eBay

[watervole]

Me and my scammer have cheerfully left each other negative feedback. Thanks to previous comments from alex_holden I was pretty well expecting his next step.

Message from seller:
We only seek for a amicably transaction on ebay. eBay only allow us 1 time to remove. Pls consider. Thanking you in advance.

He wants us to mutually withdraw feedback. Yeah, When hell freezes over.

I reckon negative feedback hurts him a lot more than it hurts me. My feedback explicitly mentions his insurance scam, so anyone checking will see that upfront with my advice to withhold payment. Sure, it'll vanish quickly off the front page, but it may cost him a few sales en route.

In the interim, I've just posted a pair of size 6 football boots for sale. Let's see if my luck is any better when selling...

Comments

[julesjones]

I just checked the guy's feedback - looks like you're not the only person who's not happy with finding massive extra fees hidden in the small print.

It's possible this isn't intended as an attempt to scam the customer into paying more than they expected -- it's a way of avoiding paying ebay the proper listing fees for the full starting price, and you're supposed to understand that. You might want to inform ebay that *they're* being ripped off . There's also another indirect scam going on - some of the shops offer refunds to make people feel secure about buying, but the refund is only on the bid amount and not on the postage, packing, compulsory insurance and sundry other ways of bumping up the total cost.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

No, if it was a scam against eBay, some of their emails to me would have been very different. (they'd have claimed to be saving me money by keeping their costs down) Another seller I tried who also adds insurance made it clear in big flash words near the top of the page that there was insurance (he only added a fiver). It doesn't have to be concealed to be added.

I noticed the refund fiddles on some sellers too. Frankly, if I hit a problem with an item, my first move would be to try and claim via Paypal. They cover for some things, but I doubt it's as good as they claim.

Ebay aren't interested. They just repeat that once you've bid, you have to pay. I'm coming to realised that a LOT of people don't pay for things. They're trying to keep that under the rug.

This is one thing that worries me big time about Paypal - I've no idea if I retain my rights under UK credit card legislation when I go via Paypal.