Those of you who have been or still are eBay sellers have probably dealt done some business with buyers whose sole intention of buying online is rip off the sellers no matter what it takes. Some have had bad experiences with Ebay sellers and do this as a way to get even . . . Today I stumbled into an article written by someone who sold things on Ebay but no longer does. She claimed that one customer threatened to write bad reviews if he wasn't offered a discount. And she had to because bad reviews can be quite costly. What do you think of people who stoop that low to get deals? Would you do it?
That's low, but people do things like that. I don't sell anymore but I offered free shipping if people bought so many of a particular item and the buyer didn't qualify but threatened to report me if I didn't. It's not my fault she wasn't bright and couldn't read the instructions. There are other scams where people I hear send photos of items too.Log In
There are some instances where i think that the buyers have a little bit too much control, but then again as a buyer on Ebay myself, I'd rather have most of the control than have the seller have most of it, and be able to scam me.
I was in a situation where I order some headphones from a seller. The shipping was super fast, but when I received the headphone they didn't work. I went back to contact the seller, and he/she was no longer listed. I found that strange, I was upset but didn't let it get to me too much since I didn't spend that much on them. I enjoy using Ebay, but I try to be careful because they are a lot of people on there that is trying to scam people out of their money.
Oh wow. I have never heard of anything like that happening before. Thanks for sharing your experience though, because now I can be aware of the sorts of things that go on, in the hopes that I may avoid such experiences in the future. I would have contacted ebay though, and I would have made sure that I got a refund.
I have heard of buyers stooping to those tactics. I'd keep a copy of all of the conversations and report them to eBay if it happened to me. Buyers in the past felt sellers had all of the power, and eBay ended up shifting it around, but they went too far. The process has shifted more toward an equal point, I think. I hope now it's at a point where everyone who's not a scammer feels as if s/he had enough power and recourse if a negative situation occurs. @Theo I've heard of that type of thing happening, but not for a long time. I can't stand scammers, and don't understand how someone could sleep at night after pulling a stunt like that. All is not fair in love and war, nor in selling on eBay. I'm glad the company will stand behind the buyer.
I love being able to buy off of eBay. As a matter of fact I just bought a charger for my tablet and waiting for it to ship soon. Reading these stories of buyers wanting to scam sellers is turning me away from selling on eBay. Sometimes even if you were to go to a physical store you can still get scammed. Just be sure to save all conversations when dealing with buyers or sellers. There has to be a way to cover yourself in case of a scam.
Don't forget that if you pay for something from eBay through PayPal then you are automatically protected should things go wrong. You can easily open a case any time that an item does ot arrive or is not as described.
I don't see anything right about doing this. It's sad for people to stoop this low to just save a few dollars. I feel like if you're so desperate to find some sort of deal, you should just look elsewhere and not go out of your way to threaten people. As someone that does run their own business, I would have chalked it up as a loss and let her write the bad review. At least you can publicly respond to the review and let it be known that they've threatened you.
Some of our relatives sell on ebay and so far thankfully I haven't heard of as drastic of a story but I have heard some complaints about buyers being extremely pesky for just very small items that wouldn't even yield the store that much profit. I think if a buyer is making threats like this it would be best to gather evidence as I'm sure that ebay won't stand for such tactics even though they usually side with buyers. It's just bad for business to allow for that to continue happening.
Yup, we've been on the receiving end of this sort of unscrupulous behaviour. -which is part of the reason we stopped selling on eBay. It can feel as if the rules are heavily biased towards the buyer. I feel strongly that they ought to be a bit more balanced. We had this guy in China claim not to have received a vintage football shirt we sent him. Even with proof of posting, we had to refund him all of the money. So in the end we concluded that he got the shirt free and we paid him for taking it off our hands. He may well have never received it, but we have a strong feeling he did and he was just being a naughty bugger.
I do think that Ebay is a lot more geared towards the comfort and happiness of the customer as apposed to the sellers though. If I had wanted to - and I recently ordered two items from ebay - I could claim that the items I received are faulty and get some type of compensation. Or I could claim that I never received them even if I did.
You're absolutely right, DreekLass! -and sadly, some people really take full advantage of it, with the buyer almost always coming out on top! It's truly sad.
This is what ultimately made me stop selling on eBay. A few years back, I used to sell a great deal of things there but the amount of people who mysteriously never reveived their items was crippling me. The system is so open to abuse and whilst this is great news for buyers, it can finish a seller off for good.
At first when I noticed that things were disproportionately geared towards the customer on Ebay, I wasn't sure whether or not my observations were correct or not, because I simply could not believe that they would make it so easy for scamming and lying to take place. But it appears so. We need more balance again. I say that but at the same time, I understand that it must be hard for Ebay to satisfy everyone.
I'm always suspicious and careful buying off EBay. I try to contact the seller first and read the reviews before actually buying something. If the reviews are bad or there aren't any, I won't buy from that seller. You just have to beware all the time.
Even when the majority of their reviews are positive ones, I will still read their negative reviews, just to see what lows that seller is capable of, because you never know, you could be one of the customers that that seller decides to screw over, you know? So I will always read the negative ones too, just to see what type of person I am dealing with if anything should go wrong.
It's been a long time since I have sold anything on EBay but I was considering it just recently. Now that I have read this thread and really thought it through I will stick to selling locally on free want ad sites. Packaging things and mailing them can be a hassle anyway. Thanks for the frank stories. You really opened my eyes to how deceitful people have become in the last 10 years.
Some people are just so unfair, unscrupulous and stingy, so it's not much of a surprise for me that some people will go that low. I, on the other hand have been cheated by some sellers, and I failed to file a dispute because at the time the dispute time frame was only up to 45 days. Now I'm glad that they have changed that and extended the dispute timeframe up to 180 days.
I sell on eBay and have had buyers who change their minds after winning an auction. I also had one that I contacted 4 times to get them to pay for their auction before I opened a case. After that they sent me an email stating that they did not appreciate the case as it was going against them. They said because they did not get some other auction they were bidding on that they did not pay for mine. I told them I was trying to earn a living and when buyers do not pay that I cannot do that. I gave them plenty of time and they only had to contact me to let me know what was going on. I ended up relisting and actually selling it for more than the first time. Then I received another email from the original buyer saying that they could pay for the item now that they ended up getting another item. People just do not pay attention or read the auctions.
