It’s that time again, where I tell you what’s really grinding my gears for the week of November 14th, 2018.
Some weeks it’s mostly likes, other weeks it’s dislikes.
So what’s grinding my gears this week?
eBay Returns
I learned this past week that even when you have your return preferences setup to only accept returns automatically with your own parameters, those are just ignored now according to eBay’s new return policy.
So I had an item returned (no, it wasn’t a comic) and the buyer returned it under the reason of, “doesn’t fit”. My return settings were set to only allow if the item is valued at $200 or less and the buy claims it’s defective, wrong item sent or arrived damaged.
The thing that really got me is not only the settings are just ignored, I was never notified of the return until it showed up on my door step. About an hour after that I then get the eBay notification message saying “Return Item Delivered, prepare to refund the buyer”.
According to eBay representative, if the return is within the 30 days that was selected as the default return window, any reason selected was just considered “buyers remorse”. What does this mean? Your return preferences mean nothing. eBay did nothing to help rectify the issue, they said they could only refund the seller fees associated. That’s not being very nice or helpful, you get the fees returned on any return or closed case.
The item I sold was new and sealed. It came back opened and now considered used, despite it not really being used. I lost all potential value. That’s what really hurts. I explained to eBay that I’ve made them thousands of dollars but they couldn’t throw me a bone when their system failed me in an item that was under a hundred bucks. The rep even admitted the system failed me.
This seriously makes me reconsider selling on eBay, at least on the standpoint that I should just turn off all return options which lowers your seller ratings overall. That means buyers can only open a return case if the item is “not as described”.
The Hulk Has A New Power Revealed?
We all know that the Hulk is pretty much indestructible but we now learned in issue #8 that if he’s somehow split up, his body will reattach itself and consume matter to become a part of his own.
That’s cool right? Well, sort of. My only problem is I’m not buying the fact that they simply used adamantium to cut him up into pieces and placed into jars. Maybe I’m being too pedantic.
FireFly Flies Once Again
I’m looking forward to this new series out from BOOM! Studios, written by Greg Pak.
We get to see how it all began. Maybe a popular comic will revive the TV Show. Meh, now I’m just dreaming.
The only dislike I have for this one is actually the Jock cover. It’s pretty bland for a Jock cover. I think comic fans should demand more from a guy who has the influence to turn a common issue book into a highly sought after book based just on the cover art.
It’s a light week for likes and dislikes. Tell us what’s grinding your gears this week by commenting below.
Sorry to hear about your eBay experience but not surprised! I have no automatic returns set up as eBay is a buyers forum.
I only set the automatic returns for the profile where I sell hardware from but in the past, it normally notifies me so I’m not blind sided.
Use Mercari they can only return if it’s damaged or not as described. They can ask for a return in other cases but I just ignore it as sells finalize two days after it’s received automatically anyways.
eBay is trash . If there was a market alternative that was nearly as popular, without the horrible policies, I would move all of my business there in a second. Right now, they are kind of like Diamond: you have to deal with whatever they throw at you because they are the only game in town.
They certainly do make it seem like they cater to the buyers more than the sellers. Some may argue that it’s the buyers who make them money but you know, if no one sold anything on eBay, there’d be nothing to buy.
eBay is the worst, but Wren hit it on the nose. Only game in town. When I decide to stop selling on eBay, I totally plan on not paying my last invoice.
I have quit eBay accounts 4 times and not paid fees, anytime my fees are $1000+ for the month I make a new account. Over the years they have gotten smarter but I can still get around em . But now only can sell 10 items a month these days with their new policies on account confirmation.
Key is never give em your real name or ss# and make sure your ip address is different from what past accounts you’ve tanked logged on to ebay from.
Guh you wild
eBay is remarkably good at tying accounts to each other and NARU-ing the lot of them. A buddy of mine had a NARU’d account from 1999 when he was 18yo and stupid, started selling on eBay again around 2009. He was able to keep the account alive for about 2 years and then one day he got an alert from them saying they had connected his account to a previous account, and boom, gone. He’d moved across two time zones, never used a device connected to the old account, obviously never used the same IP address, they found him anyway. And they told him he could only reactivate his account if he could prove he had made good on every negative feedback from 1999 (even though his account was NARU’d for non-payment). Half those people weren’t on eBay themselves by then. Zero chance of getting proof.
Now he just buys everything uses his wife’s account. And hopes they don’t ever connect the two.
I personally haven’t sold on eBay since 2006. PayPal stole $2700 from me and I’ve refused to go back. I wish there was a decent competitor, but my shop does fine selling off excess on Amazon and MYCS, neither of which require us to process outbound shipments.
I just went through my own issue with returns this week. Now matter what you have your return preferences set to it does not make a difference. You basically have to except a return on everything no matter what whether you want to or not. Most likely you will end up paying for the buyers return shipping and their original shipping as well..
That was the only plus, the buyer had to pay for the return and they paid for the original shipping. I was not required to pay or refund either or that would have been another $30 total just for shipping costs.
this is why you should not offer free shipping, as you may have to refund the price minus shipping….but if shipping was $0 you just got hosed on the return.
Nope, return shipping was never charged to me. So the buyer did eat those costs.
Ebay is a real joke for sellers. Sellers have no rights whatsoever!
You better have a tracking code or might as well just give the money back if the item “never arrives” to it’s destination.
You have a tracking code? Big deal! You need to refund the buyer regardless of reason of return.
Oh and make sure you do this quickly because if you don’t for whatever reason you as a selle rend up refunding the buyer by default and they get to keep the item/s.
I started selling stuff on facebook market, kijiji, CPG, wherever I can find other than ebay.
They just don’t care about the sellers that’s all!
I dislike forgetting to order before the FOC date by a few minutes…then have to pay $1 extra on each comic for that week. DOH!
if you put no returns accepted that means they don’t have to return the item to get a refund. they can just ask for a refund. found that out recently. also you can state buyer pays return shipping which will help with the “buyers remorse”. i don’t know if putting your terms of return in the listing description would help eBay side with u. doesn’t hurt to try. free shipping or no free shipping is totally up to the seller. i always charge and others just add the shipping cost into the price either way eBay gets their 10% from item sale value and 10% of shipping and then what ever paypal takes for its transaction. ebay doesnt protect the seller anymore, idk if it ever did really. it sucks
I guess the what grinds my gears is not being able to sell on eBay simply because 3 orders had to be canceled because the books were damaged in a flood. So I can buy but not sell.
What grinds my gears right down to ball bearings is someone saying they make a lot of money on eBay and instead of paying the fees they’re cancel their account and start another with no other repercussions that having smaller limits. How no one here has called this out is baffling.
CHU does not condone such behavior either. I might not like eBay’s rules and practices but I do pay my fees for using their service to sell. I can only advise others to “pay your bills”.
That sucks about the books that got damaged, probably out of your control as well. You’d think eBay would forgive and not do such sanctions if the proof was provided.