If you haven’t been through the eBay UK signin screen this morning, you may not have seen the huge great creative promoting buyer protection, so here’s a screen shot for you.
It’s not just on the signin screen either: there’s a banner across the top of My eBay, and (at least some) members have received an email directing them to . (I have to say, the subject line, “Who says nothing is for free”, and the copy pointing out that buyer protection is free, is a bit weird. “Free” doesn’t feel like the appropriate message here: “safe” – or even “risk-free” – might have been closer.)
So. I’m in favour of this. Anything that tells buyers that shopping on eBay is safe is good in my book. Anything that actually *makes* shopping on eBay safe is even better. One of the reasons that I keep going back to Amazon Marketplace is their “A to Z guarantee”, which I absolutely know protects me in the case of a non-delivered item. But I’ve got to say, protection programmes in general are too late. If eBay really wants to clean up their site, they’ve got to do more earlier in the process.
Buyers who’ve been told “I’m not responsible for items lost in the post” sometimes believe it. Often, for just a few quid, they can’t be bothered to go through a reporting process. They’ll just stop buying on eBay, and tell all their friends what a horrible experience they had. So unless eBay does something to stop illegal T&Cs in the first place, buyer protection is probably too little, and certainly too late.
28 Responses
Nice work by the Head of Fonts.
I think theY might be trying too hard, we have a great big fat policy Red square on our dashboard todaY
and we have Done nowt,! Heard nowt, !and Know nowt about it
Just last night eBay was displaying the US version of this everywhere as well. The thing is that it was on sites not related to eBay at all. It follows you wherever you go.
Why bother with feedback then? If every purchase on ebay is “safe”, no need to check how bad the seller is, ebay will make it right.
If bad sellers can stil get onto the site (and they can), doesn’t this make their life easier?
SUE YOU WANT EBVERYONE TO KNOW YOUR SO SMART ABOUT EBAY. WHERE IS SELLER PROTECTION THERE ARE WAY TO MANY BUYERS THAT CLAIM NOT AS DESCRIBED SAY LIKE A 100.00 NECKLACE I SHIP THEY GET THERE MONEY BACK AND SEND ME BACK 10 PAPER CLIPS. REMEMBER BEFORE PUTTING YOUR FOOT IN YOUR MOUTH AGAIN THERE ARE JUST AS MANY SCAM BUYERS AS SELLERS. GET THE REAL TRUTH OUT, NOT YOUR TRUTH OR EBAY’S TRUTH.
Perhaps eBay could get proactive and do a search on Football shirts located in Thailand….
eBay basically have to remove the distinction between private and business sellers if they have any hope of achieving their goals with this.
Its the only way of applying the rules across the board to all sellers.
I would suggest this is an American idea as they don’t distinguish between seller types in the USA.
Until private European sellers act like businesses it won’t work!
eBay have to make it very clear to all sellers that any listing that does not comply with eBays terms will be removed and that eBay will be proactive with this.
Why wait until a sale is made and an item is shipped and received and a report made before taking action?
I have had to test buyer protection at the moment over a purchase from one of ebay’s sacred cow outlet sellers. So far the seller is winning over a pair of incorrectly sized shoes. I am not hopeful of an outcome where I am not of out of pocket by almost the whole amount paid. Ebay have been ZERO help and have actually completely ignored my emails asking them for help.
It’s a complete crock. Buyers, you are on your own against outlet sellers.
if its just giving the gaff its a waste of time, buyers will soon get the message its a load of marketing bollocks
Of course they want cases to open. More cases opened = fewer sellers who get Top Rated or Above Average.
Poor marketing on the part of eBay.
Promote that every seller has to be treated with suspicion. Isn’t that the message?
“Buy 1 item at a time to test the seller out”. Thats how buyers are going to read it.
When are eBay going to wake up as this type of marketing puts buyers off multi purchases and far from increasing sales actually reduces sales. Given that items are available from multi shopping channels it encourages buyers to look and buy elsewhere to be honest!
If eBay had a good multi purchase incentive algorithm they could be marketing a “buy more pay less” message but they don’t and they can’t!
Which is better for sales and profits?
A “treat sellers with suspicion” message or a “buy more pay less” message?
eBay only have themselves to blame here as they have got themselves into this pickle by poor policing of their site, not been proactive enough, and prioritising the wrong areas for improvement.
This message is an admission that eBay are reactive only.
I wonder how the large outlets feel about being tarred with this brush?
The Amazon seller vetting process is more rigourous. Maybe there is a lesson for eBay here?
we feel TRS logo is seen as a target by some buyers to chisel,fiddle shimmy and scam
the quicker we loose it the better, so we can be normal again and even the honest buyers think they are buying from angels and expect too much
The problem is each of these initiates means it’s open day for fraudulent buyers, and worse even than that it will lead to an increase in disputes, and guess what Ebay have just added disputes in to the buyer experience equation.
What exactly does this do that Paypal protection doesn’t nothing as far as I can see. Ebay are like (a far worse) Google they spend all their time thinking of ideas that neither improve the buyer or seller experience. I have just opened my 1st Ebay claim and you have to wait ten days and then you have to remember to go back after the ten days to escalate it, which I did, they found in my favour and then said I have been refunded which I haven’t and there is no way to reply to the message as Ebay has closed the case well done Ebay. Paypal is far quicker you can escalate it almost immediately and Paypal do the rest and they resolve it far quicker.
My latest message saying “i haven’t received my item” has arrived. Upon checking the buyers feedback, they have FB from a seller commenting on an item also “lost in the post”…
…I think a lot of work has to be done to get these dodgy BUYERS off of eBay, I really don’t believe that dodgy sellers are eBays biggest problem any more.
A buyer says item not working. It was fully working and complete before shipment. I have said return item. I have a sneeking suspicion that there will be a part missing in the return package and that item will work when I retest it. Good way for buyers to get rare spare parts. How are eBay going to handle this I wonder when seller complains that he is not getting full refund?
Yes dodgy buyers are an issue.
And I could have sold this item to a counter buyer (who watched the item working) had the eBay buyer not made the purchase just 1 hour before his visit!
Frustrating.
We’ve introduced a ‘Declaration of loss’ email….
Once a buyer files a INR we wait the advised time & if they still say its INR, we send them this email.
Basically we make them send us an email that states at this date …INR etc’, etc’, they must include their name (& ebay ID) + landline Phone # (for RM to contact them) and we inform them a copy will be forwwarded to Royal Mail with our claim for loss for their investigation.
We reckon about 2 in 10 claims proceed after this, but it’s new, so we’ll see!!!………question is of course, did item arrive or was it a scam….We’ll never know.