Ebay annoyances

[John M Upton]

Is there any particular reason behind Ebay's daft idea that means you have to wait seven days before you are allowed to leave neutral or negative feedback for a transaction with certain sellers?

 

I purchased a CD, a very rare one from one of those sellers who specialises in reselling old books, cd's, etc only to be then informed a few days later that when they checked it in their warehouse, it had apparently been all but destroyed whilst in storage.  Here is a refund, now go away...

 

To say I was unimpressed was an understatement.  I even offered to take the disk if it was okay and it was just the case that was wrecked but they refused.

 

So I am intending to leave honest neutral feedback but Ebay says I must wait seven days.  Why????

[Michael Hodgson]

1 hour ago, John M Upton said:

Is there any particular reason behind Ebay's daft idea that means you have to wait seven days before you are allowed to leave neutral or negative feedback for a transaction with certain sellers?

 

I don't have a problem with that.

 

It is of course in ebay's interest to discourage unwarranted negative feedback because it reduces sales and their bottom line.  If a lot of people have been leaving bad feedback for "missing" items that are actually just a bit slow in the postal system, perhaps it's not that unfair to have a cooling off period, but of course people will lose trust in feedback if they find they can't post criticism when it is justified.

 

If I want something in a hurry, I am increasingly looking at Amazon,  whose delivery speed is second to none, and high volume retail is the market that ebay seems to want to be in, rather than their original concept as an auctioneer, an approach which is ideal for collectable stuff such as one-off or second hand model railway items.

 

[hayfield]

9 hours ago, John M Upton said:

Is there any particular reason behind Ebay's daft idea that means you have to wait seven days before you are allowed to leave neutral or negative feedback for a transaction with certain sellers?

 

I purchased a CD, a very rare one from one of those sellers who specialises in reselling old books, cd's, etc only to be then informed a few days later that when they checked it in their warehouse, it had apparently been all but destroyed whilst in storage.  Here is a refund, now go away...

 

To say I was unimpressed was an understatement.  I even offered to take the disk if it was okay and it was just the case that was wrecked but they refused.

 

So I am intending to leave honest neutral feedback but Ebay says I must wait seven days.  Why????

 

John

 

It may be that quite often in the light of day things were either not that bad or have been resolved, there have been quite a few threads and replies where sellers have done nothing wrong but received bad feedback.

 

As said a delayed item or response is not necessarily a good reason for bad feedback, or a genuine mistake is a genuine mistake not an act of deception. The likes of Amazon get away with a lot simply due to their speed of dealing with things, with eBay we may not be dealing with a business but a private seller who has other commitments and not available 24/7 

[Ruffnut Thorston]

These sellers who have the eBay negative or neutral feedback delay system in operation are the so called “Power Sellers”, not the usual independent sellers, probably like most on here.

 

Again, there are tiers in operation. With different rules and so on….

 

 

Edited July 31, 2021 by Ruffnut Thorston
Typo

[ejstubbs]

Does no-one else find eBay's item description editor the most annoying piece of ess-aitch-one-tee that has ever been foisted on paying customers?

 

Today I was putting together a listing for a collection of vintage audio equipment.  Within the description I had a list of each of the items that made up the collection (amplifier, CD player, speakers etc) with details of each.  I thought it would look best as a bulleted list, so I selected the text and clicked on the appropriate button in the header of editor pane.  All looked good on the editor page, but when I previewed the listing I found that the actual bullets were to the left of the main text, and the text of the bullet points was lined up with the main text - nothing like what you'd expect from a normal bulleted list.  After a bit of swearing and cussing, I gave up on that idea and decided just to indent the text (which required switching to the "business" editor).  The result of that was that all the indented text was italicised in the listing preview.  What the actual f... I mean, where did that come from?

 

I eventually found a way of laying out my listing that looked OK-ish (though not what I'd actually wanted) and that did appear in the preview the same as it did on the editing page, but it was a tremendous waste of time and effort getting there.  The editing pane looks like it's "WYSIWYG" but it's nothing of the sort: what you get in the actual listing gives every impression of being the result of some evil eBay format randomiser algorithm.  It certainly bears only scant resemblance to what you it shows you on the screen when you're editing it.

 

To put the icing on the cake, when I eventually submitted the listing it changed the font of the item description to a serif-style font - possibly Times New Roman - when I'd happily been creating it in Arial.  AARRRGGGHH!!!!  

 

Could have been worse, though, I suppose: it could have been Comic Sans...

 

This kind of behaviour seems completely pathological.  I cannot for the life of me understand why, in the third decade of the twenty-first century, and nearly fifty years after Xerox Parc produced the first WYSIWYG editor, a company with pockets as deep as eBay's ought to be appears to be either unable or unwilling to produce software which doesn't behave in an unnecessarily and annoyingly stupid fashion.  But then perhaps that's the point: eBay is worth what it is because of its dominant position in the market.  It doesn't have to bother trying to be any better because it's still not quite bad enough to drive customers to the distinctly second-best offerings of any of its competitors.

 

If I'd written software that behaved in such a ridiculous way back in the days when I did that sort of thing for a living, I wouldn't have been in the job for long.  In later days when I was responsible for testing stuff that other people had written I'd have made sure that nonsense like that never got signed off as fit for release.  Grrr.

[hayfield]

12 hours ago, cbrooks122000 said:

I sold a loco chassis to somebody in New Zealand. I didn't know the Buyer was from New Zealand until I noticed that they hadn't paid. I simply looked up the Royal Mail postage and told them that is how it will cost. I must admit it was £1.00 dearer than what I calculated, but I sold it for more than I expected, so I took the loss.  Basically everything I sell on EBay is tracked, that way I know it gets there and as someone said before, if the Buyer doesn't want to pay that level of postage then don't bid. The thing that does annoy me is when I buy something and the Seller takes over a week to send it. I generally try and send it as soon as possible unless it is a weekend. Then there are the people that charge £10.00 post and packing to send a loco economy delivery. If it was "Special Delivery" then that would be reasonable but not economy. Again in those cases I don't bid.

Then there are those people that don't list the loco as "Tender Driven" and then use a starting value that indicates it is the loco driven version, hoping to catch someone out.

 

A man after my own heart

 

I dont send everything tracked, but I do get a certificate of postage. I clearly state what method of postage (based on what I expect it to sell for), and as you say if it sells for I am happy to cover the extra charge.

 

Likewise I get a bit annoyed when an item takes ages to arrive, unless it is stated in the description that postage may be delayed

 

Ever since I bought something at a giveaway price which had expensive postage, I never mind expensive postal costs as they put potential buyers off, I value an item including the postage, then detract the postage cost to arrive at my maximum bid.

 

I try and find badly/missed described items, as it reduced competition. Look for things others have missed

[ejstubbs]

51 minutes ago, hayfield said:

I dont send everything tracked, but I do get a certificate of postage.

 

A certificate of posting won't help if the buyer raises a "not delivered" case with eBay; without evidence of delivery they will side with the buyer every time.  Which is actually understandable since it is the seller's responsibility to get the item delivered to the buyer, not just to put it in the post.

[John M Upton]

With the Royal Mail having not collected a signature since the whole Covid debacle began, it is questionable whether their tracked and signed for services are really that accountable.

 

Don't get me started on the various other couriers available, yes they are cheaper but you pay peanuts.....

[hayfield]

3 hours ago, ejstubbs said:

 

A certificate of posting won't help if the buyer raises a "not delivered" case with eBay; without evidence of delivery they will side with the buyer every time.  Which is actually understandable since it is the seller's responsibility to get the item delivered to the buyer, not just to put it in the post.

 

Quite simply I refund the buyer and make a claim against the Royal Mail, its very easy and not using an unnecessary service saves the buyer additional expense. I take exception to the claim I just put them in the post. Everything I sell is taken to the Post Office, I chose the appropriate service, always post next day, use 1st class and obtain proof of postage I bought. I take just as much care with the smallest/cheapest item as I do with the most expensive. For something worth £5 standard postage is fine. On the other hand if it needs "special delivery" rather than "recorded" this how I send it.

 

Now if the Royal Mail refutes the claim I will be straight back to eBay and perhaps the police.  Likewise if its lost in the post and its recorded delivery I will refund the buyer and claim from the Royal Mail eBay will give me no protection at all.

 

Likewise If I buy from someone and it does not arrive I will expect and demand a refund from the seller, my contract is with the seller not the carrier (who in most cases would not deal with me anyway).

[hayfield]

2 hours ago, cbrooks122000 said:

I must admit I have heard horror stories about Hermes, but where I live they are very good. There is one lady that does our round regularly and she is very good. The trouble is the time it takes through their system is very variable, even best case is a lot longer than Royal Mail Second Class. DPD seem very good but they are expensive.

 

The Hermes model is in theory very good, however it is let down by both the weakest link (extremely poor couriers in many cases) And a company who have forgotten about having a customer service proposition that works for all. 

[hayfield]

3 hours ago, cbrooks122000 said:

I must admit I have heard horror stories about Hermes, but where I live they are very good. There is one lady that does our round regularly and she is very good. The trouble is the time it takes through their system is very variable, even best case is a lot longer than Royal Mail Second Class. DPD seem very good but they are expensive.

 

 

DPD could end up being much cheaper if the item sent gets lost,, as you say the Royal Mail + Post Office proposition is very hard to beat, and with first class costing little extra than second class its not worth the worry using 2nd class

[Michael Hodgson]

45 minutes ago, hayfield said:

 

Now if the Royal Mail refutes the claim I will be straight back to eBay and perhaps the police.  Likewise if its lost in the post and its recorded delivery I will refund the buyer and claim from the Royal Mail eBay will give me no protection at all.

 

Lot of good the old bill are.  They're not interested and will tell you it's a civil matter if you've lost money on an ebay transaction.

The easiest way to meet the Chief Constable's targets on their clear-up percentages is not to file reports of crimes that they haven't the resources to investigate.

[hayfield]

19 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Lot of good the old bill are.  They're not interested and will tell you it's a civil matter if you've lost money on an ebay transaction.

The easiest way to meet the Chief Constable's targets on their clear-up percentages is not to file reports of crimes that they haven't the resources to investigate.

 

If the Royal Mail think there is a scam they go after them as they take these things seriously and no doubt eBay would act as well, both have interests in crooked claimants 

[The Johnster]

3 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Lot of good the old bill are.  They're not interested and will tell you it's a civil matter if you've lost money on an ebay transaction.

The easiest way to meet the Chief Constable's targets on their clear-up percentages is not to file reports of crimes that they haven't the resources to investigate.

The police cannot be expected to deal with civil court matters, a crime has to have taken place before they are interested, and they need evidence before they can take action any action involving a prosecution, as the CPS rightly will not take on cases they do not think they have a chance of winning. 
 

There is a whole system of civil courts, sherriffs, bailiffs, and the like to administer civil justice, though they may call on police support when enforcements are carried out, and it is not unusual for crimes to be committed in the course of such events, which are of course appropriate for the police to deal with, but are still not a part of the civil justice system. 

[hayfield]

9 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

The police cannot be expected to deal with civil court matters, a crime has to have taken place before they are interested, and they need evidence before they can take action any action involving a prosecution, as the CPS rightly will not take on cases they do not think they have a chance of winning. 
 

There is a whole system of civil courts, sherriffs, bailiffs, and the like to administer civil justice, though they may call on police support when enforcements are carried out, and it is not unusual for crimes to be committed in the course of such events, which are of course appropriate for the police to deal with, but are still not a part of the civil justice system. 

 

I believe if someone has made a false declaration the Royal Mail in some instances reports it as fraud to the Police.

[Michael Hodgson]

What is currently annoying me about ebay is their standing search facility not working.  I have set a number of searches using the Email notification option for things that rarely come up, but which I would be interested in if they do.  This system used to work quite well and it sent me an email everytime something new was listed that met the criteria.  Unfortunately although I still get ebay emails about other things, these emails no longer appear when there is definitely something new for them to report.  There have been a number of threads complaining about this over the years, and one or two short-term workarounds suggested but they are too tedious to use.

[hayfield]

Michael

 

I have noticed both eBay's search system and the suggestions of other items on the page of a lot you are looking at, are far less like the item you are looking at/the search is far broader and less targeted. Strange as they are asking for ever more details when listing an item

 

It has always been dependant on the person listing the item adding item specifics, more and more people are realising model railways are / could be valuable, but fail to add the most important details. Well described and easy to find items always sell for more.

 

There are some items I am watching that I found by accident, as what I would have searched for would not have found them

[John M Upton]

Their search system seems to have gone awry lately.  Search for Class 20 under N scale and you get no results at all, search for Farish Class 20 and they magically appear....

Edited August 2, 2021 by John M Upton

[Michael Hodgson]

2 hours ago, hayfield said:

Michael

 

I have noticed both eBay's search system and the suggestions of other items on the page of a lot you are looking at, are far less like the item you are looking at/the search is far broader and less targeted. Strange as they are asking for ever more details when listing an item

 

It has always been dependant on the person listing the item adding item specifics, more and more people are realising model railways are / could be valuable, but fail to add the most important details. Well described and easy to find items always sell for more.

 

There are some items I am watching that I found by accident, as what I would have searched for would not have found them

I agree that people don't bother to fill in the item specifics, so it's a question of what they put in the title and description, and that one sometimes strikes lucky by finding something badly described, quite often by a seller who doesn't know much about what he is selling, perhaps because he's flogging something left by a relative who passed away.  I'm not expecting my searches to find anything that has been misdescribed, or where the seller has omitted key words in his description, or is subject of mis-spelling.

 

There are searches I have defined that look for particular words in the title that do show up if I go into the list of saved searches and manually look at each one, however I just don't get the emails.  So each of the individual searches do still work, it's just that ebay are no longer running them to generate the emails although I have subscribed for email notification, and I haven't had any of these notifications for ages.  My email is correctly set up, and ebay emails are not going into Junk, which is commonly a source of the problem.  Some people have fixed this issue by deleting the search and defining it again from scratch and find that it works again, but only for a short period.

[247 Developments]

I see Shop categories have gone from small seller but the big boy still have it

Edited August 6, 2021 by 247 Developments

[hayfield]

10 hours ago, 247 Developments said:

I see Shop categories have gone from small seller but the big boy still have it

 

I rarely buy "buy it now" items and concentrate on auction lots, preferring to deal directly with companies for new items. My first port of call being my local model shop, then favourite retailers/manufacturers/ society stores

 

This is not saying I dislike eBay, far from it, but I prefer to maximise the traders profit   

[John M Upton]

Following on from the classic 'Not bothering to read the description' we now have 'Not bothering to read the answer to their question' as I have just had to answer the same question from the same person three times....

 

Sigh...

[47137]

17 hours ago, John M Upton said:

Following on from the classic 'Not bothering to read the description' we now have 'Not bothering to read the answer to their question' as I have just had to answer the same question from the same person three times....

 

Sigh...

Most likely you are not writing the answer they want to see. Try replying with something truthful and informative, but unrelated to the question :-)

 

- Richard.

[Jim Martin]

4 hours ago, 47137 said:

Try replying with something truthful and informative, but unrelated to the question :-)

 

- Richard.

Hi, is this locomotive DCC fitted, please?

 

Perhaps. More to the point, though: did you know that in 2019, Bristol ranked 8th among all UK airports by passenger numbers, ahead of Glasgow,  Liverpool,  East Midlands and Leeds/Bradford?

[John M Upton]

Ah, a new annoyance....

 

Sellers using pretentious nonsense in their descriptions.  Looking at a quite rare CD on Ebay being sold by one of those dealers who pays you 50p for it along with a pile of others only to then bung it on Ebay for thirty quid, which has the bold baffling description "Professionally refurbished".

 

In other words, their minimum wage university student employee in the warehouse, might have if he/she was bothered, swapped the original case for a slightly less scratched one which ironically devalues the CD, more so as there is no actual picture of the actual item you are being offered so you cannot see what they have done to it

Edited August 20, 2021 by John M Upton