Exciting New Changes to eBay's Feedback System?

eBay, Are you freakin' serious? For those that don't know please let me inform you that during the week of April 30, 2007, eBay intends to revamp the feedback system to not only include positive, negative, neutrals, and specific comments but also a scale rating system based on a scale of 1 to 5 for seller for communication, item as described, shipping time, and postage/packaging. Well this system is one-sided since only the buyer can leave these types of ratings for the seller. The seller is stuck in the original feedback system. How can this highly subjective rating system be good for an eBay seller? It can't, period.

There are aspects of the rating system that sellers have no control over such as shipping time. I ship my items the same day as payment is received if the post office is open and the next day at the latest. During the Christmas season the postal service is basically overwhelmed with mail and there are delays (I know, I'm a former postal employee) that are beyond the control of the seller, and now sellers will have a newbie with zero feedback and nothing to lose rating them on aspects of a sale that are beyond the control and influence of the seller.

Doesn't seem fair. Doesn't seem right. I am very disappointed in eBay's obsession with fixing what is not broken. The Sell Your Item form was "fixed" and now it's very glitchy and unbearable to use, now they have turned their eyes to the feedback system to 'fix' so that buyers can leave a positive feedback and give all poor ratings for communication, item description, shipping time, and packaging. This is basically a way to allow buyers to give covert negative feedback since sellers will not be able to tell which buyer in particular left such ratings as they can with the normal feedback system. eBay has invented a way for buyers to leave a Blind Negative for sellers and sellers have no recourse to rebut these ratings.

I think this move may be the start of the ending of eBay's empire. I hope eBay will reconsider once the backlash of sellers rolls in. Sellers that have paid the salaries of eBay employees for years and have always adapted to eBay's ever changing policies, formats, and fee structures that have only made selling on eBay less lucrative and more frustrating. Give sellers a break this time or allow sellers to rate buyers in the same way. And eBay, I accept your apologies in advance.

My Live Chat Today

Here is the transcript of the Live Help Chat I had today on eBay in regards to the removed Pre-Approved Bidders option.

6:51:50 PM Lawrence: How may I help you today?

6:51:55 PM marcos.e$hop: I want to know how to make my auction listing available only to bidders that I give approval to.

6:53:45 PM Lawrence: That option is no longer available on eBay. It was removed by member request at the beginning of February. Did you have a particular person you had in mind that you want to sell something to?

6:54:24 PM marcos.e$hop: No I want to prescreen customers to ensure that they have fully read my auction and Terms of Sale

6:57:20 PM Lawrence: OK. I recommend that you include at the top of your description a line such as "Serious bidders must contact the seller before bidding or bids will be removed".

6:57:32 PM Lawrence: Then if you have a Buy It Now price include a Require Immediate Payment option as well.

6:57:50 PM marcos.e$hop: I have that already and they just ignore it and bid anyways

6:58:20 PM marcos.e$hop: I have a member request - bring back the Pre-Approved Bidders List.

6:59:22 PM Lawrence: Definitely make that suggestion.

6:59:55 PM marcos.e$hop: Members request got it removed, maybe I can request it come back? I know how to remove bids and I have done that, but it is too much to watch everyone all the time and that doesn't work with Buy It Now.

7:01:06 PM Lawrence: Yes, I understand. Which is why I recommend using the Require Immediate Payment option as that will require the buyer to pay for the item before it is ended.

7:01:07 PM marcos.e$hop: If I can't stop bidders with no intent on paying from bidding on my products, then what good is an eBay Store? The eBay store format is all Buy It Now and you can't cancel those bids

7:03:59 PM marcos.e$hop: You know there are some buyers that I would rather not do business with whether they pay or not. I sell some digital items and too many buyers, buy these and immediately after receiving the download request a refund and effectively get the item for free. Its plain stealing and theft and I can't do anything about because I'll get a retaliatory negative feedback from them and eBay doesn't do anything to protect the seller from this. And Paypal will automatically give the money back if there is any complaint. I want to keep these types of buyers away or at least educate them to my terms of sale before allowing them to bid.

7:05:52 PM marcos.e$hop: Can you help me?

7:06:07 PM Lawrence: I definitely understand. You should definitely pass what you just told me to our suggestions section so that our higher ups can review your comment.

7:06:53 PM marcos.e$hop: But...There is no help on the way

7:06:54 PM Lawrence: You'll need to consider my option of putting a bidder disclaimer on your listing. I do understand where you're coming from but the Pre-Approved Bidders/Buyers List feature was removed.

7:07:02 PM Lawrence: So I can't help you do exactly what you want to do.

7:07:46 PM marcos.e$hop: So now rogue bidders can sabotage auctions for high priced items such as airplanes, real estate, and yachts huh?

7:08:29 PM marcos.e$hop: And of course these scam artist bidders can buy, keep the item and request a refund without any recourse against them?

7:08:48 PM Lawrence: Anything like this is possible. In which case I would recommend reporting the member and making a Second Chance Offer if the second bid meets your expectations. But we do try our best to maintain scammer accounts where ever we can, 24 hours a day.

7:10:59 PM marcos.e$hop: I can't even report these people that do this because they will give me a negative feedback. How is that right? I try to report a violation and have my name ruined and effectively my business? Just today I had this happen twice, where I had to give in to this type of feedback exhortion. But if I report them, they will definitely give me a negative now that they have my product for free and their money back.

7:12:38 PM Lawrence: You should start an Unpaid Item Dispute if this happens. The dispute will remind the buyer to pay for the listing that they won. If it is not answered within 7 days you can close the dispute to get your Final Value Fees back. At that point the buyer will receive an Unpaid Item Strike on their account. As well, the non-paying buyer will be blocked from giving you retaliatory negative feedback. At that point you can give the buyer negative feedback to warn other members based on your personal experience.

7:14:00 PM marcos.e$hop: Are you telling for that once they have an unpaid item strike against them, they can not leave feedback for me?

7:15:11 PM marcos.e$hop: At what point are they blocked from leaving me any feedback?

7:15:18 PM Lawrence: Yes, that's correct.

7:15:43 PM Lawrence: As soon as you close the dispute due to inactivity on their behalf they will be blocked from giving you negative feedback.

7:16:42 PM marcos.e$hop: Okay, that sounds like it might work out. I'll give that a try. Thank you. You have been very helpful.

The moral of this customer service event is that there is no way to keep the undesirables out, but you can manage them once they get it.

But note what I was told by eBay:

7:08:48 PM Lawrence: "...But we do try our best to maintain scammer accounts where ever we can, 24 hours a day."

What does this mean? eBay has scammer accounts that they maintain 24 hours a day? Whoa!!!

I sure hope that was a typo on their part! I'm sure it was just bad wording on their part. I would like to thank Lawrence for his help, even if it was like pulling teeth to get an answer he could have given me after my second question.

My newest friend on ebay

Just wanted to let you all know about my buddy Ali also known on eBay as 'AnDsFuture', she's from California and she purchased the Marco's e-Shop Make Money eBook. I give support after the sale so I have been discussing the ins and outs of eBay with Ali for the last couple of days. But after she bought the book she has hit the ground running and started putting it into play immediately.

Here is a link to Ali's 'About Me' page:

http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=andsfuture

Well she has become sort of a protege', and I am looking forward to seeing her succeed. So please visit here page and check out what she has for sale. Lots of cool stuff there too I might add. She's also a very nice person to deal with and that's still important when it comes to customer service.

First Time I've Seen a Refund Request 43 days after the sale

Today is quite unusual. I had a buyer who's eBay name is: mein_neuer_airbus380 well this guy decided that 43 days after making a digital item purchase that he didn't like the software and demanded a refund. Very suspicious to me. I'm going to assume that he was satisfied up until 42 days after the sale and then either had an epiphany that he's not satisfied or needed some extra money.

Too bad scumbag buyers like mein_neuer_airbus380 don't read the auction description before buying. The auction description for his purchase clearly stated that there are no refunds whatsoever because digital downloaded items can't be returned. So much for literacy. And here's to you mein_neuer_airbus380, you've effectively changed the way I do business from here on out. But its probably my own fault. I'm selling a poker cheat, so I'm probably attracting cheaters to my listing and thus I have been cheated. Maybe I'll sell an eBook on being an honest buyer and see who I can attract with that.

Digital Delivery Items and Refunds

So what about digital delivery items on eBay. The good thing for the seller is that these have an unlimited inventory and almost infinite shelf life if managed properly. The bad thing is that once someone has it, they've really got it for good. So when someone asks for a refund on a digital delivery items, thats all they're asking for. There is no offer of return, or to delete the file from their computer. They just got your digital product and their money back. Now they have it for free. Some buyers do this because they are truly disappointed in what they have received particularly eBooks that are misrepresented in the auction advertisement. A few malicious scammers use this exclusively to get all the free eBooks that they want. They get away with by threatening negative feedback if a refund isn't given, even if your terms of sale specifically state there are no refunds. I tried to stand strong against this sort of feedback exhortion and yep got my first negative in what was my 5th year on eBay. Eventually I gave in to exhortion, after trying to get help from eBay proved futile. I gave the refund and we mutually agreed to withdraw our feedbacks. Feedback is a necessary evil on eBay, we have to live with even if we don't like the way its manipulated.

My used eBay car

Let me tell you about this guy that let the "market decide" and got screwed!! So this guy a couple of years ago is selling a Toyota 4Runner on eBay, and it's a straight up auction, no buy it now option or anything special. The pictures were of poor quality and the description limited. But it was in my local area. So I email the guy and tell him that I'm interested in bidding and if I could stop by and take a look at the vehicle. He agrees, I checked it out and it needed a clutch and some body work, but I tinker with cars so I could do it cheap myself. So I ask him if he would be willing to sell me the car on the spot for $1,500. Let's go back a minute, I forgot to tell you the current bid was only around $300 at this very moment. Back to the story. The guy tells me..."No, I'm going to let the market decide the price." Okay I said, and didn't offer a second time, cause I knew that his auction listing was piss poor and wasn't anywhere near what I offered him. So a few days go by and I put in a snipe bid for the Toyota of just over $600, and yep I won the car. I didn't rub it in his face when he signed over title for $900 less than I offered him to begin with, but the uncomfortable silence meant we both new that he got screwed by trying to let the 'market decide'. Didn't he know this is eBay? This isn't the usual type of marketplace. I love it when a plan comes together!!!

My most recent eBay purchase

The last thing I have purchase was this crappy plastic cell phone cover. I had it about a week before it started breaking apart. Wait a minute, I had it out the packaging for 10 minutes before I broke the belt clip. Nice. Talk about all fashion and no function. I guess I'll have to find something else to protect my electronic leash.

Suggestions for eBay Improvement

The thing I don't quite understand in eBay's greed for revenue is that they set insertion fees on tiers based on the starting price of the item. They do this as if the cost to them to post your auction is any different for a 1 cent auction or a $1,000 auction. Hmmm.... I didn't realize that html code had a certain weight based on starting price (sarcasm) from my understanding of computers, a server doesn't know or care what the price is, it just processes the information the same. This being the case, I'd say that eBay has arbitrarily decided that if you make more money then they should make more money. Fair enough. I guess Craigslist.com is the alternative for now and I do like them too.

Allow me to introduce myself

Hi, I'm Marco and I've been an eBay member since January 18, 2001. For those of us online and using eBay to buy stuff dirt cheap or to make a quick buck cleaning out the garage or attic. For me it has been a growing passion and a challenge. I've finally figured out after much trial and error how eBay really works. So I'll be here sharing my experiences, offering tips for what their worth, and giving my commentary on eBay in general. Visit this blog often and enjoy. Thanks for stopping by.