A seller's experience - eBay story

Hi,

I used to be a prolific seller on Ebay. My specialty was kids' used clothing, but I also sold the occasional collectible or miscellaneous junk I picked up at yard sales. I still love to *buy* on Ebay, but I have given up selling. I was screwed more as a seller than I ever was or have been as a buyer. My horror story is below, after a few "bitching points."

First, I had problems with people who failed to read auctions. There is no fail-safe way to keep someone from leaving an unfair negative or neutral because they were stupid and didn't read the auction description or terms of the auction. There's nothing worse than explicitly listing something in an auction, only to see it as the main reason for a negative or neutral feedback. There's no way to reverse it, no way for you to be able to click the "bad feedback because this person didn't read the auction" button.

Second, there are shipping problems. There are people who will bitch and gripe if you did not charge them the precise dollar amount listed on the label when you ship something. You'll never hear anything if you *undercharge* them.

Third, shipper/carrier issues. I got to the point I flat refused to ship anything via UPS. Overall, they do a great job, but locally, every single item I either received or shipped with them was ruined. Slow transit times, increases in costs to ship, and problems with verification methods were a few issues I encountered.

Now, to my horror story. This is about eBay's VERO program that is supposed to prevent copyright infringement: I bought some purses wholesale (as a trial to see how they would do) and had them listed on eBay. I didn't have them listed as a brand, but instead as a generic title like "bathing beauties summer purse." I received an auction cancellation notice. Why? Because some purse manufacturer claimed that my purses violated their copyright and were infringing on their business. I protested and fought, but there wasn't much I could do. There was no protestation clause, no arbitration that I could go through, not even a dispute resolution process (like they have with Paypal). They just took down my auction, and that's that. I was warned to not put it up again... not even with a more generic title.

Did I violate the copyright? NO!! The purses I had featured tropical print with ladies wearing 1950's type bathing suits. The person who filed the VERO complaint also sold purses with women in bathing suits, superimposed on a tropical background. That's where the similarity stopped. My background print was a different color, different flowers, different design... different everything. Their item had a very specific background print, specific colors, and the bathing beauties were from a totally different era (1980s women in string bikinis with very modern hairstyles, etc.). The only resemblance was women in bathing suits with a tropical motif made into a purse.

There were literally THOUSANDS of other items on eBay that had very similar prints, and a few had the exact same print as *my* purses, but they were still up. as auctions. Why was mine chosen? Because the other items were shirts, totes, etc., but mine was a purse.

My feeling, at the time, was that the entity that filed the VERO complaint did it as a bullying tactic. They used it as a method to "knock out the competition." At the time my situation happened, there was no governing body to even check and make sure that the complaint was legitimate. All it took was for someone to file a complaint against you, and your auction was taken down, and you had a strike against you for "copyright infringement," even though the items being sold could have absolutely nothing in common.

Something similar happened to a cousin of mine who makes purses. She took a T-shirt that had our local college's team logo on it and turned it into a satchel purse.... a craft item. Her auction was ended on a VERO complaint. She, too, protested it (to the person who filed the complaint; eBay was unavailable for comment). After all, the shirt was for sale, she paid for it, and made it into a purse. What was the problem? The school claimed that was not the intended use for the shirt, and her auction was pulled. No place to argue. The school didn't make purses and didn't sell totes, so there was no competition. The local Wal-Mart had fabric featuring the school's logo, which could be turned into a tote with no problem, but no.... the item made with the T-shirt had to come down.

I believe eBay has since changed their method of determining a VERO violation and requires that a link be provided to the auction, along with a specific reason why the complaint is being filed. However, some of the complaints were so ludicrous that it actually took some people out of business. They were being constantly bombarded for VERO complaints that were untrue.
The VERO issue was just one of many selling experiences that caused me to have a bad taste in my mouth, and I finally gave it up. I will occasionally sell things I have around the house (and I need to do that soon); however, eBay's fee structure is such that the local resale shop is starting to sound like a better deal.

You have a nice blog, and have done a good job. Sorry if I was too wordy, but I have so much excess baggage I'm carrying around about my selling experience that I would love to tell eBay's powers that be what I think about their policies. Insurance is definitely needed for sellers, too!

A seller's experience

eBay has made some changes but is it enough?

I have noticed that eBay has made some changes to try and keep people selling and buying. I find it interesting that they still do not have any type of insurance for the sellers though. I do know that fewer people are selling and from the amount of advertising going on there are probably fewer people buying. I still will not sell on eBay again but I am willing to look at buying again. The last person I bought from did not ship the item, kept saying they got it back in the mail. Then when it got past the 30 days they would not return our emails. So we figured we were out our $6.00 and gave them a negative rating. The person responded to that. Gave us our money back and a negative rating.

I used to love hunting for things on eBay. Now I check the rate every one has and what the shipping cost and handling cost is going to be before I am willing to bid. I like that they have more information in the rating system now. I think that this is all for the good. EBay was to easy a mark for thieves. Some thing had to be done. I find that if you give a criminal an opening they will take it.

The real problem is that eBay was one of the world’s biggest market place. You could actually get some great deals, or get ride of your junk. I love garage sales and eBay was just one big one. I do think that if you are careful it can still be a good place to buy. However I am not sure what changes eBay could possibly do to make it safer to sell. At this point you must have a large company and can afford the cost of not selling an item as well as absorbing the occasional theft. Or you must sell items that do not have a high theft rate. If you don’t fit in that category you probably are not going to try and sell on eBay.

The other problem is that you can no longer use eBay to do direct marketing. It was great when you could make reference to your website. That way people would look at your items, possibly buy or bid and check out your web site. It was a good way to get your retail web site known. It was cost effective for the most part. Both eBay and your business benefited. Then eBay changed the rules, no more referencing your retail web site. Now I can still send my business card or put my web site address on the invoice to try and capture a client from an eBay customer. It is not as affective as having my web site address in my eBay ads. I used to look at my ads on eBay as an advertising expense. Not any more. There are much more cost effective ways to advertise then selling on eBay.

There are a lot of other auction sites and free retail web sites out there now. EBay has some real competition now. The only way I can see eBay bringing back the volume of sellers is to put some type of insurance protection for the sellers. I don’t think people would have a problem paying a small percentage of the end price to have some type of insurance. EBay also needs to let people advertise their stores or retail web sites on their listings. More people would be willing to sell or at lest list on eBay again with those changes. EBay needs to remember that with out the sellers, they have no business. If no one is willing to sell, there is nothing for people to buy, no money for eBay.