Like every auction site Ebay too is not free of cheating. The elimination of the buyers feedback made it even worse. The only recourse for the sellers in the event of cheating, if Ebay and Paypal rules in the favor of the seller, which rarely happens.
Sellers rarely cheat, but buyer cheating are growing in numbers because there is not much the sellers can do to avoid them and no feedback to warn them.
One of the favorite cheating of buyers when they claim they have not received the item they’ve bought and paid for even though the seller posted it. Very hard to avoid it if the sellers aren’t careful.
Most sellers nowadays require at least 5 or 10 buyers feedback before they would let them bid in order to get at least some assurance that the buyer is at least somewhat sincere.
Ebay is buyer friendly now for the past couple of years. Meaning, the buyer is always right and the sellers are wrong. With this motto they’ve opened the doors for the cheaters.
If the buyer claims they have not received an item, Paypal will refund their money without consideration of whether the buyer is a cheat or not. The sellers can prove all they want, in most cases they will loose, because Ebay is buyer friendly now.
To top it off, many buyers if they win an item are not even bother going through with the purchase and that costing sellers money and time before they can re-list that item.
The way to avoid being cheated by cheating Ebay buyers is to screen them. Don’t allow anyone to bid if they have zero (0) feedback, If they have less than 10 feedback, also check the feedback they have. Don’t let anyone to bid if they don’t have Paypal account and credit card on file.
Never ever send an item with regular postage. Always post recorded delivery or one that requires a signature upon delivery.
I am not saying all buyers on Ebay are bad. Most of them are honest and trustworthy, but the number of bad buyers are growing. More and more sellers are loosing money they should not.
Ebay should bring back the buyer feedback system that would warn sellers of who to avoid.
Amazon is an alternative selling outlet for many items that are sold on Ebay and the buyers are ready to buy. Amazon might be slower than Ebay, but the quality of buyers are much higher.