Pardon this 'rant' folks : I just feel the need to vent my annoyance at this lot !
Having used eBay for a number of years now , mainly as a buyer , with 100% positive feedback in the low hundreds , no history of disputes either with other customers ( other than one single member with dreadful negative feedback from numerous others way back in the beginning - we all had to get bitten once !) and listing fees ALWAYS paid fully and promptly on the relatively few occasions when I was a seller - I would have considered myself a 'good' customer of theirs .
This would seem to count for nothing going by the following -
Back in February , I sold a piece of hi-fi equipment ( a SME pickup arm ) which was surplus to requirements . The item was listed with a 'buy-it-now' auction and sold within a few hours of being listed ; the buyer was delighted with the item and left me some nice , positive feedback . Not long afterwards , on 15th February , I received an invoice from eBay for (from memory) £22.72 being my listing fees and including a final valuation fee - a little more than I had expected , but hey-ho , I should have read what the charges were beforehand . Since I don't like dealing with Paypal and have no wish to give my bank details to eBay , I duly obtained a postal order in this amount , printed out my payment form , wrote my eBay account number on the PO as per instructions and posted it off to the Citibank address supplied by eBay . This was done within 3 or 4 days of receiving the invoice .
A week or so later , I received a 'reminder' , by email , from eBay , stating to ignore it if payment had already been made - so I did ignore it . A couple of weeks later - another reminder - this time I replied stating only that payment had been made .
When the next reminder came in another week or two later , I gave a more detailed reply stating how and when the payment had been made ; I received a response from the operator asking how much I had paid , when , how etc , so I reiterated the same information I had already given .
They then asked if I had the 'stub' from the postal order and I had to explain that postal orders these days are printed electronically and do not have stubs .
Communication went back and forth , with eBay's tone becoming increasingly hostile and now threatening to pass the matter to a debt collection agency . I had , by this time , asked why they have such a 'user unfriendly' system for the many customers , like me , who prefer not to use Paypal and not to divulge their bank details - asking why they could not have a printable payment form like those on utility and credit card bills which would enable cash payments to be made over the counter of any bank , building society or post office - still awaiting an answer to that one
The week before last , I received a phone call from a gentleman in a debt collection agency ; I told him the whole story as above - stating that I could easily pay the trivial amount in question but had no intention of doing so as a point of principle since , as far as I was concerned , I had already paid it promptly and in full ; also , considering my prior good history with ebay , the least they could do was waive it as a matter of goodwill since I was otherwise happy to let them close my account and I would NEVER deal with them again ; I can happily live without eBay but they can't survive without decent , paying customers . I also pointed out that I considered the most likely reason for the funds not appearing in my account was mis-processing by one of their operators resulting in my payment being credited to someone else's account rather than non delivery of the PO by the post office . I was again asked about stubs , proof of postage etc and replied that by the time this came to light the receipt from the Post Office had been tossed ; when asked if I could chase it at my end , I asked why I , the customer , should 'jump through hoops' to prove my innocence . I told them that I would be happy to take this matter to court , especially considering recent case history where eBay sidestepped responsibility for the actions of a couple of rogue sellers who had defrauded many customers of thousands by 'selling' non-existent mobile phones and games consoles - the reasoning of eBay being that 'no one could prove the goods were never sent'
I suggested that if that worked for eBay , it would likely work just fine for me too
I made it clear to the debt collection agent that I had no quarrel with him and that I realised he was just doing his job - based on the information supplied to him by ebay . He promised to pass my views on to eBay and to get back to me in around seven days .
A further two or so days later , I received a letter from the debt collection agency asking for , including their admin fee , approx £30 and to respond by telephone within seven days or the matter would go to court : I responded immediately by email to the address on their letterhead , to maintain my records of all correspondence which I have on my computer , reiterating the verbal conversation with their operator .
The next day I received a message from eBay stating that my account had been credited with the amount due and was now back in order ; no apology , no explanation , no nothing ..........
I wrote back asking for clarification : had the original payment finally turned up and cleared after all this time , had they decided to waive it - or what ? Also again asking why they do not have a bank payment form as suggested earlier ......
I then got an email from eBay customer support thanking my for 'putting my account back in order' etc and that I could resume use of it as now it was 'in good standing' . I responded by telling them I had logged on only to delete my account and , since I could see no way of doing this , asked them to do this for me
This morning , I received a 'market research' email from another agency asking how satisfied I was with ebay 'customer services' and what I thought of their operator , Tom H .
I have to say I let them have it with both barrels , condemning their 'cusotmer dis-service department' as incapable of reading anything written to them or of communicating with one-another ; whilst at the same time stating that I was in no way annoyed personally with the operator as I view the whole debacle as a systemic failure on their part and not the fault of someone doing their job badly
I have now resolved NEVER to buy or sell anything on eBay again .
Rant over
Having used eBay for a number of years now , mainly as a buyer , with 100% positive feedback in the low hundreds , no history of disputes either with other customers ( other than one single member with dreadful negative feedback from numerous others way back in the beginning - we all had to get bitten once !) and listing fees ALWAYS paid fully and promptly on the relatively few occasions when I was a seller - I would have considered myself a 'good' customer of theirs .
This would seem to count for nothing going by the following -
Back in February , I sold a piece of hi-fi equipment ( a SME pickup arm ) which was surplus to requirements . The item was listed with a 'buy-it-now' auction and sold within a few hours of being listed ; the buyer was delighted with the item and left me some nice , positive feedback . Not long afterwards , on 15th February , I received an invoice from eBay for (from memory) £22.72 being my listing fees and including a final valuation fee - a little more than I had expected , but hey-ho , I should have read what the charges were beforehand . Since I don't like dealing with Paypal and have no wish to give my bank details to eBay , I duly obtained a postal order in this amount , printed out my payment form , wrote my eBay account number on the PO as per instructions and posted it off to the Citibank address supplied by eBay . This was done within 3 or 4 days of receiving the invoice .
A week or so later , I received a 'reminder' , by email , from eBay , stating to ignore it if payment had already been made - so I did ignore it . A couple of weeks later - another reminder - this time I replied stating only that payment had been made .
When the next reminder came in another week or two later , I gave a more detailed reply stating how and when the payment had been made ; I received a response from the operator asking how much I had paid , when , how etc , so I reiterated the same information I had already given .
They then asked if I had the 'stub' from the postal order and I had to explain that postal orders these days are printed electronically and do not have stubs .
Communication went back and forth , with eBay's tone becoming increasingly hostile and now threatening to pass the matter to a debt collection agency . I had , by this time , asked why they have such a 'user unfriendly' system for the many customers , like me , who prefer not to use Paypal and not to divulge their bank details - asking why they could not have a printable payment form like those on utility and credit card bills which would enable cash payments to be made over the counter of any bank , building society or post office - still awaiting an answer to that one
The week before last , I received a phone call from a gentleman in a debt collection agency ; I told him the whole story as above - stating that I could easily pay the trivial amount in question but had no intention of doing so as a point of principle since , as far as I was concerned , I had already paid it promptly and in full ; also , considering my prior good history with ebay , the least they could do was waive it as a matter of goodwill since I was otherwise happy to let them close my account and I would NEVER deal with them again ; I can happily live without eBay but they can't survive without decent , paying customers . I also pointed out that I considered the most likely reason for the funds not appearing in my account was mis-processing by one of their operators resulting in my payment being credited to someone else's account rather than non delivery of the PO by the post office . I was again asked about stubs , proof of postage etc and replied that by the time this came to light the receipt from the Post Office had been tossed ; when asked if I could chase it at my end , I asked why I , the customer , should 'jump through hoops' to prove my innocence . I told them that I would be happy to take this matter to court , especially considering recent case history where eBay sidestepped responsibility for the actions of a couple of rogue sellers who had defrauded many customers of thousands by 'selling' non-existent mobile phones and games consoles - the reasoning of eBay being that 'no one could prove the goods were never sent'
I suggested that if that worked for eBay , it would likely work just fine for me too I made it clear to the debt collection agent that I had no quarrel with him and that I realised he was just doing his job - based on the information supplied to him by ebay . He promised to pass my views on to eBay and to get back to me in around seven days .
A further two or so days later , I received a letter from the debt collection agency asking for , including their admin fee , approx £30 and to respond by telephone within seven days or the matter would go to court : I responded immediately by email to the address on their letterhead , to maintain my records of all correspondence which I have on my computer , reiterating the verbal conversation with their operator .
The next day I received a message from eBay stating that my account had been credited with the amount due and was now back in order ; no apology , no explanation , no nothing ..........
I wrote back asking for clarification : had the original payment finally turned up and cleared after all this time , had they decided to waive it - or what ? Also again asking why they do not have a bank payment form as suggested earlier ......
I then got an email from eBay customer support thanking my for 'putting my account back in order' etc and that I could resume use of it as now it was 'in good standing' . I responded by telling them I had logged on only to delete my account and , since I could see no way of doing this , asked them to do this for me
This morning , I received a 'market research' email from another agency asking how satisfied I was with ebay 'customer services' and what I thought of their operator , Tom H .
I have to say I let them have it with both barrels , condemning their 'cusotmer dis-service department' as incapable of reading anything written to them or of communicating with one-another ; whilst at the same time stating that I was in no way annoyed personally with the operator as I view the whole debacle as a systemic failure on their part and not the fault of someone doing their job badly
I have now resolved NEVER to buy or sell anything on eBay again .
Rant over
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