posted on June 29, 2001 02:51:35 PM
I'm mostly a seller, but I also do a lot of bidding on eBay.
I don't know about you, but I've recently seen a very negative trend among sellers, which makes me think twice about bidding on their auctions.
"No bids from users with shades" "No bids from users with a feedback of 10 or less" "Payment MUST be received within 5 days of auctions end" (he didn't accept any online payments)
"Bidders with a negative received in the last 3 months will have the bid deleted" (Doesn't matter if you're a red-star user. If you have one neg in the last 3 months, you're out)
Has anybody else noted this? Is the NPB epidemic that bad?
posted on June 29, 2001 03:16:00 PM
I have noticed the trend too. It's pretty sad.
But as a seller, I have also noticed the increase in NPB's lately. It's been terrible. But adding those clauses is a cop out I think. It really isn't going to help them all that much. My last 6 NPB's (all in the last 2 months) were from bidders with 10+ feedback, no shades, no negs. These is such a thing as being too cautious.
posted on June 30, 2001 04:33:06 AM
In the shoe and apparel categories deadbeats are sky high.
2 weeks ago I listed around 90 items. Only 48 people have paid. Several even wrote immediatly after the auction to say they would not pay. Two of these people had sniped at the last minute.
posted on June 30, 2001 11:52:37 AM
I've really only been searching eBay as research to sell lately. I've noticed things like that though when I wanted to buy.
All of those restrictions in my opinion are goofy. Time is better spent listing than checking your bidders feebacks to see if they have shades, etc. (Besides, someone can theoretically have less than 10 feedback and have been involved in many more transactions - just with only a few sellers.)
As to the neg - if the seller said, "Negs regarding non-payment or bounced checks," maybe that wouldn't seem so bad, but any neg? All you have to do is read the boards here to know that there are enough intelligence-impaired people out there who leave negs for no good reason. So, this I also find fairly clueless.
And my personal least favorite: the 5 days on the payment thing. I barely even bid on sellers who say 7 days, but if it's something I really want, I'll email them first, explain that I live in the boonies and it can take almost 2 days for my mail to get to a major city in this state, let alone a small town in another state, then ask if it's ok that I bid with them knowing that. But 5 days? They'd have to be selling something I really really wanted and never saw on eBay or anywhere else for me to even bother.
Here's the thing: honest people do the right thing regardless of the "strictness" of your TOS. Deadbeats, etc., break rules no matter how you state them. Therefore, why alienate nice honest bidders with TOS that are obnoxious?
posted on June 30, 2001 08:12:47 PM
I don't mind the sellers who want payment in 7 or 10 days, my choice to bid. But lately, I'm finding a lot of those sellers are also the ones that wait the three business days before contacting you, don't take online payments and don't answer the e-mails you send them to get their address so they can get their payment in 7 or 10 days.
posted on June 30, 2001 11:19:42 PM
Recently I saw this statement in bold black text in a sellers auctions:
SERIOUS BIDDERS ONLY, PLEASE! (Your credit rating depends on it.)
This from a powerseller with 100 negs and 70 neutrals. This seller shouldn't be allowed to display the powerseller logo because his/her positive feedback percentage doesn't qualify.
posted on July 1, 2001 09:57:54 AM
It is a shame. I recently had a new buyer who was scared that he'd accidentally do something to screw up his first transaction, since he's seen so many negative TOS from sellers. Several emails back and forth reassured him and the transaction went fine.
More seasoned buyers will just shrug, perhaps swear if it's something they really wanted badly, and go on to the next item on their list. But these negative TOS really do scare some new buyers.
