Recently I've been selling a few bits and pieces on eBay.  It's a good marketplace with loads of potential buyers.  Some buyers though, suck.  And eBay makes it easy for them to be as sucky as is possible.

I sold an item for a few pounds.  The buyer asked to make payment in a weeks time - well, I didn;t want that as I wanted an instant payment.  So I went through the laborious process of cancelling the transaction.  When you cancel a transaction the buyer has to agree.

Guess what; the buyer did not agree to cancel, so the case was closed and I have to wait until the buyer wants to pay me, which could be never.  Why never?  Once a case has been opened and closed, it cannot be re-opened.  And any transaction can only ever have 1 case.

This means that if the buyer never pays I cannot open an unpaid item case, as my 1 and only available case has been used!

What a great way for crappy buyers to game eBay and game sellers.  eBay customer services see things only from the perspective of the buyer, never the seller.  Even though the seller is the one who pays ALL the fees.

And now, guess what?

The buyer has now decided he does not want the item at all.  So I am stuck in limbo, with eBay telling me I have to complete the transaction and the buyer telling me they do not want the item.

eBay, you are shit.

Now lets talk about customer services

I managed to get hold of a customer services rep to see what could be done about a non-buying-buyer.  Answer:  nothing, as I already used my "one shot" case.  The rep did as much as he could including placing a "goodwill" credit onto my account (equivalent to the listing fee and final valuation fee of the item that the buyer is not buying).  I did not ask for this, and asked him to remove it (which he could not do).  Apparently only the billing department can remove a credit.  Ho hum.

Next, I asked to speak with his Manager.  The manager refused to speak with me.  I asked for the line manager of that manager in order to raise a complaint, to be told "we don't give that type of information".

So, it's now impossible to;

1.  speak with a manager
2.  get the name of that persons line manager
3.  open an unpaid item case

The upshot?

I'm expecting this non-buying-buyer to give me a negative feedback.  We will see if that happens.  And what can I do about it?  Nothing.

eBay, you really are shit.