Another rant: ebay removing the "Mark item as unpaid" option.

[Halcyon]

Bloody ebay. Sometimes I wonder what people were thinking when they make decisions.

I sold an item on ebay and inadvertently clicked the "Mark as payment received" button. It's a huge blue button and once clicked, cannot be undone. No confirmation required either.

Once upon a time, there used to be an option to undo this, but some "genius" decided it would be better to disable that functionality. So now, you can easily make a mistake, but you can no longer correct it. I can't even send an invoice to override it.

I'm not sure what it looks like on the buyers end, but I suspect they won't be able to make the actual payment anymore since the system says it has already been done. ebay tells me that there is apparently the "Mark as unpaid" option on the buyers end, but I haven't yet been able to confirm this as the buyer hasn't responded yet. ebay's alternate solution is to relist the item and go through the process again, then claim back the original seller fees.

Ridiculous.

[SiliconWizard]

Yeah, looks like it's not limited to eBay though. It's a general trend apparently, to reduce functionality of online tools to the strict minimum and make these tools increasingly inflexible and annoying to use.
Internal discussions always revolve around buzzwords such as "removing friction", which means making UIs so simple that even a 3-legged ass could use them, which has the added benefit of lowering development and test costs and, if that's convenient for the business, "nudge" users into some specific actions that increase revenue.

[Halcyon]

The joke's on them. I just wasted 20 minutes of one of their support persons' time, trying to sort it out. It would have taken more effort to remove the functionality than to just leave it.

[Brumby]

Sounds about right.

I have a friend who is a seller and they tell me there used to be a field where you could enter the date an item was shipped.  That field is gone and the date is taken from when you physically updated a shipping detail...
 * Add a tracking number on Saturday but post it on Monday - and it takes the Saturday.  Customer expectations for early delivery are that much higher.
 * Mark an item as sent on Wednesday for something posted on Monday - and it takes Wednesday.  You may have done the actual posting on time, but eBay might mark it as being "late".

To keep things accurate, you have to make sure you update the details on eBay on the day things happened.  Forgetting means you suffer.

[Analog Kid]

Let's not forget that eBay's attitude overall is "screw the sellers, cater to the buyers". Can't tell you how many horror stories I've heard from sellers I know.

[eTobey]

Let's not forget that eBay's attitude overall is "screw the sellers, cater to the buyers". Can't tell you how many horror stories I've heard from sellers I know.

I wouldnt say that:
- Reviews are only counted for 12 months, so sellers can screw over a few buyers every year and still get back to 100%
- I got screwed over by a seller, and fortunately i payed with creditcard. I lerft a negative review, but ebay deleted it!!! Bloody bas***s


Yes its a trend everywhere to screw everyone over in the favor of the platform. Just like youtube removed the negative count!

By the way:
I rarely use ebay anymore because of such behaviour...

[SteveThackery]

By the way:
I rarely use ebay anymore because of such behaviour...

I know where you are coming from, but to put the other side: I've just bought seven collectable Seiko watches on eBay totalling around £2300, and all seven transactions went perfectly (five came from Japan).  One of the watches had a broken mainspring (obviously not tested properly), and the vendor offered me a £60 refund on the total price which I accepted because I can fit a new mainspring myself when I service the watches.

So eBay isn't all bad. 

[eTobey]

By the way:
I rarely use ebay anymore because of such behaviour...

I know where you are coming from, but to put the other side: I've just bought seven collectable Seiko watches on eBay totalling around £2300, and all seven transactions went perfectly (five came from Japan).  One of the watches had a broken mainspring (obviously not tested properly), and the vendor offered me a £60 refund on the total price which I accepted because I can fit a new mainspring myself when I service the watches.

So eBay isn't all bad. 

You are missing the point. Its about when things dont go the way they should, and ebay making things harder for anyone to make their profits bigger...

[Analog Kid]

Let's not forget that eBay's attitude overall is "screw the sellers, cater to the buyers". Can't tell you how many horror stories I've heard from sellers I know.

I wouldnt say that:
- Reviews are only counted for 12 months, so sellers can screw over a few buyers every year and still get back to 100%
- I got screwed over by a seller, and fortunately i payed with creditcard. I lerft a negative review, but ebay deleted it!!! Bloody bas***s

So doesn't that tend to confirm what I wrote, that eBay is slanted towards sellers?

[thm_w]

I would take anything eTobey says with a grain of salt, dude returns ~90% of the products he buys.

[nctnico]

By the way:
I rarely use ebay anymore because of such behaviour...

I know where you are coming from, but to put the other side: I've just bought seven collectable Seiko watches on eBay totalling around £2300, and all seven transactions went perfectly (five came from Japan).  One of the watches had a broken mainspring (obviously not tested properly), and the vendor offered me a £60 refund on the total price which I accepted because I can fit a new mainspring myself when I service the watches.

So eBay isn't all bad. 

I agree. Lately I have been buying some items from Ebay from the US as these are hard to find at this side of the ocean. One item was advertised as mint condition but turned out to be utterly ruined upon closer inspection. I got a refund after sending the seller photos showing the item was damaged. Overall my experience with Ebay has been pretty good and the global shipping program with import duties paid at checking out is definitely an improvement (compared to paying import duties to a courier service).

[MrMobodies]

Yeah, looks like it's not limited to eBay though. It's a general trend apparently, to reduce functionality of online tools to the strict minimum and make these tools increasingly inflexible and annoying to use.

The joke's on them

Trying to contact them is a joke, I have to go through "the system", which is the stupid chat bot. Last time when I said "Operator" want to talk to a human it'd give me options on a call back. Now they seem to grey out the input and present me with a multi choice question that goes to one lot to another lot that looked like it was from a flow diagram which had nothing on there with why I wanted to call them.

It started out, on something like this, just so we can transfer you to the right person... etc and pretty much all the irrelevant choices leads to another set of choices and another set and so on, then answers that point me in circles to things already I know then FOB ME OFF from a phone call. I found a URL somewhere  https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Buying/how-do-I-contact-ebay-by-phone/td-p/7603285
that initiated a callback.

I ordered the UPS yesterday evening which was reduced over £20 and it turned up early today which is unusually quick.

A different one than the picture turned up, it didn't turn on, I expect it to at least turn on so I know it works when I do my testing. Opened the front and I see it  had no battery in there contrary to the listing not even the connector.

When I went to either open a case or returns apparently it was too early. So I sent a message to the seller with pictures of what I got, explaining this and said I this is not what I ordered, not as listed or described, I want you to come down here and pick it up. They haven't replied yet.

After getting through to someone at Ebay they looked at listing, the messages and the picture and they opened a case and are going to checkup when the seller replies. If the seller don't cooperate (swap it with one as described in listing or collect for refund) I get refunded and get to keep the item but the option is still there for the seller to pick it up.

I would never buy or trust second hand UPS that don't come with batteries that work out of the box. I'd have to see it work on batteries for a while to assure my confidence that there is nothing wrong with the unit first before I go and buy another battery for longer runtime.

[thm_w]

When I went to either open a case or returns apparently it was too early. So I sent a message to the seller with pictures of what I got, explaining this and said I this is not what I ordered, not as listed or described, I want you to come down here and pick it up. They haven't replied yet.

So you wait until the option is there, then file the dispute.
It is absolutely a pain in the ass to contact them, I agree, but I don't see how it was needed here.

[Analog Kid]

I will say that despite many problems and pitfalls, eBay's customer service is actually pretty good: they seem to take it seriously.

I recently needed help since I'm working with a friend on his eBay store. He sent me an invitation to access his account, which would allow me to log into his account and post listings there. This is actually a somewhat complex, and certainly non-obvious process. I ended up using their online chat, and they were able to fairly painlessly guide me through the process, including a tricky, non-obvious way of navigating through all that crap to let me log on to his account. So there's that.

I still say that they really only care about buyers when it comes to disputes or fraud. Sellers can go hang. i know someone who was a seller for years, no problems, 100% rating, until they one day pulled the plug on him and wouldn't even tell him why. He couldn't get any information out of them explaining why they cancelled his account.

[thm_w]

i know someone who was a seller for years, no problems, 100% rating, until they one day pulled the plug on him and wouldn't even tell him why. He couldn't get any information out of them explaining why they cancelled his account.

They very much don't want to tell you the reason, could be:
- Account age issue (must be 18 on the day the account was created)
- Selling restricted items
- Suspected fraud, selling outside of ebay, etc.

They can just close your account any time they like and not pay you a cent of what they owe you.
Luckily their new system pays out very quickly, can be days after you ship the item, so you shouldn't be out much.

[tggzzz]

Luckily their new system pays out very quickly, can be days after you ship the item, so you shouldn't be out much.

If I understand it correctly, then they are moving to a system where they push money to your account 4 times/year (!), but you can quickly login and tell them to push money now.

More ebay enshittification.

[Analog Kid]

i know someone who was a seller for years, no problems, 100% rating, until they one day pulled the plug on him and wouldn't even tell him why. He couldn't get any information out of them explaining why they cancelled his account.

They very much don't want to tell you the reason, could be:
- Account age issue (must be 18 on the day the account was created)
- Selling restricted items
- Suspected fraud, selling outside of ebay, etc.

None of the above.
My friend's eBay sales were as vanilla as could possibly be.

[eTobey]

I would take anything eTobey says with a grain of salt, dude returns ~90% of the products he buys.

If you are happy with products that arent worth the money, fine. You cant sell that rubbish to me! You are like that dude here in the forum, that puts a device (of his favourite brand) back in the box, up the attic, to wait for an update that would probably be in a few years or never, instead of returning it? That is not exactly smart! (Yes, thats me again beeing rude...) 

[nctnico]

i know someone who was a seller for years, no problems, 100% rating, until they one day pulled the plug on him and wouldn't even tell him why. He couldn't get any information out of them explaining why they cancelled his account.

They very much don't want to tell you the reason, could be:
- Account age issue (must be 18 on the day the account was created)
- Selling restricted items
- Suspected fraud, selling outside of ebay, etc.

None of the above.
My friend's eBay sales were as vanilla as could possibly be.

It is quite possible the account got hacked / taken over and Ebay closed it due to fraud. Recently Amazon closed my account because it got hacked / taken over (I assume). I'm still in the process of getting it re-opened to get access to my extensive wish list and items I bought before.

[lokin4areason]

the bay has a fine line esp at when they get paid ( w using their site )

and everyone else is set aside after that

they have their own payment method and if you dont use it , they stand back and they let it somewhat get resolved  w feedback and temper s flying around , imo