In what is being called their boldest move yet to balance buyer and seller activity, online auctioneer eBay is changing their fixed price listings. Beginning September 16th, they will charge a flat 35 cent fee, regardless of how many are being sold on the same auction. The move is to reduce clutter, where sellers will sell the same item on dozens of different auction listings. The move will affect the US site first, then migrate to Germany and Great Britian.

Find more details here

Nice to see they're trying to balance things up. Now how about giving sellers back the ability to properly rate buyers? /

Are you kidding me?

Like, seriously?

Holding feedback hostage when you're a seller is F.A.I.L. with a capital FAIL, and I am so glad that eBay fixed that.

I think it would solve some problems if they made it a necessary action for a seller to give feedback to a buyer before a buyer can give feedback to the seller. But I've already stated this a bunch.

(Though I don't mind ebay's fix, because what are you really rating a buyer on? A transaction? Hoooray for you!)

What's to rate about a buyer anyway? Either they pay or they don't.

I don't care about all that crap...I'd just love to see the hammer come down on the idiotically high shipping prices some bastards are charging.

That's what the "report" button is for.

And if they decide to not give you a chance to fix something that was damaged in shipment? Or explain why something is different from how it was supposed to be in their mind?

I'm not going to stoke this fire anymore after this, but anyone who thinks they buyer's sole obligation is to pay promptly is

That *is* their sole obligation. If you pay for an item, you've upheld your end of the bargain. Period.

Yeah, no sh*t.

Exactly. If it was damaged in transit, the seller didn't pack the item well enough. If it's not what was expected, the seller didn't describe the item appropriately.

Sorry I ever posted this now. Can this be locked and closed now?

You are correct sir!

I eBayed a BT Dead End once, and it arrived wrapped ONLY in brown paper. Needless to say, the item was damaged. I left negative feedback for the seller, who in turn left negative feedback for ME, saying "I packed it the best I could." FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL I did everything that was expected of me; i.e. paying for the friggin thing. He didn't live up to his end of the bargain, i.e. sending me something that wasn't f*cking broken.

they need to devise a separate feedback system to rate buyers... HEAR ME OUT!!!



in a perfect world it really is that simple: pay money = good buyer

however...

what if the buyer pays late? the seller asks for payment within 3 days yet the buyer pays in 5? (probably after several "excuse" emails?) okay "better late than never" & all that but why should the seller put up with being messed around?

what if the postal services steal the parcel & the buyer won't wait for a replacement? why should the seller put up with bad feedback if the buyer is being unreasonable about things that are completely out of the sellers control?

blah blah blah etc etc etc (there's more reasons but they don't need explaining)



i'm not saying the feedback system should be the same - but their should be some way of finding out which buyers will be throwing excuses & bartering over deals etc

maybe a modified version of that "rating" malarkey would work?

Sellers are perfectly capable of setting terms for the auction. Pay within X days or receive negative feedback. Buying an item is really a two-option thing. You either do it, or you don't.

Thank you

Also, a buddy of mine got swindled out of a camera deal. Sure, my buddy didn't ship it insured and with delivery confirmation (because the buyer wouldn't pay for it, my buddy's bad. It should have been mandatory), but he nonetheless got hosed because the USPS lost the package. Not only did he get bad feedback, but he also got his ENTIRE Paypal account locked out for almost 2wks ($450+ in the account) while they investigated, eventually sided with the buyer because there was no delivery tracking method, and refunded the $150.

Disagree all you want, but the current feedback system allows buyers to abuse the sellers.

And sorry, LMH, your logic is flawed. Because sellers can't leave anything other than positive feedback anymore, the seller can set whatever payment schedule they want and the buyer can take his/her sweet time. As long as he/she pays within 8 days, you can't report it to non-payments. Although annoying, I see why more people are using Buy It Now with immediate payment.

Your buddy was at fault there FYI. Sending something expensive with no insurance / delivery confirmation is just asking for it.

I'm just glad that sellers can't hold my feedback hostage anymore because they're just trying to cover their asses. I've always paid for eBay stuff right away, regardless of instant payment requirements. And for me to get negative feedback for something I didn't do = bullsh*t.

Cadogen: you can still report a non-paying buyer, right? Then what's the problem? That hard up for cash?

your ideals are great for an online store but i think the beauty of ebay is the fact it's a 2-way transaction - that's what made it what it is today

(if buyers keep abusing sellers then sellers will end up being forced to raise their prices & online stores will soon become the better option - cheap goods are the other thing that makes ebay popular)

also, obscure items (yeah i got nothing on that)



i'm not saying the sellers should be able to hold buyers to ransom with feedback like they used to - what i'm saying is that there should at least be some kind of rating system to weed out buyers that take advantage of their power

Somebody not paying for an item is an inconvenience. Somebody not sending you what you paid for is a screw job.

, I told him that and he realizes now to build that cost into the shipping.



also, feedback shouldn't be retaliatory. HOWEVER, I see buyers all the time that take advantage of the fact that they won't get negative feedback. That is also bullsh*t. If you want my honest opinion, I think eBay set this system up not for buyers, but to end their contract with SquareDeal and cut costs.



Not hard up for cash. Why should someone buying off your auction take 2-3wks to pay? I don't sell to "J Wellington Wimpy"s.



IF you agree to buy the product, you also agree to pay for the product in a prompt fashion. 7+ days is not prompt. That's uncollateraled layaway.


So it's OK for the buyer to breach their contractual agreement? That's not what eBay's terms say.

I'm just saying, let's maintain some perspective here. If you have a non-paying buyer, you can always resell your item. You have no material loss. If you buy an item that arrives damaged or incomplete or otherwise f*cked, then you have suffered a material loss. As such, the burden should *definitely* be on the seller.

I am so glad I'm not the only one by a long shot who feels this way

I just don't get the complaining. You don't have to use ebay if it bothers you that much. There's a system in place to complain about buyers who are obvious douchebags.

srsly

But oh, that's right, there are no other online auction sites that people actually go to. So it's easier to complain about the current situation. *See "Walmart and Politics" thread for further info

you could always use TFieds

*got screwed on TFieds. Has never been screwed on eBay.*

'twas a little joke

Just spreading the word, really...

And there's the crux. It's their "monopoly" that causes all the problems. Since they know they have the foothold on the online auction market, they pretty much can dictate to sellers how it's going to be done and that's that. The whole idea that sellers are a partnership with eBay is history.

I really need to stop posting on this thread. It's never gonna achieve anything except my getting flamed. However, my outspoken nature makes me keep going

It's not a monopoly just because everyone fails to come up with a more popular system.

Hence why I used the quote marks?

I stopped selling on eBay a long time ago, but that was just because of the fees.

Seriously

eBay is f*cking expensive to sell on....craigslist FTW

the end cap ftw !

Check this out.

So I just recently bought a 1st Ed, 1st print Hardcover Book off of eBay. I paid for it immediately via Paypal. I had e-mailed the seller multiple times asking if it had shipped out yet (I get a lot of packages, so I knew it should have arrived [worked in shipping for years, know all kind of transit times]), with no reply to any of them. So, it finally arrives today, checked the tracking number, it took him 5 days to ship out. Then, to add insult to injury, there's a note (written by previous owner) on the title page. Safe to say, that wasn't in the description.

I don't normally do it, but I'm very very tempted to leave negative feedback on this. Opinions? I'll give them a day or three to respond, but I'm not expecting to hear from them at all.

Screw his ass.

I'd probably leave neutral feedback.

That's sort of what I'm thinking, I'm just really pissed at the moment, it just got here.

I've had those moments


They pass

Unless I give feedback before they do

Hence the posts, trying to control my impulsiveness, give it some time to cool down.