Still treated like a criminal - Mixed Messages about being an "advantage" member

[Jeremiah1]

Before we begin, lets keep in mind what answer is given to "what is paypal advantage"? in the FAQ section on this site. Answer: "PayPal Advantage is a priority service program for PayPal’s top customers." 

So I qualified for this "advantage" program somehow. Not sure why or the requirements, but here I am. I would assume by qualifying that paypal feels as though I am a member worth giving special treatment to or worth keeping. NOPE! In paypal and eBay's eyes, I am a "risk" (more on that later) and they are now withholding my eBay payments until the items are "confirmed delivered" to my buyers. As some of you eBay sellers know, that is completely impossible with certain international shipments. This allows paypal to withhold your payments for UP TO 21 DAYS! Great scam eBay/paypal. Hold onto honest sellers money as long as you possibly can to gain interest in your interest bearing accounts.*1 I did not see any fine print that said you would give me the interest I lost not having the money in my own bank account. I am all for protecting buyers, but not at the expense of sellers that have proven they are not scumbags.

Mixed Messages: If I'm so "advantage" why are you treating me like a criminal and withholding my funds? Seems as though paypal/eBay has taken the business model of the U.S. govt. (Guilty until proven innocent). I have been a premier business account holder with paypal for YEARS, I think since year 2000. Opened my eBay account in 1999. I decided to start selling more of my inventory on eBay this year instead of my own store. I have a 99.4% POSITIVE feedback record on eBay with well over 600 transactions. I have had a total of 4 buyers this year give me 1 and 2 star ratings on "item not as described" which equals less than 1% of my total feedback transactions. That would probably be more like .01% if everyone actually left feedback. Two of those four people actually left me positive feedback for some odd reason. Probably because they made a mistake filling in the stars or maybe their cat jumped on the keyboard. Conveniently, eBay does not tell you who left the low ratings so that honest sellers can work with their customers or try to make things right. I do not have ANY non delivered items, or any history of being a "problem" seller. So my question to the higher ups at paypal...why exactly are you NOW withholding funds? Because a computer on eBay decided that I am a "risk"? ... Because of 1 scammer, 1 nutcase who I am suing for defamation of character after he left me un-deserved negative feedback, and two people that may have left the low "item not as described" stars by accident. I could understand withholding funds if I had a record of not delivering items, but that is NOT the case here. When I asked the rep on the phone if there was someone to talk to about this, I was referred to the "suggestion box" on eBay. hahhahhahahah, like that will actually change things. Who reads those? I highly doubt the owners of eBay/paypal. If you start treating your "advantage" customers with more respect and not a number, they may come back to eBay/paypal  Right now the forums are flooded with annoyed ex-eBay sellers that have switched all their inventory to Amazon, Etsy, and Bonanza, AND, using other payment processors because of some of your new policies. I may soon be following them if you keep siding with buyers that are scammers and/or do not have a proven track record.

I do not feel like a respected long time customer at all with paypal at this moment. I get to talk to better reps, whooopee....the only thing they are better at is trying to make you believe that these policies make sense. If you want this service to get some respect, let us speak to DECISION MAKERS at the company. I want to speak to the person that will say "yes sir, we will change that ridiculous policy on your account right away". 

Jeremiah*s_stuff on eBay

*1. From wiki paypal "Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal, has stated that PayPal is not a bank because it does not engage in fractional-reserve banking.[48] Rather, PayPal's funds THAT HAVE NOT BEEN DISBURSED are kept in commercial interest-bearing checking accounts.[49]"

If someone at paypal actually responds to this, can you please disclose how many eBay seller accounts have this withholding policy in place. It would be interesting to get an estimate on how many millions of dollars are gaining interest for your company, and not in the sellers bank accounts who you owe your job/success to.

[ColinCaster]

Dude, you're actually suing a buyer over negative feedback?  You understand that's completely whackadoodle, right?

[Jeremiah1]

HA 🙂 I MAKE IDIOTS PAY. Long story short, the clown ordered the wrong product (which he admitted in his very first e-mail to me) and did not want to return it if he had to pay the shipping.(a whopping $2) I even offered to send him the product he wanted at no extra charge. Fairly, I could have charged him the return shipping and new shipping charges becasue he made the mistake. What happened next was even more amazing....he wanted me to send tthe new product AT NO CHARGE and not return the old one at all! 

It may seem crazy to some to sue over feedback on eBay, but when someone is potentially costing you money, its worth it. I was refused my top rated/power seller 20% discount for months becasue of his negative feedback. THAT IS HUGE PROFIT MARGIN. Not just that, it has an effect on how many people purchase my items in the future. Some people may refuse to buy from sellers if they have ANY negatives. Aaaaaand, i was informed that the only way eBay will remove certain feedback is by court order. EBay could have saved this guy from going to court if they had their own sytem in place, reveiewing negative feedback to see if it was deserved. Ebay likes to take the stand of , "we can't argue with someones opinion". I have all the evidence that proves I did not deserve a negative comment. He left it out of spite because he could not get his way after making a mistke. Some people don't like to pay for their mistakes. Well, he's going to be paying in A BIG WAY now. 

Should I post false information about you and it cost you money, you have every right to sue me for defemation, if you can prove a possible loss of income would or did result.

[jlgates55]

Wow you are our new hero! Sue the guy and hard too! Want to hear something that you won't believe? (well you will probably believe it!) On Jan.3 2011 we sold 2 morgan silver dollars to an ebay customer(afraid to list his name, because I was the seller and only buyers seem to have rights) He opened a case against us saying that he never received the coins, his feedback rating was only 10 and already he had left a negative on another coin seller. Ebay ruled in his favor because we could not provide a tracking number, even though no where in ebays policy does it say that you must track each and every package, we provided the postal receipt with his zip code and the weight of the package, we told ebay if he didn't receive the package how did he know that we did not have a delivery confirmation/ tracking number on the package, told ebay he was a scammer and to look at his feedback and still they ruled in his favor and of course we had to refund his money and he of course left negative feedback X's 2 (which **bleep** us off) So being **bleep** off we decided just to keep an eye out for him and every now and then would check his site and on July 10, 2011 he listed on ebay the two morgan silver dollars!!!!! We called ebay immediately and ever since then we have been given the run around. Each week we called and each week we received different answers(no one really knows whats going on) The buyers protection can't talk to the fraud dept. which can't talk to the global law enforcement dept. which can't talk to the legal dept. but the bottom line is WE have to do ALL of the work! We have to go to our local police and file a complaint and they can contact "ebay's global law enforcement and that's all the info ebay will give us. WHY CAN"T ebay's global law enforcement, enforce the law? Why does my local police have to deal with this paperwork? Why does ebay let a known theif continue to sell on their site? The only good thing this thief did was take good pictures of the coins(he claimed he never got) all the little imperfections on the coins show up proving they are our coins! When we told ebay this, they still did nothing and still haven't! It has been 3+months since we first caught this thief and still they are letting him sell on ebay and when we call they keep telling us that our case has been "elevated" to the next level which supposedly is a investigation team but they will not move forward until we go to the police and file a complaint, and they will not give us the thiefs address because it is illegal hmmmm, what's so illegal about this is the way, us as an honest seller have been treated, there is definetly no "seller protection" program, ebay only protects the buyer. SO sue, sue and sue as much as you can and if you ever get that class action suit going please let us know, our ebay user name is gatess666, if you know ebay's feedback system pretty good you will be able to figure out the thief's ebay user name. So we are out 2 beautiful morgan silver dollars, plus shipping PLUS all the potential customers we have lost due to that thief's negative feedback. We feel so let down almost abused by ebay's system. I wish we would have checked the thief's site while the coins were being listed, I would have made sure I won them both back and then filed a case against him, then I would have been "the buyer" and would have had all of ebay's "buyer" protection to back me up, missed it by a week! Anyways if I went into detail about the run around with ebay over this ordeal, I would be typing for 10 hours straight! I do have a 2 inch thick folder detailing all of my frustrating calls and I noted each time I picked up the phone until I put it down, all of my time, wasted trying to get ebay to help me fight a thief that they are still allowing to participate in thier company, So SELLER BEWARE on ebay!  Please win your law suit, it will be great to know that someone has gotten "them" back, them meaning those dirty lying buyers that ebay protects so well. GOOD LUCK!  SIncerely, The Gates Family

[ersan]

As far as I understand it, PayPal Advantage and eBay are completely seperate.  I don't think it's fair to criticize PayPal Advantage because of negative eBay seller ratings.

[minnichsmetals]

FOR THE MOST PART, I am a fan of Paypal and Ebay, but I have had my fair share of run-ins...  But to answer your question in the most simple terms; Paypal OWNS Ebay, and vice/versa (They are one in the same company), so Yes, Paypal has everything to do with ebay.  And as far as sueing that scum bag buyer, I have been a successful seller on Ebay for 4 years now, retaining a 100% Positive feedback with all 5 star ratings, and over 1500 feedbacks, and I would do the EXACT SAME THING!  I have worked my tail off to earn the reputation I have (I ALWAYS ship with delivery confirmation, I ship within 24 hours, I describe accurately, and take great photos), so the ONLY reason someone would leave me a negative feedback would be out of spite, and I would absolutely take that as a personal attack against me and my business, and an obvious effort by the bottom feeder to take money out of my pocket.  With all the research available showing that buyers look at a seller having negative feedback in a very NEGATIVE way, you should have no problem proving your case to a judge with any sense of business!  Good luck my friend!