Just been talking to my wife, who buys on eBay but doesn’t sell.

She sees buyers feedback as worthless now as there is nothing to distinguish a good prompt payer from a complete waste of time. They might as well say this buyer has completed x number of transactions, because that’s all it indicates.

As a buyer she is savvy enough to check who she’s buying from and can spot negs left in retalliation by sellers, and feels it rather insulting that eBay feels that she needs nursemaiding to such an extent.

I misread your post slightly when you only mentioned two out of the three possible locations, sorry.

I looked on the items first because that was how I found business IDs to check. The listings only had town and county. I thought it had to be a full address?

You can search ‘price + p&p lowest first’ on the drop down menu

The details can also be on the listing. If they are there then they don’t need to be anywhere else.

Instead of imposing ever changing requirements on sellers, why is eBay not enforcing the laws of the countries it operates in? To leave it to the honesty of the seller whether they put their address on is not good enough. It may also be a better indicator to the buyer if the seller is open about their operation than Feedback and DSRs which are so open misinterpretation.

Feedback is beyond a joke. Decent sellers are going to get suspended that leaves the field open to more scammers. I have no faith in that system as it stands. If the sellers hub actually has any teeth I may well change my view on that. However again, scammers paradise as it stands and that again means good sellers being lost and bad ones having more visibility. There will undoubtedly be an increase in bad buyer behaviour.

Buyer protection sounds very good and should improve faith for buyers. Hopefully it delivers what it promises.

Business registration I’m very much in favour of and it’s about time that arrived.

Protection from fraud I’m torn on. Bidder 1, Bidder 2 to protect people from fake second chance offers is ok, but Bidder 1, Bidder 2 doesn’t inspire me that shilling isn’t going on. The American system is somewhat different. I’d like to at least see a feedback score alongside bidder 1, bidder 2.

Customer service, very much overdue and I know it’s only for the top buyers, and that certainly wouldn’t include me but that’s fair enough, you spend more, you get better customer service. I think that’s a far better scenario than we have now.

Yes and no – you can use your accountants address, or if a Ltd, your registered office address. Use of a Virtual Office address is ‘open to interpretation’ as in reality it is no more than a PO Box with a geographical address (according to some Trading Standards depts) so would not suffice for the eCommerce Regs 2002.

PO Boxes should be allowed as I presume eBay has to be supplied with the full details to action the business registration in the first place.

Actually no, the eCommerce Regs 2002 say a PO Box is a no-no, both my eBay address and Paypal confirmed address are a PO Box, but I would still have to use a geographical address that is not my PO Box address

The Paypal T&C’s were last updated on 14th May, but the 98% criteria still remains in the small print.

That increased confidence could have been brought about by other methods that wouldn’t have created so many problems, or perceived problems for good sellers, but that’s another story in itself.

Two areas concern me as a seller.

I sell low volume highish value so the effects of a negative or ‘non positive’ feedback will have a far greater impact on me than on a volume seller.

My larger, and more expensive items have to be either collected or sent by pallet which isn’t trackable online. eBay now say that I cannot refuse to accept PayPal if a buyer wants to use it. This carries a greater risk for me, and one that I cannot mitigate against.