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Am I the only seller who feels used and abused and taken advantage of....?
 

Every time I list a new batch of stuff, I notice old and new ways Ebay treats even it's good, loyal sellers (of which they take more than 10% of every sale I make...) and it just burns me up!

Today, the "returns policy" default kept resetting to "returns accepted" with each new listing. And even when I select "returns not accepted" they allow that option with the disclaimer that "items can still be returned if they do not match the product description". And who determines that?! By Ebay's new rules, the buyer has all the power. So I guess no matter what you select, Ebay steps on the seller to maintain a good experience for the buyer at the seller's expense, even if the buyer is an idiot or scammer.

Also, there's the issue of pictures. There's a 15 cent charge for each additional picture after the first one, has anyone else noticed that you can easily add new pictures, but if you want to delete one (say, you uploaded the wrong one) you have to HUNT for the "remove" button that's in the hidden area of the window? They purposely make the user interface more complicated for it's users, in the OFF CHANCE that they will leave up a photo because they can't find the "remove" button... all so Ebay can make another 15 cents.

And is it just me, or if they were insanely profitable in the first few years, before the price increases, delayed payment availability (which I'm sure cut down the sell-and-go fraud by 90%), banner ads, how is it they have to keep raising the rates and making selling harder, with more risk and work for the seller? And as a buyer, I almost sharted when I saw that there are ADS mixed in with my search results?! IN THE SAME COLUMNS! WTF?! Even the FREE SERVICE GOOGLE, the world's LARGEST AD machine keeps the ads to the side of the page.

Sorry to vent guys, but it's like every day there's something new. It's like they are persecuting the people who pay to use thier service!

Also, if you dont know what you're doing, (ie, if you havent gotten scammed before...) when you try to change the category section when listing an item that is different than the previously listed item, the default is to leave the previously listed category as well, instead of letting you change it, in the hopes that you list in 2 categories (even though it's miscategorized in the second category) for which there is a charge. They would rather you make a mistake in your listing and charge you for it, rather than make it easy to do what you intend.

The more I use Ebay, the more I see this recurring theme.

*Oh! and another one.... if you follow the steps to call in with a general problem, you get some helpless guy in India reading from a page in front of him, unable to understand or really help you, but if you call in for help with paying your seller fees, and follow the prompts to do so, you get a competent person in the USA.

straight up brother you speakin' the truth :)

gotta watch those sharts. lol.

You're not alone, I definitely feel abused by ebay.

I never pay for my pictures, I always use image hosting. You're right about how much profit ebay is making. There's a link to their financial below for anyone who's interested. Ebay does about 2.5 to 3 billion dollars every 3 months in revenue. There take home profit every 3 months is about $500 million dollars or a total profit of about $2 billion per year.

http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:EBAY&fstype=ii

Bunch of nonsense that we all put up with.

the Returns accepted and not accepted etc is a bit of a grey area.. by law in the UK dont know about Cananda, US, but by distance seller authority anyone is entitled to a full refund on any product they buy.

Also, another thing which I dont understand with eBay, they let people use merchant accounts and people take credit cards as payment. If you have a CC machine and can accept card payments you by law have to be CPI Certified in which eBay should make sure people are... and guess what they dont check! I dont know how they get away with it tbh.