Why it’s too Dangerous to Sell on eBay May 21, 2008

Sellers on eBay are vulnerable now more than ever to buyer abuse thanks to eBay’s ”no negative feedback” policy installed May 19, 2008. The new policy enables only sellers to receive a negative feedback.

Have at it buyers! You are now free to post false, inaccurate, misleading content without recourse — and add insult to injury! Yes, in addition to posting insults, buyers can simply tell eBay that an item is “not as described” — this process penalizes sellers by withholding PayPal funds during the investigation.

The following scenarious illustrate how dangerous it is to sell on eBay:

SCENARIO: Buyer clicks BUY NOW or BIDS and wins an auction (contract of sale). Buyer writes seller to say that he “purchased an item in error” and requests that the seller cancel the sale (tries to renege contract).

OPTION #1: Seller says “no” and enforces unpaid item:

• POSSIBLE RESULT 1: seller is vulnerable to negative feedback; does not get paid.
• POSSIBLE RESULT 2: seller is vulnerable to negative feedback; however seller may get paid without further incident.
• POSSIBLE RESULT 3: seller is vulnerable to negative feedback; and may get paid, but may suffer penalization for “item not as described” or other possible false violation such as “box was empty.” PayPal withholds funds. Seller loses product, seller is not reimbursed for shipping

OPTION #2: Seller says “okay” so as to avoid a negative feedback”:
Seller does nothing. Just lets the sale slide and does not file unpaid item process:

• RESULT: seller is vulnerable to negative feedback because buyer is able to leave feedback (and yet buyer hasn’t paid).

Seller completes mutual agreement for an unpaid item:

SCENARIO 1: “If the buyer confirms the seller’s statement about mutual agreement not to complete the transaction, the buyer will not receive an Unpaid Item strike and the seller will receive a Final Value Fee credit:

• POSSIBLE RESULT #1: seller is vulnerable to negative feedback because buyer is able to leave feedback (and yet buyer hasn’t paid); however, seller gets final value fee commissions refunded.

SCENARIO 2: “If the buyer disagrees with the seller’s statement on mutual agreement, the buyer will not receive an Unpaid Item strike and the seller will not receive a Final Value Fee credit. The dispute will be closed immediately after the buyer responds and the seller will not be eligible to re-file an Unpaid Item dispute for that transaction.”

• POSSIBLE RESULT #2: seller is vulnerable to negative feedback because buyer is able to leave feedback (and yet buyer hasn’t paid). Seller also now must unfairly pay consequences of final value fee commissions

SCENARIO 3: “If the buyer does not respond to the email or pop-up message within 7 days then the seller will be able to close the dispute. The seller will receive a Final Value Fee credit and the buyer will not receive a strike.”

• POSSIBLE RESULT #3: seller is vulnerable to negative feedback because buyer is able to leave feedback (and yet buyer hasn’t paid); however, seller gets final value fee commissions refunded.

It’s clear to see the sellers have no real options!

TEN WAYS TO EXTORT AN EBAY SELLER May 21, 2008

Buyers, have at it on eBay! Starting May 19, 2008 you are free to extort any seller stupid enough to sell on eBay.

Here are ten ways to extort your favorite eBay seller (or just have fun messing with them):

1. Click “Buy Now” but don’t pay for the item, then send the seller a negative for not delivering. (Hey you can give a negative, even if you haven’t paid a cent!)

2. Pay by eCheck and ask for Priority Mail, then give the seller a negative for not delivering fast enough. (eChecks take 4-5 days for PayPal to clear.)

3. Buy a book and pay for media mail, then give the seller a negative for not shipping fast enough. (Media mail takes & + days to deliver.)

4. Buy anything cross border and say you didn’t receive it even if you did and then give the seller a negative. (Sellers can’t buy postal insurance for a foreign country and can’t track whether you got it.)

5. Buy from a competitor, then give them a negative just to decrease their rating.

6. Buy something fragile and don’t purchase insurance, then give the seller a negative because the item arrived broken. (You can give a negative, even if you didn’t pay for the insurance!)

7. Buy something on eBay because you like the picture (but don’t bother reading the dimensions in the listing), then give the seller a negative because it was too big or too small.

8. Buy something with insurance. Then after the item comes nicely packaged and in good condition. Tell the seller that you didn’t get insurance, so you want your money back. If he doesn’t give you your money back, then give the seller a negative.

9. Buy something and click Paid by Money Order, then don’t send the money order. Then give the seller a negative for not delivering. You don’t even need to send an item not as described because then you’d actually have to come up with a number. Or if you have a number, cash it under the sellers name, then extort the seller using that number.

10. If you’ve paid through PayPal, go ahead and file a non-receipt or not as described through PayPal. (That will hold the seller’s funds for 21+ days). Don’t worry if the seller has a delivery confirmation, because you’ll get your money back in that time and the seller can’t do anything about it.

DISCLAIMER: We do not actually wish any buyer extort any seller on eBay. We simply wish to illustrate to sellers how extremely unsafe is is for you to sell on eBay!

eBay PowerSeller Doomsday Blog: May 19, 2008 May 19, 2008

Instead of partnering with sellers, eBay is pulverizing them.

eBay’s controversial new feedback system rolled out May 19, 2008 leaving thousands of sellers with drastically altered feedback ratings — some sellers lost their PowerSeller status at the stroke of midnight.

New rules for lean times

What happened is that eBay changed the rules of the game retroactivally making neutral feedback received over the past 12 months count as a negative. Previously a neutral rating did not count against the score at all. This calcuated move reduced feedback for thousands of eBay’s top sellers effectively leaving them with a score under 98%, which disqualifies them for PowerSeller discounts. A select few improved their scores. The overall net result is that eBay will dish out fewer PowerSeller discounts.

“No negative feedback” policy

eBay seller doomsday was also marked by a new policy to encourage even lower seller ratings, thereby effectively reducing further the PowerSeller discounts supposedly awarded by eBay. Buyers may now only receive positive feedback.

Sellers and buyers today received the following notification when leaving feedback:

“Buyers, you can no longer receive negative or neutral Feedback from sellers. You should leave honest and accurate Feedback without the fear of receiving negative or neutral ratings.”

Perfect timing!

Higher postal rates… tactically eBay could have made all the changes in February 2008 along with the other so called “enhancements,” but eBay likely timed their plans with the USPS who raised postal rates May 12, 2008. Higher postage rates are nudging buyers to further lower Detailed Seller Ratings on shipping and handling. This effectively reduces PowerSeller discounts as sellers must maintain an impossible 4.8/5.0. (No one likes to pay for shipping.)

Bad economy… The timing is also aligned with the delivery of economic stimulus checks roll out. Sales on eBay will surely go up because people have a check in hand, not because buyers are no free to leave feedback. But eBay will surely credit themselves, and its sellers will continue to play the role of “whipping boy.”

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M.C. Nygard is a Platinum PowerSeller who had a perfect 100% feedback score that tarnished overnight by being reduced to 99.8%. She still qualifies for 15% PowerSeller discounts,

Five smart ways to spend your economic stimulus payment May 17, 2008

If you’re one of the lucky ones getting an economic stimulus check, you owe it to yourself to think about five ways to spend your extra loot:

1. Pay off your credit card debt. If you’re carrying balances month to month on credit cards, the first thing you should do with the stimulus funds is pay down the debt. Don’t go out and buy something else! Reducing debt is good for our nation and for your pocketbook. Start by paying off the highest interest rate account first. And while you’re at it, see how you might make an additional payment on your car loan to avoid paying so much interest there too.

2. Make an extra mortgage payment (or pay whatever you can off the principal). Making an extra mortgage payment will cut the length of your mortgage, and thereby the interest you pay over the life of the loan. The higher your interest rate, the more you’ll save by making an extra payment.

3. Save it. While it goes against what the government wants us to do with this money, but we have gotten out of the habit of saving as a nation. Add to an emergency fund, retirement fund, or a 529 fund for your kids’ education.

4. Invest in a business (buy stock) or create a business of your own. Perhaps there’s a stock you’ve been wanting to purchase — well, the government just handed your fun money to get started, so have at it! Many Yuwie members have ideas you can start for little money too, so start reading their money making blogs. Or perhaps you can research ideas first — buy a book or course on how to sell on eBay or Amazon, or how to run a carpet cleaning business, open a bed and breakfast — whatever, invest in yourself.

5. Buy something American. If you simply can’t or don’t want to do items 1-4, then you owe it to the population to at least buy something made in the good ole U.S.A. Hey, this is an economic stimulus for the American economy — please don’t stimulate someone else’s economy.

Read our other blogs, right here on WordPress, to see how you can make money and save money.