[orware]

Quick question…did your account have a history and past positive reviews from any purchases you had made in the past?

I have a long-standing account and rarely buy on eBay nowadays (I’m trying to recall if I’ve ever sold anything…if I have it was maybe only one item but I don’t even recall if it sold or not).

Recently, I was looking into buying a used gaming PC via eBay to save a few bucks and I ended up completing a “Buy it now” purchase quickly without looking more into the seller (or their location). The location wasn’t a big deal (Paris, France) but that mainly meant the shipping would take longer. What ended up being more concerning was the 0 rating for the seller, which immediately make think “oh crap”. I reached out to the seller just to see if I could get a response with no quick reply, but I sent one short follow up the next day when I didn’t receive a response and shared my concern and waited another day before reaching out to eBay about the concern I had about the seller (especially because by this point the original listing was gone and then it even seemed like the seller’s account too). I used the live chat option and the person there was very helpful and got the process started and mentioned to reach back on Friday (about 3 days later), but later that same day my refund was issued and the case closed which I was grateful for.

But it did make me wonder of what might be an apparent difficulty for newer accounts to sell successfully on the platform? (Kind of like stories I’ve heard about liquor licenses being grandfathered in for certain locations in cities, whereas it may be more work for a new location to apply for one…maybe newer sellers can easily be flagged? The inability to dispute the situation when you are obviously willing/able to communicate with the eBay staff however is the sad part in your story since legitimate individuals should always have recourse to be heard in these large tech platforms).