Dear eBay Queen;

I guess I don’t fully understand the feedback system — somewhere along the line it seems that anything other than glowing praise, and raving about how great a seller is, can somehow be interpreted as negative. I purchased a coffee maker on eBay.  It was advertised as “new in opened box”

I received it promptly.  When I took out of the box and turned it upright to put on my counter, the base, and all of the internal parts connected to it fell out. Upon closer examination, it appeared that someone else had problems with it, as someone had unsuccessfully attempted to repair it with what appeared to be hot glue.  It may have been the seller that attempted the repairs, or it may have taken place before the seller acquired the item.  The seller may not have even taken it out of the box.  I have no way of knowing.  I sent a note to the seller; he offered to refund my money.

I am not out any money, but I also do not have a coffee maker.  I am out the time involved in repackaging and returning the item.  To me, positive would be if I bought a coffee maker, received it, it worked, the deal is done between me and the seller.  Negative would mean I bought it, it was defective, the seller said “Who cares” and I am stuck with a coffee maker that does not work. Neutral would be somewhere between the two — bought it, paid for it, didn’t work, returned it, and got a refund.

Why is the seller so bent out of shape that I gave him a neutral rating — and I had to wait a week before I could even leave it?

Joe Blake

Dear Joe;

You aren’t wrong for thinking this way.  In the real world, a neutral of this kind wouldn’t mean too much to the seller or the buyer.  We are taught since elementary school mistakes happen.  In the world of eBay, it means something different. When people see a neutral or a negative on someone’s feedback page, they are taught to assume that they are an untrustworthy seller, not that a mistake was made.

Dear eBay Queen;

On the 23th of February, I won a laptop computer on eBay. I paid for it on the same night. After receiving no responses to my requests for a shipping update for three days, I was refunded by the guy.  He said that the PayPal account I had sent it to was a joint account he was trying to close, and to please send it to another address. He sent another bill and charged double the shipping, (this might have been a mistake, but I wouldn’t know.) I requested another invoice, received one through eBay, and paid it, (with appropriate shipping costs this time). This payment went to the same account that the guy was “trying to close”. This occurred on February 26th.

I’ve messaged him five or more times since then requesting an update on shipping and received nothing. Further, I tried messaging him on AOL Instant Messenger (his “new” PayPal email was an AOL address), and the phone number that he listed in the eBay listing is a bad.  To date, I’ve received no laptop, no messages, no refund, and can’t get a hold of him. About the only thing I know for sure about this guy is his mailing address, which was listed in the listing (he lives about 3 hours from where I live.)

Where do I go from here? If I file a PayPal complaint, will that get me a refund, or do I need to contact my bank? Is there anything else I can do?
Justin; Lawrence Ks

Dear Justin;

I can imagine the frustration you are feeling.  If this were my transaction, I would contact them through eBay’s email system and have their contact information emailed to me.  You can do both of these by following the instructions here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/contact-member.html.

If your seller does not respond or if the phone number is bad, I would start the claim process through PayPal.

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item 140384097750 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page): Do you remember the 80’s? Did you like Nintendo? Check out this game Factory Sealed NES Nintendo Stadium Events SOLD $41,300.00 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140384097750

Suzie Eads is a nationally known eBay marketer and eBay trained Education Specialist. She lives in Rantoul. Do you have a question for the eBay Queen? E-mail: questions@asktheebayqueen.com.

Dear eBay Queen;

I’ve been selling on eBay since 1997.  I sell mostly high-end antiques, and keep around 200 items a month on the platform.  I’ve enjoyed reading your article for years now, but feel like there is something missing when you’ve written about eBay.

eBay was a community.  It had its own personality and a unique collection of items available in one place.  It also had NO competition. The eBay changes that are being put in place are killing that community.  This community was a virtual setting, where a member paid for exposure in a global market. How a member conducted business was their own dealing. Some sellers were bad, but not to the degree reported.  It certainly did not justify how they are treating sellers now.
eBay is my ONLY source of income.  I keep myself up at night thinking about these changes.   Sometimes I wonder, who does eBay think they are to dictate a set of performance standards that are unsustainable, very poorly implemented, and not even applicable to their Diamond PowerSellers? Most importantly their policy is completely out of kilter with the community that made it a success!

Have you ever thought that eBay has no inventory, yet they dictate terms of service? They lack customer service, yet order customer service quality standards.  They do not have any claim to the payment for goods sold, yet put limits on the method we use to accept payments.

Those of us, who have made a living on eBay, find themselves passionately arguing the wisdom of these eBay changes.  Do you remember “New” Coke?  They just had to do something to compete with Pepsi!  Fortunately for them, it only took 72 days to see the error of their ways.

It seems to me that eBay is ignoring everything the community is saying.  They even got rid of the community boards (as we know them).  I have heard eBay executives say “all this will hurt for awhile, but that pain will go away.”  Isn’t this the same thing doctors tell their dying patients?  At least that patient knows that after the worst has passed and the funeral well attended, the community will be OK.

I’m not sure why I am complaining to you.  What can you do to help me? You are in the same boat I’m in.  I read in your February 4^th article, that you are not a Top Rated Seller.  What are your plans to improve enough to become a Top Rated Seller?

Matthew; Lawrence, KS

Dear Matthew;

I am sorry to say, I agree with your comments about eBay.  eBay was founded on the belief that “people are basically good”.  They aren’t treating us that way, are they?

My plans are to ride this out.  I don’t believe the current staff is making the right decisions for eBay, (let alone me) but, I still am successful on eBay, and that’s where I receive most of my sales.   How about you?

I don’t believe the Top Rated Seller program is a reasonable way to grade a seller. What happened to 99% positive feedback? What happened to the Detailed Seller Rating Program where 4.7 out of 5 stars were good?  Now they are saying you can only receive a 1’s or 2’s  on .5% of your sales.  If you have 100 sales a month, that’s less than one a month.  This to me translates to perfection.  I try to make every sale a good one for the buyer, but can I make it perfect for someone I’ve never met, that just had a bad day? Probably not.

My current goal is to keep moving product and selling on eBay.  Believe me; these policies have kept me up at night too.  It’s been a struggle, but I’ve been focusing more on my business and less on eBay’s policies.  Ultimately, this is my business and I need to do what is best for it.  Keep trying, and moving forward.  The ridiculousness of their ways is going to come back on them eventually.

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item 140384015380 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page): I love the Olympics! It looks like other people do too! 2010 Olympic Torch, and Torchbearer Uniform SOLD $4,050.00 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140384015380

Suzie Eads is a nationally known eBay marketer and eBay trained Education Specialist. She lives in Rantoul. Do you have a question for the eBay Queen? E-mail: questions@asktheebayqueen.com.

Dear eBay Queen;

I accessed my eBay account today and the “alert” told me I did not meet their new April 2010 DSR standards and I better improve them.

I ship my orders well within my “three business day” selection, usually the next mail run after receiving payment.  The only way I can improve that is to ship them before they are actually bid on.

The only rating I passed on was “Communication,” so that means I fell short on all the other ratings.  I can’t seem to get access to the rating specifics and even if I can, it doesn’t matter because I can’t address any of them.  It says contact with the buyers that are rating you is forbidden, I thought that rater identity was anonymous from the get go.

My head is not so deep in the eBay sand that I can’t see offering free shipping is what eBay would like me to do.  That way they get a cut of my shipping COSTS in their FVF and in their sister site, PayPal fees as well.

eBay has steadily turned on sellers for sometime.  They have forgotten who brought them to the dance.  Sellers have been their bread and butter, because buyers do not pay invoices.

The number of eBay buyers has dropped because of the economy and some other reasons, but the matter of seller treatment is a double whammy.

Marv

Dear Marv;

I am really sorry you are experiencing this frustration with eBay policy.  There are many sellers that are in the same boat with you.  Except, it’s not a boat, it’s a 100,000 + passenger ship.  I would urge you to keep trying if you enjoy selling on eBay.  If not, have you tried Amazon, Bonanzle, Etsy, or your own webstore?

I hope that you resolve your problems with eBay, and you are back selling your wares.

Dear eBay Queen;

I listed a bunch of new auctions tonight, but two just wouldn’t list — kept getting errors for prohibited words in the titles and/or descriptions. I had NO idea what the problem was, and it took me FOREVER to figure it out!

The first problem I should have seen right away — IVORY. The name of the manufacturer of this celluloid item was IVORY PY-RA-LIN.  Had to remove the I-word and tell the shoppers to see if they can just read it on the back of the item in the photo.

But the second one was a real stumper. The only error I received was a pop up telling me a word was not allowed, but they didn’t tell me what the word was!

The description included all sorts of possibly offensive words copied straight from the documents themselves. I had to read the VERY long description over and over until I caught the problem. Its am selling a collection of very old documents, and two of the items were Western Union Telegrams. Bingo! For some reason, eBay is afraid of, or hates Western Union. So I had to change it to W. U. Telegrams (they do show in the photos).  I feel sorry for anyone who collects Western Union memorabilia.

There are currently 32 auctions with the words Western Union in the titles, and there are 83 if you search descriptions, too. I just don’t understand how the other sellers are able to list these auctions. I use a third-party program, and I suppose most of the other sellers are using eBay’s software, so you’d think I could get away with more than they can. Any ideas on how they get away with it?

PinkPosy; Lawrence, KS

Dear PinkPosy;

This is one of my pet peeves also.  It could make a person CRAZY trying to figure out what word is offensive!  I did a little research on eBay and I came up with some discussion about it here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/offensive.html . I have emailed eBay and asked them to provide a list of offensive words to help all of us comply with their policies.  I urge you to do the same also.  I don’t think they realize the time it takes trying to figure out what is wrong with a listing that will not list.

I use Blackthorne Pro (eBay Software), and I’ve received ALL kinds of error messages when listing this week, similar to the one you are describing.  I think this is an area they have just updated.

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item 140381385645 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page): How much would you pay for your favorite discontinued shampoo? Check out Clairol Herbal Essence Shampoo SOLD $50.99 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140381385645

Suzie Eads is a nationally known eBay marketer and eBay trained Education Specialist. She lives in Rantoul. Do you have a question for the eBay Queen? E-mail: questions@asktheebayqueen.com.