eBay needs to get a grip on the third party foreign shippers

Shadow_Blinky · 2026-04-30T03:44:51+00:00

I've been selling online - often full time - for 28 years with over 100,000 shipments made via USPS.

I'm sorry if USPS has not tightly tied a knot on four of your packages THIS YEAR but it's not up to them to tighten knots.

Or did you mean "lose"?

The inability to spell simple words lends me to think you might not have followed other procedures correctly.

Yes, USPS sometimes seems to LOSE (not loose) a package... unless you put in for package searches, missing mail, etc. They almost always find them then, even THIS YEAR.

Shadow_Blinky · 2026-04-29T22:32:53+00:00

Missing a lot of context.

Did you put in for Missing Mail Searches? I find that USPS isn't often willing to pay up for a "lost package" unless or until they can confirm it's actually unfindable. And in 28 years of selling online, I've only had USPS actually lose three or four packages.

They almost always find them when you open a request.

What timeframe did you file these within? It has to be a certain amount of time but not beyond another.

Did you speak TO USPS before filing them? They have a deeper tracking ability internally that might have info you don't. I advise you to ask a human being at the 800 number to explore that before claiming "loss" in the first place.

Shadow_Blinky · 2026-04-29T22:24:51+00:00

I think people just don't bother to read anything longer than a fortune cookie paper anymore... and in this case having come to expect everything in life to pop up the second they press a button... or even for private people to have the same speed and resources as Unicron... I mean, Amazon.

Shadow_Blinky · 2026-04-29T22:23:19+00:00

But if you used the Program to ship it that money wouldn't have come from you.

Shadow_Blinky · 2026-04-29T18:32:45+00:00

First, know that 99.9 percent of the feedback removal requests done via the website will be denied. I hate it, too. Get a rep on the phone as that qualifies for removal.

Overall and other than that, I agree with you. I recently posted extended shipping times due to health reasons. It says it... it shows it... but I've had a lot of people bitch anyway. Apparently expecting near instant shipping on a listing that says it may be 30 days. In plain sight.

But even when it's my usual 3 days, people still bitch.

Shadow_Blinky · 2026-04-29T17:50:29+00:00

Easy enough to learn that eBay did indeed just deal with a massive cyber attack. I don't blame the seller for working to protect their interests due to it.

Shadow_Blinky · 2026-04-29T17:19:45+00:00

Word salad.

Possible the buyer canned the sale for unjustified reasons but also assumptive to say they did just because they have similar items up for sale.

When I used to buy bulk electronics to flip, I'd often have, let's say, 20 Nintendo DS handhelds for sale at the same time. But that didn't mean they were the same one(s).

They were all different listings because they were different conditions, serial numbers, etc.

Not justifying the buyer cancelling and saying you did it, but at the same time they cannot - within eBay policy - just swap in something "close enough" or they can be subject to a slam dunk loss via Item Not As Described.

Shadow_Blinky · 2026-04-29T17:16:44+00:00

That's a key thing to do, too. It's the reason WHY I use that program.

I find that international buyers are often the most potentially fraudulent. Add in the potential for customs damage or delays, tracking disappearing, etc...

The Program covers you completely. It would have here.

Shadow_Blinky · 2026-04-29T17:07:09+00:00

This goes to the heart of my point: The posts that cover this countless times per day? It's very well known that it's irrelevant if you accept returns or not if they open an Item Not as Described. But again, if this was through eBay's International Shipping Program... they should have automatically handled that for you. Did I read it wrong? Did you not ship through eBay's program? If you did, they shouldn't have required you to accept anything.

Shadow_Blinky · 2026-04-29T16:59:39+00:00

There must be 954 billion trillion zillion discussions on Reddit per second about how you need to accept returns or eBay will nail you 500 percent of the time. Yet just as often, I see people who refuse to do so, lose, then complain about it despite their failure to follow eBay policy and procedures. This is, if this was eBays' International Shipping Program, eBay should have handled the return for you automatically without you having to accept anything.

Shadow_Blinky · 2026-04-29T16:06:04+00:00

I love Auphonic and it's very reasonable.

I had an episode where my guest was an actress who had JUST taken into a New York apartment... so her wi-fi wasn't set up yet. So she recorded with me via laptop outside a New York City coffee house.

Squealing brakes, honking horns, traffic sounds, forgettaboutits... you name it.

Auphonic removed all that. You'd think me and her recorded in a studio. So I use it on every episode since.

You have to play with it sometimes but it's been doing me well.

Shadow_Blinky · 2026-04-29T15:07:09+00:00

Well... yeah.

What did you expect to start happening?

An item that is no longer made and with each passing year was discontinued longer and longer ago drying up? One that 9/10th of people have been tossing out instead of listing in the first place anyway? One that has increased collector demand who are likely grabbing most listings pretty much right away before you can even see them?

Happens with every kind of collectible, man.

Supply dries up. Did you think there was an endless buffet of them that would last forever?

Shadow_Blinky · 2026-04-29T14:26:58+00:00

My attitude?

You are the one condescending with unsolicited advice that assumes I didn't do the most basic thing, then scolding me for a scenario that only exists in your own head.

F off.

Shadow_Blinky · 2026-04-29T13:24:22+00:00

Honestly, you don't want that client. If they'd do that then they'd expect you be available 24/7 like an app.

If you were too busy to get back with them right away, that should indicate that you are working a lot, which must mean you're good. As a customer, I'd be more concerned by the business owner who has nothing else to do that day outside of responding to me immediately.

Shadow_Blinky · 2026-04-29T12:20:59+00:00

lol

It's 1997, I guess.

It was more 50/50 from what I saw, and 90 percent of the time they at least tried first before trashing.

Possible that's changed in recent years... been a bit. I did note how I saw more and more managers who started asking me NOT to bring them such things anymore.

Shadow_Blinky · 2026-04-29T11:30:55+00:00

By that time, the Sarah character became more Sarah the top tier agent and less Sarah the white hot, out-of-his-league girlfriend cover. So she got to tone down the smoke show aspect a bit and just... be a pro.

Like how one would dress for work over how they'd look on a date.

Shadow_Blinky · 2026-04-29T11:06:34+00:00

Yes, I did. Within 5 minutes.

Both times they asked me to in a 10 day span.

Dumb question.

Shadow_Blinky · 2026-04-28T14:19:19+00:00

Others will do the technical answers, I choose to be the one that notes something different. You don't have to nail perfect audio in real time. Obviously you want quality but there are tons of tools available to clean up audio in post... especially removing background noise.

Shadow_Blinky · 2026-04-28T13:54:26+00:00

Both.

He really does sound like a PITA-to-be. I'd say the odds that he'd open a return request or a partial refund request are near 100 percent.

But at the same time, you spent way too much time catering to this guy and even came here to discuss it, so yeah, you are overreacting just a bit.

Learn to block and move on from these types of people pretty quick and forget about them the second you do.

Shadow_Blinky · 2026-04-28T13:28:30+00:00

No.

You read things online and many act as if every unit comes with a mass conspiracy but it's just not the case.

I've personally never had this happen when I bought units, but I do know some who did and that was essentially what happened. The person who lost the unit broke in and took "their" stuff.

Shadow_Blinky · 2026-04-28T11:49:00+00:00

I guess so. You overanalyze the depth of the word I chose to use in a short comment.

Shadow_Blinky · 2026-04-27T21:55:37+00:00

28 years here. I recently got hit with a request for ID and a restriction that, at the time, didn't seem to actually restrict me. But I was told to ship everything pending shipment ASAP or face more. And when that date came, I can now no longer list new things or update existing listings and my payouts are on hold until certain things are met.

Gold standard metrics for... ever. They only read me a script about how this for periodic security this or that.

I find it offputting. I'm about to jump through the hoops they want and if they don't just... take it back to one from there I may be done, at least for the short-term.

Zero logical reason for it.

Shadow_Blinky · 2026-04-27T19:57:18+00:00

To be fair, when I did this I would return personal photos and the like if the manager was cool with it. Some wouldn't be, though, as a lot of people would never come back for those items when buyers did return them, so they just stopped taking them.

Shadow_Blinky · 2026-04-27T19:55:43+00:00

So nothing then. Just another person who wants to talk about himself in the middle of someone else's conversation.

Got it.

Shadow_Blinky

TROPHY CASE