Ever sold anything on eBay?

I have! Had good and bad experiences with eBay. Even worse with PayPal (www.paypalsucks.com)!!

Here's a nasty senario for ya...

You have an item. You put it on eBay using the "Buy It Now" option. Then you sell it elsewhere (lets say through the local paper). AT THE SAME TIME, someone buys the item off eBay and pays with PayPal.

Well of course, you no longer have the thing. So you refund the eBay user his money. But that's not good enough. Because the item sold through eBay, they will charge you a final valuation fee for something that actually didn't sell!!!

Your only choice is to file a "Unpaid Item" dispute and select "mutual agreement" and "other" options.

But if the damn buyer still want's the fucking thing, and he clicks "I still want it!" you then owe eBay the fee. The buyer will never get his item. He gets a full refund. You get stuck with a fee for something eBay didn't sell!!

So you complain to eBay and say "the buyer is stupid, the item is no longer available, you've given them a refund. WHY ARE YOU CHARGING ME!!!!!!"

What do eBay say!?!?!?

"It is our POLICY to charge for completed sales" Quoted word for word from eBay staff email to me!!!!

After weeks of arguing the point, eBay customer support simply hides behind "policy". "..we accept the item never made it to the buyer, but the buyer has stated they still want the item...therfore the sale is valid and the fee applies..."

My solution!

Send an email to the buyer. Tell them they can't have whatever it is due to other sale. Tell them they will recieve an email asking for "mutual withdrawal". If they click YES, they get a full refund. If they click NO, the fee will be deducted from their refund. Also tell them that this is "eBay policy"! Let them deal with eBay customer support.

The bastards!!!!!