Yesterday eBay announced that they will no longer charge seller fees for sneakers sold over $100,- this, a move on the heels of StockX rapidly overtaking a significant portion of eBay’s revenue (which they did so by building off of sneaker reselling). It sounds like a wonderful move right? For them sure, for you? Umm……….
Listen, no one likes a whiner but then again no one likes to be ripped off and scammed with no recourse either. See, the problem here is that eBay is great until well, something goes wrong -particularly if you are the seller-. In other words their seller protection is a JOKE. Even worse, if you are running a consignment business -which many people on eBay are- you are a sitting duck for fraudulent returns, eBay siding with buyers regardless of messages incriminating themselves and they will make you jump through hoops for days just to speak with someone that even understands what your problem is. Ultimately though the outcome will be the same, eBay will more than likely side with a buyer and if you are selling high priced sneakers you better be very leery. Oh but you listed with no returns right? Wont matter, eBay will override your return guidelines and even their own guidelines time and time again to make a buyer happy and that should make you as a seller of expensive footwear very leery.
Don’t believe me? Try reading this article titled ‘‘Sitting duck’ eBay sellers take a stand against the scammers’ ‘ posted to The Guardian earlier this year.
Better yet let me tell you my own story. Like to hear it? Hear it goes -shout out to In Living Color-
I started my eBay journey back in 2001. My first purchase? An original In Living Color Homey The Clown poster which I paid by money order -yes money order-. I received the poster, loved it and so begun my obsession with eBay -one that would span EIGHTEEN YEARS. Over the next 18 years I would buy and sell thousands of pairs of expensive sneakers and other items. During the next two decades I experienced the usual problems -mainly zero feedback bidders and ghost buyers waisting time, the occasional scammer that would wait for your $200.00 sneakers to be shipped to them without signature confirmation and a chargeback from their credit card company that would override Paypal and eBay policy (which by the way none of them advertise as a warning- it was to be expected and something you had to educate yourself on through trial and error. Fine.
By 2008 eBay made a move that would set in place an environment that would become INCREASINGLY unfavorable for sellers, beginning with the inability for a seller to leave a negative feedback. Listen, I get it. eBay should be a market place not a bickering match for two disgruntled collectors fighting over a near mint TV Guide, but sellers should have the same type of warning regarding shady buyers that buyers get regarding shady sellers. Oh, but you can block buyers that have non paying bidder strikes? Sure, if eBay indeed gives them the strike (which, if it involves abusing their buyer protection policy they won’t inform you either way and hence someone may or may not get that strike).
As years have progressed I have had buyers time and time again make false claims, try to shake me down for money after receiving the item, try to return items that are look a likes, abuse eBay feedback and so on and so forth. It was this month however that really put me over the top with eBay as a company. You see, their customer service -for the most part- is downright deplorable. If your situation doesn’t fall in line with a very basic situation then you will endure what I like to call ‘eBay’s hell on earth customer service’. It is here that eBay will ignore in app messages from buyers incriminating themselves, where customer service reps will tell you they can’t do things that they can do, where you will be given the run around for days and you’ll arrive at the same result, you’ve been screwed.
Oh but you’ll write a letter to corporate and that will work out right? Good luck. Of all the companies over the years I’ve dealt with both in a professional setting and or personal, eBay is one of the most difficult to get a corporate response ( and by someone at corporate I mean someone with the power and commonsense to make things right). It’s just not important to them. Don’t believe me? Try checking out the response I received while filing a complaint with the BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU in November. -funny enough I named some of their competitors moving in on their business and surprise surprise we see a collaboration with Stadium Goods and an aim at the sneaker resell market.-
As you can see eBay never attempted to make anything right and encouraged me to call the same overseas call center that did nothing for me the nearly 8 or 9 time I had already called. My 18 years of buying and selling meant nothing and ultimately I was left with a condescending send off and a headache.
In the end no one wants to see eBay go away but the truth of the matter is that eBay’s customer service is bad – real bad- and their seller protection HORRIFIC. If you think explaining to their customer service reps that the $2,000 Travis Scott 1’s you sold are not the same you received back (after they forced you to take a return against your no return policy) then more power to you. Its also obvious they have little to no care about long time customers which is troubling -especially for a new younger prospect interested in selling on their platform-. If they can fix those two major issues then they have a shot of recapturing the online sneaker resell market but in the meantime I would caution you against listing expensive sneakers through eBay ESPECIALLY if you are rather new to online selling.