Screwed by Ebay

Cactusflower

Pied Piper of Ponies
MLPTP Supporter
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Jan 20, 2018
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880
I need help. Hoping some of you are experienced Ebay sellers.

I've been on Ebay for 17 years, buying and selling. I haven't sold for many years and I sold my first pony a couple days ago and here's what happened.

The buyer just sent the money this morning. I went to my Paypal account and it was showing the payment as being held. I had no idea why and I called Paypal and was told it was something from Ebay. I was told I would have to ship the item, upload the tracking and then call Ebay to ask them to release the payment. Excuse me? She directed me to call Ebay and gave me a direct line to call. I spoke with Ebay and was told the same thing. Here's the thing, I'm in Canada and shipping to the US. Tracking generally starts at $20 per item, so I don't even offer it, unless requested. The buyer obviously didn't pay for tracking either. They said the other way I could get paid is for me to wait for the buyer to upload something that he has received it and then they will release the payment. They tried to tell me this is to protect both buyer and seller. He stated it was a program for new and casual sellers. Well, I'm not a new seller, I've been on Ebay for 17 years, but haven't sold for many years. He said I'll have to be under this program until I have been consistently selling for at least 90 days.

Let me get this straight, Ebay expects me to ship all my items out, at my own expense, with no guarantee that I'll ever get my money and having to rely on buyers who are strangers to let them know they received the item. What the frackity frack? Does this make any sense to anyone? How does this protect the buyer in any way? I've never been so angry with a business in my whole life. Apparently, unless you are constantly selling this will happen to you with every transaction.

I asked how to get out of this mess, because I'm not shipping an item without getting paid for it first. It looks like my only solution is to cancel the sale, refund the money and end all my existing ebay auctions and never sell on Ebay again. The part that really pisses me off is that this poor guy won't get his HTF pony, unless I sell it privately to him after I cancel the sale. I hate eBay. What a terrible company.

All I wanted to do today was get this pony out to my customer (who I happen to know is part of the pony community). Now I have a time consuming mess to sort out. I'd appreciate any thoughts, comments or suggestions. Have any of you been through this before?
 
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All I can offer is a warm friendly hug. I don’t nor will I ever sell on EBay, basically because I’ve heard nothing but bad reviews from non-American sellers. :/
 
Thanks, lady. I'm feeling super low right now. I'm going finish packing my pony gift exchange items and maybe I'll feel better. This gift exchange is the only thing I'm looking forward to at all right now.
 
I'm so sorry. I think most everyone has been switching to selling on etsy, mercari, and ecrater. EBay is terrible. Mercari does hold your money until the buyer confirms receipt or return until you've been on there a while. I'd suggest etsy, since I know it's international, but I don't have personal experience selling there. I hope it works out ok in the end. :xmashug:
 
Wow. I guess they are trying to cover themselves after having a problem with buyers being ripped off by international sellers. You'd think, though, if there is a long-time member who hasn't been an an issue, they should get a pass to sell something on the site every once in a while without this program being a factor. As others have mentioned, you may have to try selling somewhere else.
 
Wow. I guess they are trying to cover themselves after having a problem with buyers being ripped off by international sellers. You'd think, though, if there is a long-time member who hasn't been an an issue, they should get a pass to sell something on the site every once in a while without this program being a factor. As others have mentioned, you may have to try selling somewhere else.
Right? I’m clearly not a scammer and I’ve been active for years, just not selling.

The good news is that my buyer read my post on FB and contacted me. He’ll get his pony and I’ll get my money. We just have to figure out the best way to do it.
 
I'm so glad that you worked it out between you and the buyer. Ebay is terrible about customer service and being helpful. Its why I'd rather just do a darn yard sale then sell with those people.
 
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Wow. I guess they are trying to cover themselves after having a problem with buyers being ripped off by international sellers. You'd think, though, if there is a long-time member who hasn't been an an issue, they should get a pass to sell something on the site every once in a while without this program being a factor. As others have mentioned, you may have to try selling somewhere else.


You'd think they'd start being more involved on their own site and fixing things for the better.
 
Wow! I had no idea eBay transactions were so difficult for Canadian sellers/buyers. After being inactive for quite some time, I recently started selling again on eBay and haven't had any issues, but then again, I'm in the US.

So sorry that happened to you!
After recently being made aware that shipping to Canada was so expensive, I did a price estimate online and was like:
:shock::surprisepony::sadpony::madpony:
I don't blame you one bit for being upset! How do they expect anyone to afford something like that, without being able to use the money from the sale?!?!

Thankfully you were able to sort it out with the buyer.

Once upon a time I had an Esty account. Like quite a few other sites, my login info is either deleted or I just simply can't remember it. With so much that has happened in the past few years, I have no idea where to even begin looking for where I may have stashed that info. I thought Esty was for handmade items only, so I never thought about selling ponies on there! I'll be sure to look into it!

:smile:
 
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