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Darned eBay!!!!

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AngliaGT

AngliaGT

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Our Daughter sold her fancy phone on eBay (Don't ask-
me what it is,etc.).Buyer filed a complaint because her
"simcard"(whatever that is)wouldn't work with the phone.
The phone was with AT&T,& needed to be activated-
(or something like that) on the buyers end.I don't under-
stand all this high-tech stuff.
Anyway,the buyer filed a complaint,& our Daughter
lost.eBay doesn't seem to deal with facts,& I think this
really hurts them in the long run.
Anyone else have a problem like that?I know that I have.

- Doug
 
Last time I was on fleabay I noticed that the seller gets a chance to explain any negative feedback. That seemed fair. Still, ebay is a strange culture.
 
Things have changed. I believe that sellers don't know who gives them negative feedback anymore, and they aren't allowed to give negative feedback to buyers. It looks to me, that the buyer holds all the aces, so when the complaint comes in, guess who loses. About the only recourse sellers have is with non-payment. There, e-bay will go to bat for the seller.
 
A sim card won't work in the phone if the phone is locked to a telephone provider. Usually the phone can be freed up after 6 months or so. This is free, but requires first, knowledge of the previous phone provider and a little patience on the net. Otherwise a telephone shop can bypass all those codes and unlock it with a cable and a computer. (I just had this done and here at least it costs about 17 dollars. In England it's cheaper)
I can only imagine that the problem is that the phone was advertised as being unlocked.
 
Ebay has become too big and controls too much of the marketplace. Because of this they've definitely lost a lot of the "equitability" they used to have. Basically, sellers are locked in to ebay while customers can go anywhere. So it makes sense that they will focus on the customer.

But this is why I do not deal with ebay any more as a seller, only as a very occasional buyer.
 
I stopped selling on ebay about a year ago after my wife sold an antique clock to a guy. The clock was damaged on shipment, but the buyer immediately demanded a refund without showing us proof. After just a single email exchange he filed a complaint with ebay saying the item "was not as described". Ebay via paypal froze the transaction (my assets!) and sent me a bunch of nasty notes to prove the buyer wrong. Turns out shipment damage does indeed fall under the area of 'not as described'. My only recourse was to force the buyer to send back the clock on his dime, then a refund was made. It soured me completely to the whole thing. Will probably flog some used parts again on ebay in the future but as a seller you need to be careful. As a buyer you need to be careful too, but Ebay definitely seems to protect the buyer side more aggressively.
 
It is Ebays "Buyer Protection Plan" in action. No matter what the complaint, Ebay sides with the buyer. It is common to scam sellers with "it didn't arrive" or it's broken... Funny thing here tho, it is the SELLER that pays every dime of Ebays ever increasing fees. The buyer pays not one thin dime. It seems that ebay has totally forgotten who exactly it's customer really is. That being said, I buy and sell a lot of stuff on ebay, mostly car parts, and have never had a problem. Evidently it is in what they call "high risk" catagories, like electronics, cell phones and so on that most of the problems come from. Look in the upper right corner of the ebay page for "communities",and go to the forums, and read all you want to know about this sort of stuff.
 
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