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Fine, eBay. Here’s your $2. I hope you choke on it.

blog.danhulton.com

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Re: Fine, eBay. Here’s your $2. I hope you choke on it.

#81

Post by mindslight »

rtkwe wrote: post #61
mindslight wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So at that point you repudiate the debt again, this time to the collections agency. If they insist on unilaterally publicly claiming you owe money without any sort of actual proof, take them to court for slander. Clearly the buck stops somewhere , as I can't just call up a collection agency and tell them that bduerst owes me $1 for responding to his HN comment.

The proof is that you listed the items which is clearly logged and visible.. The charge is for the listing not successfully completing an auction/sale.

See, this is a prime example of what I mean. There's no dispute that he listed items, so proof of such is irrelevant. However, you're taking the purported meaning of the cryptically phrased document-that-nobody-reads as immutable truth. Fact is that ebay failed to successfully execute the auction - they accepted bids from the guys in the back with the way-out-of-range numbers hand-drawn on cardboard.

Re: Fine, eBay. Here’s your $2. I hope you choke on it.

#82

Post by adgar2 »

wbharding wrote: post #37
jeffyee wrote: post #24

A big problem with casual selling on ebay is you don't know what you don't know until you've already been screwed. I sold some iTunes gift cards and provided the redemption code from the card after I received payment. We both left positive feedback for each other (he already had 18 feedback). A month or so later, the buyer put a chargeback on their credit card, got their money back from paypal, and I had no recourse.…

Bonanza.com (the site I've been building for about four years now) has become one of the largest non-eBay marketplaces by scooping up sellers like you & the OP. We're now up to 25,000 active sellers and 4 million listings by virtue of having seller-friendly policies. Admittedly, there is enough gray area in marketplace transactions where determining "right and wrong" can sometimes prove difficult. But I like to think…

Based on replies, it seems like you may not have done a better job than eBay.

What data do you have to support your belief that you're doing a better job?

Re: Fine, eBay. Here’s your $2. I hope you choke on it.

#83

Post by DanHulton »

excerionsforte wrote: post #76
DanHulton wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So let's say you sign up with a hosting provider and they are just terrible. Your site's down all the time and FTP is slow as molasses, etc. You go ask for a refund because not only did they not provide the level of service they advertised, they actively wasted your time. You'd be just fine if they said "Sure, but only most of it because of reasons"? There's a lot of people echoing my experience here. So if there's a…

Should I follow your flawed logic? How does a crap host relate to eBay? Are you saying that eBay is a shit marketplace? Please provide proof to back up this defamatory claim. You took a risk using eBay's resource, you lost money due to a fee for using their resource, that is reasonable. I gave you a chance to explain your rationale and you failed as all I'm getting is the feeling of someone who has a silver spoon in…

No you don't and I believe we both are. Hope the rest of your evening goes better.

Re: Fine, eBay. Here’s your $2. I hope you choke on it.

#84

Post by sarah2079 »

So a big part of the problem seems to be that sellers can no longer give buyers bad feedback when it is appropriate. Does anyone know the motivation for this rule change? I can't think of a type of fraud that this would prevent, but it seems like they must have been targeting something when making this change.

Re: Fine, eBay. Here’s your $2. I hope you choke on it.

#85

Post by ShabbyDoo »

Why doesn't eBay provide better ways for buyers to increase the belief of sellers that they will follow-thru on their obligations? I'm thinking of something along the lines of "earnest money" requirements common for real estate transactions. Could eBay require buyers to put 10% of their maximum bid in escrow via Paypal? If a buyer flaked out, he would lose his 10% to the seller as compensation for the time wasted. To implement such a scheme, eBay could at first offer sellers the opportunity to discount items won by buyers who made escrow deposits. Those buyers who didn't want to play along could bid as they do today albeit at an economic disadvantage. Eventually, eBay could allow sellers to require escrow. Even as a buyer, I would be happier if escrow was required because I would be less worried about shill bidders and others who run-up prices with no intention of paying. Of course, this scheme requires that all parties trust eBay/Paypal to act responsibly -- something the comments in this thread suggest is far from a given.

Re: Fine, eBay. Here’s your $2. I hope you choke on it.

#86

Post by mindslight »

mcantor wrote: post #58
mindslight wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The choice you made was between the two options they gave you. Either outcome is part of their system, and perfectly fine by them. There was also third option wherein you notify them that the debt is invalid because no services were rendered, and that it is not your responsibility to convince their systems and processes of that fact.

This is true, but who has the time and energy to fight every stupid Kafkaesque battle like this?

You're right, I would have been better off making this point in the Comcast thread instead of the $2 ebay one. :P

Re: Fine, eBay. Here’s your $2. I hope you choke on it.

#87

Post by sbierwagen »

I just sold a variable autotransformer on ebay. "Just", as in, two hours ago.

Went fairly well, but my god ebay's integration with UPS is a complete clusterfuck. It was far, far easier to manually create a shipment on ups.com than trying to get ebay and UPS to communicate.

Re: Fine, eBay. Here’s your $2. I hope you choke on it.

#88

Post by ameen »

I had a similar, yet worse experience compared to this, and had my account suspended (an account from 2006!!) for not paying (after listing) when I didn't get a proper payment page. The UX is totally confusing as well, and I paid $6 with hopes that my account would be reinstated, but to no avail.

Ebay is a dinosaur and deserves to die a horrible death, it doesn't do what it says - make it easier to sell & buy. Gumroad and others in this space are the future.

Re: Fine, eBay. Here’s your $2. I hope you choke on it.

#89

Post by clarky07 »

This is ridiculous. They tell you ahead of time it cost money to list the item. Then they charge a % of the sale. He still had an auction. Surely he knew it was at least possible to have an auction fail. I just sold my 4s when I got my 5 for 350 and had no problems at all. He got a bit unlucky, they refunded everything but the listing fee, and he gets really pissed at them over 2 bucks?

eBay has to balance buyer vs. seller needs and that is not easy. Without the buyers you wouldn't have the market to sell it. Take the refund and try again or sell it on Craigslist. I bet you have more scammers there. (I tried Craigslist first and then settled for eBay after being asked to mail the phone to an overseas cousin 5 times)

Re: Fine, eBay. Here’s your $2. I hope you choke on it.

#90

Post by srik »

A valid (but unchecked) point made in the comments from that post -

>... if you had actually sold it there, you’d have to pay the Ebay final value fee of like 5%. Then the Paypal transaction fee of like 7%. Then if you want the money the Paypal withdrawal fee of another like 6%. Wait, why am I paying the same company 3 times for 1 transaction?

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