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Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

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Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#351

Post by gregpilling »

dexen wrote: post #332
kahawe wrote: post #331

I think this problem goes a bit deeper and it is something I have been wondering about. When I send a letter or a package and want to be sure it was received, I can rely on tracking or I can go the extra mile and request a signed return-receipt. Now all I have is confirmation the letter or package was handed over and someone confirmed they got it. They can still claim when they opened it, it was nothing but empty pag…

Polish Post Office provides a service solving this very problem: the sender can marked the parcel with ``recipient opens the parcel in presence of mailman before payment and can return it right away without payment if she so wishes'' option. This optional service is quite cheap, at about 10% of general shipment fee methinks. The other downside is that recipient have to pick the parcel, either at doorstep or at the po…

TIL that the Polish post office offers services that the US Postal Service does not. I wish the USPS had the "Recipient opens" option.

Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#352

Post by macspoofing »

jwr wrote: post #327
gambiting wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely disagree. I use Allegro.pl(which is like Ebay,but actually was first to the market in Poland and is absolutely HUGE there, Ebay tries to establish itself in there but is without any chances), and both parties can leave feedback - and I have over 7500 reputation, both for selling and buying, and I have left more than a few negative feedbacks for a seller, only one of which resulted in a counter-negative f…

Allegro.pl is a good example of how you can get auctions right. I think they watched eBay closely and drew conclusions — they place a HUGE emphasis on fighting fraud. As a result, it works extremely well. I have >150 transactions, both as a buyer and as a seller, with not a single problem. Oh sure, there is fraud, but it's marginal, and crazy stories like the OP's are unheard of. This is why eBay, in spite of many ef…

What way are they handling fraud?

Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#353

Post by kamjam »

DanBlake wrote: post #220
kamjam wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can already do this on eBay, the sellers with Y feedback thing http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/buyer-requirements.html More specifically: http://imgur.com/xvAYd But it still doesn't get round the way this specific scam works, see post from Spooky23 above for a great explanation.

Unfortunately that only lets you block people with bad feedback. You cant say "you cant buy unless you have 10+ feedback" Most scammers have no bad feedback, they are just new accounts with 5-10 positive feedback for bogus items.

Yes you can, what do you think "Block users who have a feedback score equal to or lower than X" means? X can be set to 10 if you want.

That imgurl I linked to was directly from my eBay account.

Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#354

Post by Tyrannosaurs »

ed209 wrote: post #325
NickM wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no other explanation for getting rid of buyer reputation and providing no protection to sellers. I disagree. Back in the old days when I used to use eBay before they removed buyer feedback, it was considered unwise to ever leave a seller negative feedback because they might turn around and leave you negative feedback in retaliation. By removing buyer feedback, it allows buyers to leave unbiased seller feedba…

If the reason is that you might get negative feedback in return, why not make both parties submit feedback blind and only publish the feedback once both parties have submitted it? (and make it not editable)

I really like this idea.

The other thing I'd add is that basic information about conflicts should be made public on someone's record, along with a high level outcome (and possibly additional comments from the parties involved) so these things can be part of someone's decision making process.

Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#355

Post by Tyrannosaurs »

erickhill wrote: post #256
repiret wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always thought the right solution to this problem was to wait for both parties to submit feedback before revealing the feedback.

Interesting idea, but it still wouldn't have helped in the case of the post-transaction chargeback, as described in the article. The scammer would likely still get a positive review (because the seller had been paid) only to discover the scam weeks after the fact.

If you made public details of things like chargebacks and other conflicts after the event that might help.

Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#356

Post by gambiting »

macspoofing wrote: post #352
jwr wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Allegro.pl is a good example of how you can get auctions right. I think they watched eBay closely and drew conclusions — they place a HUGE emphasis on fighting fraud. As a result, it works extremely well. I have >150 transactions, both as a buyer and as a seller, with not a single problem. Oh sure, there is fraud, but it's marginal, and crazy stories like the OP's are unheard of. This is why eBay, in spite of many ef…

What way are they handling fraud?

Well for start, buyer needs to send the item back.

Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#357

Post by tghw »

pbreit wrote: post #163

I would have expected David Marcus (PayPal CEO) to chime in by now but apparently not. Counterparty risk is definitely a hard problem to solve but this situation seems easy to solve: if the buyer is complaining "not as described", there should need to be some sort of attempt to return the item (at seller's expense or split).

I sent him a tweet (the only contact info I could find) yesterday. He responded later last night. He's looking into it.

https://twitter.com/davidmarcus/status/275853590080417794

Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#358

Post by davotoula »

pdonis wrote: post #269
chockablock wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's to stop buyer from claiming the box contained a pair of old headphones ('significantly not as described')? The problem is the buyer is being taken at their word; forcing a return of bogus items won't help.

Yes, I can see that being an issue, and as a seller, you would want to somehow document what was actually shipped, otherwise the buyer could indeed ship back a bogus item. But to not even raise the question of a return at all? That doesn't make sense to me.

You would have the opposite problem.

Even if the buyer sent back the original item, the seller could always claim that he received just a brick.

It's all just borked, pretty scary selling any one of items on ebay once you realise this :-(

Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#359

Post by tb303 »

DannyBee wrote: post #138
CamperBob2 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serving a subpoena to "General Delivery" is problematic at best.

Sigh. He paid through paypal, remember. There is apparently also a credit card provider, and the credit card provider claims to have handled the dispute. Which means they either heard from this guy, or ... Again, it's just not this complicated. It's expensive and time consuming, but rarely complicated.

Sigh or not, you are sighing to someone who already went through this (me) and was told by the Las Vegas Police that it was a dead end. The buyer used a fake name and hijacked someone else's paypal account (or claimed such had happened to him). So, you are right on two out of three counts: it was expensive, time consuming, and complicated =D

I wish it had been easier, trust me!

Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#360

Post by alextingle »

Nursie wrote: post #346
sdfjkl wrote: post #329

So what's a good alternative to the evil empire of eBay/PayPal? In the UK (where PayPal is the only valid way to pay for anything on eBay) there is just Gumtree, which is not an auction site and many categories get barely looked at (and those that do are swarming with scammers too), plus a few small auction sites that have so few users it's not worth bothering.

I used gumtree in Australia to great effect a little while ago. You may not get quite the same price you could through ebay, but you don't have any fees so I'm pretty sure I cam out ahead. That and transactions were completed in person for cash. When one of my items (WiMAX router) didn't work correctly for the new buyer I offered to go round and help and give a full refund if I couldn't get it working (it started wor…

Read the comment text. Checked the userid. Was not disappointed.
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