Selling on Ebay...hope your luck is better than mine.

[cohocarl]

I have sold a few items on ebay, but not that many over the last couple years, and have never had a problem......until the other day.I would like to buy one of these: http://www.autolifters.com/4postLifts.html (or similar) for my polebarn, and would like to sell this: to put towards it, so I thought I'd put it up on ebay. I put a reserve price on it, and also a "buy it now" price. Well.....evidently there is a rash of "malicious bidders" going through and doing hundereds of "buy it nows" never intending on actually purchasing the items. Well, someone up there doesn't like me and I was one of the sellers that got hit with one of these "malicious bidders". See the feedbacks on the buyer: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...=WDVWMy anger wasn't as much to do with the "malicious bidder", but the absurd steps ebay makes you go through to get your listing fee, and final sale price fee refunded. I think ebay makes it so difficult and time consuming, that they think many sellers will just say screw it and let ebay keep their money. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I've just gone through this and I think I'm correct.... If you have a non-paying bidder (just a normal deadbeat, not one of these "malicious bidders" that I got hit by who racks up 485 "buy it nows" in 20 minutes, never intending on buying anything) your first step is to file an "unpaid claim" on the listing which you have to wait 7 days for your refund of the "final sales price fee" from ebay. http://pages.ebay.com/help/tp/....html Which ebay sends the buyer a dispute form. If the buyer lies and says he paid, or intends to pay, it could delay your refund even longer than the 7 day period. Ebay keeps your original listing fee!!!! If you relist the item, you are charged another listing fee. If it sells you pay the "final sales price fee", and can then apply for a refund of the re-listing fee. If it DOES NOT sell, you do not get your re-listing fee back. So, you could wind up paying Ebay two listing fees for your item if you get a deadbeat buyer the first time. (if it doesn't sell the 2nd time) In my case, I came home the other night and saw my sled had sold with someone doing a "buy it now" on it. I saw at that time, there was a "not a registered user" next to his feedback rating. His feedback rating was 100% if I remember right, and had recent positive feedbacks, but I was concerned about the "not a registered user". I had some things to do, and about a half an hour later, I checked and his status had been re-instated to registered user, so I went ahead and sent the buyer the normal message of "contact me with your payment/pickup" question stuff, but didn't get a reply. Later that night, I saw the negative feedback ratings flooding his feedback rating. After a couple useless "chat" sessions with ebay, I emailed them: http://pages.ebay.com/help/con....html but their first reply that night was a b.s. "must allow 7 days for refund of listing fee "IF it meets their requirements. I replied back to their email and didn't hear back from them until the following night. They did find I was a victim of a "malicious bidder" and would refund my original listing fee, and the final sale fee. I have re-listed it: (w/o a buy it now.... ) http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...T%3A1 but I think after this hopefully sells, I'm done selling stuff on Ebay, unless they come up with a better policy of protecting honest buyers and sellers. AND an easier way for sellers to get their fees back from botched deals. It's bad enough getting screwed by the buyer, but then ebay steps in for 2nds by keeping your listing fee, and the hastle/time consuming steps to get your final sales fee back.Anyways, most of my buying selling experiences have been good on Ebay, until now. I hope you don't have to go through what I just did, but if you do, above are a couple links to make it a little easier.Carl

[redlava]

That sucks. YOu would think that Rbay would make that a little more fair and easier. Almost makes me not want to sell anything on there. I have never sold anything through Ebay, but I was probably going to sell my old computer through there. How much are the fees that they charge? I have no clue what to expect.

[cohocarl]

Quote, originally posted by redlava »How much are the fees that they charge? It depends on what you are selling. Here's a link to their basic fees: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html When you are going through the process of listing an item, there's all sorts of "add-ons" such as multiple catagory listings, "showcase" listing to get more exposure, additional picture hosting, etc that could run up your listing fee quite a bit. I usually make up my own "page" in Netscape's composer, host the pictures on my isp's webspace and link them to there, then when I go to list it on ebay, I just "copy" and "paste" the html there. Ebay motors has different fees for different items. My snowmobile has a $30 dollar insertion (listing) fee, and a $30 fee when (if) it sells.I don't mean to scare anyone off from selling on ebay, but they definately need to re-think their policies on refunding sellers their fees on situations like mine. Ebay makes 100% of their funds from sellers, not the buyers.

[kostby]

That's enough to make me stop BUYING on eBay, too! They're NOT actively preventing fraud, AND they're screwing sellers.I've only purchased a few items EVER on eBay, but I do look quite often to compare prices. I first saw my Vibe on eBay, but purchased it somewhat later directly from the dealer.More eBay horror stories like yours need to get the publicity they deserve!Being victimized by an unscrupulous buyer is one thing that eBay has little control over, but being screwed by eBay themselves for yet another listing fee just adds insult to injury. eBay SHOULD waive the 2nd listing fee, just as a good public relations move!

[cohocarl]

Quote, originally posted by kostby »eBay SHOULD waive the 2nd listing fee, just as a good public relations move!You would think so......

[esjones]

Quote, originally posted by redlava »I have never sold anything through Ebay, but I was probably going to sell my old computer through there. How much are the fees that they charge? I have no clue what to expect. The fees keep going up. I think they are raising fees to the point where occasional, low-volume sellers are getting screwed. That's what happens when a company goes public, and the ONLY priority is to drive the stock price up.