Ebay limits sellers and is kicking sellers off site

Thanks, Ebay. (just about says it all ; )

Originally Posted by Bear

Thanks, Ebay. (just about says it all ; )

Here is my exp with these a**clowns.

The buyer is 100% right, no matter if they do fraudelent returns, have customer remorse and lye about it, etc. All Ebay cares about is the buyer and they expect you to kiss their diere 100% of the time and expect refunds at all time.


I just had my account blocked, can longer sell. Reason being is in one month, I had several fraudlent returns I refused refund. 2 were laptop motherboards that were verfied working by both me and the computer stores I deal with. They basically take what they want and sell the rest to me in case were they are not worth refurbishing. ie too much money invested for profit.

Well one was a supposed the board didnt post and it was burned around the wifi slot. BSSSS!! The people supposedly ran a repair place in Atlanta. Ya well they were frying boards. I had the board posted with a pic on the site with windows 7 installed on it etc. They sent it back and sure enough fried, so I refused delivery stating it wasnt in this condition when mailed. Well as soon as it got back to them, they opened a case and Ebay sided with them giving them money. So how does that work? They still got the product and the money....

Another case was tv power supply board. Tv had a cracked screen. Verified with no bad caps etc. Tv powered right up. Pictures taken proven the tv worked albeit with a creacked screen. Well refund came in, NOT MY BOARD. I had it marked with UV dye and Ebay authorized refund. So Im out my product and money.

I can go on and on with these clowns. Spoke to several reps and got various answers. Like their is a risk and a noticeable loss with online business etc. My argument was if I owned a brick and mortar store, I could refuse refunds and tell people to get lost. With Ebay I cant, etc.

So now my Ebay account is closed. I did over 500 transactions since Jan this year and about 40k, gone.

They were getting about a grand a month in fees and I was pushing 4-5 a month.

Gone, because all they care about is the buyer. They dont care about the "low volume" sellers. Only high volume sellers. If I had 15k feedback like companies like meditechny, I might have done something, etc.

So now Im stuck with all these laptops I bought for parts, resale, HDTVS, no outlets

And the bloody accoutn is closed for 45 days and THEY STILL ALLOWING RETURNS even after I refused them and called them business is closed.


Luckily I pulled all funds out of paypal before it hit the fan. Right now my PayPal is about 1500 in the hole, because I been refusing all returns and they are doing whatever they want.

Its absurd. The funniest thing is when I threatened LEGAL ACTION, the rep immediately hung up on me.

So in my humble opinion, I would not sell anything working period, whatsoever. I would sell as is for parts or not working. But even that dont always work. Still got returns on dead laptops I sold for parts under the categories. Like I had 2 laptop boards with bad video chipsets. Sold them under for parts or not working. They needed to reballed. Well Ebay allowed them to be returned saying it was not as described. WTF....I said they had no video output and sold as is for parts or repair.

Currently thinking of loading a store on to my quad core tv computer and just sell right from my own site with my own server. The best way. I have no problem with keeping customers happy and doing proper returns, I do have severe issue when as#hole company walks all over me after I pay them to run my store and steal whatever they want from me.

This is why I never put up my adds I would buy laptops off of smf forum for more than scrap.....knew this was gonna happen sooner or later.

Maybe this is time for your wife to go into competition with you. She could use her own ebay account and start selling.

Just a thought...

Unfortunately there's not much we can do about it. Fact is we're selling on a site that we don't own, and they basically have a monopoly. I've dealt with these limits for a long time now, and have had them upped a dozen times now. I've worked my way up to 2500 listings/125k, although that seems a bit lopsided, I WISH I had 125k in inventory with less than 2500 listings. I've tried other up and coming sites and none of them can provide the volume. There's one in particular that looked promising like they might just be able to compete, well, I've had hundreds of listings on that site for a year and a half now and ZERO sales, sometimes I even forget all about it, luckily the listings are free. I wish someone would be able to compete, but like auminer said earlier, the only company that MIGHT be able to pull it off would be Google, but honestly even for them it would be an uphill battle and would take tons of money (although their stock is above $1k/share now and they do have the capital).

Here's the other side of the equation though, it IS all about the buyers. Without them there would be no sales, that's where these other sites are falling short. Buyers know they're safe on ebay, they don't have that same confidence with other unproven sites. Does this mean some people take advantage of that? Absolutely! I've been upset and vocal over what's been going on with ebay for a while as well, but the more I think about the big picture I've learned that being so upset is only bad for my health. I've been in retail my entire life, in retail you have to write off a percentage of sales as shrink, losses from theft/shady returns and other variables. Being an online only store that same percentage just transfers to scammers/shady returns/damage in shipping.

I do agree that some of this "purging" and "limits" are NOT justified, and I don't agree with a lot of the decisions they're making, but at the same time I can see what they're trying to do, I just think they're going about it the wrong way.

Originally Posted by Mechanic688

I wonder why their doing that as they make a percentage of every sale. Kind of like cutting your nose off to spite your face,,,

Or we're making too much money so we'll just get rid of 50,000 or so sellers.

While that would seem to be true, my knee jerk reaction to the message is that they are NOT getting rid of sellers because of they money they are making but because of the money they are LOSING.

In a world full of identity theft, how hard would it be for a criminal to open a bank account, open an ebay account, list 5000 items for 20.00, then just run off with 100,000.00?

Ebay would still be on the hook with the buyers, they would have to refund the money, but would not have any way to get the money back.

Because they only invoice every 30 days, there is more than enough time to sell thousands of dollars of stuff, withdraw the money, then be long gone.

It would seem to me, Ebay would NOT want to publicly say this was a growing problem, they would rather internally find a way to curb the problem by putting more scrutiny on sellers.

Just an idea.

Originally Posted by mikeinreco

I also read a quote that navigating selling on ebay is like navigating a minefield.........I truly agree....on my main account 361 positive feedbacks 100%.......I HAD TO JUMP THROUGH HOOPS TO GET THIS DONE

I agree as well, I'm at 697 now with 100%, top-rated and it can get nerve-racking at times. I cringe everytime my phone goes off with an ebay message thinking it's somebody letting me know they have some kind of problem. Luckily my wife handles all the customer service. She worked for Nordstrom for many years which basically takes returns on just about anything (she told me one time a store even refunded a customer on some crazy non-related item (like a car battery or something like that) just because they took over the space of a store that went out of business), so she's pretty good with dealing with people and outrageous claims.

I am echoing the comments of others about it being set up for buyers

Feebay is what it is. They don't care about the small seller anymore. They are a monopoly but someday it will end. Someone will come along and take over the online auction place

Originally Posted by KzScrapper

Well that sucks PTS, hopefully you get something figured out or the law of averages keeps you from hitting that mark.

As for you Ozzy...no matter how you market your stuff, if they pay with a credit card they will still have the option to dispute. Credit card company may not be as liberal as Ebay but will certainly be a pita for you. You seem to get burned and become a victim in every project you take on...bad luck or??

If you referring to last year with the neighbors and some other things I may or may not posted, I say bad luck. I have a dark cloud following me and everything I touch turns to ****. My father will be dead 2 years in FEB and my son is turning 5 in jan, although havnt seen him since June,

So I dont know who the fing I pissed off, but the story of my life. Black clouds following em as usual. Oftent thought about making a contract selling my soul to Satan, but whats the point? All the crap in life I have been delt with, I should be goign to heaven when I die...LOL!

OOO_000 btw...the 14 day warranty you give means **** and Ebay will overide. Ebay allows all returns up to""""45" days. All they have to do is the magical words, NOT AS DESCRIBED! Whatever you put in your ad means ****, totally cfrap. That was another problem I had. 14 days on all. Then one example is a hard drive I sold crapped out at 29 days. Buyer placed a case, not as described...bla bla. Ebay sided and gave him the money. Thats like me buying a alternator at a junkyard, week later it blows up, and Im forcing them to0 do a returns. ITS A USED PART!!!!

I firmly believe with Ebay, your nothing more than a warehouse and shipper, drop shipping. They dont like what a buyer sayers regardless your right, you "HAVE TO TAKE A RETURN!!!

Thought I mentioned it since the one guy in this thread say he offers a 14 day warranty, which means nothing.