wrk101

In my years in manufacturing, I suffered through many customer surveys. Go figure, when we surveyed our customers, they all liked us, and they all wanted lower prices (only three competitors in that business). I always thought we should have been surveying those people that bought from our competitors instead, and find out WHY they didn't buy from us. My belief was if we could address those issues, we would have been a lot more successful.

So the point of this? I think ebay would be WISE to listen to "whiners and complainers" and find out why people don't like selling on ebay, and instead sell elsewhere, like on this forum, often for lower prices, just to avoid ebay. They actually did a pretty good job addressing complaints from buyers. They have that covered. Now they need to address complaints from sellers, particularly "former" sellers. I talk to people all the time that have given up on ebay.

rootboy 

Well said T Bill. Ebay had no choice but to address the problems of buyers, because of all the bad sellers. They've done that. Why they had to do it at the expense of reputable sellers with zero complaints is beyond me. Easy, I guess. But it doesn't seem like it would be all that hard to change the system so that they don't punish the non-guilty.

iab

What makes you think I give a crap about what you say?

I just call them as I see them.

iab

It is simpler than that. ebay competes with Amazon. Amazon offers no-questions returns. ebay must offer the same service. btw, ebay is beholden to its shareholders, not its sellers.

conspiratemus1

But you can't punish the guilty unless you can get at his bank account. And you can't get at his bank account (without going to court) unless you make him to agree to that before you let him list an item for sale, i.e., before you know whether he's going to be guilty of anything.

Now of course every honest person will be insulted at any presumption that he is a crook and can't be trusted. I won't shop at a store that makes me leave my bike bag with the cashier on the assumption that I'm a shoplifter (even if they had lower prices because only the staff could steal stuff.) So I do understand the hurt feelings and resentment, and of course the assumption in disputes that all buyers are honest and non-flaky invites abuse. But eBay sure has changed the whole dynamic for mail-order customers, especially when we are sending money to sellers we don't know by name who "live" in a post-office box in a foreign country. Time was when you had to be nuts to do that.

Mos6502

Well you keep responding, so obviously you do care. I have infinitely more right to complain about ebay than you do to tell anybody to shut up about it.

You can't control anybody else, but you can control yourself, so if reading opinions that differ from yours causes you such anguish, then exercise some self control and don't read them.

Some of us aren't exactly excited to be bent over barrels, and so to speak "just take it" - you might be perfectly happy being in that position though, but that's just one point of view and hardly a universal one at that.

Now if ebay wants to become a knock off of Amazon, then ok sure they're free to do that. But if they're going to take a dump all over their bread and butter, we don't have to eat it. Somebody else will more than likely step in to fill ebay's shoes once they've gotten far away enough from what made them great in the first place.

WhyFi

Actually, you're wrong - they're not within the law. Despite eBay's user agreement, they don't have the proper licensing to do what they do - in the vast majority of the US states, their money side, PayPal, is licensed as a money transfer service. By law, they're obligated to hold funds no more than 10 days in the process. Yanking funds back - it's a no-no. Holding fees until positive feedback - no-no. Holding a rolling 30% as a slush fund for refunds - no-no. They will get a foot in the ass, big-time, and I'll be happy when they do. (They did make a rather large and quiet settlement out of court about 10 years back, they're ripe for another.)