Ebay Has a Hokey Policy About Bidders Who Don't Pay

[leomara]

Last October this person won two items I listed and did not pay for them.  Last week the same person under a different ID did the same thing to me again.  I looked up the comment history and there is a host of negative posts. I spoke to an Ebay agent who assured me they "gig" non-payers and if they have too many of these "gigs" action will be taken.  BALONEY!  This person has more than one ID and has been playing this game for years.   

[greenie]

If you are going to sell on eBay, you have to remember one thing. You, the seller, will ALWAYS come last. eBay will allow crazy bidders to do just about anything, and if you ask for help all you get is automated frustration.

 

So, if you can’t handle that, don’t sell on eBay. If you choose to sell, do whatever you can to protect yourself from the squirrels. 

[Str8-8-Dave]

I stopped selling on E-bay, or at least view E-bay as the arena of last resort.  It's too bad because the E-bay platform brings items from a world of sellers, stuff you can't find anywhere else often pops up on E-bay.   Pay-Pal is pretty hard on seller profit as well, between E-bay and Pay-Pal seller fees, the seller is hard pressed to break even.  

 

That said, Greenie is right, E-bay policy changes have made the seller last.  I will say I am confident as a buyer that if something goes wrong for real, like seller doesn't ship after being paid, E-bay does make it right for the buyer.  It's still a pretty good place to buy if you research what you are buying, ask seller questions first, look at seller feedback before bidding and know how to get help if something untoward happens.  

[28 Chrysler]

I stopped selling there for the same reasons, the E Bay stores are treated just a bit better.

I don't even like looking for parts because of all the modern parts that comes up as "fits". 

[greenie]

Several years ago, I sold a nice set of Ford “spinner “ wheel covers to a guy in Michigan. As soon as they arrived, he complained to eBay about the condition. I refunded his $$$ and paid him to ship them back. When they arrived, I found he had removed MY spinners and replaced them with HIS which were heavily weathered. I sent pictures and documentation to eBay- they did nothing. I figured their college puke employees couldn’t understand what a truly wicked mind could do. I found another eBay seller who said the same guy did something similar to him. Buy hey, you can’t give a buyer negative feedback. Squirrels.

 

[greenie]

BTW, bitching about eBay comes in just behind bitching about the weather. With similar results. 

[leomara]

Wow! OK, venditor cave!

[TexRiv_63]

If I encounter a non-paying bidder I cancel the auction and put them on my blocked bidder list.

[drhach]

What's the alternative to ebay? They used to apply pretty strict rules equally to buyers and sellers. They've taken a very pro buyer stance in the last few years. I've known people who could make a living selling on ebay. I think that's been serisouly eroded. 

[zepher]

3 hours ago, 28 Chrysler said:

I don't even like looking for parts because of all the modern parts that comes up as "fits". 

 

You can help sort through that nonsense by using a - before the word fits and it will mostly filter out any ad with the word 'fits' in it.

Your search would be something like 1928 Chrysler door handle, -fits

It doesn't work 100 percent but it does filter out over 90% of the nonsense ads.

BTW you can add another comma followed by a space then the dash and word you want to filter out. I have added as many as 5 words to be filtered out when looking.

Especially useful for me when looking for Rickenbacker parts because the search produces 98% guitar items and not Rickenbacker motors or Eddie Rickenbacker items if I don't use the filters.

Edited January 24, 2023 by zepher (see edit history)

[pkhammer]

  If a seller doesn't pay I cancel the order, block the bidder and relist the items as mentioned above. I've been selling on ebay for over ten years and it's only happened a few times. Only cost is a bit a of frustration so I chalk it up to the cost of doing business and move on. 

  As far as fees go, on a typical ebay sale they get about 13-14% total. If I load my truck and trailer, pay for fuel, food, spaces and lodging to go to a swap meet, my expenses usually FAR exceed that. When people wonder why swap meets are drying up, well, that's it in a nutshell. Break your back loading and unloading, setting up, pay $200 for spaces, $200 for fuel, $100 for food (if you eat cheap) and $300 for lodging for a two or three day swap meet, sell $3,000 worth of parts. Let's see.....your expenses were 27% of sales. Yep, double what ebay gets. Just sayin'........

[Steve9]

Ten years ago while sourcing parts for my ‘36 Dodge I used eBay extensively and collected everything I needed to complete the car. True, nothing rare to find but I’m grateful to all the sellers and the platform for assisting me in the quest. It’s unfortunate there’s always a few jerks out there but that’s just life in America. 

[JACK M]

4 hours ago, Str8-8-Dave said:

or at least view E-bay as the arena of last resort. 

I sold my used motor home at a loss. But its gone.

I asked for a 500 deposit thru eBay and the buyer did that.

I thought that it would be PayPal, but is not any more, rather some eBay owned collection thing.

eBay will not give me the remaining $470 because I refuse to supply my SSN.

I guess its a $470 lesson.

I suspect that my SSN could be easily found on the web, but I won't intentionally give it to crooks like eBay.

[pkhammer]

  Yep, to do business on ebay they get all of your info including bank (I have a special account set up just for that) and CC info (again, that's all I use it for). The price of doing business in the modern world I guess. Good news is I've never had even one minor issue. I sell, I ship, money goes into my account, I transfer it out. No muss, no fuss, I'm happy. 🤑

  @JACK M You might be able to get a check from ebay for that money without setting up a bank account.

[JACK M]

PK, They have my bank account info sans SSN.

I get emails every now and again asking for my SSN so that they can pay me but they don't seem to understand that I owe no tax on this sale.

On top of that Oregon doesn't even have a sales tax.

I don't think should be eBays job to do Uncle Sams work.

[1937hd45]

I really miss PayPal, list an item at midnight, someone in Sidney Australia buys it and I woke up in the morning with a few more bucks. Not anymore eBay managed payments makes sure you get your money IN FOUR DAYS. 

[pkhammer]

  I don't disagree with you but unfortunately Uncle Sam gives ebay no choice. It may not be sales tax that is the issue but federal income tax. This comes from the lawmakers we elect, not ebay. They (ebay) are required to report it whether they want to or not. As a matter of fact ebay has been fighting to delay or reverse these laws. I consider any info I give ebay to be secure. Could it be hacked? I suppose it probably could but me and tens of thousands of others that have given that information haven't had issues so far as I know. 

  What would likely happen once you provide the info they want is the funds would show up in your bank account which would be nice but then you (and Uncle Sam) will get a 1099 at tax time showing your sales total for the year. It stinks but even us little guys have to report sales as income. For persons like me that sell a fair bit online I also keep track of expenses in the form of receipts that I can claim against sales and reduces significantly my tax burden. I have a good tax guy that does a good job. Guys that only sell a little on ebay have dropped out because they don't sell for income and don't want the bother of messing with taxes which I totally understand.

  If you end up paying income tax on that $470 that would suck but it would suck worse to write it off altogether.

Edited January 24, 2023 by pkhammer
misspelling (see edit history)

[yachtflame]

4 hours ago, zepher said:

 

You can help sort through that nonsense by using a - before the word fits and it will mostly filter out any ad with the word 'fits' in it.

Your search would be something like 1928 Chrysler door handle, -fits

It doesn't work 100 percent but it does filter out over 90% of the nonsense ads.

BTW you can add another comma followed by a space then the dash and word you want to filter out. I have added as many as 5 words to be filtered out when looking.

Especially useful for me when looking for Rickenbacker parts because the search produces 98% guitar items and not Rickenbacker motors or Eddie Rickenbacker items if I don't use the filters.

Zephyr,

 That works great. Thanks! I hate it when I’m looking for 1931 Cad parts and a color backup camera comes up!

[John348]

6 hours ago, pkhammer said:

  If a seller doesn't pay I cancel the order, block the bidder and relist the items as mentioned above. I've been selling on ebay for over ten years and it's only happened a few times. Only cost is a bit a of frustration so I chalk it up to the cost of doing business and move on. 

  As far as fees go, on a typical ebay sale they get about 13-14% total. If I load my truck and trailer, pay for fuel, food, spaces and lodging to go to a swap meet, my expenses usually FAR exceed that. When people wonder why swap meets are drying up, well, that's it in a nutshell. Break your back loading and unloading, setting up, pay $200 for spaces, $200 for fuel, $100 for food (if you eat cheap) and $300 for lodging for a two or three day swap meet, sell $3,000 worth of parts. Let's see.....your expenses were 27% of sales. Yep, double what ebay gets. Just sayin'........

Well said, I made a lot money without filling up my truck. There are fee's with EBay but the job get's done

 

5 hours ago, JACK M said:

PK, They have my bank account info sans SSN.

I get emails every now and again asking for my SSN so that they can pay me but they don't seem to understand that I owe no tax on this sale.

On top of that Oregon doesn't even have a sales tax.

I don't think should be eBays job to do Uncle Sams work.

Jack,

EBay is making income off of your income that they have to declare. What ever you sell is considered income to both the state and federal governments, By law they have to send you a 1099, and it is your option to claim it or not when you file your income taxes. It is not a question that they have a choice of doing Uncle Sam's work, they have to report who is getting the income generated from the sales.  I have to get a PA Tax ID number to vend at Hershey, the State of PA wants my SSN, what's the difference? 

I am not a big EBay defender, they offer a service for PRICE, but don't think they are doing to rob your personal info. 

Edited January 25, 2023 by John348 (see edit history)

[JFranklin]

Ebay needs to consider your sales as income, but you are taxed on your net income.

[37_Roadmaster_C]

One thing to keep in mind is the power of local law enforcement. It is definitely not a perfect answer but it can help.  If someone on Ebay defrauds you or steals from you (keeps your item and returns a lesser item), first complain to Ebay. Next, call the cops in the town/county of the buyer and FILE a theft report. Be sure to include any and all supporting evidence.  Wait for the return call.  You may get nothing, but you will get satisfaction.  Follow up on the filing with calls to the police department and prosecuting attorneys offices. BE A PAIN IN THE A$$. Remember, squeaky wheels get the grease...

[Frank DuVal]

30 minutes ago, JFranklin said:

but you are taxed on your net income.

Been that way since 1913. Not really news, but to hear these people complain...😁

[Dandy Dave]

I occasionally buy on ebay. Pay Pal still works on the buying end. I sell nothing there and have not for years. I never will again either. I hate all paper work selling brings. 

[1937hd45]

2 hours ago, Dandy Dave said:

I occasionally buy on ebay. Pay Pal still works on the buying end. I sell nothing there and have not for years. I never will again either. I hate all paper work selling brings. 

Interesting, but eBay must hang on to your funds for the four days it takes to "Process" the funds and pass them along to the seller, not a direct buyer to seller deal as it was @ two years ago. 

 

Bob 

[PONTIAC1953]

Ebay used to be a decent place to sell, but with all the fees they have created and put into place, I will never sell on feebay again, as a buyer, it's even worse, with all the non related items showing up for what you're searching for, I've just about have quit buying on feebay anymore, feebay now owns Paypal too.

[pkhammer]

  I agree that searching for anything has become a huge pain with all the non related crap that shows up in every search. I know there are ways to pare that down though. As far as selling I hear people talk about all the additional fees but they never explain what they are. Maybe it depends on what you're selling but I have seen virtually no change in the fees. For used auto parts ebay charges a flat 10%. Then they charge roughly 3% to manage the payment. At one time Paypal charged about the same 3% when payments were made thru them. So 10 years ago I'd expect about 13% total fees. I just sold some parts this week, my total fees were ......13%. Where are all these addition fees I hear so much about?

[JFranklin]

Fees on the sale, fees on the shipping, fees to manage payment. a lot of fees!

[drhach]

15 hours ago, Frank DuVal said:

Been that way since 1913. Not really news, but to hear these people complain...😁

I'm sure people complained in 1913 too.  

[jiminyfixit]

I have been selling on eBay for 11 years now & pretty much agree with all of you. I buy & sell DJI drone cameras, along with repairing them for several dealers. Fortunately, I have only had 3 "bad guy" sales of refurbished cams where they all filed a bogus claims & returned their damaged cameras. Fortunately I was able to fix those cams & resell them. I put them on my "no sell" list, but couldn't get eBay to settle in my favor. However, with one of the sales, eBay did do something clever. They told the buyer I didn't have sufficient funds in my account to refund the full amount, so I at least got a partial refund along with his camera that I was able to fix. These bad guys got me to alter my "business model" & started recording the sale date, buyer's name & serial number of every cam I sold. Presenting these "facts" to eBay is probably what prompted them to go 1/2 way with me. I politely reminded them buyers don't support eBay, sellers do with the fees we pay.

 

So far, eBay has been a great source for locating some scarce items for my 34 Dodge, like script tail light lenses & many other goodies. I just have to check eBay every day , which is just part of my routine. Some of the DPCD  F.B. groups are good too, with one specifically having an administrator who bans scammers without hesitation. AND, let's not overlook the quality of the like-minded collectors in the AACA forums who are a constant source of valuable info & occasional goodies.

[zepher]

To follow up on my post about how to help filter your search results in eBay, you can use the same method in any major search engine.

 

Say you want to search for a front  left door handle for a 1953 Ford.  You could use the search string 1953 Ford door handle, -rear, -right and that would return only searches without rear and right in the description.

Also, if you want a search result to contain a certain word you would add a + in front of that word.

Your new search string would be 1953 Ford +door, +handle, -rear, right and that would mean the results returned must contain the words door and handle.

These little tricks work with general search engine searches (Google) as well.
Really helps to filter out the mass of garbage that you get when you search for things on the web or on eBay.

I have not tried these switches on other sites like Craigslist but they should work since you're using well established database switches when you use the plus and minus in your search string.

[leomara]

And here is another hokey thing, when I cancelled the order which was not paid for none of the reasons listed said anything about non-payment.  It appears they really do not want to spread any negative information about their dead-beat buyers.

[3macboys]

3 hours ago, leomara said:

And here is another hokey thing, when I cancelled the order which was not paid for none of the reasons listed said anything about non-payment.  It appears they really do not want to spread any negative information about their dead-beat buyers.

There is an option to Report a Buyer that you can use for non paying customers.  I've actually had good luck with Ebay and bad actors.  

[leomara]

Hey 3macboys, well don't keep the secret to yourself, tell us what that is.

[3macboys]

3 hours ago, leomara said:

Hey 3macboys, well don't keep the secret to yourself, tell us what that is.

In the drop down menu on your transaction 

Awaiting payment Purchase shipping label

 

Under that tab if you scroll down there is a title called Report Buyer, it is just way down the list towards the bottom.  Before doing that though I suggest that you try to contact the buyer first and see if they want to proceed with the sale as there is the option to Cancel the Sale with the reason being Buyer Request.  If you end up with radio silence then go the Report the Buyer route.  Hopefully that helps.  

[Uptowndodge]

FeeBay just SUCKS big time…

[John348]

55 minutes ago, Uptowndodge said:

FeeBay just SUCKS big time…

You are going to pay a fee if you are going to receive a service, do you know of ANYTHING BETTER?

I sold over $9.000 worth of hobby related Items since mid-November recuperating from a miserable knee replacement, and never left my house. Their cost is factored into my overhead on every item I list. If I don't get paid I don't ship, if someone orders and changes their mind, it happens. I only ship when EBay says it's OK to ship.

The buyer pays no fees so it's fun to shop, and for a seller, for the past 20 years I have been using it, everything eventually sold, but it comes at a price. I am willing to pay the price just to sell the item, I still make a profit, and I know it's only going tossed when I die, so I am just staying ahead of the curve  

Edited January 27, 2023 by John348 (see edit history)

[1937hd45]

I agree with John348, if I can list something and it sells for a few bucks over the cost to mail it I'm a happy camper, eBay is not just for automotive related items. If I can take a photo of it I can list it. Bob 

[PONTIAC1953]

On 1/25/2023 at 5:33 PM, 3macboys said:

There is an option to Report a Buyer that you can use for non paying customers.  I've actually had good luck with Ebay and bad actors.  

I have reported sellers who commit fraud in their description of a bogus cheap copy of a valued car accessory, and Feebay people do nothing to stop the fraudulent listing practices.

[Uptowndodge]

12 hours ago, John348 said:

You are going to pay a fee if you are going to receive a service, do you know of ANYTHING BETTER?

I sold over $9.000 worth of hobby related Items since mid-November recuperating from a miserable knee replacement, and never left my house. Their cost is factored into my overhead on every item I list. If I don't get paid I don't ship, if someone orders and changes their mind, it happens. I only ship when EBay says it's OK to ship.

The buyer pays no fees so it's fun to shop, and for a seller, for the past 20 years I have been using it, everything eventually sold, but it comes at a price. I am willing to pay the price just to sell the item, I still make a profit, and I know it's only going tossed when I die, so I am just staying ahead of the curve  

More power to you, your doing so good you probably won’t go back to work. The buy pays no fees but just getting tax on a part that’s been taxed sucks too. The tax makes a good deal not so good as you think. So did you give them your tax ID or your social Security number they send you a 1099 

[Frank DuVal]

If you make a profit, you owe tax. Applies to EVERYTHING you own! Exceptions are in the tax code, such as real estate you live in as a principle residence. Now, if you live in your car.....