other electronic stores dont deal with people breaking items and returning them...my last digital camera i got from BB and i dropped it the second day i had it and bent the lens ..camera was $800 - so i boxed it back up took it to back to store and told them it wasnt working correctly .they never asked me what happened just told me to go get another one - I was shocked as most places usually ask if you dropped it ...as the old saying goes never send more than you can afford to lose..

MadSam · #17 07-23-2010

The saying is only gamble what you can afford to lose.

slapped · #18 07-23-2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by gibsonton

If you have a store - you have to deal with shoplifters and people returning items as well .. you dont think walmart and other electronic stores dont deal with people breaking items and returning them...my last digital camera i got from BB and i dropped it the second day i had it and bent the lens ..camera was $800 - so i boxed it back up took it to back to store and told them it wasnt working correctly .they never asked me what happened just told me to go get another one - I was shocked as most places usually ask if you dropped it ...as the old saying goes never send more than you can afford to lose..

Well in all fairness the Threadstarter did Not compare Selling on ebay to Brick-n-Mortar selling, The Comparison was really more about Ebay VS Ebay

lyl797 · #19 07-24-2010

ok . Walmart has to deal with shoplifters too, so true, but there are always things that they can do to reduce that, security cameras for example. But on today's eBay environment, what can we do as a honest seller against these false claims ? eBay's dispute system is 100% sided with buyers, issue refunds not even ask for returing items, and now eBay also deduct seller performance rating when dispute hits you ! what is worse, seller can not neg buyers.

I started selling on eBay in 2005, in the very beggining, I shipped out orders without tracking numbers for around 5 months, oh man ! let me tell you, during that period, I was dealing with item not receive emails all day long, and I keep sending duplicate orders to buyers, then we dicided to implement tracking number, guess what ? Since then, 99.9% of our orders delivered on time, and these kind of false claims suddenly disappeared ! What a difference ! See what I mean? if there is anything I can do to reduce these false claims, I will do it, but for now on eBay, I don't see a thing seller csn do to protect himself besides praying.

oompaloompa · #20 07-24-2010

hmm, OP has ONE post and they came here to give us that, we are sellers we know the score, better for OP to join us and learn to grow the business. I would say that it is shocking when you get scammed as a seller, it hurts, when you try and give good service and someone takes advantage. 98% of buyers out there are honest.

gibsonton · #21 07-24-2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by slapped

Well in all fairness the Threadstarter did Not compare Selling on ebay to Brick-n-Mortar selling, The Comparison was really more about Ebay VS Ebay

the point is.. it is part of doing business on Ebay or any other other form of store or business you have ..than compare to a online sotre etc .. people are always going to be out to scam you .

gibsonton · #22 07-24-2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by madsam

The saying is only gamble what you can afford to lose.

when you are sening money overseas and sending items thorugh the mail - it is never send more than you can afford to lose - or at least it was 11 years ago when i started selling...but yes when i go to Vegas i also never Gamble more than i can afford to lose .