Zombie Sellers

[sjfeaster]

I have purchased 3 times on ebid. First went well. The next two sellers just accepted payment then never responded.
Needed is a way to tell zombie sellers from live - active sellers. Going through the PayPal resolution process for a refund takes about a month and is a bummer.
It seems some sellers are sell and run sellers as their listing go inactive after a few sells. Better if these sellers were purged or not allowed to list items. Its enough to discourage me from buying again on Ebid. Can Ebid vet the sellers better?

[olivia8143]

I always ask for an invoice before I pay.

[JanetB]

I have purchased 3 times on ebid. First went well. The next two sellers just accepted payment then never responded.
Needed is a way to tell zombie sellers from live - active sellers. Going through the PayPal resolution process for a refund takes about a month and is a bummer.
It seems some sellers are sell and run sellers as their listing go inactive after a few sells. Better if these sellers were purged or not allowed to list items. Its enough to discourage me from buying again on Ebid. Can Ebid vet the sellers better?

It really is a pain in the proverbial, one that many sellers like myself, do not like. eBid changed the rules some time ago for inactive sellers to sign in, at least once, every 60 days, otherwise their listings will be deleted.

Always look at the buyers last active date before doing any browsing, if the seller has not been active for at least 2 weeks, then ask a random question on the listing page to see if you get any response, before making purchases.

Hope this helps
x

[johnwash1]

I have purchased 3 times on ebid. First went well. The next two sellers just accepted payment then never responded.
Needed is a way to tell zombie sellers from live - active sellers. Going through the PayPal resolution process for a refund takes about a month and is a bummer.
It seems some sellers are sell and run sellers as their listing go inactive after a few sells. Better if these sellers were purged or not allowed to list items. Its enough to discourage me from buying again on Ebid. Can Ebid vet the sellers better?

Sorry to hear your bad experience, two out of 3 bad, OMG. I don't know if it helps but I check the seller's feedback and if that's old, check the forums to see if they're still around.

How would eBid sensibly decide whether a seller is 'zombie'? If the check were too crude I might get thrown off myself -- I used to sell actively, but due to change of circumstances I list few items these days, haven't made a sale in a very long time. But if I did, I'd give good service.

[cheaver]

.

Hi and Welcome to the Forum

It is always best to check a Seller out before considering buying - on any Site, not just here. One of the Sellers you chose to attempt to buy from already had a considerable number of negative feedbacks under their belt.

You can always check Sellers activity - recent or otherwise - on a listing. Look to left of a listing Meet the Seller. Below the Seller's Avatar is the date they last signed in.

So, as well as checking feedbacks and recent or not activity - if you still wanted to go ahead then you should consider doing what Olivia suggested: Do Not Pay until you have an invoice from the Seller.



.

[EmpHolisticGifts]

I have had the odd one where they have not sent, and so needed a refund etc
I now do as suggested above, ask a question, or invoice etc

If people have few sales asking a question brings them back if you are then going to buy they are more likely to check to send your purchase off ....

Done let it put you off, as said it can and does happen elsewhere... people suddenly in an emergency or other etc

[suesjools]

It really is a pain in the proverbial, one that many sellers like myself, do not like. eBid changed the rules some time ago for inactive sellers to sign in, at least once, every 60 days, otherwise their listings will be deleted.

Always look at the buyers last active date before doing any browsing, if the seller has not been active for at least 2 weeks, then ask a random question on the listing page to see if you get any response, before making purchases.

Hope this helps
x

What Jan said. If it's a seller I've not dealt with before, I almost always ask a question about the listing (whether legit or not) just to see if the seller responds in a timely fashion, sellers who don't respond don't get my dinero. It's not foolproof, but IMHO it's a good test to see if the seller is around and active before sending payment.

Sorry you had this experience, as Jan said it's a right PITA, here's hoping it doesn't happen again.

Happy holidaze and best wishes for many sales to all,

[Ave]

Its hard if a seller doesnt have their email setting right as they may not get the notice that they have had a sale or maybe its someone who uses a library and not a computer at home or work. Perhaps if the settings for a sale were defaulted to notify the seller they may become a bit more diligent. I am online all the time now but years ago I did have a period where I was doing a volunteer stint out of state for months and so I stopped listing sales. The seller should put some sort of notice as to how to contact them.
I own a promo network and had nearly 500 members that after a while didnt log in that often so I sent out notices to all . I requested they update their profiles but soon found only about 200 responded then the others hadnt. I then made a new section for inactive members and sent out a new request that they update of remove their profiles since its a waste of space to promote someone who isnt even there!
Well more responded, thankfully but I waited and then sent out a notice that anyone who hasnt logged in in a certain amount of time and has not been active was going to face deletion however were welcome to rejoin when they felt they could benefit from our services and be a participant instead of just using my site for storage~!
Ultimately I deleted about 100 people from the site, sadly only a few rejoined so its difficult to know how to handle so many.
the advice others have given above such as requesting an invoice or checking activity or feedback seems to be the best advice as well as checking the feedbacks and sites like repatoo to see how that seller behaves online and if they have any negative feedback before making any sort of payment.
I had a lady who was buying several auctions over a period of weeks so to save with combined shipping, had her hold off paying anything til she was done shopping and then sent an invoice she paid so that she saved over $15 on shipping since we have that USPS Priority flat rate boxes available now, that I tell people as many as can be fit in t he box will ship together and either I can invoice them the new amount or if they happen to pre-pay I refund them the difference if it all goes in one shipment.
have a good new year and hoping you have better experiences on ebid in the coming year~!
Ave

[MPS16]

Its hard if a seller doesnt have their email setting right as they may not get the notice that they have had a sale or maybe its someone who uses a library and not a computer at home or work. Perhaps if the settings for a sale were defaulted to notify the seller they may become a bit more diligent.......

Lets keep things simple.

!) always request an invoice before making a payment.

2) Pay online by a method which gives you, the buyer very good protection ie PayPal.

[SparkyLabs]

The real answer is... Any selling site needs respect.. if a seller sees no sales... that seller has minor respect for that site.
That is the way it is now.. and since 1995 selling online.
That is the answer for 95% of ghost sellers.

Precisely the whole website needs a memento of buyers which keeps the sellers active. Once a listing is set up and running there is not much reason for a seller to return to the site unless a sale is made. Ebid need a critical mass for it to snowball and it does not look like we have that critical mass. Having lots of sellers is pointless unless there are people buying. How to get people to come and buy is a mystery. I haven't delved into my communications settings on the website but I would expect as a default that I get an email the moment somebody so much as flinches on my shop i.e. if they buy something I should get an email notification. If it's not the default setting I really really have to ask why? There are many websites I use not necessarily for selling but in general many forums and I don't keep visiting them all just to see if something has happened, I rely on feedback to my email address where everything comes in and I can decide what to do it's much more efficient to have email notifications all into one email address than have to run around checking all the sites I used to see if there has been activity of one sort or another that I need to know about. The first and only item I try to buy never showed up either and the seller did not respond I had to use PayPal to get my money back. If that seller had not been notified of my message or of the sale by email then I really cannot fault them and would instead fault ebid for not letting them know, if a default is to not receive emails that will probably break the hold website as nobody will ever know what is going on and will be the reason why nothing is growing very quickly.