eBay Screwed Me Over

PohTayToez

PohTayToez

Active Member
This is a email I sent to eBay recently:

The item numbers listed contain items listings that were
created on March 14, a day in which a promotion was held for $0.20
listing fees. They were scheduled to begin on days that were later than,
March 14, however, when I reached the "Sell: Promote and Revise Your
Listing" page, under "Fees:" it showed me a $0.20 listing fee, plus
$1.20 in other fees (buy it now, gallery etc), for a total of $1.40.

At the bottom, I clicked "List your item", right under the message "By
clicking the List Your Item button, you agree to pay the fees above,
accepting the listing conditions above, and assume full responsibility
for the content of the listing and item offered." The "fees above" that
I agreed to were $1.40 per auction, however I have just recently checked
my May 2007 invoice, and it displays that I was charged a $4.80 listing
fee, for a total of $6.00 per auction

I spoke to a "Kevin" from your billing department, who, while hardly
letting me fully explain my situation and reasoning and refusing to
allow me to speak to a supervisor, redirected me to the fine print of
the promotion. I accept that the promotion stated that the sale did not
extend to items not beginning on the day of the promotion, however the
fact is that the listing fee displayed to me, and the listing fee that I
agreed to was $0.20.

Kevin tried to convince me that the "accepting the listing conditions
above" should negate that, however I am certain the the conditions for
said promotion were NOT displayed above, or anywhere on the "Sell:
Promote and Revise your Listing" page for that matter.

Now, please understand that I am NOT trying to perform any trickery in
order to avoid listing fees. While I did not read the detailed
conditions of the promotion, I had no reason to believe that I would be
charged any listing fee other than $0.20. If the page had been
correctly coded to show $0.20 for listings beginning that day, but to
show the normal price for any listings scheduled for a later day, I
would have seen that, and would have quickly came to the conclusion that
the promotion did not apply to scheduled listings.

The fact is that there is a glitch in the coding of the site to display
promotion pricing for ANY item listing created on the day of a
promotion, even is said item does not adhere to all of the conditions of
said promotion. Also, the fact remains that the fees that were
displayed to me, and the fees that I agreed to where the fees of the
promotion, and it is a serious mistake on the part of eBay when I am
presented with one price, and then charged for another.

Thank you for your time,
Click to expand...

Dear Trevor,

Thank you for writing eBay in regard to our $0.20 promotion.

I'm sorry for the confusion in this matter. As per our promotion
details, the promotion only applied to items listed on March 14th itself
and did not include scheduled items:

What is excluded?


This promotion will not apply to the following types of listings: Fixed
Price listings, All eBay Motors listings (including Parts & Accessories,
Passenger Vehicles, Motorcycles, Power Sports, Other Vehicles),
International, Live Auction, Professional Services, Real Estate, Ad
Format and Store Inventory listings. The following business and
industrial categories are excluded from the Insertion Fee Sale: tractors
& farm machinery (91952), heavy equipment (25249), concession trailers,
carts (67145), imaging and aesthetics equipment (92035), forklifts and
other lifts (97185), manufacturing equipment (92080), metalworking
equipment (92082) and commercial printing presses (26247).

The promotional rate does not apply to listings with a start date prior
to March 14, 2007 - including those listings revised during the
promotional period. The promotional rate also does not apply to listings
created March 14, 2007 and scheduled to start after the promotion ends.

If you would like to review these conditions, please click on the link
below:

http://pages.ebay.com/promo/20cent07/

We're sorry for any inconvenience this has caused.

If you have any additional questions regarding this email, please click
on the Live Help link below. This link will put you in contact with a
Live Help Representative to resolve your questions or concerns right
now.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/account/livehelp-billing.html

It is my pleasure to assist you. Thank you for choosing eBay.

Sincerely,

Kevin B.
eBay Customer Support
Click to expand...

To sum it up, eBay had a promotion, and an oversight in their site's encoding causing items that did not fall under the promotion's conditions to be displayed with the promotion's price. Maybe I'm wrong, but I would think if I click a button that says that I agree to the price shown to me, then I should be charged that price, not some 5x more. Basically, I'm out about $30, and apparently the douche bags that answer the emails just skim and reply with some generic response, a complaint I've heard before.

I plan on calling them so I can talk with a real person who'll have to listen to me, but somehow I doubt I'll get a refund.
 
I don't really think it's really worth looking into it but, I guess it is their fault..

When talking to them, say things that indicate that you wont use eBay again, and that you will have your friends stop using the site, that will make them report the phone conversaition to their boss, becuase those are notable things..

Kent.
 
you will have agreed to there terms and conditions, which will have listed that schedule items arent under the offer
Now i agree the price should have been reflected when you submitted the item and not shown £0.20. But if they do choose to refund the amount it would be a goodwill gesture and not a legal obligation
 
I'm not so sure about it not being a legal obligation:

mail


This is what is seen right before you list an item.

By clicking the List Your Item button, you agree to pay the fees above, accepting the listing conditions above, and assume full responsibility for the content of the listing and item offered.
Click to expand...

Besides the fact that I am almost completely certain that the 'listing conditions' of the promotion were NOT listed above, I was also agreeing to the 'fees above'. How can they say that one part of that agreement negates the other... just because there are conflicting terms, why should the one that benefits them override the other?
 
Besides the fact that I am almost completely certain that the 'listing conditions' of the promotion were NOT listed above, I was also agreeing to the 'fees above'. How can they say that one part of that agreement negates the other... just because there are conflicting terms, why should the one that benefits them override the other?
Click to expand...
well if you feel you have a case call them, youll get nowhere with emails
 
Call them for sure... It's their fault!

Try to menace them with laws and stuff. telle them that if it's not sorted in like a week, you will call your lawyer or something. That always works when they know that it's their fault...
 
Well, as luck would have it, tomorrow they're running the same promotion, so I'll call then, and lead the rep through the steps I took, and show him what I saw.
 
i hate this about ebay, another bad thing is people set their own postage rate, alot of these arseholes charge wayyy over the top on postage, i got charged £8 for a cd!
 
Well it would depend upon the state, the item weight, dimensions and all that so I think sellers should be able to charge what they want. If you don't accept the price given, buy it off someone else.
 
leet6thgrader said:
Dude it's $30 just get over it.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, I actually work for my money, my parents don't give it to me, and I kinda ticks me off when it gets taken from me unjustly. Sure, $30 isn't a whole lot of money, but it's more of the principle of the thing... eBay is such a big company, they think they can do whatever they want.

EDIT: BTW, I just tested it, it still shows the special promotion listing fee even if you schedule the listing for another day, and makes no mention of the promotion conditions anywhere on the site. I don't see how they can dispute this.
 
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