WHO AGREES WITH ME? SHOULD NPB's be allowed to have 3 strikes?

What if the shoe were on the other foot? This month I've encountered two sellers who didn't deliver what I bought (NDSs). Should I write "I just do not think that dead beats should even be allowed to have 3 strikes before they are banned" about them? How long did you allow for these "dead beats" to pay before branding them? How many times did you request payment from them? Did you get any responses? These are all questions I feel I must ask before trying to answer your one-size-fits-all categorization.

I sent numerous emails! I also had ebay email them as well and still no response. The NPB's also were given negtives and neutrals from other sellers from the same time period for not paying(ex. his last 5 feedbacks were either negative or neutral).

I would have just cancel the high bidder's bid if he had a horrible feedback rating , but at the time he won my auction, he had exclusively 2 postives stating quick pay, but I guess that changed fast.

I am also aware that there are some sellers that never ship or send damaged products. My question is about NPB's not corky sellers

We just had our 1st NPB I have sent numerous emails the only one I got back was his address and asking how much shipping would be. I replied 4 times already including ebays reminder. 3 strikes would be great if only there was away for Ebay to monitor people because all they really have to do is resign up for Ebay with a new name and fake address and so forth. As for sellers I have not encountered any thing bad exept I got a pair of oakley for my hubby and the lenses where not how they where pictured in listing nor did he state the picture was not actual poduct or anything. But I count that as my mistake for not asking.

Also i would like to add the point of how a buyer can choose what particular auction that they bid on, while sellers cannot control all of the potential bidders since you can only block old dead beats (yes steve, DEAD BEATS).

As a buyer, you can view a sellers feedback and get a good idea on how the seller operates. So if you bid, its your risk. I personally never bid on low feedback sellers; especially on big ticket items.

As a seller, I give all newbies a chance (they actually pay the fastest). I also try and weed out potential jack asses by viewing all of the bidders' feedback.

I never said there weren't deadbeat buyers on eBay. Since there are a lot more buyers than sellers, it stands to reason there'd be a lot more NPBs than NDSs. My point was, and is, that it's unfair to judge someone without first trying reasonable means to obtain payment. You say you've done that, fine. Then they're deadbeats. (I spell that as one word because that's the way the dictionary has it.)

I've seen sellers who say right up front in their item descriptions that they reserve the right not to sell to persons with poor feedback records. I don't think that would keep NPBs from bidding, but it gives the seller an excuse not to have any dealings with them. So far as I know eBay supports that position.

Ya, I was just steamed over the fact I had to file 2 NPB forms in the last week. 99% of transactions on ebay are great. It is just the small minority of (revised) deadbeats that mess it up for everyone else.

(steve) thanks for always contributing to the forum. It is nice to know what others think.

Thanks. I've been around eBay for several years (got a 600+ feedback record) and hope I'm being helpful. AS is the third software setup I've used and so far as I'm concerned it'll be the last one. It's so far superior to anything else I've used that there's really no comparison. What I especially like is that the support is so quick to address problems. (Yo, Adam, I'm talkin' about you!)

I don't think NPB's should have any chances..After all you can always cancel a bid. The aggravation you have to go through is terrible. Ebay is to slack with these people. I have had 3 out of over 500 transactions. It is juat plain dishonest. If they were truly signing a contract, they may think differently.

Frontierman, your 3 NPB's in 500 transactions works out to six-tenths of one percent of the time. Not a very high rate of frequency, I'd say. Anyhow, when you say a buyer can always cancel a bid, you're overlooking the very specific reasons for which eBay will allow a bid to be cancelled:

"> You accidentally enter a wrong bid amount. For instance, you bid $99.50 instead of $9.95.
(If this occurs you will need to quickly re-enter the correct bid amount).
> The description of an item you have bid on has changed significantly.
> You cannot reach the seller. This means that you have tried calling the seller and his or her phone number doesn't work, or you have tried emailing a message to the seller and it comes back undeliverable."

In general I agree that deadbeats shouldn't expect much sympathy. But let's temper your decree with just a little bit of mercy: sometimes there's a valid reason for nonpayment within the time allotted by eBay, so cut the buyer some slack. As a seller I try to give a NPB at least 3 weeks and multiple e-mails before writing him off and leaving negative feedback, etc.

Speaking of sellers who won't deliver, I won an auction a few weeks ago by manual sniping. There were no bids, so I got the item at the opening price. It took a few days for the seller to respond. He said, and I quote "Sorry but the system has been sold u should have bid sooner!". So, I guess he used the tactic of advertising elsewhere, only he did not end his auction when he sold outside of ebay....

Maybe he didn't know how to end the auction. HEHEHE.

I find it funny how so many people on ebay do not know how to utilize all of the tools available to both buyers and sellers.

For instance, my friend is an idiot when it comes to ebay. He asks me dumb questions all of the time on how to manage his auctions, etc. All it takes is a few minutes of searching and review and a 10 year old child could figure out ebay.

I was the auction winner of 2 items (same seller) using auctionsniper (total: $30), contacted the seller, I paid via paypal, seller acknowledged the payment and said "ok, I will send those items tomorrow"... 3 weeks and I'm still waiting.

Seller has +100 something feedback (0 negative), I have +15 (0 negative), very strange. If I leave negative feedback, he will leave negative feedback of course, very annoying. I think I have wasted $30. He doesn't answer email.

Please advise.

Paypal fraud center? damon@paypal.com?
eBay fraud center?

Oracle, it sounds like the seller has had something catastrophic happen to his computer. It can happen, believe me. In the interim, all of the sites you proposed for seeking redress can be used. In addition, if the seller has a "Me" icon in his eBay offer go to that page because there may be a telephone number where you can reach him. In general, sellers with a significant positive feedback record and no negatives don't suddenly "go bad." There is something the matter which is beyond the seller's control and I advise against negative feedback at this point.

Something is probably wrong

If the seller has all positive feedbacks and has 100+, he/she probably is experiencing a family crisis. If something was wrong with his/her computer, he/she could go use another one.

Just try contacting the seller and see what's going on. Obviously the seller does not deserve a positive (+) for this transaction because 3 weeks is way too long w/o any form of contact.

MAYBE A NEUTRAL? Actually nevermind he took your money. I say NEGATIVE if this goes on for 2 more weeks.

GOOD LUCK

Hi,

You can request the seller's contact info through ebay. The URL for the form is:
http://cgi3.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?MemberSearchShow

If you still cannot contact the seller, you can file a complaint with ebay. The info for this is located here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/investigates.html#selling

You can also file a Fraud Report with the National Fraud Information Center. Their URL is:
http://www.fraud.org/

I hope this helps :-)

I've noticed sellers with high feedbacks scamming people. I've been through www.businessweek.com last month and read an article about a powerseller on ebay who sells collectibles which hes been doing since 1997. He is currently missing after a major scam. He only delivered goods to those who used online payment modes. Hes reported missing after stealing an amount of $400,000 US Dollars.

Like what most people think about paypal, its not really 100% reliable. They do claim to say that they have seller and buyer's protection but I wonder why Ive not been eligible when I got scammed by a seller. I bought a DVD player from him and paid him $379 and gave my paypal confirmed address for delivery. Its been 3 months now and I still don't hear from him. I do get pissed when i think about that dude and whenever I write to him, I get one reply "Please provide more info". Now, I've emailed him with the paypal transaction number, screen shot of my transfer from my paypal account, Auction Number and Details, My shipping Address, Phone Number, Date Of Payment, Date Of End of Auction, EVERYTHING and its the same mail I get from him. I've never got my positive feedback after making the payment. He used to email me promptly till I made the payment.That dude has something like 1000+ feedbacks whereas I only have 60 feedbacks. If i leave him a negative, Im sure he would do the same for me. And Obviously, his feedbacks would convince anyone.

I wrote to paypal and they never did anything and right now, I have my account restricted for what I don't know. $500 of my personal funds are blocked there and my bank balance has gone to negative due to which I cannot list an auction since I was making the payment via Online Check rather than credit card since I don't have one of my own.

Ebay can be a great place if everyone were doing COD/Escrow or similar mode of payment. But I guess, everything has its ups n downs. I decided never to buy anything expensive from ebay. Im only buying Audio CDs from ebay. I've lost way too much of money. The only reason why I trusted most of these sellers are cause of their feedbacks that are over 100 times of mine.

How many of you have visited www.paypalwarning.com?

Man i am totally sorry to hear that. That is just too bad some sellers can go to sleep doing this kind of stuff.

I remember my father telling me about some guy (I believe last name Thomas) who did that major scam. He was on the newspapers and has been reported missing. He left his wife and normal life for a measly $400,000. Man that sure is a small amount to risk getting locked up for fraud.

If I were you I would leave the powerseller a negative feedback even though you only have 60 feedback. There are probably others who experienced the same thing as you did and will join the ride with you once they see a negative placed. It is always better to speak the truth than hide it.

I'm with Rickdogg on this one. The guy's had 'way too long to make good on his sale. I might suggest, though, that you keep copies of any and all communications with this loser so that if he counters a negative feedback with one of his own against you, you have the means of backing up what you say. EBay doesn't allow retaliatory negatives anyhow and you could get them to remove it if the seller does try it. Right, Rickdogg? I seem to recall some seller tried to do that to you and a few others.

Yes, you are right Steve. The seller left retalitory negative feedbacks for a few buyers and ebay removed all of them when they discovered that he was running a scam. On top of that, he was also banned indefenitely.

So do not be afraid to leave negative feedback if you can prove to ebay that this guy is a bozo

Good luck to you

I really don't like a the feedback rating system. I mean, does it really work? Think of it like this: you win the widget, you pay pretty quick (less than a week), and 1) it takes two weeks for the item to get there, 2) it's shipped Priority Mail, and 3) it looks like a third grader packaged it.

In other words, if they used Priority Mail (2-3 days) they really didn't ship it that soon after you paid (if you get it two weeks later). Also, what about the bad packaging?

BUT, the truth is, the seller would STILL get a positive!

Also consider this: who really uses neutrals? I've probably seen 12 neutrals (total) since I've been on Ebay. No one uses them; therefore they are useless.

I propose a GRADING system: A,B,C,D,F. The grade could be selected by the feedback-giver and a comment could also be left. This would allow for a MUCH more realistic rating system. The grades would mean the following:

A - Excellent. Top-Notch Transaction.
B - Very Good. Timely Pay, Delivery, good packaging, etc.
C - Average. Took 7 days to pay, 2 weeks to deliver, packaging was so-so.
D - Poor. Paid, delivered really late, had to continually bug for payment, shipment, etc.

This is just a start, but you see where I'm going with it.

My concern is this. Everyone (including me) is so AFRAID to leave negative or even neutral feedback that the feedback does not accurately portray the seller/buyer. The feedback basically becomes of "transaction counter."

What do you guys think?

Give your opinion in the poll below.

I think that having three strikes is really not fair to the sellers. That means for ever 100 NPB's there are 300 sellers getting ripped off. There should be an easier way. Maybe evaluatibg it on a case by case basis. Or maybe ebay should set something up where if you win an auction, it automatically gets charged to a credit or debit card that you assign to your account. Maybe that's asking too much but I do feel bad for some sellers. It really seems that most of the rules are in favor of the buyer.

Dawn, it was NOT your fault. The Seller misrepresented the item to you with a false picture. You should not have to ask if the items are as pictured. That goes without saying.

That seller defrauded you and I would have (and have) pressed the issue with him to either make it right or refund all my money or else get negative feedback. Most sellers have been very cooperative and I leave very positive feedback stating so. But there have been a few who believe that dollars are more important than people and were hard to work with. But I eventually 'persuaded' them to come around or face the consequences, which they did. In the end, it was worth the extra effort to win the fight.

quote:

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Originally posted by Dawn:
We just had our 1st NPB I have sent numerous emails the only one I got back was his address and asking how much shipping would be. I replied 4 times already including ebays reminder. 3 strikes would be great if only there was away for Ebay to monitor people because all they really have to do is resign up for Ebay with a new name and fake address and so forth. As for sellers I have not encountered any thing bad exept I got a pair of oakley for my hubby and the lenses where not how they where pictured in listing nor did he state the picture was not actual poduct or anything. But I count that as my mistake for not asking.

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It happens. Oddly enough, I typically get more on the relisting than what the NPB bid. I've never really totally understand ebay dynamics.

By the way if the NPB's contact info also went sour they'll get NARU'd immediately. The last step should always be to pull the contact info and see if you can reach them that way.

Any time you buy or sell sight unseen, you take a lot of risks even if you do your homework. That is fact of life and eBay has it all. For sellers, the buyers could encounter personal problems (deaths, job loss, divorce, etc) just prior to winning a bid or they could be bored and just playing games. It won't matter that it is a contract, that becomes unimportant. And then there are the sellers who sweeten the item descriptions such as like new when it is actually quite worn out. eBay allows buyers/sellers to get away with just about anything short of fraud (and only if enough people complain) where the seller accepts money but won't ship or refund. Keep in mind that that is actually a criminal offense! But it's unlikely that eBay or Paypal will get your money back. The best thing to resolve the situation would be for eBay/Paypal to have free automatic buyer/seller escrow accounts. However, I save enough $$ that I'm willing to accept the situation as it is.

NPB/NPS are a fact of ebay unfortunately. But they're pretty benign compared to people who sell you misrepresented junk or don't ship, or buyers who manage to get the item and stiff the seller for payment.

Actually, PayPal worked quite well for me. I filed for the recision of the fee based on not receiving the item and I got my money back.

I am continually getting this thread listed as having a new post, even though the last post was in May.

...on page two, along with my own. Case closed

Are you pursuing PayPal to make them accountable?

Blocking funds or restricting your access for pursuing financial accountability seems a bit unfair to me.

Have you contacted the Better Business Bureau or any of the financial oversight regulators?

Might not hurt to have them on your side and by the sound of it, they would be.

shamangroup

Just saw www.paypalwarning.com

Wow.

Outrageous.

shamangroup