June 26th, 2023
I first joined eBay back in the late 1990s. Yep, I was one of the early ones. At first, I chose only to buy unique items, mostly bits and pieces of ancient history. I didn’t start selling things until maybe five years ago. I’ve been clearing out my attic, finding all sorts of old stuff that other people, for some crazy reason, value. Some of the stuff I have sold has netted surprisingly high prices. Between all my buying and selling, eBay has probably gotten a few thousand dollars of earnings. They’ve raised their rates, but I was willing to pay the higher rates because they seemed to have a broad user base of people willing to pay for really strange things.
But a recent event has driven me to stop selling through eBay, and I’ll likely stop buying through them as well. Here’s the sequence of events:
On March 27, 2023, a user by the name of yusuper won an auction for an old silver coin. She paid $168.10, of which I received $142.76. I shipped the coin by USPS Priority Mail and emailed her the tracking number. Like so many purchasers, she did not notify me of receiving the coin, and after several weeks of silence I concluded that all was well.
But then on June 1st, 2023, I received an email from eBay notifying me that yusuper had submitted a complaint against me that she had not received the coin. Now, this is likely because she is located in China and uses a trans-shipper; I mailed the coin to an address in Washington state and then, I’m guessing, the trans-shipper forwards it to her at a lower cost than would be required for international air mail. However, the trans-shipper is unaccountable to me and I suspect that the trans-shipper lost or stole the coin.
eBay sent me a second email on June 1st:
Your funds are on hold until this request is resolved
Request ID: 5317457223
Hi Christopher,
We'd previously contacted you about a request that Yusuper filed for an order placed on Mar 27, 2023. The reason for this request is that the buyer hasn’t received their item yet.
Until the request is resolved, the transaction amount will be withheld from future payouts.
Yusuper waited over two months before registering her complaint. I cannot imagine why she waited so long to file her complaint; perhaps she simply forgot until June 6th; perhaps she was waiting for the “slow boat to China” to deliver her coin. I still had the tracking code, but apparently the USPS discards tracking codes a short time after successfully delivering the item, because when I entered the tracking number at the USPS website, it said that it had no information for the tracking code.
I responded immediately to yusuper, asking why she waited so long to file her request. She never responded.
I sent a response to eBay presenting them with the tracking number, but pointing out that the USPS no longer provided information for that tracking number because so much time had elapsed. eBay never responded. Last week I spent several hours digging through eBay, trying to find a way to resolve the issue. I was unable to find anything. Apparently eBay now resolves all disputes with its software, which does not take into account any factors other than data from the shipper (in this case, USPS). There isn’t anybody to whom I can appeal. I’m screwed.
If I ever sell anything on eBay, eBay will confiscate my earnings from that auction and give them to yusuper. I refuse to accept this patently unfair resolution to the dispute.
Fortunately, there are a great many other auction websites on the web and I am researching them carefully. Nor will I ever purchase anything again on eBay; I do not wish any of my money going to this organization.
Addendum, July 2nd
I have received another email from eBay:
This request is closed
Hi Christopher,
We closed this request since there's been no activity for 21 days. As a result, the hold on this transaction has been removed.
You don't need to do anything else--we wanted to keep you updated.
I am at a loss to understand this email. At first glance, it says that the “request is closed”. That sounds like they have given up and I am free to resume normal activity on eBay. But the previous email said that "Until the request is resolved, the transaction amount will be withheld from future payouts.” Closing the request is not the same thing as resolving the request. I see two completely different interpretations of the second email:
1. I’m off the hook.
2. Since I failed to clear myself within 21 days, I am permanently subject to confiscation of income.
The sloppy wording is impossible to interpret clearly, hence I must assume that I can no longer sell anything on eBay without risk of having money confiscated.