Power Sellers Unite

GreyJaguar · Joined: 12 Jul 2008 Posts: 316

Digmen1,
In 2009 for about 6 months I had the same issues with Facebook. They constantly were notifying me that I wasn't paying enough for my clicks and the amount always wound up being around at least $1.00.

What was even worse was suddenly hearing on the news that Facebook was experiencing pay per click fraud. 'They were looking into it'. This happened to me several times. Obviously I could see through my website the number of visitors (and where they were coming from, Yahoo, Facebook, Craigslist, Google, etc) vs the number of clicks Facebook was charging me. I lost hundreds of dollars. Facebook gave me a credit back in the amount of $36.00. That was it for me. I no longer use Facebook for advertising.

Brandr · Joined: 07 Mar 2010 Posts: 137

Another reason to hate ebay:

When a seller's winning bidder does not pay and ignores all communication, the seller gets to open a dispute with the 'resolution center' . After you have jumped through hoops and begged the winning bidder to answer your messages for a Month with no result, ebay may give you a credit for your final value and auction fees. A credit? How about not taking your money until a bidder pays for the auction item he won? I don't want a credit, because I have no intention of selling on ebay in the future. But when they realise my (on file) credit card has been cancelled, they will no doubt suspend my account. Fine with me. With ebay it's always: ME, ME, ME. I just can't stomach this self-serving greed. ebay grabs its fee if you haven't actually made a sale. Disgusting.

Still hating ebay.

B

DaLizardsLair · Joined: 15 Feb 2009 Posts: 4780

It never took me longer than 2 weeks to get the credit. The only hoop I had to jump through was filing the UPI.

But since you're all done with eBay, why bother with the filing? If you owe them money, they'll suspend you until it's paid, and that seems to be what you want.

Or are you mad that you don't get to leave on your own terms?

Stockmiser · Joined: 03 Jun 2006 Posts: 1169

Brandr - on the "fees before payment" thing, I agree 100%, and I've been arguing for years that (1) ebay should only accept verifiable online payments, and (2) there should be no sale until seller is paid.

They did #1, and you can achieve #2 if you go "immediate payment only".

Unfortunately, this only applies to fixed price - not sure how this could be applied to auctions. There could be some logistical problems.

But what auction site (that does charge an FVF), not charge you immediately upon auction end?

What ebay is really lacking at this point is a real shopping cart - something that ALL other fixed price venues have. Immediate payment is good - but only works for a single listing at a time. I have customers buying 10 items., and doing 10 checkouts.

I don't see why ebay can't process fixed price items differently than auctions. Allow buyers to a accumulate FP items from the same seller (or multiples?) into a single shopping cart, and then checkout and pay. No payment, no sale.

It's really the auction-point-of-sale mentality that is holding ebay back from being a real fixed price venue.

I've heard the argument that ebay should separate auctions from fixed price - which would be a simplistic solution. It just doesn't seem that technically insurmountable to offer both, but handle checkouts differently.

Brandr · Joined: 07 Mar 2010 Posts: 137

DaLizardsLair wrote (View Post): › docWrite("quote")Or are you mad that you don't get to leave on your own terms?

The deadbeat bidder on my final sale agreed to cancel the transaction. I noted in the request that I filed with ebay when the offer to cancel was made, that I wished no negative fallout for either party. I think the bidder 'really' wanted my item, which was a fantastic deal, and got in over his head. People make mistakes and I don't hold grudges over small things like this, unless they are representing a scum sucking corporation like ebay.

I was given a credit for the canceled auction. However, ebay never charged my credit card. So I don't know if this means I will be given a credit after they bill me for my Monthly fees, which should be 0 other than that last sale; or if the credit will cancel out any future billing for the canceled auction. Of course I expect ebay to take the money and give me a useless credit.

As for leaving on my own terms? Of course I will. I could have feebay.com up within hours. Hopefully they won't yank my chain enough that my bruised honour will compel me to do so. I have put up such sites before when some business or another has displeased me. They always ask very nicely to amicably and equitably resolve any issues between us.

But hey, ebay made me so mad that I began posting on this commercial message board. I usually avoid contributing free content to monetised websites or wasting my time with little sites like this.

B

Brandr · Joined: 07 Mar 2010 Posts: 137

@stockmiser

Like all corporations, ebay looks after its own interests with remarkable efficiency, whilst leaving customers to flap in the wind. ebay should not charge a final value fee until the seller has been paid. Period. When a seller is stiffed, the seller gets a 'credit' from ebay for the fees associated with what is basically a non-auction. So ebay is in a no lose situation, forcing a seller to either apply the credit to a future auction, or walk away leaving ebay with a free bonanza. Jeez. What an incredibly diabolical, and brilliant business model. Billions in profits from what amounts to a server farm of disk space and bandwidth.

B

Stockmiser · Joined: 03 Jun 2006 Posts: 1169

FVF credits are applied immediately to your account, and you can see them on your invoice.

I actually would like to see ebay have an auction variation on the "immediate payment" option. It would have to be some verifiable payment option, and no FVF until the winning bidder pays. If they don't pay, the seller has the option of either doing a second chance offer OR re-listing (for no additional listing fees).

Far as I know, no auction sites offer that option.

"ebay made me so mad that I began posting on this commercial message board. I usually avoid contributing free content to monetised websites or wasting my time with little sites like this. "

Uhhh....ok....thanks for imparting your words of wisdom to us peons. What non-commerical, ad-free mega sites do you usually post your gems?

DaLizardsLair · Joined: 15 Feb 2009 Posts: 4780

Quote: › docWrite("quote")I was given a credit for the canceled auction. However, ebay never charged my credit card.

That's simply because they only bill you on a monthly basis. When the time comes and they find that the credit card you have on file in no longer valid, your account will be immediately NARU'd, until such a time as you pay.

Quote: › docWrite("quote")I actually would like to see ebay have an auction variation on the "immediate payment" option

That would be quite difficult, since it would require the buyer to be online and within eBay's sphere at the time the auction ended.

And what would happen if they weren't? The item automatically goes to the next highest bidder and so on down the list until one is found that can pay immediately?

You could end up with one surprised seller, who sees that an item went for xxx, only to find out that they will only be getting x.

Along with that is that many sellers offer discounts for any associated purchases made within a given time period.

Similar to the point you've brought up about buyers purchasing more than one item from you and having to go through checkout more than once.

Stockmiser · Joined: 03 Jun 2006 Posts: 1169

They wouldn't have to be online - they would be given a certain time period to pay - like 48 hours. If they don't pay, there is no sale, and no FVF's (and no FB). Second chance offers would be at the discretion of the seller.

Or you could even make it like a real serious auction. At the end of the auction the winner's CC is immediately charged. This kind of thing would be a seller option - and one that all bidders agreed to upfront upon bidding.

A bid is either a serious offer or it's fluff. Right now, it's just fluff, and it's why I stopped using auction format a long time ago.

Brandr · Joined: 07 Mar 2010 Posts: 137

Stockmiser wrote (View Post): › docWrite("quote")
Uhhh....ok....thanks for imparting your words of wisdom to us peons. What non-commerical, ad-free mega sites do you usually post your gems?

I wrote a long winded reply, but then decided, why bother. I thank everyone here for letting me blow off a little steam in my hate thread. I am now off to spread joy and happiness across the universe.

Toodles.

B

GreyJaguar · Joined: 12 Jul 2008 Posts: 316

Hi Brandr,

I started a new topic about an HP problem I have. I'm also writing some of it below in case you don't come to PSU that often and you should get an email from PSU that someone (mean me--smile) is adding something to this topic you started.

I don't know if you've had this happen to you---but I remember you mentioning you also have HP computers. --Thx.

I have an HP Pavilion. It is my second HP notebook computer. And both experience this same frustrating problem. I owned a Dell, then a Sony in between.

My curser if my arrow pointer is somewhere else on a page (makes no difference if it's an Internet page or a Word Document, etc., will jumpt to an entirely different place on that open page if I pause for a few seconds while typing. Through a HP Forum, someone months ago mentioned it was a setting issue.

Does anyone know where I can go to correct the setting so my cursor does not suddenly jump to an entirely differently area or even just disappear totally? I could be typing along in an email and suddenly I'm typing down below somewhere in the sender's email wording (for example) because my cursor has jumped. Or I'm typing along and the cursor has jumped to an area outside my writing field and nothing types at all.

If it weren't for the fact that this is the second HP with this very same problem, let alone that apparently other people have experienced this same problem, I would start to think it was me....lol.....And HP is no help whatsoever. And they used to be such a reputable computer firm.

jfreemanagain · Joined: 16 Mar 2010 Posts: 3

I was a seller driven away by high fees. March 30 I'm listing 1,000s of items for just 1 cent. Seller mass exodus and boycotts fail time and again. What would happen to the new system if EVERYONE used it to list FREE -- to list every household item, tens of 1,000s of beanies, millions of CDs, millions of toys, tools, DVDs, etc. -- could buyers find what they're looking for without being frustrated and moving on -- would any sellers make any meaningful profit before moving on? It won't cost me anything if nothing sells. What will it cost otherwise? Boycotting won't do it. Leaving eBay won't do it. Using eBay's new system against itself may actually get notice or even something done for us if we are one for all and all for one!

DaLizardsLair · Joined: 15 Feb 2009 Posts: 4780

jfreemanagain wrote (View Post): › docWrite("quote")I was a seller driven away by high fees. March 30 I'm listing 1,000s of items for just 1 cent. Seller mass exodus and boycotts fail time and again. What would happen to the new system if EVERYONE used it to list FREE -- to list every household item, tens of 1,000s of beanies, millions of CDs, millions of toys, tools, DVDs, etc. -- could buyers find what they're looking for without being frustrated and moving on -- would any sellers make any meaningful profit before moving on? It won't cost me anything if nothing sells. What will it cost otherwise? Boycotting won't do it. Leaving eBay won't do it. Using eBay's new system against itself may actually get notice or even something done for us if we are one for all and all for one!

There's no free listing day on March 30, so it will indeed cost you dearly to list 1000's of items. On April 1, you'll be able to list UP TO 100 auctions per month.

And putting same message on more than one thread constitutes SPAM.

Baconsdozen · Joined: 06 May 2008 Posts: 771

Ebay still arouses real passion.
Trouble is its mainly negative not like the old days when people would pass on tips and details of the bargains and weird stuff that they'd noticed or bought and sold.
Ebay now seems to arouse real anger,its almost like that normally reserved for the favourite dog that then bites its master.