I just came over from that "other" free legal advice forum, what a bunch of rude unhelpful jerks, I sure hope the people here are nicer!
I've been both a buyer and seller on eBay for over ten years. I just discovered via eBay's forums that the next time I sell something and receive payment via PayPal, they will hold my money for 21 days, or until positive feedback is left (I've also read that all the buyer has to do is say they aren't happy with the transaction and you don't get your money at all).
I understand that this must be legal in some screwed up way, but what I do NOT understand is, how can it be legal for them to do this without fully disclosing this information somewhere prominently for all potential sellers to see? Go to eBay's Seller pages and see if you can find where they explicitly state they will hold your money for 21 days and what the exact circumstances are resulting in this action. (Please don't tell me you found it easily by typing "holding payment for 21 days" in the search bar...if a potential seller doesn't know the policy exists then they certainly can't type that in the search bar.) I have NEVER received an email from either eBay or PayPal informing me of this policy.
The same can be said about their DSR scam. On the Help page it clearly states "Detailed seller ratings don't affect a seller's overall Feedback score, but we take these ratings into account when we evaluate sellers to see if they're eligible for discounts and other benefits." When I read that, I said "oh, okay..." and thought nothing more about it. Nobody said, "But wait, there's more!" The truth is, you can have 100% positive feedback but if your buyers give you low stars (which they do for sheer enjoyment) eBay will suspend your account. That's a far cry from supposedly not having an effect on your account!
And finally, I just discovered (again, thanks to the forum) that eBay has "downgraded" my status to "Standard"; I only have 500 transactions but I don't have a single negative/neutral (again, I received no email notifying me of this downgrade). The speculation among us small sellers is that they are planning to continue to demote our statuses until we all reach a "punishable" level. Again, its not that they're doing it, its that they're not telling us they're doing it. I've filed a complaint with the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection but I doubt it'll do any good...are there any other consumer protection groups I can contact?
I've been both a buyer and seller on eBay for over ten years. I just discovered via eBay's forums that the next time I sell something and receive payment via PayPal, they will hold my money for 21 days, or until positive feedback is left (I've also read that all the buyer has to do is say they aren't happy with the transaction and you don't get your money at all).
I understand that this must be legal in some screwed up way, but what I do NOT understand is, how can it be legal for them to do this without fully disclosing this information somewhere prominently for all potential sellers to see? Go to eBay's Seller pages and see if you can find where they explicitly state they will hold your money for 21 days and what the exact circumstances are resulting in this action. (Please don't tell me you found it easily by typing "holding payment for 21 days" in the search bar...if a potential seller doesn't know the policy exists then they certainly can't type that in the search bar.) I have NEVER received an email from either eBay or PayPal informing me of this policy.
The same can be said about their DSR scam. On the Help page it clearly states "Detailed seller ratings don't affect a seller's overall Feedback score, but we take these ratings into account when we evaluate sellers to see if they're eligible for discounts and other benefits." When I read that, I said "oh, okay..." and thought nothing more about it. Nobody said, "But wait, there's more!" The truth is, you can have 100% positive feedback but if your buyers give you low stars (which they do for sheer enjoyment) eBay will suspend your account. That's a far cry from supposedly not having an effect on your account!
And finally, I just discovered (again, thanks to the forum) that eBay has "downgraded" my status to "Standard"; I only have 500 transactions but I don't have a single negative/neutral (again, I received no email notifying me of this downgrade). The speculation among us small sellers is that they are planning to continue to demote our statuses until we all reach a "punishable" level. Again, its not that they're doing it, its that they're not telling us they're doing it. I've filed a complaint with the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection but I doubt it'll do any good...are there any other consumer protection groups I can contact?
