How to deal with eBay and spiteful buyers?

[dannyp1]

A lot of people seem to be missing the fact that the free shipping on ebay is just a ploy for EBay to make more money themselves on the same item.  Nothing is truly shipped for free.  The cost of shipping is just included in the amount charged for the item, which raises it's listing value and selling value.  EBay makes more money for higher listing fees and higher sold item price.  The end result is the seller making less money on the same item.

This is the same reason they limited the amount you can charge for CD's, records, and books.  It's not to protect the buyer as they claim, just a way for them to make more money on listing fees and selling fees.

Dan :madashell:

[Plaz]

just a ploy for EBay to make more money themselves on the same item

Exactly!

Go ahead and roll shipping cost in to a low priced item and declare "free shipping". Then watch your overly priced item set on ebay with out bids for a week. Then guess what? You have to relist the item (minus the hidden shipping), pay another listing fee and this time sell the item first day even though you tack on shipping charges after the sell. There is a psychology to selling on ebay. There's no explaining it other than to say "well humans are involved, what do you expect." ebay has cleverly calculated those quirks and profitted accordingly. They have taken it too far this time though. For those saying "try this, or try that", recall that I've been on ebay 10+ years. I've more than likely tried it already. It's too bad that so many millions will continue to be shilled.

Another auction site that has gained some attention since ebay's policy changes is onlineauction.com (ola.com also). I've looked, but not tried it myself.

Plaz

[alexh]

If I buy something from Ebay and the advert says £3.99 P&P. I expect the P&P to cost the vendor approx £3.99.

If my item arrives and has simply been wrapped in £0.10p's worth of brown paper and has postage stamps that total £1.50 then the seller will get a low star rating feedback for P&P (after I have first voiced my complaint to the vendor to see if they care).

IMHO P&P is not a way for vendors to make additional money.

It should precisely cover the cost of postage + postage materials + average cost of travelling to the post office.

At the same time I agree that the P&P feedback should not be a place for buyers to air their negative feelings towards the general rising cost of postage in this world.

[dannyp1]

I'm sorry, but I don't agree with that at all.  If I bid and buy an item for $10 with a shipping fee of $4 I am saying that the item is worth $14 to me.  It isn't suddenly worth only $12 when I receive it and see that the postage was only $2.  I knew the total price upfront when I was bidding.

If I listed a PIV board for $10 buy-it-now with a shipping & handling fee of $125 I would sell all that I had and many more.  That is a bargain at a total price of $135.  But alexh is going to buy it, and then when he gets it in the mail and sees that it only cost $15 dollars to ship be mad.  And then want a refund for the difference?  I do believe that alexh would probably be the only upset person with everyone else happy that they got a good deal.  The only real loser would be EBay who would only get large payments on 2 of their 3 charges.

Dan

[alexh]

If the vendor cannot be arsed to calculate a realistic P&P charge, and cannot explain the difference satisfactorily when asked, then it's tough if they get low P&P feedback ratings.

(I mentioned above, I accept the P&P is not just the postage fee, but also the packaging and the cost to the vendor in preparation and travelling to the post office)

The PIV example is not a very realistic example though. It's against eBay policy for the vendor to hide the true cost of an item in the P&P and avoid paying eBay fees. If I was to buy it, wait for it to arrive and then complain to Ebay and PayPal chances are I'd get a partial refund (effectively getting the item for $15) and the vendor would loose their P&P fee and their item.

[x56h34]

It's the nature of the beast. Sometimes you will get bad ratings, negative feedback, rightfully or not...however there are also many positives of eBay which obviously is not the focus of this thread.

There are ways of ensuring or maximizing your earning potential (and filtering out the problematic bidders who might complain) through good, long, and detailed item description, lots of high-res pictures, and pretty much making sure that your item stands out from all the rest. It's not easy, but it does help manipulating the bidders' psyche and swinging them onto your item(s), instigating ferocious bidding wars, etc., especially when it comes to rare amiga hardware. :-)

[dannyp1]

And that is exactly the type of person being talked about that started this whole thread.  If somebody gets a good item that was well described for a good total price, they should have no complaint.

If you look hard enough, you can always find something wrong with any and everything.

If I sold 100 PIV boards like stated above, alexh would be the only one complaining.

That's kind of like the one person out of 100 that is messing up ReDrum's profit margin.

[Darrin]

Ideal wrote:Also Redrumloa knows how to get paid, and seems to be raking in the dosh, so I don't see why he has to charge a handling fee. It's silly when you are charging 185USD for an old commodore floppy drive. When you are at that price level I think it is a bit rude to charge for handling.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I would like to present "Exhibit A" to my earlier argument.   :lol:

[Darrin]

stanlong wrote:
I think $11.75US a bit steep for shipping a floppy disc is abit steep

When it is well packed, has tracking and insurance it seems like a fair proce to me.

If it's an old C64 floppy then weight-wise it's like mailing a laptop!  :-D

[Plaz]

If you're counting on ebay's online calculator to get it right, count on bad feedback. Do you're home work on packaging and shipping cost before listing or it will cost you one way or another.

One trick I used... Use the post office (UPS, whatever) calculator to get the shipping cost. Then futz with the wieght of the item on ebay untill the two calculations  come close to matching. Also make sure to account for insurance and/or delivery confirmation costs.

I once had to add 2 pounds to the ebay weight before it matched the correct price at the post office. Go figure. In the end I collected $15 for shipping and it cost me $15.50, close enough for sure.

Plaz

[dannyp1]

If people think that ReDrum is getting rich selling this stuff then you are sadly mistaken.  It is a labor of love for him with a very small profit margin.  He sold some items recently for what on the outside looked like very large amounts.  I was one of the very few with inside info on how and where he acquired this equipment and I would like to state that it wasn't given to him!  He paid huge bucks to get it!  And that's not even factoring in that he had to travel clear across the country to pick it up and then return home(when gas was still $4 a gallon).  He is going to have to sell a very large amount of equipment before he even gets to the break-even point.  It is being very small and ignorant to even suggest that he doesn't need to watch the bottom line and worry about shipping supplies and other expenses.

The story I like to tell is the one where I had a buyer complain a couple of years ago that I charged $4.50 for shipping and handling for a record album.  He thought it was too high because postage was only $2.50.  I explained to him that on top of the $2.50 I paid $1 for the new LP shipper, and the other dollar of the price went for paper, tape, travel expense, and ink.  He wrote back and told me that I was being very petty thinking I had to charge for ink.  I told him I agreed with him that I thought charging for ink was being petty,  up until the time once every 4 to 6 weeks that I had to pay $52 for a pair of ink cartridges.  At that moment it didn't seem petty at all.

[alexh]

If I sold 100 PIV boards like stated above, alexh would be the only one complaining.

A pointless argument as it wouldn't happen.

At that moment it didn't seem petty at all.

But you explained it to him and I bet once you did he agreed with you and left positive feedback or cancelled neutral/negative feedback? Perhaps even bought more items?

[Fester]

I've purchased at least three things from you Red and I am 100% satisfied with the way you do business. I've always given you 5 stars and will continue to do so. Thanks for the books by the way.

[taunusand]

In Denmark we use www.qxl.dk instead for ebay.
Pretty much the same thing..
I don't sell anything very often, but I find it okay to ad a little to the shipping costs. But shipping costs clearly have to be in the auktion listing! Maybe packing material can be free (I can have perfectly good boxes at work for free), but not always.

Once I bought something the seller actually desided to drive up to me and deliver himself, after I paid him with bank transfer. He desided to use his own car for shipping :lol: I did not complain :-)

BTW, I have 100% positive feedback, and I charge a little extra for shipping. ;-)

[Darrin]

I must admit that I have complained about shipping once, and that was when Elbox wanted nearly $40 to send me a couple of ROM chips from Europe.  Now that was kicking the ass out of it.  :-)

[weirdami]

If the vendor cannot be arsed to calculate a realistic P&P charge, and cannot explain the difference satisfactorily when asked, then it's tough if they get low P&P feedback ratings.

If I see that shipping is way too high, I don't bid on it. I also don't bid if there's no shipping cost listed. If you know what you're going to be charged up front, you have no reason to complain when you are actually charged that much.