EBAY Is An Immoral Company That Is Unfit To Trade.

[The Express Valeter]

I told them if they didn't resolve my issue I was going to slate them on the internet. Not only did they not resolve my issue they didn't even aknowledge my threat lol.

Anyway - I sold an item on or around the 5th of August. It was a Babyliss Bath Spa unit. Auction was won & I got paid £47.50 Inc Postage. I took it to a local courier on the 6th. They despatched the item & delivery in Cheshire was attempted on the 9th @ 14.06HRS. The person was not in so as it was a signed for delivery it was taken back to their local depot & a card was left for the person to call them to re-arange. No call was made but the item was put back on the van on the 12/13/14/15/16th of August incase the woman rang & said she would be in to sign for it but no further contact was made so the item was returned to where I posted it in the meantime I was away on holiday.
I get back from holiday late Sat 24th to find 2 emails from the buyer asking where is my item & one from ebay saying she opened a case on 21st August. I was asked to respond to her & resolve the case by the 28th so I had to waste my time & fuel going to the courier (9 mile round trip) where I found the delivery info above.
The courier said to me that if I contact the person & ask what (week) day they would be in then they would resent the item FOC. I got back & emailed her & after 2 days with no reply I escalated the case to EBAY C.S, where I told them all the above info.

Now unless I am completely daft I have done everything by the book with the sending etc of this & it is not my fault or the couriers fault that no one was in to recieve the item & that they couldn't be bothered to reply to the card that was left but none the less so far as ebay are concerned the item must be delivered within the 8 days or the buyer is entitled to a refund.
Now despite me giving them all the info above they in their infinate wisdom closed the case in her favour because I had the item back at the courier & she had paid.
I am now £11.00 out of pocket for the postage, £3.60 lost in selling fees & fuel/time etc plus 45 minutes on the phone to Ebay CS on an 0845 number.

I have never come accross another company (except BT) that is so inept, immoral, useless as this outfit.
I have sent them several emails stating all the facts & that by removing money from my account without consent for a reason that is unjust countermounts to theft.
I have told them that I want the costs I have lost refunded, I did this also on the phone & demanded a manager call me back, they said they would within 24 hours but I never got the call.
I told them that if they refuse to issue me with the costs I have incured (compensation if you like) that I will consider legal action.

The basics of this is that despite all the rubbish that ebay preach etc about it being a safe, secure,freindly organisation & that you must do this & you must do that to be a good seller so on & so forth that in this case they imply that -
You can sell an item, post it & let a courier attempt a delivery but the buyer is too lazy to recieve it or contact the courier & then open a case that an innocent seller gets penalised & loses out I asked them how on earth anyone could feel safe & trust them.
In all the emails they send they say we have reviewed the case etc & we respect your loyalty etc & then go on to say these instances are very rare etc but basically tough luck we do it our way no matter what.

The moral of the story is DO NOT TRUST EBAY CUSTOMER SERVICES, they as I told them are like a load of robots that when a customer rings or emails they listen to what is said & look down a hymn sheet for the best generic answer then just add a few words, you can tell from the responses that they really don't care & just want rid of any issues by fobbing you off with any old c**p answers that are just nonsence.
Not sure what you guys think but I am considering taking them to court, yes maybe a small amount of money but I am more concerned with the principal of it.
I had a pending invoice for transactions of £11.95 due for collection between 30th August - 1st Sept, now my card on the paypall expires end of August so I have emptied the paypall acc & removed the card. I have told them they will not get the money.

Then oddly about 20 minutes after Fleabay email me to say they refunded the buyer I got an email from the buyer saying she/someone would be in 3 days next week to recieve the item, call me cynical but me thinks that she thinks I don't yet know about the refund so is probably hoping I resend it so the Eastern European buyer gets it for nothing.........

DO Not Trust Ebay Customer Services, they are about as honest as a polititian or a money launderer!

[hairyone]

I have had the same problem with them as you have except mine was to do with an ad they said was worded wrong,they removed the ad then tryed to charge me for it.When i refused they then chased me for months on end saying that court Action was next and they would put it on my credit file.In the end i had to pay which has gone up due to charges and I then told them to poke it.I now very rarely buy from them and no longer sell.I now wished i took it further but i was in the middle of buying a House so I could not risk my credit history

[H48HPE]

I agree with you, the main problem with ebay is that they are a monopoly, there is no alternative that has a similar number of potential buyers using the same auction format - so they can get away with this stuff as there is nowhere else to go.

over the last few years they've gone totally in favour of buyers, and seller protection is zero. its great to buy from ebay but crap to sell - and thats not a good thing, how many people are throwing away decent / rare lower value items rather than putting them on ebay because they know they have no protection from rogue buyers; and the small sale isn't worth the agro

Andy

[mgdavid]

you haven't mentioned the most important bit - tracking info.
Did you extract the tracking info from the courier's site and provide copies to both buyer and ebay? If not, then that's where you went wrong.
Another useful safeguard is to always put in your ads 'buyers phone number required for courier' - then you don't send until you have it, usually you get a mobile and you can call them if any problems. Did you look them up in the normal phone book and try calling them?
You also were not very clever selling when you were about to go away.

[E_T_V]

And perhaps look at it from the buyers point of view for a second.

They buy and pay for an item.
You say you've posted it
Nothing turns up. (It isn't unknown or even unusual for calling cards not to be left!)
So they open a case - Fair enough really.

The e-bay customer services should read the tracking info and see what has happened if you have supplied it. If not then they'll assume you are trying a fast one and find in the buyers favour.

[The Express Valeter]

you haven't mentioned the most important bit - tracking info.
Did you extract the tracking info from the courier's site and provide copies to both buyer and ebay? If not, then that's where you went wrong.
Another useful safeguard is to always put in your ads 'buyers phone number required for courier' - then you don't send until you have it, usually you get a mobile and you can call them if any problems. Did you look them up in the normal phone book and try calling them?
You also were not very clever selling when you were about to go away.

The holiday was booked at last minute a week after it was posted.

The tracking number was supplied after the case was opened as I didn't have it though if they don't answer the door not much use.

If I do again then the phone number idea is a good point.