News, Have you ever had a problem with eBay?

[Tek_Freek]

Originally Posted by Wanderlust07

First, let me say that sellers should be required to post feedback about a buyer after payment is received...not after the buyer leaves feedback, like many sellers do, because the seller's feedback should be solely about the payment, not a rebuttal to the buyer's feedback.

Second, sellers who pull the kind of B.S. that sunsprit describes should be booted off eBay, permanently. These are seller games, and they defeat the purpose of a credible feedback system (a public stoning might be appropriate here...oh, wait, that's my default punishment for most things! ). A buyer shouldn't be afraid to leave honest feedback about a BAD seller due to the possibility of retaliatory feedback. I leave bad feedback when warranted, and I realize that my own reputation is at risk of purely retaliatory feedback, but I figure my numbers can take one or two undeserved negative feedbacks from dishonest sellers.

Buyers need to post negative feedback when sellers deserve it, or the feedback system won't work as it's intended. Don't let bad sellers prey on others.

Thanks for the belly laugh! eBay will never incorporate a policy like this: It's bad for business. Besides they don't give a damn if you lose your money as long as they get their fees.

I regularly visit the Computer Discussion Group on eBay and have learned a few things from reading advice from others there.

Use Paypal
Pay with a credit card

The rest is advice I've read in earlier posts here.

Personally I would never buy any computer on eBay. No printers, flash drives, flash memory, hard disks, etc. There are too many scams and even experienced geeks are ripped off.

Reports of large capacity flash drives that turn out to be bogus are commonplace. Buyers pay next to nothing for them and then get upset when they turn out to be a 512MB drive that's been tampered with.

I saw one that reported a non-working drive. The buyer finally took it apart and discovered the cut off end of a USB cable stuck in an empty shell. They posted a picture of it.

Funny thing is people just keep buying them.

[Tressa]

The only challenge I had with Ebay is the seller not responding to my inquiry until the bid was over even thought they had a few days to respond, assuming that if they responded to my inquiry they knew I would not continue the bidding. It was land and totally misrepresented. Although several years earlier I did purchase a car on Ebay sent the money to a Canadian party and received the car was very happy with the deal it was scary due to the dollar amount $22,000 but all was good.

[tahiti]

Originally Posted by pghquest

Actually I disagree with you on this avenue. Feedback should be left after a transaction has been completed. Until an item is received, and the buyer is satisfied, it really isnt "complete". Perhapse feedback between a buyer/seller should be hidden to each other and not credited until both individuals leave feedback.

I agree with this 100% and was going to post the same thing. I had a buyer once email me after her package was received that one item broke (it was packed very well) and if I didn't "take care of the situation" she was going to leave me negative feedback despite the fact she didn't purchase insurance. I had already left her + feedback. It all worked out, but her threatening tone really turned me off as I would've done right by her anyway. Because of that, I wait until I get feedback before I leave it (as a seller). As a buyer, I always leave feedback after I receive and am happy with the item - regardless of whether I got feedback or not.

I've never had to leave negative, nor have I ever gotten it in nearly 9 years on ebay. I only had one non paying bidder, who cancelled their account right after, so I couldn't leave feedback either way.

But bottom line, I agree. As a seller, there's more to the transaction than how fast the buyer paid. If a buyer leaves negative because of some issue with the item and doesn't try to contact me, for instance, I consider that buyer to be a poor one for lack of communication and therefore deserving of a negative.