GOD FORBID you have a question

[ron1]

I had recently received an email regarding a petition for us ethical sellers to be able to see what is being rated on the DSR's. I didn't think anything of it and deleted it, now I wish I saved it. The system is really so unfair to ethical sellers. I mean times are hard so we already have to sell low and compete. We get a listing fee, a selling fee, a paypal fee. have to pack and ship the items, and for good sellers like myself, offer free shipping as encouraged by eBay. So I eat that. Then there is the drive to the PO (In LA that is 45 minutes, pay for parking. Then pay more for confirmation, and I insure anything worth over 50 dollars.

So what do i expect in return? Just to have a fair rating, I am cetainly not going to become Donald Trump if I remain fair and ethical.

But it is not about learning how to hide the shipping fees, it is the fact that I have been offering free shipping for several years, and the stars on the DSR are cut off. To note, I have a 100% feedback score, and 5 stars as i stated earlier..but can not understand why the stars are cut off for shipping charges and time. It TRULY is beyond my control at this point after hearing the response on live help, I really am starting to wonder about the ethics of eBay, perhaps EVERYONE else is right about them and I was wrong?

And what is with the LIE about being able to ask a question by phone when it automatically disconnects you (if you have the perserverence to even find a phone number) if the question is not one you can select from their generic list, which is going to give you a generic canned recorded answer anyhow? Are we not worthy to speak to anyone from eBay,who works there, the wizard of **bleep**ing Oz???

[surplusdealdude]

Do you want to solve your problem or do you just want to rant?

I've already told you how to solve it.

[ron1]

Apparently, I am receiving a degree of satisfaction by ranting. I will however take your advice and see what the Canadian has to say about hiding shipping fees in the selling price.

I don't know how this will effect my stars since eBay claims it is "my customers" that determine the stars, and that I am simply **bleep**ed if they decide to rate my shipping fees low, even though I ship free. And the fact that I can't view who, why, when and how any of these poor ratings were given to have ANY possible chance of recourse or explainations.

And, I wonder if the Canadian can explain why eBay clearly states we can solve matters over the phone, when it is IMPOSSIBLE to call anyone there.

But I will give it a go. I am interested to see if the Canadian has figured out a way to solve something that is clearly out of our control as sellers.and how ebay mishandles it's customers by claiming buyers are only "my" customers.

So according to eBay, anyone who uses eBay to buy or sell is not actually a customer of eBay, who simply shirks ANY responsibility they have even though they charge us fees up, down and sideways. Correct, may ranting may not solve anything...or maybe, just maybe, consistant exposing of how they handle THIER customers complaints, can possibly yeild a positive outcome.

We shall see.

[surplusdealdude]

Well then, rant away, but don't expect any more help.

[ron1]

Expect any more help? How do you define "more" when I have yet to find ANY help to begin with? Don't get me wrong, I appreciate any advice lfeft for me to pursue, but I have yet to really get any help. Just more futility.

All these emails I have been getting lately to use other e-commernce sites instead of eBay...starting to look rather tempting. Heck even craigslist has not been this difficult.

[ron1]

Okay I get it. Another eBay redundant endless proverbial clusterfuhk of futility, chasing my own tail resulting in an endless abyss of dissatisfaction.

I have the answer now. Lower the price of my items down to 99 cents, and raise the shipping fees exponentially. Then who cares if the stars are cut off on my DSR, at least I will make a profit. As that is all that really mater in business and GREED-Bay

Thanks to everyone who responded. I will now click I accept the solution..which apparently was clicked for me before any solution was reached. Not suprisingly.

[ron1]

Another question. How do I view this entire report? I want to go back to view the link to the canadian and I find it impossible. Is there a way or have all previous posts and replies on this thread been deleted?

I have to say, I have more free time since this economic crisis as cut my works hours down to almost nothing, but this appears to be the biggest waste of time since snake oil.

[Videogirl]

The problem seems to be in contacting PayPal's so-called "Help" department. PayPal should omit the "topics", as none of them ever have anything to do with anyone's questions.

[mstrofdstr]

I understand what your saying. It is the dropshippers from China, Japan, etc.. who do not even see their products who get the high ratings, etc... I know what a small seller has to go through, and if they had to do it, they probably wouldn't waste their time. Instead they sell thousands of items, with many ratings so their negative ratings really don't affect them.

I purchased something for my little boy for Christmas. It was his main Christmas gift. I could not get in touch with the seller, every time I called Ebay or Paypal, I was hung up on, especially by PayPal. I called emailed consistantly and it is hard enough to find the phone number especially if you don't go through the fake automated system first which never gets your question correct. I had to file a complaint and by the time anything was done about it, Christmas was over and need I say anymore.

Ebay/PayPal has changed. I sold on Ebay 11 years ago and it was a delight. Now, people are ripping others off for thousands of dollars by selling items that they don't even have. They take a stock photo of something that is "hot" and sell a bunch of them really cheap and by the time they get caught, they've disappeared. Ebay nor PayPal will do nothing about it.

I never add handling fees to my sales, I charge exact shipping, and sometimes I am even paying extra for shipping. The only thing I can say is what I am about to do. Stop selling on Ebay. It is a huge scam for people that do not sell the items that they have in hand, they are just dropshippers for companies that sell cheap junk. They have all kinds of tricks up their sleeves. They put tag words into the subject line which makes it seem that you are getting something your not, but if you read down into the description of the item, all the way at the bottom of the page, you will see what comes in the package and its not what you think it is. If I look for a particular item, I usually get pages and pages of the same item from another country, like I stated, usually Japan, Hong Kong, China or Taiwan, and they are all 99cents with free shipping and deceiving words in the listings. I could look through 5 or 10 pages for what I searched for but I will keep getting the same thing, which is not what I searched for. Its because they put the words that you are looking for into the subject lines, or even in the description and for most people that are new to Ebay, this is VERY deceiving but apparently not illegal for Ebay.

Back to the phone calls. Good luck getting through to a human being and if you can reach a human you will not be able to understand what they are saying because their English is so bad  or they cannot answer your question period, so they hang up on you. This has happened to me so many times it cannot be an accident.

So good playing to all of the dropshippers who do not care about customer service, and my advice to all of the small sellers, find somewhere else to go. Maybe Craigs list. Im not sure where I am going yet but believe me, I've had it with Ebay, especially PayPal. PayPal has the worst customer service period.

Ebay and PayPal have done nothing to help the small sellers get recognition except offer them more programs that cost us money to do stupid services for us.

You'd probably make more money on a yard sale, and much faster, than the time you spend listing one item, the fees to list it, the fees after you sell it, the PayPal fees for selling the item, the shipping fees, like you said the time it take to drive one or two things to the Post Office and people do not even appreciate it. I am totally honest, and very clear in my listings, and OH, I have 100% feedback also and I see on one of my starts a little corner of it is missing.

Don't worry about it, I've worried for about a year about the things I've stated above. We just need to find a place that respects people more and not the money. I am sure the people that make tens of thousands of sales are rewarded very well for their subpar items that they do not even see before its shipped.

God Bless,

Kendra 

[ron1]

Thank you for the response.

I have noticed you can get a human on the phone..for PAYPAL..not eBay, not any more. The site implies you can get phone help, but as stated, it is an automated system which has a list of questions to choose from they they pre determine. So you wait and wait for the choice to the effect "if your question is not listed, please press whatever to speak to a representative", but this NEVER happens. It just hangs up on you if your question does not exist on the pre determined list. RUDE. Also, it tells you to click on a link on the upper right of the homepage for live help, but NO SUCH LINK exists. Go right now to your eBay homepage...find this link, I double dare you. It used to exist, but no longer. It seems to me they want to exhaust us in futility until we give up, rather then have our issues and problems dealt with, but they picked the wrong guy this time. I do not give up easy.

Now i understand what you are saying about the drop shippers that sell CRAP from China and have 78,000 feedbacks. But the way I combat that..is if i see the item ships from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan etc..I simply do not purchase the item, period, not ever from that part if the world as what recourse do we have to call anyone there if an issue arises? You can't call eBAY, paypal may help but do whatever they can to skirt out of responsibility, and you will have a language barrier issue, I don't find that much fun.

Now i will say as a small seller, maybe 20-50 transactions a month, ebay is economical in the sense that i would really have no other feasible way to advertise my products worldwide with my budget. I simply try to be ethical, ship out when promised, and offer free shipping. I am willing to take that hit to make faster sales, and I generally do BIN because I do not want to compete with all the bid shilling (another big issue that we ALL know is happening), I just want to sell an item fast for a fair price, as described and ship fast/pack well. Confirm. insure, the whole 9 yards.

There are times I will use craiglist, especially with heavier items where I would lose my shirt shipping it, but I generally prefer to use eBay for smaller items which cost me under or around 10 bucks for shipping. I am not in this to be a millionaire, this is only supplement income for me, and I use hobbies to make a little extra spending money. All I ask of eBay is to look into why I have stars cut off for shipping when I ship free. And what I get from them???? "It is MY customers". So I guess ebay should allow me to see which of "MY" customers are giving be a poor rating on shipping costs when I do not charge for it? Nope...ebay is hiding the info "MY" customer are saying about me//the who, what, why, and when..but their defense it that it is "my" customers. So okay..then butt out and let me see what "MY" customers are doing to unfairly rate me..since I am also a customer of eBAY...and it is EBAYS system that is flawed and unfair.

Guess i said enough, I am going to vigorously try to find another e-commerce company to use, there has to be something else out there that does not **bleep** over ethical sellers. 10 years of ebay and paypal fees, 100% positive feedback, and not only do i get subjected to things beyond my control, but I can not even talk to someone at eBay over the phone...arrrhhhgh...yes I am ranting and it feels good, hope i didn't bore anyone to sleep.