Buyers Need Attention

[gibberishh]

Ebay is usually a good way to buy and sell items. As long as as you are dealing with honest, hard-working people, it's a wonderful place. Once you get into trouble, though, there is really no place for a buyer in this world.

Examples of this are numerous. I myself have several experiences, but I don't want to turn this into a grouse column. But there are a few lessons to be learnt, a few improvements Ebay can make starting today:

1. Change Suspension Mechanism: When Ebay suspends sellers, buyers are left with no way to contact them, no way to track the items they have purchased from them. This is possibly the worst experience for a buyer, especially if the payment amount is over a few hundred rupees.

2. Allow Posting of Disputes: Ebay needs to trust its buyers more. All of us are not nervous wrecks. We need to use the dispute console for a reason. But the number of validations that happen when you try to post a dispute almost never let you post one! I beg you to please remove these validations (item code, number of days passed, etc). While it is nice to enforce a certain discipline, this system simply does not work for disputes with sellers who managed to unregister themselves recently.

3. Verify Seller Information: This is a difficult one, but crucial. Almost half my purchases have been with sellers where their contact information is simply wrong. Thus, when one tries to contact them, you simply cannot get through. This gives them a significantly larger opportunity to 'run away' with our moneys.

While I continue to transact on Ebay with a good-faith attitute (hoping that at least 8 out of 10 people will be honest), I have lost about Rs 6000 in transactions that I have simply written-off, because Ebay does not help its buyers even with genuine complaints.

An advice to all buyers: Even if you follow the proper dispute resolution process, you can almost never hope to get your money back, so either approach the police and report a fraud, or forget that you ever paid anything. It's cheaper to do that than to try and get Ebay to do anything for you. By the way, if you EVER get any response from Ebay other than "Please resolve your dispute with your seller," please please please let me know. We'll all get together and declare that day a national holiday!

[emailswarup]

Hi,

Regarding the Suspension mechanism, I think the system can be modified a bit to the benefit of all. Instead of a single suspension system stating "no longer registered with eBay", there should be two types of suspension.

For proven fraud cases (like those by Shakawat Hossain with his 1000 IDs), the new IDs should be suspended immediately just like the present mechanism.

For other suspensions (e.g, delay in paying fees, duplicate listing irregularities, FB irregularities etc.) eBay should first caution the member and stop all listings of the seller as a partial suspension for 15-30 days. This would not inflict panic among the buyers and provide the seller with ample time to complete the pending deliveries properly. The seller will also have time to sort out the problem with eBay, if applicable.

I am so sorry to see that you have lost ~Rs.6000. Normally you should have been able to claim refund from eBay for all those items thru the link Items not recd. In future you may put on the board about such difficulties so that the members can try to help you. Hope you won't have to loose so heavily in future. .
Best Regards 😄
Swarup
Kolkata

[indconcepts]

Dear gibberishh ,

Each and every word of your TOPIC has been written by HEART.

Many areas need to be look into to build the trust of the Buyers & the confidence of the Sellers.

The most important being.... Verification of Seller's Information

Just an SMS verification and you are ready to do a FRAUD.

Wake-Up ebay......

Buyers hard earned money

is not just ...... SMS away.

.





http://stores.ebay.in/IndConcepts


.

[snrama]

Hi,

Seller Verification should be introducted! I totally agree with the suggestion of Swarup regarding Suspension mechanism.

eBay has made a lot of changes these days and we are expecting more protection for buyers than now as the trust and faith from the buyer's part is decreasing day by day due to frauds like Shakawat Hossain.

I am very sorry that you lost Rs.6000/- which is a huge amount. Hope in future all your eBay transactions will go smooth. ---------------
With Regards,
Navaneeth (snrama) 😉

[emeraldandpearl]

Dear Friends,
I have also suffered with some sellers when they
"ran away " with the payment . They did a bigger injustice to me by giving me a negative rating, which I cannot remove.They started selling again in ebay with a new id.
There are many frauds, everyone has to be careful..... seller and buyer.
emeraldandpearl.

[srjsms]

well said gibberish..i had raised the same issue with the TnS team, when the head of TnS was on open house. as regards the seller verification, like ive said earlier..entrust the same to an outside agency..as in the case of credit cards...

as regards suspension, i agree with u 200%.. three suspension levels were what i had suggested..since a sellers buying account shouldnt be suspended ...many a sellers buy as well as sell....hence this shud be taken care of

[amitava123gems]

Hi members,
I dont understand why a paying buyer will get a -ve.His responsibilities are over when he pays up.Seller is resposible for successful delivery,quality of item etc.
Another thing should be introduced for buyer protection.There should be a warning period before actual suspension of a seller,so that he can complete the unfinished jobs.Say a date of suspension can be notified before actual suspension.That way buyers know what to do., ,Truly,,Amitava

[indianexpo]

....NO WORDS...

>> You are doing a big favour to eBay Seller community <<

Thanks for your patience....

I as a buyer would have fled away from eBAy even if i would have lost 600 Rs....

God knows how many have already fled away...

eBay is making genuine people suffer to achieve its target of making eBAy an open platform...

EBAY....Your GREED is making eBay a picnic spot for fraudsters .... Wake up before all leave you...Even sellers.....Because even genuine sellers like to play on reputed platforms...!!

Regards

[amphib_in1]

Hi,
I can understand what you feel. I also bought a lot from this site and have been cheated very often. Many times the products sent are broken, or very cheap and of poor quality. An item available on the road side for Rs. 30, is being auctioned for Rs. 1 + Rs. 100 courier. I would describe this situation as a trap for some innocent buyer. The E-Bay site is like a wild jungle, wherein such traps are laid out all over the site waiting for innocent victims. Can not the E-bay India staff see this and try to make their site a friendlier place. Sending poor quality products is another very big problem. And if a buyer honestly for the sake of other buyers describes the quality as bad he is given a – ve feed back by the seller. The buyer has paid for the product so why should he be given a _ve feed back. This has actually happened to me some time ago. This is a clear cut case of black mail (you say something bad about my product even though it may be bad and I will give you a –ve fed back. So be careful) which is illegal and E-Bay does nothing about it. E-bay India closes its eyes to all this. They are instead obsessed with sellers. I attended a forum called voices organized by E-Bay at their office in Mumbai and regretted having wasted my time doing so. It should have been called an E-bay India Sellers forum. The discussions after, are only for sellers. I have very often written in this forum about different problems I face and have not even had a reply or comment from E-by India. This just proves that E-Bay India is obsessed with the idea that all they need are sellers to run their site while buyers and their problems are a secondary issue. Very often, I have also had experiences where sellers have refused to honor their auctions because I have won them for a good price. (I like the game of auctions) Complaining to E-Bay was like throwing water over a ducks back. Some of these sellers have even been honored by E-bay India as best seller etc etc. This is the policy that E-Bay India follows. These same sellers continue to sell on E-Bay India waiting for other victims. I have even had reply’s from E-Bay that they can not force a seller to keep his commitment. So what is all this, that is written about “binding contract” etc etc? Why is E-Bay India fooling the visitors to their site? Can not they be sued for such false commitments? I honestly do not trust E-Bay India any more. Hence I find this site very dangerous and have stopped buying here except from some sellers who are genuine and very honest. I have had some fantastic experiences on this front as well and was very happy with them. However how can one tell which seller is good and genuine if a feed back system is corrupted with black mail. Once a payment is made sellers should not be allowed to give a –ve feed back to buyers. Why should they? They have honored their commitment of buying. It is up to the sellers to take it up from there on and honor their commitment of selling good quality products at good prices. All the genuine sellers who are interested in selling good products and being honest with what they are doing are hence being denied a chance to do so as E-Bay India is being branded as a Cheats site.

I hope E-bay India will pull up its socks real quick before it's too late and start attending to problems that buyers are facing.

[amitava123gems]

Hi amphib_in1,
That is what I understand.Giving -ve to paying buyer is in bad taste.,,Truly,,Amitava