posted on August 13, 2001 10:44:10 AM new
We purchased an item from an eBay Power Seller, who is also verified with PayPal, about 4 weeks ago. We paid via PayPal from our account. The items arrived damaged due to poor packaging. We sent several emails to the seller, the last of which was CC to both Safe harbor and PayPal, still no response.
Auction listings on eBay revealed that the seller is NARU’ed, he got 27 negatives within the last month. What exactly are the criteria for being a Power Seller? Is product guarantee one of the criteria of being a Power Seller? It seems that although a person might have certain selling status, he/she is still human and can yield to temptation.
We filed fraud charges with PayPal and eBay, we do not know how much that will help, but it is worth a try.
posted on August 13, 2001 10:59:37 AM new
Power Seller status is only based on a number. The number being how much you sell per month as a seller. It has nothing to do with quality service.
Sorry you got burnt by this transaction. It is a blemish for all eBay sellers.
Maybe it is time for eBay to think about that big old logo that many sellers use to their advantage. It almost lulls buyers into thinking that they are dealing with reputable sellers.
I know of sellers that qualify for this "status" and refuse to be associated with it.
posted on August 13, 2001 12:04:16 PM new
I'm afraid nothing in life is guaranteed.
I once had a buyer with 500+ feedback stiff me on a sale, so ya just never know?
Although it doesn't take much to become a power seller, it is in fact based on more than just a number.
The Power Sellers Program requires a seller to meet and maintain a gross monthly sales minimum.
Those who obtain the Bronze, Silver or Gold sales levels for two consecutive months qualify. Additionally the program requires sellers to have a feedback rating of at least 100, 98% of which must be positive.
Power Sellers must offer a satisfaction guarantee and pay their eBay fees on time.
posted on August 13, 2001 12:40:41 PM new
is the item insured?
if so,you may try to get seller to sign papers and take it to post office,howver post office is becoming more stringent in refunding especially if it is not well packed.
many powersellers sell enough to know it is important to pack well.
posted on August 13, 2001 03:21:29 PM new
kennycam, you have touched a nerve. I am a power seller but wouldn't use the logo since it doesn't mean anything except you do a lot of business with ebay and haven't garnered too much negative feedback.
If ebay wanted a program that would worked, they would devise one to inspire bidder confidence. It would be a "customer satisfaction" sort of logo, similar to the Good Housekeeping seal of approval but for ebay sellers.
Sellers would have to meet stringent tests such as:
1. All emails answered within 24 hours by a real person with a real answer.
2. Items guaranteed to be as described, or your money back. Reasonable shipping costs and methods revealed in initial listing.
3. Shipping within 48 hours of credit card or money order payment, 7 working days for personal checks.
4. Professional packing and guaranteed safe arrival.
5. Feedback left on all completed transactions.
A seller with these standards would get me bidding without hesitation.
posted on August 13, 2001 04:25:51 PM new
The lack of neg. feedbacks seems to mean little. If you read enough of these posts you know too many people are afraid to neg anyone, because they do not want to get neg'ed back.
posted on August 13, 2001 10:53:04 PM new
litlux ~
I am a powerseller and I bend over backwards to keep my customers happy. I've never displayed the powerseller logo and I never would. if I had to agree to the term that you have laid down or not sell I would quit selling on line and open a shop.
1. All emails answered within 24 hours by a real person with a real answer.
no problem, the only time I haven't gotten back within 24 hours is if I'm on vacation, or in the last year 3 family members have died and we have had to travel out of state, or when we were at the hospital for 2 days when my wife had a baby.
2. Items guaranteed to be as described, or your money back. Reasonable shipping costs and methods revealed in initial listing.
I have a description on every ad, I have dimensions on every ad as well as a picture and shipping costs and I still get retards that don't read, don't look or don't know what 4" x 6" is, or want it sent another way after the auction. So you can add that before people are aloud to bid on ebay they need to pass a proficiency test, where they prove that they can read, understand a picture and they know what a ruler is. Also I've found what most people charge for shipping is reasonable compared to most other forms of mail order.
3. Shipping within 48 hours of credit card or money order payment, 7 working days for personal checks.
48hours, I guess if I receive monies on Friday too late to ship and it goes out on Monday I would not qualify, oh well. If you only hold a check for 7 working days your a fool, we hold them for 15 days, down from 25 and will probably be going back up to 20. if your only going to hold a check for 7 days don't bother holding them at all.
4. Professional packing and guaranteed safe arrival.
Professional packing and reasonable shipping don't always go hand and hand, most often you get what you pay for. Safe arrival is guaranteed if you buy insurance.
5. Feedback left on all completed transactions.
the sale is completed when the customer leaves me feedback at which time I am more than happy to do the same for them. Why? with over 16,000 sales on ebay and just over 5000 feedback showing with over 7000 feedback left buyers are a lazy bunch, I could care less at getting ever another feedback, if you want one leave one.
posted on August 14, 2001 12:18:02 AM new
****1. All emails answered within 24 hours by a real person with a real answer.****
Impossible. Not only weekends, but server outages, trips away from home to get merchandise, family business. And some people have bad clocks which cause their messages to get buried when the mail gets sorted by time. Have had instances of my replies simply NOT getting through. 3 days is a reasonable criteria, and eBay already has it. I neither use nor trust automated responses so I cannot comment on them.
*****2. Items guaranteed to be as described, or your money back. Reasonable shipping costs and methods revealed in initial listing.*****
Refunds are generally given if 'not as described'. But people have to learn to read descriptions and look at pics. Shipping and any 'handling' charges do NEED to be clearly stated, or at least weight and location for bidders to calculate on their own.
*****3. Shipping within 48 hours of credit card or money order payment, 7 working days for personal checks. *****
This is plainly stupid. Mail order catalogs offer 4-6 *WEEK* shipping with credit card orders, and though I hardly recommend this for eBay, people do need to be realistic. I ship twice a week, PERIOD! I'll be damned if I'm gonna run to the Post Office every day because some twit wants instant gratification via credit card. And what happens if I get buried by a flurry of orders? I don't hold checks, and I consider 5 *BUSINESS* days shipping to be reasonable. Especially if I need to be away for a few days.
*****4. Professional packing and guaranteed safe arrival. *****
Professional packing????? OK, I'll send all your items to a Pack-and-Ship and have you pay the additonal expense! Nobody can stay in this business long if they cannot pack. And after sending out over a thousand packages I know well enough that a tiny percentage will be used as Post Office frisbees and that there is nothing I can do to prevent damage without making the packages prohibitively expensive. I offer everyone insurance, and if they do not wish to pay for it, then it is simply out of my hands.
5. Feedback left on all completed transactions.
NO! No way, Jose! there are certain transactions with a bad feel about them that I simply WILL NOT leave feedback on. And I never check to see if they have left any for me. With a purple star, I simply do not care if I even get feedback. I normally give feedback but it is a senseless game that I would rather not play. I have a deadbeat that never paid for a half dozen items and though I have filed FVF fees already, and he is not yet NARU, I dont dare give negative feedback, since he can easily retailiate with the screwy system ebay has in place.
posted on August 14, 2001 01:19:16 AM new1. All emails answered within 24 hours by a real person with a real answer.
No problem -- I already do that.
2. Items guaranteed to be as described, or your money back. Reasonable shipping costs and methods revealed in initial listing.
No problem -- I already do that.
3. Shipping within 48 hours of credit card or money order payment, 7 working days for personal checks.
Mostly not a problem, because I almost never hold personal checks. On the rare occasion that I do, 7 business days is not enough time for a check to clear. If I do hold a check, the buyer is informed both when the check arrives and when his package is shipped.
On regular shipments, packages go out pretty much every day of the week, and on Saturdays, I ship as many packages as will fit in the mailbox. The rest go out on Monday.
4. Professional packing and guaranteed safe arrival.
No problem. Insurance is my responsibility, regardless of who pays for it. If I don't insure a package, then I replace it if something happens. So far, to the best of my knowledge, there hasn't been anything damaged, but a handful of packages have turned up missing. All were replaced or refunded.
5. Feedback left on all completed transactions.
Mostly not a problem. I leave positive feedback upon receipt of payment, except in rare instances when I do hold checks. Then positive feedback is left when the package is shipped. I like leaving feedback first -- in my opinion, it's more professional and it shows confidence in what you're selling (just my opinion, but it works for me). I know (all too well) what it's like to be negged out of the blue after already leaving a positive for someone, so I certainly don't blame the sellers that do wait about leaving feedback. It's just not how I personally prefer to do things.
Yep, I'm a power seller. I do display the logo, but it's the smallest one, and it's placed at the bottom of my auctions. The large logos are too "loud" for my taste.
I did consider not displaying the logo, for the reasons mentioned here: some power sellers shouldn't be. I can't tell that the logo has had any effect on my auctions ... good or bad. Besides, I think a seller's actual feedback comments mean a lot more than the logo, anyway ... power seller or not.
posted on August 14, 2001 07:26:09 AM new
There has been a lot of talk about the PS logo-some have said they won't buy from someone displaying it. I don't have a problem with it-BUT-put it at the bottom! Geez-I hate the ones where you have to weed through that huge logo and all the "I am a powerseller blah blah blah before you can even get to the description and picture!
Worse are the ones that have all that crap and then a one line description and no picture! Makes one think you're bidding on the powerseller.
posted on August 14, 2001 07:42:54 AM newAll emails answered within 24 hours by a real person with a real answer.
eBay couldn't pass this test themselves. Does this mean weekends & holidays? A heck of a lot of ebay sellers are "one man" operations. 24/7 is a lot to expect from a "one man operation".
7 working days for personal checks.
As someone else said, if you only hold checks for 7 days, there is no reason to hold them at all. I've had a check come bouncing back after 26 days.
1. All emails answered within 24 hours by a real person with a real answer.
This is highly unrealistic. Some times you need to take a couple of days off. We personally answer all emails but not everyone conducts business that way.
2. Items guaranteed to be as described, or your money back. Reasonable shipping costs and methods revealed in initial listing.
This should be practiced by all sellers big and small.
3. Shipping within 48 hours of credit card or money order payment, 7 working days for personal checks.
You can't be serious...
4. Professional packing and guaranteed safe arrival.
Sorry, I can't guarantee that the PO won't mess up. That's what insurance is for.
5. Feedback left on all completed transactions.
What's the point? In my experience, sellers leave feedback more often than buyers.
[ edited by outoftheblue on Aug 14, 2001 09:04 AM ]
posted on August 14, 2001 09:22:30 AM new
All of these PowerSeller TOS are meaningless, unless eBay is the guarantor, which they are not.
In essence, every seller on eBay is "fly by night" as far as their eBay "business" goes. They come and go just like the weather. Every seller is small and propriatary and can pack up and leave in a day. No one has be able to develop brand value for their business on eBay, so no equitity is lost when leaving eBay. Easy in and easy out. There is no reason to think a particular seller will be on eBay next week or next year, and even if they are, they probably will not be selling the same products. The sellers that attempt to keep the same product line with any success are soon undercut by a competitor.
As all sellers have learned, no seller has a business on eBay. eBay is the only business on eBay. Sellers are just replaceable parts on eBay. eBay is a Fleamarket, not an internet mall, and it's eBay's fault due to their "branding" mania.
posted on August 14, 2001 10:30:50 AM new
Isn't the Power Seller title the most worthless title you've ever run across? No real perks or nothin! It sounds like some kind of con-job or brainwashing by eBay. Besides, who the heck cares if you're dealing with a Power Seller or not? Chances are the Power Seller is dealing in such high volumes they won't have time or the ability to offer stellar customer service.
posted on August 14, 2001 02:15:51 PM new
Email answered in 24 hours? We try. We are powersellers over 20,000 eBay orders completed. Now if we could only get the buyers to be responsive in payment and emails. Buyers at eBay ate about 50-50, 50% smart, 50% dumb as a piece of tree bark.
2. Items guarenteed? Uh huh. What a joke this one is. More buyers are thieves at the site than sellers ever will be. We've had people return stuff we never sold, copy things you name it. The site itself needs to be regulated and accountable.
3. Shipping w/in 48 hours if you accept a credit card payment is law. Once a charge takes place it must ship within 2 business days, if not, the cardholder can do a chargeback and it will stick. They can also file legal claim w/ state authorities and curtail ones ability to sell. If you have a merchant account, fastest way to loose it is not shipping within the timeframe, its IN the contract. So not only can they masacre the merchant account but all leased equipment you still will pay for. The reason TV places say 6-8 weeks is they DONT charge your card until 48 hours before shipment. They also clearly state 4-6 weeks, do your ads? Regardless of what sellers think law is quite clear in mail order sales. What you advertise MUST be whats delivered, that simple. ANything outside of that and a court of law will file in the buyers favor.
5. Feedback.... WHO CARES... Feedback is SO VERY LAME. Buyers feed on it like its a reward, its not a reward, its useless.
Signed: WhyNot!
Interesting point about CC acceptance and 48 hour shipping. However PayDirect and C2It have the seller ACCEPT payment, so all a seller has to do is wait to accept payment shortly before shipping. PayPal appears to be a gray zone, since the money is transferred blind and never officially 'accepted' except perhaps in the sense of when the account is emptied by transfer.
