Phil Pascoe
Established Member
Yes. It really isn't difficult to edit the heading when sold.
eBay sometimes...
- Thread starter Trevanion
- Start date
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transatlantic
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I was selling a small bird cage where I had the measurements given in metric. I had one person then ask for them in imperial ...
Same customer then decided it was too far and would cost too much in petrol. They then had the cheek to ask if we would meet half way.
Same customer then decided it was too far and would cost too much in petrol. They then had the cheek to ask if we would meet half way.
To be fair, most of the issues here do not relate to ebay/facebook or other software platforms... they are more to do with the behaviour of the great unwashed public.
These platforms mean that you have almost immediate access to a wide range of people, many (if not most) of whom you would not come across in your daily lives otherwise. So they often seem to behave in ways that don't fit your normal experience of the world.
My personal peeve are the grammar mistakes. I can cope with spelling - we all make typo's (lord knows, my fingers are barely articulate enough to use more than 2 to type). But the level of English used (by those for whom it is their mother tongue) makes me wonder how they get through life some days. In reality I know how they do, they live and work in an environment where it is not important to them - and that's fine, its just different to my own experience. I wish the interchangability of their, there and theyre didn't bother me so much, and I know it shouldn't ... but it does.
If only everyone was more like "us" then it would all be ok, right? Or is that how wars start?
These platforms mean that you have almost immediate access to a wide range of people, many (if not most) of whom you would not come across in your daily lives otherwise. So they often seem to behave in ways that don't fit your normal experience of the world.
My personal peeve are the grammar mistakes. I can cope with spelling - we all make typo's (lord knows, my fingers are barely articulate enough to use more than 2 to type). But the level of English used (by those for whom it is their mother tongue) makes me wonder how they get through life some days. In reality I know how they do, they live and work in an environment where it is not important to them - and that's fine, its just different to my own experience. I wish the interchangability of their, there and theyre didn't bother me so much, and I know it shouldn't ... but it does.
If only everyone was more like "us" then it would all be ok, right? Or is that how wars start?
Trainee neophyte
Established Member
A while ago I mentioned that I had ordered 4 gallons of US epoxy from China, for the astonishing sum of £15.00. As I am sure you will not be surprised to hear, this turned out to be a scam. eBay refunded the PayPal payment immediately, without a quibble.
However, the ad is still online, the same scam shop taking in money hand over fist, without any product. Why does eBay allow this, when it has been pointed out by hundreds of people that it is a scam? What's in it for eBay? Do they just want sellers, whether real or not? I assume the seller in this case took the payment, withdrew it from their account immediately so PayPal couldn't take it back as a refund, and are therefore costing eBay and PayPal money. So why continue to allow the site to take people in? I don't get what the benefit is for eBay. Perhaps someone could enlighten me.
However, the ad is still online, the same scam shop taking in money hand over fist, without any product. Why does eBay allow this, when it has been pointed out by hundreds of people that it is a scam? What's in it for eBay? Do they just want sellers, whether real or not? I assume the seller in this case took the payment, withdrew it from their account immediately so PayPal couldn't take it back as a refund, and are therefore costing eBay and PayPal money. So why continue to allow the site to take people in? I don't get what the benefit is for eBay. Perhaps someone could enlighten me.
Trainee neophyte
Established Member
@Brandlin - I'll be ill if you take my apostrophe away.
(That's a dad joke if ever there was one)
(That's a dad joke if ever there was one)
Trainee neophyte":3ped1zkw said:
I think of it differently.
Ebay is the online equivalent of the high street. If I have a problem with a shop I go to the shop to complain. I don't take up my argument with the owner of the building the shop leases.
Now thats a simplistic analogy as eBay does offer some protections and they do have some responsibilities to protect their users. But the important point here is that most of the protections are REACTIVE not PROACTIVE. Sure, they proactively prevent you from selling certain things (try putting in a listing for a shotgun for example), but the bulk of the protections are in the form of the community identifying bad sellers and marking them out for others to avoid.
The simple issue here is cost. To police adverts with a human being would be prohibitively expansive, and I imagine that as a percentage of their total number of auctions a tiny fraction of a percent would be an issue. You'd als get a lot of selleres complaining about censorship or intrusion into what they see as their business. Its a fine line to tread.
On the whole ebay do a pretty good job of protecting buyers - especially through paypal. In general they side with a buyer rather than a seller in a dispute - mostly i think to do with the fact that a lot of their sellers are now fairly large enterprises.
Trainee neophyte
Established Member
Brandlin":13pb8ruc said:
I'm not expecting eBay to get every single sale, but judging from the complaints and ratings of this particular outfit, there must be hundreds of disgruntled buyers. I knew it was a scam before I started, but took a punt just in case. All I lost was the use of £15 for a couple of months - hardly a major hardship. My only query is that eBay don't seem to want to police this, but it must be costing them money. How many thousands of pounds per day are being stolen? Tens of thousands? Makes you wonder. Still, it's not as if any of this money is real anyway - at least not if you are a bank.
RogerS
Established Member
Brandlin":100719g8 said:
I agree but, as has been pointed out here, when someone is scamming and they get pointed out to eBay then there is no reason why eBay shouldn't be pro-active.
RogerS":1vxkkmym said:
I don't know the specifics of the situation so can't comment on the detail.
However, my original point stands. Policing or reacting to this takes time and effort by human beings and that costs money. So somewhere ebay has made a business decision on how to staff and manage their activities. Its not as easy as "oh we have a complaint, shut it down!" It takes investigation, warnings, repeated offences. And at the end of the day its very easy for a seller to shut the auction and start a new one, or close an account and start a new one. It must be somewhat like that gopher and hammer game trying to stay on top of it.
Its also entirely possible that in this instance they have just messed up. Enforcing rules across large organisations and getting every human you employ to behave similarly is no easy task.
I'm not remotely suggesting it is morally correct... but then capitalism has numerous moral flaws (depending on the morals you apply - and that's a whole other argument). I am simply discussing why the situation may be as it is... chewing the cud as it were.
RogerS
Established Member
Brandlin":hn7aadxa said:
Oh no !!! :lol: You've done it now. Wait for it...he'll be along soon :wink:
Lonsdale73
Established Member
ebay's priority is ensuring they don't lose out on anything they believe is due to them. You try negotiating a deal outside of ebay and they'll be on you in seconds, plenty enough resources to monitor messages between members. I had a potential buyer ask for my postcode with regards to a collect only item prior to bidding, a natural enough request, yet we both received warnings for "breaching" their rules.
Yet, when I noticed a listing that looked suspect and warned them of my concerns they did nothing. They'd copied an account belonging to a supplier I've bought from in the past so I alerted them to the scam. They sent a thank you note, saying it had been reported many times, both to them and ebay but they were still waiting on ebay doing something about it.
Yet, when I noticed a listing that looked suspect and warned them of my concerns they did nothing. They'd copied an account belonging to a supplier I've bought from in the past so I alerted them to the scam. They sent a thank you note, saying it had been reported many times, both to them and ebay but they were still waiting on ebay doing something about it.
Trevanion
Greatest Of All Time
Another thing that's annoyed me with eBay is they've recently removed the feature to see the bid history of other bidders on the same item which was a good way of seeing if an item was being bid up or not. It would show how much percentage of their bids was exclusive to that seller and roughly what categories they were bidding on, which could be a dead give away. It used to say something along the lines of:
"Percentage of bids with this seller: 100%
Woodworking machinery = 1 bid
Boat engines and motors = 1 bid
Medical and lab equipment = 1 bid"
The above is a similar example to one I saw a year ago or so where they had bidded on practically every item the seller was selling. There was an auctioneer in Clitheroe that sold woodworking machinery on eBay that were terrible for bidding up items blatently and relisting them almost instantly if they won it themselves "Due to time waster" #-o. I guess eBay disabled the feature because in the end "bidding up" makes more money for them.
"Percentage of bids with this seller: 100%
Woodworking machinery = 1 bid
Boat engines and motors = 1 bid
Medical and lab equipment = 1 bid"
The above is a similar example to one I saw a year ago or so where they had bidded on practically every item the seller was selling. There was an auctioneer in Clitheroe that sold woodworking machinery on eBay that were terrible for bidding up items blatently and relisting them almost instantly if they won it themselves "Due to time waster" #-o. I guess eBay disabled the feature because in the end "bidding up" makes more money for them.
RogerS
Established Member
Finally got my refund (before the timeout as well).
"Please will you review your negative feedback"
"No because.... etc"
"If we refund you an extra £3 will you revise your feedback ?"
Beggars belief. Actually these solar panels are yet another case of C³ ...they really are dire. I've had three now...none of them work properly.
But here's a thought. We can play these Chinese companies at their own game. Since they don't have (usually) a UK address ...(which they are supposed to)...well, just go ahead and buy anything and even if it works just fine, start an eBay return. They'll eventually give you the refund and tell you to keep it. Cushty :lol:
"Please will you review your negative feedback"
"No because.... etc"
"If we refund you an extra £3 will you revise your feedback ?"
Beggars belief. Actually these solar panels are yet another case of C³ ...they really are dire. I've had three now...none of them work properly.
But here's a thought. We can play these Chinese companies at their own game. Since they don't have (usually) a UK address ...(which they are supposed to)...well, just go ahead and buy anything and even if it works just fine, start an eBay return. They'll eventually give you the refund and tell you to keep it. Cushty :lol:
