Ebay Sellers Beware! A Horror Story From A Small Business Perspective.

We often resell used and refurbished equipment

. When we can't find a buyer privately we will often turn to eBay to help sell the unit.

I recently had a few events that really left me with a bad taste in my mouth for how EBay treats its sellers.

The first incident was on the sale of a used pano. We had the unit listed on eBay and at the same time I found a local buyer. Sadly the item already had a bid on eBay that met the minimum so I let the local buyer know that I would let them know if I found another unit but I had to sell to the eBay purchaser.

The bidder one the item and a couple of days went by with no payment. I kindly sent an invoice to the customer asking them to please pay within 3 business days of the sale close as was listed on the EBay add. The buyer then sent me an email back asking me to lower my shipping fee that was a part of the sale. I explained a pano is an expensive item to ship and that the price also covers the building of the pallet as well as custom making foam inserts and the box to keep the unit safe. I also informed the customer that if they don't want to pay the listed shipping they really need to ask for the shipping to be lowered before bidding on an item and winning it.

The customer then started asking me all kinds of other questions, like pictures of specific items, pictures of the pano, and then the buyer asked me to put the unit back together that was currently disassembled in storage, take a pano out of it and send that pano to him. At this point I told the customer that this wasn't a sales conversation, they already purchased the unit and now they need to pay. The end result is I was charged my 100$ sales fee by ebay and I have to wait two weeks in the ebay resolution center to possibly get back a "credit" on my ebay account. There is no way to list negative feedback on buyers anymore so other sellers can not weed out these buyers who clearly bid on several items not knowing which one they will win and then just refuse to pay when they win. So our company is out $100 to ebay and it has wasted much of my time.

The second event was in the resale of a film processing unit. I shipped it out UPS insured making every effort we could to make sure it arrived safely. The buyer sent me an email days after receiving the item saying it arrived broken. This was on Thursday. I corresponded with the doctor and informed them that I was sorry about the damage in shipping and that I fully insured the product and simply needed to file a claim with UPS and get them in the office to inspect the package and take back the unit and then I would issue a refund.

On Sunday, 1 Business day later I received an email from the buyer. "I have been extremely patient with you and if I don't receive my full refund on Monday I am going to take it up with Ebay and Paypal"

I responded on SUNDAY that one business day is really not very patient for a refund and that if they would simply let UPS come out and inspect the package they will get their refund soon. The customer didn't respond and if they go to Ebay, Ebay will make them ship the item back to me(Or some box, because all Ebay confirms is that a Box was shipped and delivered, who knows what is inside it) and the buyer gets their money back directly from your paypal account without any say so from you. Also, at this point there will be no hope whatsoever of reclaiming your shipping insurance and the buyer probably stole the parts out of your unit to fix theirs or just kept your good working unit and sent you back their broken one. They get what they wanted for free and you are out the full sales price plus Shipping.

So Sellers Beware. I know that paypal seems like a great way for you to accept a payment from ebay, but I would suggest simply listing you accept major credit cards and running it through your own merchant account. Your bank and credit card processor is on your side and if a disputed transaction comes up, just make sure you shipped to the address provided on the customers ebay, have tracking information and confirmation, and have pictures of everything you have shipped.

If you are selling expensive medical equipment and the buyer will only buy through paypal then most likely they were intending to scam you anyway.

by: Shawn Hall

POST COMMENT

New Forklift Technology Helping Business & The Environment Facebook Business Pages To Maximum Online Exposure Guaranteed Success In Supply Chain Business With Definitive Solutions 47 Edgy Perspectives For Unstoppable Business Success Protect Your Business In More Ways Than One With Security Solutions Seo Birmingham Gets Your Business On Top Android Application Development For Your Business Needs Real Estate Marketing Online: Tips For Your Business Make Car Polishing Your Business Hosted Phone Conferencing And Unified Business Communications You Need To Know About Southern Sun Lagos Is The Ideal Location For Business Travellers Marketing Advice For Small Business Owners Ebay Sellers Beware! A Horror Story From A Small Business Perspective.