Surprised Seller Lauds eBay Adviser Clinics

by: etectra

@Reader

"I was pleasantly surprised and immediately started getting orders based on some of the changes I made (international stuff)."

The type of generic information, without specifics, that I would expect from eBay - i.e., eBay propaganda.

Let me guess what you mean. You suddenly got orders after allowing international orders under the false assumption from eBay that these are safe because all you are are responsible for is getting the order to eBay's hub.

Not true at all. The buyer can file a claim based on anything they want to make up. They can claim the box was empty or had something else in it since a tracking number only proves a package arrived - not the item they purchased. They can file a claim with their payment processor, bank and credit card in addition to eBay. These third parties will decide the case and not eBay. If they used a credit card issued by a bank through PayPal they can file four separate claims and the last time I checked PayPal gives them 180 days.

eBay's TOS also state you agree to be bound by the rules of any international eBay site the buyer purchases their item through. That means you are subject to the laws of the country the buyer lives in since that country determines how the local eBay site operates. International buyers have an extra level of protection since it will be impossible for you to take any legal steps against them. A higher degree of protection means a higher degree of con artists.

Before the war in Ukraine eBay was encouraging sellers to ship items to Russia and Ukraine, two of the most corrupt countries on earth.

eBay is not going to protect you. Look at how they treat people sellers do not want to sell to international buyers. These sellers block shipping addresses outside the U.S. and even state in their terms they do not sell to international buyers. But what does eBay do? They allow these international buyers to use U.S. freight forwarding addresses to attempt to circumvent these seller's wishes.

Intercommerce America, Inc. is a buying agent for people in South Korea, with items being shipped to freight forwarders in the U.S. and then reshipped to South Korea. They have they have their own eBay app with eBay's approval. eBay has allowed this company to use many eBay account to buy hundreds of thousands of items on eBay resulting in thousands of eBay sellers being ripped off by false claims. This company has been buying items on eBay since 2009 and eBay does nothing about it as eBay is only concerned with making its commission off the sales and not the welfare of the sellers. There are multiple complaints on multiple websites about this company.

Many sellers, especially noobs, get fooled into thinking orders from Intercommerce America and similar companies are U.S. buyers due to the U.S. shipping address and the fact there are no international transaction fees due to such companies using a U.S. based payment service. If you catch such companies by researching their shipping address and see that its actually a freight forwarding company eBay will tell you to ship the item as you are only responsible for getting it to the freight forwarding company and that such purchases are not covered by Buyer Protection. That is lie since the buyer is protected by filing a claim with their credit card company, bank or payment processor, which eBay has no control over.

This means as a seller I have to research the buyer's address on every single order to see if its a freight forwarder. I then have to cancel the order, tying up funds. I then have to block the buyer's account. I have to relist the item. I had to stop listing items in a couple categories as I was unable to sell items to domestic buyers as they were continually purchased by international buyers over and over again. eBay could care less!

Never believe anything eBay says!

by: etectra

These advisor clinics will be exactly the same as their former Ask an Expert program.

A bunch of eBay propagandist.

With 26 years of selling experience I found them to be clueless!

by: pace306

If the OP here got some use out of (any) eBay employee - God Bless and its as rare as unicorns and the Jersey Devil.

Still on the list that needs fixing

Hiding listings unless you pay the advertising ransom fee (you get put on page 4)

Instituting abusive one way feedbacks
Instituting abusive returns polices
Instituting abusive shipping polices
Instituting abusive selling policies (ie who can and cant sell refurb items)

and the list goes on.

Glad it worked for someone, but for ALL other people/issues - just shut up and buy some ads or give us higher FVFs (above the gluttonous %15).

by: Snapped

WHAT is that smell?

Oh.  Of course.  Ya’ll be careful not to step in that while being all distracted by those rainbows and lollipops.