Re: Toolhaus have strategy to work around inability of Sellers to leave negs

On Thu, 7 Feb 2008 20:34:40 -0000, "Essex Laptops - Andy Usher"
<news@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


"Peter Parry" <peter@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in

It is certainly going to act as incentive for better descriptions in
sales and clarity in things like T'c & C's. It may even encourage
more sellers to make some attempt to comply with contract and consumer
law.

Whether this will be enough to allow eBay to remain as it is will be
another thing.

some interesting points, but again on the .com, site, I had in depth talks
last week with my aco*** manager who basically said to me there are big
channges on the .com site, this will not be carried out on the .co.uk, I
will have to ask her again but her wording was confidently saying that only
information regarding issue's such as these will happen only if listed
Specifically on the UK Site.

As many of the eBay statements mention both US and UK procedures I
think you can assume it will happen. They also haven't issued any
form of statement contradicting the widespread publicity this has
achieved. If they significantly increased consumer protection in the
US but not in the EU this would be commercially disastrous.

The only people who will benefit from any of the changes are big companies
who sell brand new working goods, in nice new orginal packaging, mainly drop
shippers who have people to get out the door.

As long as they maintained their revenue stream I think eBay would be
very happy indeed if their seller base entirely comprised professional
operators who understood the law and worked within it.

Ebay did not start out like
this, and I feel the core people who have built this will suffer.

Indeed it didn't, but neither did it start as a platform for a
significant number of sellers making a living out of scamming their
customers and riding roughshod over consumer law. What started as a
gentle exchange area for a limited number of specialist collectors has
grown into something quite different and must evolve to survive.

I accept
the feedback change but the DSR's ratings for holding payment are totally
unacceptable,

Why? The only reason it is necessary is because of the number of
sellers who have kept their accounts empty and vanished when claims
against them come in. If they can shed the rogue traders life is
easier for the others.

So there is three things that you have to complete, for me I guess been on
ebay for more than 6 months, have a feedback greater than 100, now how are
they going to work out the percentage of dissatified buyers, This it does
not say, is the 5% from feedback, is it from volume of PP Dispute of from
DSR's or something else. 5% is one in 20

In most business areas one in 20 dissatisfied customers would be
considered to be a disaster.

The other last point I want to make is to that of your incentive for better
descriptions and clarity in T&C's comment, and this for me a Issue that in
my line will be overlooked. The fact is now - a lot of my customers are
foreigners and immigrants, Any body who trades on ebay will have seen the
surge of buyers in the last few years be them Poles, Nigerians or from a
whole host of other race's, Now In other countries this is not so much the
case In Germany for instance all the listings are in German and generally on
the whole purchased by others who are German,

A significant minority in Germany speak little or no German, in fact
more are likely to speak their native language and English than their
native language and German.

here in the UK all the
listings are in English but most of the foreigners speak broken English and
think they have a bargain when they have not fully have the benefit of the
language to understand a widget is not as it seems. I do my best to push out
the notices of cosmetic damage and faults clearly and I dont think I can be
any clearer without treating genuine English speaking buyers as idiots.

You could be considerably clearer. Taking the first of your adverts I
came across as an example :-

Describing a 1.5G machine with 512M memory and a 40G hard disk as
"awesomely powerful" borders on deception. It is certainly
misleading.
512M isn't "huge" for the OS supplied - merely adequate.

"This Laptop system has been tested to the extent whereby it has taken
the operating system above without any problems this is reflected in
the picture below, this may be removed on supply...."

There is no picture below and that statement barely qualifies as
English (what is going to be removed upon supply?). This appears to
be boilerplate text you include on each sale.

" The system Unit comes with Complete DOA Warranty.."

You don't define what DOA stands for.

"Batteries are a consumeable item are not included in any part of the
warranty, Batteries in general are GOOD and BAD, ..."

I have no idea what you are trying to say here.

"Due to the real time constraints and Secure Storage I do not have the
time to individually test each laptop battery..."

I can certainly see many not quite understanding this.

"Please bear this in mind when bidding or buying any laptop from us.
However Going by current feedback from Previous buyers, our Laptops
have good batteries on the whole. Please Email for more information
and clarification if needed."

If most batteries work why not make the commercially sensible decision
of replacing those few that don't rather than this convoluted section
which would undoubtedly cause confusion? You have no choice about
replacing ones which are dead out of the box anyway.

"Most of these Laptops have some of the following, they are classed as
Grade B and the Price reflects this, (OUT OF ALL THE GRADE B I HAVE
EVER HAD, THESE ARE THE BEST BY FAR - REALLY MOST ARE CLOSE TO GRADE A
BUT I HAVE TO PUT THIS DISCLAIMER IN) "

You haven't defined what Grade A and B mean so the statement is
meaningless. You can describe goods as you see fit as long as your
description is accurate, you don't _have_ to put any disclaimer in -
you chose to.

"Payment must be made within 7 Days of the Auction Ending. Failure to
make payment will result in an eBay "Non Paying Bidder" Alert and
immediate negative feedback as well as the sale being revoked. This
ultimately will lead to indefinite suspension from the eBay
community."

It is a BIN item. The seller can cancel the sale under the Distance
Selling Regulations (DSR's), your threat here is illegal. The DSR's
over-ride any contract.

"It is important to remember, that when bidding on items on eBay you
are entering a legal binding contract to purchase the item. Do not Bid
if you are not going to pay. "

As it is a BIN item the seller can cancel the sale under the DSR's,
your statement here is illegal.

I don't know if you fulfil any of your DSR obligations in your
confirmatory e-mail but you don't appear to have any T&C's and don't
supply the legally required information for a distance sale in your
advertisement. This alone puts you at significant risk in that your
customers can claim full refunds on goods for no reason for up to
three months and seven days after receipt of the goods.

"If you require a Next Day service then please pay for Insured
delivery ( this does not mean you will recieve it next day, .."

Next day doesn't mean next day yet you don't think you could be
clearer? :-).

That's just a quick look at one of your sales and isn't getting at you
in particular. It is illustrative of the relatively poor quality of
English and understanding of commercial law and standards that many
eBay traders have and which eBay wants to resolve either by getting
rid of them or making then sharpen up their act.

You don't set out to defraud anyone but that particular advertisement
is poorly written, has spelling errors, is misleading and in parts
illegal. I suggest that quite a few people would misunderstand it
even if English is their first language.

This
feedback business I feel will possibly affect the way I currently run
things, and I think anybody who deals in Non Brand New in Original packaging
good's will also struggle possibly to keep buyers happy

Actually as a basically honest trader with an established business you
are one of the ones who could benefit from the changes. It wouldn't
take much for you to make your advertisements much clearer, fulfil
your statutory obligations and think a bit about your customer
service. By doing so you give yourself an advantage over your
competitors.
.