EBay for Dummies (31 page)
Authors: Marsha Collier
Tags: #Electronic Commerce, #Computers, #General, #E-Commerce, #Internet auctions, #Auctions - Computer network resources, #Internet, #Business & Economics, #EBay (Firm)
By paying with PayPal, you can instantly pay for an auction without hassle. Your credit card information is kept private, and your payment is deposited into the seller’s PayPal account.
You can always view your checkout status by going to your My eBay: Won area. Click the drop-down menu in the Action column for the item in question.
Keeping in Touch: Dealing with an AWOL Seller
The eBay community, like local towns and cities, is not without its problems. With the millions of transactions that go on every week, transactional difficulties do pop up now and then.
The most common problem is the AWOL seller — the kind of person who pesters you for payment and then disappears. Just as you’re expected to hustle and get your payment off to the seller within a day or so, the seller has an obligation to notify you within a few days of receiving your payment with an e-mail that says the item has been shipped. If you sent the payment but you haven’t heard a peep in a while,
don’t
jump the gun and assume the person is trying to cheat you, but
do
follow up.
Follow this week-by-week approach if you’ve already paid for the item but haven’t heard from the seller:
Week one, the gentle-nudge approach:
Remind the seller with an e-mail about the auction item, its number, and the closing date. “Perhaps this slipped your mind and got lost in the shuffle of your other auctions” is a good way to broach the subject. Chances are good that you’ll get an apologetic e-mail about some family emergency or last-minute business trip. You’ll find that the old saying “You can attract a lot more bees with honey than with vinegar” works great on eBay.
Week two, the civil-but-firm approach:
Send an e-mail again. Be civil but firm. Set a date for when you expect to be contacted. Meanwhile, tap into some of eBay’s resources. See the section “Getting Contact Information,” earlier in this chapter, to find out how to get an eBay user’s phone number. After you have this information, you can send a follow-up letter or make direct contact and set a deadline for some sort of action.
Week three, take-action time:
If you still haven’t heard from the seller, e-mail the seller once more and let him or her know that you’re filing a complaint. Then go to your My eBay Won area, and in the drop-down menu next to the item in question, choose Resolve a problem. You will then be able to open a case for an Item Not Received or for one stating that the item is Not as Described. Next, you will be taken to PayPal. See “Filing for a Refund” later in the chapter to see how the process will go. Also, turn to Chapter 16 to find out more about filing complaints and using other tools to resolve problems.
You Get the Item . . . Uh-OhWhat’s This?
The vast majority of eBay transactions go without a hitch. You win, you send your payment, you get the item, you check it out, you’re happy. If that’s the case — a happy result for your auction — skip this section and go leave some positive feedback for the seller!
On the other hand, if you’re not happy with the item you receive, the seller may have some ’splaining to do. E-mail or call the seller immediately and politely ask for an explanation if the item isn’t as described. Some indications of a foul-up are pretty obvious:
The item’s color, shape, or size doesn’t match the description.
The item’s scratched, broken, or dented in ways that don’t match the description (the description said the doll was new, but the box is tattered and the doll has seen more than its share of action).
You won an auction for a set of candlesticks and received a vase instead.
A snag in the transaction is annoying, but don’t get steamed right away. Contact the seller and see whether you can work things out. Keep the conversation civilized. The majority of sellers want a clean track record and good feedback, so they’ll respond to your concerns and make things right. Assume the best about the seller’s honesty, unless you have a real reason to suspect foul play. Remember, you take some risks whenever you buy something that you can’t touch. If the item has a slight problem that you can live with, leave it alone and don’t go to the trouble of leaving negative feedback about an otherwise pleasant, honest eBay seller.
Of course, while I can give you advice on what you
deserve
from a seller, you’re the one who has to live with the item. If you and the seller can’t reach a compromise and you really think you deserve a refund, ask for one.
If you paid the U.S. Postal Service to insure the item, and it arrives at your home pretty well pulverized, call the seller to alert him or her about the problem. Find out the details of the insurance purchased by the seller. After you have all the details, follow the seller’s instructions on how to make a claim. If the item was shipped through the post office, take the whole mangled shebang back to the post office and talk to the good folks there about filing a claim. Check out Chapter 12 for more tips on how to deal with a shipping catastrophe. And jump over to Chapter 16 to find out how to file your eBay and/or PayPal insurance claim.
Filing to Get a Refund through PayPal
If you’re item never arrives or (as described in the preceding section) isn’t what you expected based on the description, you are able to get a refund on tangible goods through PayPal. (This comes under the PayPal Buyer Protection plan.) To do so, follow these steps:
1. Go to your My eBay Won area, and in the drop-down menu next to the item in question, choose Resolve a problem.
2. Verify that this is the item in question.
3. Click Continue.
4. Click the Resolution Center tab and then the Resolution Center link to report your case.
You will be able to negotiate with the seller. If the case can’t be resolved, you will be able to file a buyer protection claim.
Don’t Forget to Leave Feedback
Good sellers should be rewarded, and potential buyers should be informed. That’s why no eBay transaction is complete until the buyer fills out the feedback form. Before leaving any feedback, though, always remember that sometimes no one’s really at fault when transactions get fouled up; communication meltdowns can happen to anyone. (For more info on leaving feedback, see Chapter 4.) Here are some scenarios that give you an idea on what kind of feedback to leave for a seller:
Positive:
If the transaction could have been a nightmare, but the seller really tried to make it right and meet you halfway, that’s an easy call — give the seller the benefit of the doubt and leave positive feedback.
Positive:
Whenever possible, reward someone who seems honest or tried to fix a bad situation. For example, if the seller worked at a snail’s pace but you eventually got your item and you’re thrilled with it, you may want to leave positive feedback with a caveat. Something like “Item as described, good seller, but very slow to deliver” sends the right feedback message.
Neutral:
If the seller worked at a snail’s pace and did adequate packaging and the item was kinda-sorta what you thought, you may want to leave neutral feedback; the transaction wasn’t bad enough for negative feedback but doesn’t deserve praise, either. Here’s an example of what you might say: “Really slow to deliver, didn’t say item condition was good not excellent, but did deliver.” Wishy-washy is okay as a response to so-so; at least the next buyer will know to ask very specific questions.
Negative:
If the seller never shipped your item or the item didn’t match the description when it arrived,
and
the seller won’t make things right, you need to leave negative feedback. Make sure that both conditions apply. Never write negative feedback in the heat of the moment and never make it personal. Keep it mellow and just state the facts. Do expect a response but don’t get into a negative feedback war. Life’s interesting enough without taking on extra hassles.
The Accidental Deadbeat
might be an intriguing title for a movie someday, but being a deadbeat isn’t much fun in real life. See Chapter 6 for details on buyer’s remorse and retracting a bid
before
the end of an auction.
Properly Giving the Seller’s Detailed Star Rating (DSRs)
In addition to a feedback comment and rating (positive, negative, or neutral), buyers should leave detailed seller ratings, too. The DSR part of the feedback system asks you to rate sellers by filling in one to five stars. A 5-star rating doesn’t cost you anything as the buyer, and if the seller is a PowerSeller, it can affect a discount they receive on their eBay fees. Table 8-1 outlines what the stars mean to me when I leave a rating.
Table 8-1 What the DSR Stars Mean | ||
Rating Question | # of Stars = Meaning | In the Real World |
How accurate was the item’s description? | 1 = Very inaccurate2 = Inaccurate3 = Neither inaccurate nor accurate4 = Accurate5 = Very accurate | In my world, the item was either described right or wrong — to me, there is no in-between. So when I rate a seller, either the item is as advertised or it isn’t. |
How satisfied were you with the seller’s communication? | 1 = Very unsatisfied2 = Unsatisfied3 = Neither unsatisfied nor satisfied4 = Satisfied5 = Very satisfied | As I buyer, I lean more with being very satisfied that I got enough communication from the seller, or not. If I get one e-mail, I’m usually satisfied. But if I haven’t heard from a seller until the item reaches my door, I’m definitely rating in the 2-star range. |
How quickly did the seller ship the item? | 1 = Very slowly2 = Slowly3 = Neither slowly nor quickly4 = Quickly5 = Very quickly | Now, here I have another issue: As a buyer, you need to check the postmark on the package you receive. If the seller ships the next day or the next day after — you have to click 5 (Very Quickly), no matter how long the postal service took to get it there. |
How reasonable were the shipping and handling charges? | 1 = Very unreasonable2 = Unreasonable3 = Neither unreasonable nor reasonable4 = Reasonable5 = Very reasonable | When I purchase an item, I know what the shipping cost will be. The only surprise here is when you get an item in a small envelope and you’ve paid $9.00 for shipping — or if you paid for Priority Mail and it comes in another class of service. This is, to me, pretty black-and-white. The shipping and handling charges are either reasonable or unreasonable. |
Here are some other items to keep in mind when you’re deciding on what Detailed Star Rating to leave for a seller:
Shipping takes time:
You have to realize that Ground shipping can take up to 10 days. This isn’t the seller’s fault. So before leaving this rating, make sure to check the postmark or the date on the shipping label.
Shipping costs money:
Sellers have to add a little to cover the costs of tape, boxes, and packing materials. As a buyer, you have to keep that in mind. If you are unfamiliar with postage rates, you should also know that a package costs a lot more to ship across the country than to ship to the next state. So do a little homework and evaluate shipping costs
before
you buy. If the shipping is too high, go to another seller.
If your seller is a PowerSeller, you should also know that your star ratings affect the fees he or she pays to eBay. Being a good seller (with high DSRs) can save as much as 20 percent on final value fees, so your rating is a very serious matter.
Part III
Making Money the eBay Way
In this part . . .
Alot of different factors are at work when a seller makes a nice profit on an item he or she has put up for sale.
If you’re new to online selling, you can find out all the benefits and get pointed in the right direction to find items that could make you a tidy profit. In fact, you may be sitting on major profits hiding in your own home! eBay has its rules, though, so when you assess an item’s value to prepare for your listing, you need to make sure the item isn’t prohibited from being sold at the eBay site.
In this part, I walk you through the paperwork you need to fill out to list an item for selling, and I show you how to close the deal and ship the item without any hassles. But even though I’m good, I can’t stop problems from occurring, which is why I try to walk you through (almost) every conceivable mishap. There’s also a chapter for those eBay newbies out there who already know that a picture’s worth a thousand words. That’s right — if you really want to make money on eBay, you can’t miss the advanced strategies.