Hi everyone,
I've been an eBay member for over 21 years now and this is the first time I've written on here,
I’ve now had this happen three times in a row selling my old 2003 Toyota Hilux (£2-3k) on eBay Motors. Buyers have been making offer, then completely disappearing — no messages, no payment, no follow-up.
Each time it’s cost me around £15 in listing fees, and because the vehicle category uses a classified-style format, there’s no protection at all for the seller. I can’t open unpaid item cases, can’t leave negitive feedback (only positive), and the “Report Buyer” tool is designed for auctions/fixed-price listings only — not classified ads and to top it off, the relisting costs everytime, I'm no in for paying an addtional £15 to republish the advert however I'm now in two minds to do as. If I was a genuine buyer of a vehicle and see it come up 3 times in the past I wouldn't even take a look the 4th time in seeing the advert listed new eachtime, I'd suspect something wasn't quite right this the sale.
In short, eBay is charging full listing fees while giving sellers zero recourse against buyer misuse. It’s clearly being abused, and I know I’m not the only one — I’ve seen other sellers mentioning the same pattern.
This really needs reviewing by eBay’s Seller Experience or Motors team. Honest sellers are being penalised for behavior that the system currently allows unchecked. (it'll cost me £60 if I decide to list the vehicle again on this platform)
Has anyone else experienced the same thing?
It’d be great if we could get some attention on this — we’re all losing money and patience through no fault of our own.
My suggustions:
* Add positive/negative feedback for both seller and buyers, this can either be linked to each persons ebay account or an additional feedback section should be generated separately.
* Relist fees should be free of charge within 1-2 weeks of the advert going live.
* Introduce a custom/£50 holding deposit option for the seller to add onto their listings (I know this would flush out the "time waster"
* Add a "Mandatory Buyer Confirmation" (something like) I have read the full description and understand this is a classifieldf-style vehicle listing. Contacting the seller commits me to genuine intent to purchase.
* All sellers to leave feedback
* Reinstate fee refunds for abandoned listings, this cost should be covered by the buyer if the seller report the buyer to be ghosted for any reason then ebay should have the power to either remove the buyer from the platform or ask for reasons as to why they've ghosted the seller, if no real reason is given then it's only far the buyer should pay the sellers fees for time-wasting.
Ok, gone abit over the top on the suggestions but currently it's not working and it's also getting abused too which in 21 years I've felt this platform is letting me and others down.
Kind regards,
Dan
