Ebay's Fight Against Counterfitting, Its New Policy, And Customer Service Failure

[bagpunk]

I have recently purchased an MJ bag on Ebay, and seller is US based and obviously listed it BEFORE the policy took effect, but by the time the sale was closed, the policy had taken effect.

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED: as I paid via BIDPAY, they rejected my payment order to seller, but reservation of funds in the amount requested was made on my credit card in Singapore. This funds continue to be unavailable to me, for apparently about 7 days or more.

Seller receveid a notification from BIDPAY that my payment order to her had been rejected WITH NO OTHER EXPLANATION. On this side, I received the same notification also WITH NO EXPLANATION other that the rejection only applied to THIS PARTICULAR TRANSACTION.

Now, I of course looked really bad. Up to this point, EBAY did not offer any explanation to either seller or buyer. And I do not think any explanation is going to come.

It was left up to me to do some research and made the most logical explanation to seller. The rest was of course dependent on seller's good faith, which she fortunately have, for my honesty.

But can you imagine had she chose to believe that I was one of those deadbeats who cannot pay? Negative feedback would definitely resulted. Not only would I have to deal with not knowing what happened to my $1165, my reputation as a buyer would surely be effected.

As a buyer located in ASIA, I was left standing there looking like I could not fulfil my obligation as a seller.

At this point, even attempt at creative solution by taking out the fund in cash from my card to deliver to seller in some other way cannot be done.

Just want to share this just in case you are a buyer or seller of items listed on Ebay's "hot" list. And if you are transacting during the period of transition between policies.

NOT a good experience, not matter what kind of excuse is possible.

 

[Sans]

Hi bagpunk, I am also from Singapore. I have just started buying from ebay last month but mainly Lulu Guinness bags on ebay.com/ebay.co.uk. Up till now, I have not experienced any problems but I guess that's because I am not buying bags from the "hot" list yet although I plan to.

I have been trying to search on ebay website details on the "ban" since I am from an affected country but can't find any. Your post is really helpful . Thanks!

By the way, does that mean that there is absolutely no way we can buy the hot brands from other English ebay sites apart from ebay.com.sg? The new policies are really confusing.

 

[peacocky]

Bidpay is not tied to eBay in any way. It sounds like Bidpay rejected your payment, not eBay. eBay would have contacted you and told you your bid was cancelled, and would have removed the auction.

 

[bagpunk]

bidpay is not related to ebay, but we have to list which item from which auction, so mine listed: ebay, item number such and such. you would have thought that they would cancel the bid, contacted seller and buyer with an explanation, but they did not. from what i understand so far, sellers were merely notified that they cannot list their shipping preference going to countries as such and such. that is it. nothing more. i could still bid.

with this particular marc jacobs bag, there was no issue with bidding, but with another marc jacobs bag which was listed AFTER the policy took effect, seller told me they can't specify shipping to asia, although i can still bid.

this is why it is confusing, not only that the logic of their policy is inconsistent, their execution seemed so too.

i have paid with bidpay on ebay and other places with no issue, bag shipped from the US and other places into singapore. there was money in the card. nothing about this particular transaction was any different than any other ebay ones i had done so far, except for the fact that: (1) new ebay policy just took effect, (2) bidpay specified that this block only applied to THIS particular item and NOT any other (3) it is a highly counterfitted item

please note that, as i have mentioned, bidpay did reserved the amount on my card, and it was approved, although not yet withdrawn. it is as if the funds went all the way to bidpay (it is still now as far as i am concerned as it is definitely not available to me on my card at present), and stopped there.

bidpay is not related to ebay, but they can have an agreement with bidpay. of course i cant say what they did or did not agree on. but ebay items were specified with every payment order via bidpay, this would raise some flags on ebay's side, the same ones that would have been raised when a seller attempted to click shipment preference as country/ies such and such in asia.

please read my posting carefully. those with some experience and involvement with some aspects of operational managements or implementations would hopefully be able to spot what i am talking about...