July 27th, 2007 
Jenny How I am a 90% seller and 10% buyer on eBay myself. I encounter numerous nice customers and also had my share of miserable encounters, from both buyers and sellers. Well, if you are facing one of the bad rotten apple buyers out there, don’t fret. For it is a normal thing on eBay. In fact, I encounter many nice ones more than nasty ones.
See if you recognize any of the following sins that you came across with your buyers on eBay or if you are one of them. *grin*
1. Never read auction title, descriptions and instructions carefully. You send seller a message to ask How many CDs in this set?†despite seller’s eBay listing title shouts “HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS 17 CDs SET NEW”.
2. Bargain for prices after auction ends. Sellers can never understand why these buyers cannot read the price tag written bold on the eBay listing page or before clicking into the auction page. If you feel the price is not what you are willing to pay, please do not click the eBay Buy-It-Now or Bid Now button. Read what is the TOTAL you gotta pay including shipping. If you have problem reading or understanding numbers, you are always welcome to attend kindergarten.
eBay’s Community Values: We believe people are basically good.
3. Leave seller negative feedback as soon as something wrong happened. If you are mute, fine, we don’t need to speak through Skype. All you need to do is type me an email, tell me what is wrong and we can resolve the issue from there. If you can’t type or click the mouse, please tell me how to you place your eBay bid in the first place.
4. Keep sending seller several emails to ask why items have not arrived despite making payment only 12 hours ago. We are talking about doing online business here and parcels are shipped via the method as described in the auction. Please be reasonable with your sellers, even FedEx takes 24-48 hours. If you need something so urgently, by all means skip scouting through eBay. Go to your retail store, pay and take your goods home!
eBay’s Community Values: We believe everyone has something to contribute.
5. Never make any payment and no email correspondence after several invoice reminders. And the ironic thing is, they will chase you when their goods have not arrived. Read No.4 above.
6. Threaten to reward seller with a negative feedback if refund are not being made. As a seller, go through your eBay selling terms and conditions with the buyer. See if they are eligible for a refund and what are the steps should be taken before you issue them money.
eBay Community Values: We believe that an honest, open environment can bring out the best in people.
7. File a dispute to Paypal for a full refund despite receiving the items. Cases like this happen, but only about 1% or never. The best thing as an eBay seller can do is keep track of all your postal records and send to Paypal when required. Paypal will side you when you have the proof.
8. Email you to purchase your item off eBay once your auction ends without bids. They tell you things like “Hey, nobody wants your item, you don’t have a taker.” I am willing to pay for it for $2 including shipping. Guess what? Your eBay auction was originally priced at $5, postage $2. As a seller, you can forget these manipulators. Tweak your photos, item descriptions, prices and everything else. Relist it. And I guarantee you, it will sell.
eBay Community Values: We recognise and respect everyone as a unique individual.
9. Never leave you feedback. Being the decent seller on eBay, you send invoice, pack your items, send them off and leave your buyers feedback. But after wait for about 2 weeks, no feedback posted by the buyer. And you know the parcel have arrived safely. Nothing much you can do, you may send a reminder, but it will not be very useful. Being a seller, just move on with your eBay life.
10. Sorry, I do not know how to use Paypal or the ATM machine. These are the jokers on eBay, telling you tons of reasons to avoid paying you. What are they thinking? I am not sure. You can guide them all you want, they could be genuine. But when they tell you reasons like I just bought a the same blouse brand new from shopping and my credit card is stolen. Do not spend to much time on these people. Report to eBay and claim your listing fees if they never intend to pay.
eBay Community Values: We encourage you to treat others the way you want to be treated.
In whatever things you are doing, whether on eBay, blogging or owning a store offline, you will come across many people with different personalities. Whatever experiences your business brings, relax, laugh and have fun.
So, tell me honestly
As an eBay buyer, have you committed any of the sins above?
As an eBay seller, which kind of customers do you often end up with?
What about the others? Any interesting personalities to share with me from your experiences?
Tags: ebay.com, ebay tips, make money ebay
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Once, a guy leave a negative comment
when he never bother to sent me an email telling me that he had difficulties downloading the ebooks.. which normally I would reply him within 12 hours..
Not yet, just started my baby step last week to sell a blouse & a pair of jeans
Another nicely written article. May be you can compile all these into an e-book….and selling it in your webstore.
HEY!
I like your blog. It’s pretty helpful…
Since you have so many auction/eBay tips, figured you could write about this eBay coupon for buyers:
The website teamed up with eBay and gives u cash back when we shop on eBay via a link on their main page bigcrumbs.com.
The EBAY coupon savings are sent to your paypal account on the 15th of every month.
Only way I know of to receive a discount on ebay purchases, so this is pretty hot…
try it, it’s free ;o)
Hi Iry, usually those are newbies or local buyers (hmm, i’m not bias against local buyers, but that is what experiences told me) So, you see, I am not even surprise Paypal ban us. For me, I’d also prefer to deal with other countries.
BeeLee, so take note of these buyers characteristics. This article is written with part of you in mind as I know you have started your first step to selling on eBay.
Kaiwah, thanks for your support. Would love to do that some times.
Vir, thanks, I shall look at it.
I love this post.
wah…got such suckers in ebay hor?
Hmm…really need to take note of this before I set my foot in eBay as a seller.
The difference between a blogger trying to fake it and one who knows her stuff is the ability to articulate in 10 points what you just did.
[...] presents 10 Biggest eBay Buyers Sins posted at JennyHow eBay Tips [...]
Aside from #7, I’ve had to deal with all of these things as well. After almost a year of it, I decided that it was easier to just not sell on eBay anymore. 90% of buyers are decent people who not only pay on time, but communicate with you both before and after the transaction whether there is a problem or not. It’s those 10% that ruin it for the rest of us
Jason, honestly, dealing with these issues can put one off want to sell on eBay.
#11. Using multiple ebay IDs which are not in your name. It is a Federal Crime to use someone elses eBay ID to buy/sell. Same goes for the paypal account linked to it.
Thanks for the extra points, Lemon! I am sure all eBay sellers out there will take note of this.
im mainly a buyer..will start selling soon. But I did have one bad experience as a buyer. I once bought this ring, and it broke after 2 days. since i really didnt spend much money on it to begin with, i just let it go and left a decent “neutral” feedback. i said ” fast shipping…decent item”
anyway…this PISSED her off, and she left me a horrible NEGATIVE feedback warning sellers to BLOCK me.
i’m not sure why anyone would be pissed off with a positive feedback. That’s really horrible.
I do have bad experiences too. I got cheated of rm200, paid but no item arrived.
[...] bad buyers is not a must, but it helps to smoothen your eBay [...]