Evil is as Evil Does, Sir/Dollar Dollar Bill Y'all

 When looking to find if any other people had had a problem with foreign returns I stumbled across the good ol' "Former Sellers" page. I can see that the more shit changes, the more it remains the same. Someone was verbally reprimanded for mentioning selling on eBay. Another dude was begging for cash to restart an alternate selling site, and OLA was still hanging around like a stale fart in an airport bathroom. 

There were random "buy my shit" ads from desperate board members every so often. 

The dude who got all crazy about eBay selling reminded me of the Charles asshole who blocked me from the original board: "Don't speak of the EVIL one!" 

It's like Mermaid Man on Spongebob: "EVIL!" with no real knowledge of what is actually evil. Example: eBay taking your fees = not evil. It's a service, man. You gotta pay fees for service. 

These two boards are the extremes of online reseller experiences these days. I fall somewhere in between. 

I don't think eBay is inherently evil, but their policies smack of someplace who is just trying to keep shareholders happy, actual customers (sellers) be damned. Problem is, eventually, they will drive off enough sellers that the place will tank. It's like say, watching a Green Bay or Kansas City game. You see the opposing team trying to stave off the slow moving avalanche that will become inevitable in the end...*sigh*. My really good Etsy sales and watching Mercari grow exponentially tells me this is happening.

I don't look at eBay as a "selling partner". I feel like they should fuck off and mind their own business - that business being giving sellers a venue to sell their shit and taking the fees for such. Take the fees and then fuck off - let sellers have individual polices and payment options, and reciprocal feedback would take care of the rest. That was why eBay worked. I don't know why it is so hard for the suits to comprehend that.

I don't believe in doling out refunds willy nilly just to make some entitled ass happy. 9 times out of 10 you are buying USED shit, and that is exactly what you are going to get and sometimes it doesn't pan out. I have never left a negative in the nearly 24 years I have been buying online - Dude that didn't send that .69 newborn Peeks twin pony in 2001, man, I forgive you. That price was bullshit. lol. (I was the lone bidder). 

I left a neutral one time. It was this past year, because the bitch cancelled, sold the thing to someone else on Mercari and never stated to me why she cancelled, had she explained what happened I'd have given her a pass. I found out myself when I saw the identical item on Mercari - listed as sold. I won't knock a bitch for saving on fees, but don't leave me hanging. I simply said "Be aware that seller cross posts and you might not actually get the item when you BIN".

Society has become entitled, and it is reflected in today's buyer expectations. 

Some of us are low volume higher dollar sellers, who go with auctions to force the money out faster because bills are due at certain times, and when someone wants a fucking refund, it tanks a % of our entire earnings for that week putting us in a precarious situation. Back in the day, we'd say "Fuck you. No." and a negative would be left and that's fine because that is how it is supposed to work. 

The Cheerleader board makes assumptions that everyone is high volume ("Just sell more!") and has a store. They LOVE spending money. They like doling out (free - fuck that shit) refunds, they rent storage units or build warehouses (good luck when eBay bans you, uh oh...lol), they pay accountants, they pay store fees, they pay promoted listings, they pay for software, thermal printers, expensive phones for the cameras. A lot of them sell clothing, electronics, and records/CDs/tapes - shit I would not come within 10 feet of because of the rampant returns. I shudder to think about how much money they have collectively given away and spent on stuff they don't really need.

I hate promoted listings almost as much as refunds, because I am also a buyer, and I hate seeing "sponsored" non relevant search results. No way am I going to give eBay an extra $1.00 so that I can be one of those annoying "sponsored" listings that pops up that has NOTHING to do with what a buyer typed into the search bar...uhhh no.

Business models are as different as fingerprints and I feel that the cheerleaders need to understand this. Also, sometimes, the buyer is indeed, an asshole.