Friday, July 23, 2010

Why is ebay biting the hand that feeds them?

I saw it on the news a few days ago that ebay are going to stop allowing sellers to leave negative feedback for buyers!One feels that this is going to lead to big trouble out there on the trading floor. Firstly it gives dishonest buyers the chance to make false PayPal dispute claims with no risk of comeback and warning to other sellers, Those same dishonest group will Hold sellers to ransom, Threaten them with neg if they don't do what they are told, Cause disruption by not making payment for items and much more..What a ridiculous move by ebay, the very idea of it is just utterly ludicrous. I just cannot understand the logic behind it! if a seller has a bad experience with a buyer, why should they not be able to alert other sellers? For years PayPal have been favouring the Buyer, the buyer who incidentally is not the one paying the fees. The buyer who can say the item they ordered did not arrive even though it did. I personally know someone who thinks it is a big joke to slap a dispute on someone who sends him an item he wins on ebay without a proof of delivery! every time PayPal gives him his money back so he sits there with the item he got for free! And Now this, ebay starting to favour the buyer too. The buyer who will buy from ebay anyway because they get a good deal, The buyer who can now complain about the smallest of issues and threaten the seller with negative feedback safe in the knowledge that the seller will not have a fair chance to respond. Personally, I sell a lot of stuff on ebay and although the majority of customers are honest and kind, there are a number who are just out to cause trouble, The ones who will use any excuse to complain and try to get a freebie or a refund. Until now those who would not actually leave the neg in fear of receiving neg back will just dish it out like candy... This will also lead to situations such as competitors signing up for fake buyers accounts, purchasing from their rivals and negging them. I hope ebay are putting in safeguards against this type of activity!!Another point to note, If for example, there is a delay in the post and an item is late, Where as in the past the buyer has been reluctant to leave negative feedback because they could receive it back, they will not bother waiting a few more days for delivery, they will Just go ahead and leave neg. I doesn't matter, the seller cant return it so even if the item does arrive tomorrow, it wont bother them. They don't know who the seller is, just some bloke they bought something off on ebay and it didn't arrive within 12 hours of them buying it!!Ebay will lose a lot of customer loyalty through this, The customers being the Sellers. Why favour buyers who will not be there to buy if there is no sellers to sell? See the Twisted Logic here??A LOT OF LOYALTY LOST.. People chose to sell on ebay because they know the chances of their stuff selling is high and they are prepared to pay the fees to sell that stuff, Until now, ebay have also been fair to buyers and sellers equally but it seems the classic PayPal mentality of "We are doing you a favour allowing you to be our customer" is creeping in. A RISK THAT HAS PROBABLY NOT EVEN BEEN CONSIDERED IS: There was talk of fraudsters from places like Nigeria buying stuff with dodgy cheques a few years back. I imagine that those buyers receiving negative feedback was something that protected a lot of unsuspecting Sellers who otherwise would have been fooled.. A scenario that does not take a crime boss to imagine:Big organized gangs of 20 people say, They all setup accounts on ebay and buy imaginary goods off each other over a period, building up a positive feedback score as a highly reliable buyers.They then start ripping sellers off left right and centre with no comeback where negative feedback is concerned, Nothing to alert any other seller not to send the items before they too realize they have been conned.If sellers lose the ability to spot a dodgy buyer, and also lose the ability to leave negative comments about a particularly bad experience with a buyer, it will cause ebay to become an unsafe place to trade as the lack of asset security will be a serious risk. it will also cause a lot of conflict and possibly Bad publicity. A lot more than I suspect this new rules has been designed to resolve.SELLERS WILL NOT THANK EBAY FOR THIS.ebay, YOUR CUSTOMERS will not be happy and will start to look for alternatives!ebay, remember that it is not the buyers who are your customers, it is the sellers, surely it is in your interest to look after your customers and listen to their needs, Do Not dictate to them, the buyers are the sellers customers and ebay you do not make any money from people who just buy. The money you make comes out of the pocket of us sellers. For years ebay have stated that they consider Feedback represents members opinions and they do not get involved. Yet from May onwards that will be one sided, UNFAIR and ebay will be biting the very hand that feeds them!If you are a seller and you are reading this, I hope you found it helpful especially if you did not know it was going to happen. If you are a buyer reading this, chances are you are one of the honest and genuine buyers out there and understand why I personally and many other sellers would see problems with this. I would hope that buy marking this post as helpful, it might get noticed by ebay and realized to be a mistake that need not occur.


We have setup a petition regarding this matter atwww . powersellersuk.com/fbp


please feel free to sign it and we will send it to ebay shortly before this new rule comes into place

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