eBay auction. Great deal on a yellow gold signet ring with diamond.
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Thursday, January 10, 2008
Sterling Silver Dragon Celtic Knot Work Ring Size 8 1/2
EBay auction. I love this Dragon ring with Celtic knot work. It is a good thing it is not my size lol.
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read more digg story
Sterling Silver Chain link Ring Size 8 925 9.25 NEW
EBay auction. This one is kind of cool because the ring moves with you, the links are flexible.
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read more digg story
Sunday, January 6, 2008
How to retract a bid on eBay
Why would any one want to retract a bid on eBay? The idea is that you want to win the item right. Well I have retracted a couple of bids over the years. One of them was because I put the wrong amount in, $100.00 instead of $10.00. I use the bid retraction form and retracted my bid of $100 and then bid the $10. I did retract one bid because the seller would not respond to my emails once I put the bid on the item. I realised that the computer part may not work with what I already had and needed some information. I never got the information, even after I retracted my bid. I did not want to take the chance of buying some thing I could not use. The retractions showed up on my feedback for 6 months, but it did not cause sellers to reject my bids. It might have been different if I had retracted a lot of bids.
EBay will only let you retract a bid if it meets the requirements of their Bid Retraction policy. Fist you cannot retract a bid on a buy it now item or after an auction has ended. You can only retract your bid for three reasons.
If you made a typographical error, like I did, putting $100.00 instead of $10.00. You must enter the correct bid amount once you retract the first bid. Otherwise eBay will see your actions as a violation of eBay's policies and your account can be suspended.
The description of an item you have bid on changed significantly after you placed your bid. I have never seen this but I am sure it happens.
You cannot contact the seller. This means that you tried to call the seller, but his or her phone number doesn't work, or that you have tried emailing a message to the seller and it comes back undeliverable. I have had one seller not respond to emails and they did loose my bid when they don’t respond.
When you placed your bid and how long is left on the auction determines if you can retract your bid as well. You can retract a bid if there is more then 12 hrs left before the auction ends. You can retract the bid within one hour of placing it. If you had a bid placed before the last 12 hours of the auction remains valid and can only retract it if the seller agrees. You contact the seller to request that your bid be cancelled and it is up to the seller’s discretion to cancel the bid or not.
EBay investigates bid retractions. If they feel that you are abusing this option they can suspended your account. They also take a very close look at bids retracted within the last 24 hrs of a listing as it can be seen as bid shielding. So be careful when entering your bids and try not to retract bids very often.
Source: eBay
EBay will only let you retract a bid if it meets the requirements of their Bid Retraction policy. Fist you cannot retract a bid on a buy it now item or after an auction has ended. You can only retract your bid for three reasons.
If you made a typographical error, like I did, putting $100.00 instead of $10.00. You must enter the correct bid amount once you retract the first bid. Otherwise eBay will see your actions as a violation of eBay's policies and your account can be suspended.
The description of an item you have bid on changed significantly after you placed your bid. I have never seen this but I am sure it happens.
You cannot contact the seller. This means that you tried to call the seller, but his or her phone number doesn't work, or that you have tried emailing a message to the seller and it comes back undeliverable. I have had one seller not respond to emails and they did loose my bid when they don’t respond.
When you placed your bid and how long is left on the auction determines if you can retract your bid as well. You can retract a bid if there is more then 12 hrs left before the auction ends. You can retract the bid within one hour of placing it. If you had a bid placed before the last 12 hours of the auction remains valid and can only retract it if the seller agrees. You contact the seller to request that your bid be cancelled and it is up to the seller’s discretion to cancel the bid or not.
EBay investigates bid retractions. If they feel that you are abusing this option they can suspended your account. They also take a very close look at bids retracted within the last 24 hrs of a listing as it can be seen as bid shielding. So be careful when entering your bids and try not to retract bids very often.
Source: eBay
Sunday, December 30, 2007
How to deal with buyer fraud on eBay
We got burned big time selling on eBay. We learned a lot of what not to do from this and stories from other people. I have put our story in so you know that these things really happen and are not urban myths. I have also taken the information I received from 100’s of people burned on eBay, both sellers and buyers, and used it to give you an idea of what happens and how to keep it from happening to you. If you are going to sell on eBay you need to know how to deal with buyer fraud on eBay. The best thing to do is to prevent it because it is very difficult to fix once it happens.
We put my Grandmothers ring on just before Mothers day. We got an email asking if we would be willing to ship that day as the person wanted it for Mothers day. The person had been on eBay for years and had a 100% rating. They were using Paypal to pay so we felt it would be secure. We said yes. They paid the $1116.00 right away. Once the payment was processed we took the ring to Fedex. By by ring. The next day about 24 hrs after the transaction Paypal notifies us that the transaction was fraudulent. We were one of about 10 people hit all on the same day all for rings worth about $1000.00 to $2000.00, ours was apprised over $1800.00.
Some one had gotten into another persons eBay and Paypal account and then used them to buy items. So we contacted Fedex to put a return to sender on it. It had already made it to customs and we would not be able to get it back until it cleared customs at the other end. At this point in time we were out the $116.00 it cost us to ship it.
Then we get a call from Fedex. The stop shipment order never made it to the ring. The person it was delivered to refuse to pay the Indonesian custom charges. Indonesian customs would not release the ring unless some one paid the $381.00 custom charges. Fedex explained to them that there was a stop shipment on the item and it should never have made it to customs. Indonesian customs response, not their problem, the custom charges had to be paid or they confiscate the ring to pay the charges.
We spent a week talking with Fedex trying to sort this out. We were told to pay the custom fees or we would never see the ring again. We agreed to pay. To help us, Fedex agreed to pay for the custom fees and then bill us so we could make monthly payments. Ring was to show up on a Tuesday. That day, no ring. We decide to wait until Wednesday afternoon before calling Fedex. Wednesday morning we get a call from Fedex. The Indonesian customs now wants over $900 for us to get the ring back, they had added about $600.00 in storage and handling fees for the week we were talking to Fedex.
Fedex stepped in at this point and said “no way”. They started negotiations and after about a month they were able to get the Indonesian Government to step in. We still had to pay the initial custom charges of $381.00 though. So by selling my Grandmothers ring on eBay we were out $497.00. The other sellers lost the rings. The person who bought them asked that they put a low value on the ring so they would not be charged the custom fees, so the rings were delivered right to them. Others lost them to the Indonesian customs because the customs fee was so high. We were the only ones to get the ring back. This person did get away with it, and nothing will be done to them.
Did we contact eBay and Paypal over this? Yes! We had to use emails though as there seems to be no way to contact them any other way. The end result was they refunded us our insertion fee and final auction fee. That is all they do for sellers. There is no protection for sellers, just buyers. That was it. EBay did nothing for us, even though some one had used a legitimate eBay account. Paypal at lest looked into it. About a month after they had contacted us about the possible fraudulent transaction they let us know that it was a fraudulent transaction. That was it. No explanation for how this happened, and no help with the debt we now have because of the sale.
We learned from this experience. If some thing seems to good to be true, it is. Hold all Paypal transactions for at least 3 days to make sure it is a legitimate purchase, then ship item. Do not list large ticket items or items you are not willing to loose. We do not sell on eBay anymore.
We shared out story with quite a few people and were told quite a few other eBay horror stories. Most are from sellers. Why, because eBay does nothing to protect sellers, just buyers and then only for 30 days. Common buyer stories, items were purchased, product was never shipped, and not the item bid on, did not work or was damaged. As long as it was with in 30 days eBay would negotiate for a new product to be shipped or money refunded. Paypal is best to use when buying because if you don’t receive the product ordered you can cancel the transaction with in 30 days and get your money back.
None of this does the buyer any good it the seller was using some one else’s account, fraudulently posting items for sale and then never shipping. You never know who actually put the item out for sale. The person whose account was used usually has no idea who or even how some one posted listings on their account. Another one is to open an eBay account list lots of products, get the payments and shut down the account.
This has been happening a lot. They have you send the money through Western Union and you never see the product or your money back. As a buyer you need to make sure you read the whole ad. If it says “as is” then what you get is it, and chances are it does not work or is damaged. If there is no shipping and handling fee listed, do not bid until you know what the cost is. I had one person charge me $10.00 shipping and handling for a $1.00 item that only cost $2.00 to ship. Check every thing out, and if you have any questions get them answered using the eBay emails so there is a record of the emails right on eBay.
Sellers get hit harder and more often then buyers. People will send bad cheques, which is why you never ship until the cheque clears. The most common scam is people get the product and then say they never received it and expect you to send more products or refund the money. You pay extra to have items insured and signature required when product is delivered. It may cost you more but it stops people from being able to say they never received it. And if they actually did not well then the insurance you paid for should cover that, it was a delivery service problem.
People will claim the product was damaged when received. Always take a picture of product before you send it, and again insure it so that if the shipping company damages it it is their problem. You have to get a picture of the product showing the damage when the person receives item. The problem sellers have is that they damage the item on purpose, or have a similar item damaged and claim it is the same one. This was a problem an eBay seller selling laptops was having. He recorded and photographed all numbers on the laptop and was able to prove several times that the item people claimed to be the one he shipped to them was not the same one.
Another scam he came across was people would receive his product, scratch it up, take a picture of it and claim it was received “damaged” or not as advertised in the eBay ad. It was always cosmetic damage. They would then email him and say refund me half the money because the product was damaged or I will give you a bad review for sending damaged goods. This one there is no real way to protect yourself from. You don’t give them the money they try to trash your reputation. Your only recourse is to refute the damage claim through eBay feedback.
We put my Grandmothers ring on just before Mothers day. We got an email asking if we would be willing to ship that day as the person wanted it for Mothers day. The person had been on eBay for years and had a 100% rating. They were using Paypal to pay so we felt it would be secure. We said yes. They paid the $1116.00 right away. Once the payment was processed we took the ring to Fedex. By by ring. The next day about 24 hrs after the transaction Paypal notifies us that the transaction was fraudulent. We were one of about 10 people hit all on the same day all for rings worth about $1000.00 to $2000.00, ours was apprised over $1800.00.
Some one had gotten into another persons eBay and Paypal account and then used them to buy items. So we contacted Fedex to put a return to sender on it. It had already made it to customs and we would not be able to get it back until it cleared customs at the other end. At this point in time we were out the $116.00 it cost us to ship it.
Then we get a call from Fedex. The stop shipment order never made it to the ring. The person it was delivered to refuse to pay the Indonesian custom charges. Indonesian customs would not release the ring unless some one paid the $381.00 custom charges. Fedex explained to them that there was a stop shipment on the item and it should never have made it to customs. Indonesian customs response, not their problem, the custom charges had to be paid or they confiscate the ring to pay the charges.
We spent a week talking with Fedex trying to sort this out. We were told to pay the custom fees or we would never see the ring again. We agreed to pay. To help us, Fedex agreed to pay for the custom fees and then bill us so we could make monthly payments. Ring was to show up on a Tuesday. That day, no ring. We decide to wait until Wednesday afternoon before calling Fedex. Wednesday morning we get a call from Fedex. The Indonesian customs now wants over $900 for us to get the ring back, they had added about $600.00 in storage and handling fees for the week we were talking to Fedex.
Fedex stepped in at this point and said “no way”. They started negotiations and after about a month they were able to get the Indonesian Government to step in. We still had to pay the initial custom charges of $381.00 though. So by selling my Grandmothers ring on eBay we were out $497.00. The other sellers lost the rings. The person who bought them asked that they put a low value on the ring so they would not be charged the custom fees, so the rings were delivered right to them. Others lost them to the Indonesian customs because the customs fee was so high. We were the only ones to get the ring back. This person did get away with it, and nothing will be done to them.
Did we contact eBay and Paypal over this? Yes! We had to use emails though as there seems to be no way to contact them any other way. The end result was they refunded us our insertion fee and final auction fee. That is all they do for sellers. There is no protection for sellers, just buyers. That was it. EBay did nothing for us, even though some one had used a legitimate eBay account. Paypal at lest looked into it. About a month after they had contacted us about the possible fraudulent transaction they let us know that it was a fraudulent transaction. That was it. No explanation for how this happened, and no help with the debt we now have because of the sale.
We learned from this experience. If some thing seems to good to be true, it is. Hold all Paypal transactions for at least 3 days to make sure it is a legitimate purchase, then ship item. Do not list large ticket items or items you are not willing to loose. We do not sell on eBay anymore.
We shared out story with quite a few people and were told quite a few other eBay horror stories. Most are from sellers. Why, because eBay does nothing to protect sellers, just buyers and then only for 30 days. Common buyer stories, items were purchased, product was never shipped, and not the item bid on, did not work or was damaged. As long as it was with in 30 days eBay would negotiate for a new product to be shipped or money refunded. Paypal is best to use when buying because if you don’t receive the product ordered you can cancel the transaction with in 30 days and get your money back.
None of this does the buyer any good it the seller was using some one else’s account, fraudulently posting items for sale and then never shipping. You never know who actually put the item out for sale. The person whose account was used usually has no idea who or even how some one posted listings on their account. Another one is to open an eBay account list lots of products, get the payments and shut down the account.
This has been happening a lot. They have you send the money through Western Union and you never see the product or your money back. As a buyer you need to make sure you read the whole ad. If it says “as is” then what you get is it, and chances are it does not work or is damaged. If there is no shipping and handling fee listed, do not bid until you know what the cost is. I had one person charge me $10.00 shipping and handling for a $1.00 item that only cost $2.00 to ship. Check every thing out, and if you have any questions get them answered using the eBay emails so there is a record of the emails right on eBay.
Sellers get hit harder and more often then buyers. People will send bad cheques, which is why you never ship until the cheque clears. The most common scam is people get the product and then say they never received it and expect you to send more products or refund the money. You pay extra to have items insured and signature required when product is delivered. It may cost you more but it stops people from being able to say they never received it. And if they actually did not well then the insurance you paid for should cover that, it was a delivery service problem.
People will claim the product was damaged when received. Always take a picture of product before you send it, and again insure it so that if the shipping company damages it it is their problem. You have to get a picture of the product showing the damage when the person receives item. The problem sellers have is that they damage the item on purpose, or have a similar item damaged and claim it is the same one. This was a problem an eBay seller selling laptops was having. He recorded and photographed all numbers on the laptop and was able to prove several times that the item people claimed to be the one he shipped to them was not the same one.
Another scam he came across was people would receive his product, scratch it up, take a picture of it and claim it was received “damaged” or not as advertised in the eBay ad. It was always cosmetic damage. They would then email him and say refund me half the money because the product was damaged or I will give you a bad review for sending damaged goods. This one there is no real way to protect yourself from. You don’t give them the money they try to trash your reputation. Your only recourse is to refute the damage claim through eBay feedback.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
5 ways to make money on ebay
This is for those who are still willing to try and make some money on eBay. This is some good advice on eBay selling. Make sure you still play is safe, don't get taken.
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read more digg story
Ebay sucks! Boycott ebay!
This is a consumer report on people who have had problems on eBay. There are a lot of people being taken by thieves on eBay.
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read more digg story
66 year old man finds his baby book on eBay
How would you like to be looking on eBay only to find something of yours beings sold. This is what happened to this guy. His baby book was being auctioned off. This is a strange story, but has a happy ending.
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read more digg story
Yet Another Reason Why eBay Is A Total Joke
I can’t believe eBay is still in business considering the huge number of scams that seem to pervade the site like flies on you-know-what. Just this past week I attempted to use eBay to auction off two notebook computers and quickly discovered that this was an impossible task thanks to all the scammers who now appear to have almost complete control of the site. Yes, you heard that right. Complete control. The way these scammers work is they send you an email asking to purchase your item outside of eBay, then when you won’t bite they hose your auction using a hacked account effectively preventing you from making a legitimate sale and at the same time sticking you with huge sellers fees from eBay. Don’t believe me? Here is the proof.
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read more digg story
Friday, December 21, 2007
How to retract a bid on eBay
Why would any one want to retract a bid on eBay? The idea is that you want to win the item right. Well I have retracted a couple of bids over the years. One of them was because I put the wrong amount in, $100.00 instead of $10.00. I use the bid retraction form and retracted my bid of $100 and then bid the $10. I did retract one bid because the seller would not respond to my emails once I put the bid on the item. I realised that the computer part may not work with what I already had and needed some more information. I never got the information, even after I retracted my bid. I did not want to take the chance of buying some thing I could not use. The retractions showed up on my feedback for 6 months, but it did not cause sellers to reject my bids. It might have been different if I had retracted a lot of bids.
EBay will only let you retract a bid if it meets the requirements of their Bid Retraction policy. Fist you cannot retract a bid on a buy it now item or after an auction has ended. You can only retract your bid for three reasons.
If you made a typographical error, like I did, putting $100.00 instead of $10.00. You must enter the correct bid amount once you retract the first bid. Otherwise eBay will see your actions as a violation of eBay's policies and your account can be suspended.
The description of an item you have bid on changed significantly after you placed your bid. I have never seen this but I am sure it happens.
You cannot contact the seller. This means that you tried to call the seller, but his or her phone number doesn't work, or that you have tried emailing a message to the seller and it comes back undeliverable. I have had one seller not respond to emails and they did loose my bid when they don’t respond.
When you placed your bid and how long is left on the auction determines if you can retract your bid as well. You can retract a bid if there is more then 12 hrs left before the auction ends. You can retract the bid within one hour of placing it. If you had a bid placed before the last 12 hours of the auction remains valid and can only retract it if the seller agrees. You contact the seller to request that your bid be cancelled and it is up to the seller’s discretion to cancel the bid or not.
EBay investigates bid retractions. If they feel that you are abusing this option they can suspended your account. They also take a very close look at bids retracted within the last 24 hrs of a listing as it can be seen as bid shielding. So be careful when entering your bids and try not to retract bids very often.
Source: eBay
Written by: Lori-Lee Craig
Medieval Magic
www.medievalmagic.ca
EBay will only let you retract a bid if it meets the requirements of their Bid Retraction policy. Fist you cannot retract a bid on a buy it now item or after an auction has ended. You can only retract your bid for three reasons.
If you made a typographical error, like I did, putting $100.00 instead of $10.00. You must enter the correct bid amount once you retract the first bid. Otherwise eBay will see your actions as a violation of eBay's policies and your account can be suspended.
The description of an item you have bid on changed significantly after you placed your bid. I have never seen this but I am sure it happens.
You cannot contact the seller. This means that you tried to call the seller, but his or her phone number doesn't work, or that you have tried emailing a message to the seller and it comes back undeliverable. I have had one seller not respond to emails and they did loose my bid when they don’t respond.
When you placed your bid and how long is left on the auction determines if you can retract your bid as well. You can retract a bid if there is more then 12 hrs left before the auction ends. You can retract the bid within one hour of placing it. If you had a bid placed before the last 12 hours of the auction remains valid and can only retract it if the seller agrees. You contact the seller to request that your bid be cancelled and it is up to the seller’s discretion to cancel the bid or not.
EBay investigates bid retractions. If they feel that you are abusing this option they can suspended your account. They also take a very close look at bids retracted within the last 24 hrs of a listing as it can be seen as bid shielding. So be careful when entering your bids and try not to retract bids very often.
Source: eBay
Written by: Lori-Lee Craig
Medieval Magic
www.medievalmagic.ca
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Clues for when not to bid on eBay
There are a few reasons not to bid on an item on eBay, you do not want to bid to early and drive the price up, there are unanswered questions or the auction itself is questionable. There are a lot of clues for when not to bid on eBay, you just need to know where to find them or interpret them. If some thing about the listing or the eBay seller does not feel right, that is a big clue to not bid. Never bid on an item at the last second unless you have already done your homework. This is how most people get taken for, when they try to snag a great deal but are in such a hurry that they do not fully read the ad or contact the seller about information missing in the ad, like shipping and handling costs.
If you want a good deal then hold off bidding until near the end of the auction, but do your homework first. This way you know what you are bidding on and what all the costs are, and you can try and get it at the lowest price possible. If you bid early on you can find the price going up as you bid against other buyers. If you hold off on your bids you can also see if the price is going to be more then you want to pay. Sometimes once you put a bid on something you can get caught up in the bidding and end up paying way more then you wanted to. You can see this all the time, one items price is way up there and going up as two people get into a bidding war. Then there is the same item right under it with no bids or only one bid and it sells for way less.
Unanswered questions are a big clue not to bid. If all the information you need about a product is not on the ad you do not want to bid until you have the information. This is so obvious but we all miss it, we assume and don’t question. If a listing has Silver you may assume it is sterling silver, but it could be silver in color, alpaca silver witch has no silver in it, or it could be sterling silver. If the eBay listing does not state that an item works or all pieces are there then you need to ask. Most people will indicate that some thing is as is or is to be used for parts when some thing does not work or is not all there. Some people don’t, they just do not say it works or everything is there. By contacting the seller you can get the answers you need and will often be helping the seller. They may not be getting bids because they never thought to let people know an item works or is all there. This gives them the chance to make some changes on their listing. On the other hand if the seller does not respond to your question before the auction ends, don’t bid, there is probably a reason why they will not answer.
The big unanswered question most people get caught on is shipping and handling cost. People assume the seller is only going to charge what it actually costs to ship the item, with maybe a little extra to cover packaging. Most of us learn this one the hard way. For me an auction was ending with in a minute, no shipping cost was given and I did not have enough time to contact seller before the auction ended. I bid and won a little girls dress for $1.00 and then end up being charged $10.00 shipping and handling even though the cost to send the dress was $2.00. The person did not list a shipping and handling cost so that if the price of their items were not as high as they wanted they just charged more for the shipping and handling. I had to pay or end up with a black mark against me on eBay. Don’t make the same mistake I did. Contact the seller to find out the shipping and handling before you make a bid. If they do not get back to you in time don’t bid.
If there are no pictures of the item or you cannot clearly see the item in the picture you may not want to bid. Not everyone has a digital camera and are unable to put a picture on, that is understandable but still risky for the buyer. You have no idea what you are actually bidding on, even with the best-written description. If the seller does have a very high ratting then it is probably ok. The real problem is when the picture is not clear. If a seller cannot be bothered to take a good picture then they probably don’t care much about what they are selling, and it is not in that great of condition or they are hiding something. Most people will make sure their product pictures are clear and easy to see the condition of the items. If some one puts a bad picture out you have to question their integrity and if you want to take the chance of bidding.
All that said and done the biggest clues for when not to bid is provided by eBay in the sellers feedback score. This is a great way to see what the volume of sales are, good and bad transactions and how other buyers feel about them and their products. If there is a problem it will show up here. Take the time to find negative feedback and see if it was a problem with the seller, the buyer or a shipping issue. If the seller has a poor track record you are not going to want to bid on their auctions. If some one has no sales yet then go with your gut, and remember every one started with 0 feedback. It is still not a good idea to buy a big ticket item from some one who has no or low feedback.
If something seems to be to good to be true it probably is. However if you do your homework you may end up just getting a really good deal. That is why we are all shopping on eBay in the first place.
Written by: Lori-Lee Craig
Medieval Magic
www.medievalmagic.ca
If you want a good deal then hold off bidding until near the end of the auction, but do your homework first. This way you know what you are bidding on and what all the costs are, and you can try and get it at the lowest price possible. If you bid early on you can find the price going up as you bid against other buyers. If you hold off on your bids you can also see if the price is going to be more then you want to pay. Sometimes once you put a bid on something you can get caught up in the bidding and end up paying way more then you wanted to. You can see this all the time, one items price is way up there and going up as two people get into a bidding war. Then there is the same item right under it with no bids or only one bid and it sells for way less.
Unanswered questions are a big clue not to bid. If all the information you need about a product is not on the ad you do not want to bid until you have the information. This is so obvious but we all miss it, we assume and don’t question. If a listing has Silver you may assume it is sterling silver, but it could be silver in color, alpaca silver witch has no silver in it, or it could be sterling silver. If the eBay listing does not state that an item works or all pieces are there then you need to ask. Most people will indicate that some thing is as is or is to be used for parts when some thing does not work or is not all there. Some people don’t, they just do not say it works or everything is there. By contacting the seller you can get the answers you need and will often be helping the seller. They may not be getting bids because they never thought to let people know an item works or is all there. This gives them the chance to make some changes on their listing. On the other hand if the seller does not respond to your question before the auction ends, don’t bid, there is probably a reason why they will not answer.
The big unanswered question most people get caught on is shipping and handling cost. People assume the seller is only going to charge what it actually costs to ship the item, with maybe a little extra to cover packaging. Most of us learn this one the hard way. For me an auction was ending with in a minute, no shipping cost was given and I did not have enough time to contact seller before the auction ended. I bid and won a little girls dress for $1.00 and then end up being charged $10.00 shipping and handling even though the cost to send the dress was $2.00. The person did not list a shipping and handling cost so that if the price of their items were not as high as they wanted they just charged more for the shipping and handling. I had to pay or end up with a black mark against me on eBay. Don’t make the same mistake I did. Contact the seller to find out the shipping and handling before you make a bid. If they do not get back to you in time don’t bid.
If there are no pictures of the item or you cannot clearly see the item in the picture you may not want to bid. Not everyone has a digital camera and are unable to put a picture on, that is understandable but still risky for the buyer. You have no idea what you are actually bidding on, even with the best-written description. If the seller does have a very high ratting then it is probably ok. The real problem is when the picture is not clear. If a seller cannot be bothered to take a good picture then they probably don’t care much about what they are selling, and it is not in that great of condition or they are hiding something. Most people will make sure their product pictures are clear and easy to see the condition of the items. If some one puts a bad picture out you have to question their integrity and if you want to take the chance of bidding.
All that said and done the biggest clues for when not to bid is provided by eBay in the sellers feedback score. This is a great way to see what the volume of sales are, good and bad transactions and how other buyers feel about them and their products. If there is a problem it will show up here. Take the time to find negative feedback and see if it was a problem with the seller, the buyer or a shipping issue. If the seller has a poor track record you are not going to want to bid on their auctions. If some one has no sales yet then go with your gut, and remember every one started with 0 feedback. It is still not a good idea to buy a big ticket item from some one who has no or low feedback.
If something seems to be to good to be true it probably is. However if you do your homework you may end up just getting a really good deal. That is why we are all shopping on eBay in the first place.
Written by: Lori-Lee Craig
Medieval Magic
www.medievalmagic.ca
Monday, December 17, 2007
Tips on dealing with deadbeat bidders on eBay
Tips on dealing with deadbeat bidders on eBay2
I spent years selling on eBay and I have run into a few deadbeat bidders on eBay. If some one had not paid in 7 days I would usually email the person and try to find out what was going on. I don’t usually call because most people are in different countries and I don’t need the added expense of a long distance call. Most people would email back with an explanation for why they had not paid yet. Usually they just had not gotten around to it or were waiting for their money to get into Paypal. One was waiting for their Paypal account to be approved. I found that most of the people I contacted paid with in a few days.
Then there were the people who were not going to pay. I have had some interesting reasons. One man was quite upset because his 13 year old had used his account to put bids and several 100 items. He was not paying for any of them, and because there were so many he had not contacted everyone. One asked to cancel the order as she had an unexpected financial issue, and could not pay for it that month; she did ask that I repost it the next month if possible. Another just said he did not want the item, had never wanted it. Others never responded to my emails.
How I dealt with each deadbeat bidder depended on the individual bidder. The people, who had good reason not to pay, like the Dad or the person who ran into money problems I just did a mutual agree not to complete the transaction. As for the guy who never intended to buy the item and the people who never responded to my emails I reported them to eBay.
EBay sent each of them an unpaid item reminder to try and get them to pay. I had to wait to give the bidders a chance to pay. Some did once eBay became involved; all they needed was the official eBay contact. I have only had a few people not pay at this point. I filed for a final value fee credit. I do know that there are real consequences for not paying for items you bid on. The one guy who never had any attention of paying for the items he bid on lost his account very quickly. Others have been blocked from bidding on my auctions. The lady who ran into money problems did bid on other items of mine, but at first I was never very comfortable about it, but she did end up always paying for all other items of mine that she did win. She ended up being a loyal customer in the long run.
Rule number one when selling any place including eBay is to never ship or give the item to anyone until payment has processed. We made this mistake once, had a lot of items to ship and were waiting on the payment and item was shipped in error with a bunch of others. We were lucky as the person did pay for it in the next few days. Just keep in mind that as long as you don’t ship an item that some one has not paid for all you really loose is some time. More often then not I would offer the item to the next highest bidder and would still make the sale.
So what are the eBay consequences for the deadbeat bidder? According to eBay a buyer automatically enter into a legally binding contract to purchase the item from the seller if they win the online auction or use the Buy It Now feature. Bay’s unpaid item policy requires buyers to pay the seller for the items that they commit to purchase. EBay will issue a strike on the account of the buyer who does not honour their obligation to pay, unless the buyer and seller mutually agree not to complete the transaction. If a buyer gets too many strikes in too short a time period, their account will be suspended indefinitely. In some cases, limits may be placed on the buyer’s account in advance of suspension.
Basically if some one will not pay for an item with in the stated time on the eBay ad then you must report that the item has not been paid for. If you do not agree with the person not paying for the item you should not mutually agree not to complete the transaction. Let eBay know that the person will just not fulfill their side of the contract and eBay will take action against there account. You get your fees back and re-list the item. End of story for you. You move on; life is to short to waste it on jerks that don’t follow through on their commitments.
Source - eBay
Written by: Lori-Lee Craig
Medieval Magic
http://www.medievalmagic.ca/
I spent years selling on eBay and I have run into a few deadbeat bidders on eBay. If some one had not paid in 7 days I would usually email the person and try to find out what was going on. I don’t usually call because most people are in different countries and I don’t need the added expense of a long distance call. Most people would email back with an explanation for why they had not paid yet. Usually they just had not gotten around to it or were waiting for their money to get into Paypal. One was waiting for their Paypal account to be approved. I found that most of the people I contacted paid with in a few days.
Then there were the people who were not going to pay. I have had some interesting reasons. One man was quite upset because his 13 year old had used his account to put bids and several 100 items. He was not paying for any of them, and because there were so many he had not contacted everyone. One asked to cancel the order as she had an unexpected financial issue, and could not pay for it that month; she did ask that I repost it the next month if possible. Another just said he did not want the item, had never wanted it. Others never responded to my emails.
How I dealt with each deadbeat bidder depended on the individual bidder. The people, who had good reason not to pay, like the Dad or the person who ran into money problems I just did a mutual agree not to complete the transaction. As for the guy who never intended to buy the item and the people who never responded to my emails I reported them to eBay.
EBay sent each of them an unpaid item reminder to try and get them to pay. I had to wait to give the bidders a chance to pay. Some did once eBay became involved; all they needed was the official eBay contact. I have only had a few people not pay at this point. I filed for a final value fee credit. I do know that there are real consequences for not paying for items you bid on. The one guy who never had any attention of paying for the items he bid on lost his account very quickly. Others have been blocked from bidding on my auctions. The lady who ran into money problems did bid on other items of mine, but at first I was never very comfortable about it, but she did end up always paying for all other items of mine that she did win. She ended up being a loyal customer in the long run.
Rule number one when selling any place including eBay is to never ship or give the item to anyone until payment has processed. We made this mistake once, had a lot of items to ship and were waiting on the payment and item was shipped in error with a bunch of others. We were lucky as the person did pay for it in the next few days. Just keep in mind that as long as you don’t ship an item that some one has not paid for all you really loose is some time. More often then not I would offer the item to the next highest bidder and would still make the sale.
So what are the eBay consequences for the deadbeat bidder? According to eBay a buyer automatically enter into a legally binding contract to purchase the item from the seller if they win the online auction or use the Buy It Now feature. Bay’s unpaid item policy requires buyers to pay the seller for the items that they commit to purchase. EBay will issue a strike on the account of the buyer who does not honour their obligation to pay, unless the buyer and seller mutually agree not to complete the transaction. If a buyer gets too many strikes in too short a time period, their account will be suspended indefinitely. In some cases, limits may be placed on the buyer’s account in advance of suspension.
Basically if some one will not pay for an item with in the stated time on the eBay ad then you must report that the item has not been paid for. If you do not agree with the person not paying for the item you should not mutually agree not to complete the transaction. Let eBay know that the person will just not fulfill their side of the contract and eBay will take action against there account. You get your fees back and re-list the item. End of story for you. You move on; life is to short to waste it on jerks that don’t follow through on their commitments.
Source - eBay
Written by: Lori-Lee Craig
Medieval Magic
http://www.medievalmagic.ca/
Monday, November 26, 2007
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
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
Saturday, November 24, 2007
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.
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.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Tried eBay again
So I decided to try eBay again. Not to sell, never that again, but to buy. I have so far have been ok buying things. I think it has to do with the fact that there is more protection for the buyers then the sellers. So what happens, I buy from two people. I asked for a quote before bidding as they only gave shipping for in the US. Both gave me an ok shipping quote. So I bid and win. The first person, hawkl921 gave me the shipping quote based on the weight and the US postal web site. They told me they would take the item to the post office to make sure the quote was accurate before invoicing me. They came back and let me know that the US post office was going to charge $10.00 more then what the web site had said. They then let me decide if I wanted to pay the extra or not. If not then hawkl921 would not hold me to the bid. I was not able to pay for the extra shipping cost, as it would bring the shipping cost to 3 times more then the item. I found that hawkl921 dealt with the whole situation in a professional manner and I would do business with them again.
Now the second person was a completely different story. They had given me a shipping quote and their ad said that if you bought more then 1 item you only had to pay half the shipping cost for the second item. So that is what I did, I figured out what the shipping cost should be and paid for it. We got an email saying we had short paid, and had to pay another $10.00 (that $10.00 again lol). We looked at the payment and realized I had paid $14.00, not the $18.00 I should have so we owed them $4.00 not another $10.00. We let them know, so they emailed us telling us that we had lied to them about our address and had shown them a US address first when they made the quote. Um, no I showed my address in Canada. What would be to point to get a quote for a different address, one that was not even in my country? Nice try, I kept all the emails and was able to show them that. Then they said that their add only said ½ price shipping on the second item if in the US and they expected us to pay full shipping for both items. Um, no went back and looked, it did not say US only. So we said we would be happy to pay the $4.00 I had accidentally shorted them. Then they came back and said that the original quote was for a different item, that it did not have glass in it and that the ones with glass weigh more so it cost more to ship. Um, no I still had the email threw eBay with the link to the product I was getting the quote on. The difference was the colour of the insert, that was it. At this point we decided we did not wish to do business with these people. We had all the proof we needed to know that yes I had short paid by $4.00 but that was it, and if they would not honour their ad then and quote then they were not professional. I would never do business with them. They are a large seller of jewellery displays, but I cannot see how they expect to stay in business if treat their customers this way.
Now the second person was a completely different story. They had given me a shipping quote and their ad said that if you bought more then 1 item you only had to pay half the shipping cost for the second item. So that is what I did, I figured out what the shipping cost should be and paid for it. We got an email saying we had short paid, and had to pay another $10.00 (that $10.00 again lol). We looked at the payment and realized I had paid $14.00, not the $18.00 I should have so we owed them $4.00 not another $10.00. We let them know, so they emailed us telling us that we had lied to them about our address and had shown them a US address first when they made the quote. Um, no I showed my address in Canada. What would be to point to get a quote for a different address, one that was not even in my country? Nice try, I kept all the emails and was able to show them that. Then they said that their add only said ½ price shipping on the second item if in the US and they expected us to pay full shipping for both items. Um, no went back and looked, it did not say US only. So we said we would be happy to pay the $4.00 I had accidentally shorted them. Then they came back and said that the original quote was for a different item, that it did not have glass in it and that the ones with glass weigh more so it cost more to ship. Um, no I still had the email threw eBay with the link to the product I was getting the quote on. The difference was the colour of the insert, that was it. At this point we decided we did not wish to do business with these people. We had all the proof we needed to know that yes I had short paid by $4.00 but that was it, and if they would not honour their ad then and quote then they were not professional. I would never do business with them. They are a large seller of jewellery displays, but I cannot see how they expect to stay in business if treat their customers this way.
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