Bad Selling Experiences on eBay

I have been buying and selling for several years. The past month has been very difficult as both a buyer and seller. As well as the usual non-paying bidders I have had some new bad experiences develop.

Charge backs.

A charge back occurs when the customer disputes a transaction with their bank or Paypal itself. I have recently been notified of a payment being held for possible reversal. Paypal will not give any details as to why, just that the payment is now being held and the money removed from my account. I shipped the purchase to the stated Paypal address with delivery confirmation which may help my case. I never had any communication nor complaint from the buyer just the sudden notice of the charge back. Paypal is supposed to cover sellers that follow the required steps but that will be left to be seen and may take quite a while. In the meantime I am out the funds from the sale.

Non-cleared E-checks.

E-checks are payments made through Paypal but done like a paper check. It usually will take five days or so for this payment to clear the buyer's bank. In the case of an international transaction it takes much longer. This situation was my fault. The buyer was from Canada and very concerned about how long delivery would take. I explained that the e-check itself, from Canada, would take seven to ten days to clear plus the international shipping time. The amount of the order was small so I decided to go ahead and ship the purchase. Of course I was notified by Paypal a few days after shipping that the check was denied by the bank. I really should have seen the red flags on this one and it is my fault. Somehow I need to learn not to be so nice.

Damaged goods received.

I take a good bit of care in packaging all items I sell. I just received an e-mail from a buyer that the box they received was marked by the post office as damaged. It was torn open on one end and several items were missing. I must give the customer the benefit of doubt on this and have re-shipped the missing items. I may also have to insist on larger purchases having insurance as I can not control what the postal service does with shipments once in their hands. It does make it hard on a smaller seller. I am out the cost of items and re-shipment and have to choose between the losses or an increased cost to my buyers for insuring all larger shipments. Not a good few weeks on eBay.