Ebay on BBC Watchdog

vinylmusic

I think that Watchdog did a great job on exposing Ebay for its poor customer service regarding scams. It was much needed but unfortunate for the tens of thousands of honest sellers who will inevitably suffer the consequences too.

I feel that Watchdog didn't do enough to express that the majority of sellers are honest and that with common sense and some helpful advice avoiding scams would have been more fair
In my opinion Ebay well deserved the bad press but it was somewhat unfair on ebays honest sellers who must now suffer the lost confidence of the buyers

I have been a seller on Ebay for over 6 years and can boast a high rate of feedback. I have seen all kinds of scams come and go and have always managed to avoid them

A good living can be made on Ebay and good bargains can be found but there are points to consider and lessons to be learned

Firstly Ebay has the worst customer service imaginable and having such a huge worldwide monopoly its a devil one must live with when trading online.

Ebay keep their phone number a closely guarded secret. The last thing that they ever want to do is have a direct conversation with its customers.

The way their email system works also shows that they dont want to physically answer any questions unless they really have to.
If you think you can just simply send them your question by email then be prepared for disappointment.

Even when searching through help pages for your solution and not finding it, you click on "email customer services" you wont be taken directly to their email message page. The whole thing is automated with options and a selection of solutions and so on
Yes, you have to jump through hoops and even loop some loops before you get there
Once youve waded through that maze you type in your question, click on "send" but dont expect a quick response.. Allow 48 hours or more and then, however well detailed and well worded your questions you will get a template response
Yes, your message to them is pigeon-holed and someone (possibly a human)gets the gist of it and clicks on a template response and thats it. I always resend it with "HUMAN RESPONSE REQUIRED". I usually get an unsatisfactory answer after a couple more days being 5 to six days after my original request.

If your patient enough to really insist you will get a human response eventually should your question be unique.

BUYING and avoiding scams
100% Feedback means nothing. its the actual quantity of feedback that counts combined with the time a seller has been trading on ebay.
if you click on a users feedback number you will be taken to a page that not only lists the actual feedback, you can see the actual date the user started to trade
A high percentage along with a long period of trading would be hard for a dishonest trader to achieve
Try to read actual negative feedbacks too. There are some bad users out there who give retaliatory feedback as well
A lot of information can be obtained on both buyers and sellers before making the deal.
Like I said, using the tools available along with common sense can save one a lot of anxiety

I have lots to complain about with ebay but its a giant that cant be beat and a monopoly that leaves me very little choice if I want to go on trading online with reasonable success.

I think my current auctions will be a waste of time considering the bad press. I only hope that Watchdog will do a follow up program showing that there are ways to beat the scammers and continue to buy with confidence

Johntea

Same old story.

Someone buys a expensive item from China, oh Western Union! Must be safe, it's eBay!

Someone buys a car in SPAIN!!! (Good luck getting that delivered ) sorry but he was so stupid he deserves to lose his money...

Absolutely nothing to risk on eBay as long as you take your time to understand what you are paying, what the item is and where the seller is based (Personally, I always buy from UK sellers).

tab99_uk

Watchdog did a great job on exposing Ebay they deserve it and should be closed down.

soolin

tab99_uk wrote:

Watchdog did a great job on exposing Ebay they deserve it and should be closed down.

A bit harsh surely since only a small minority have problems?

10 millions registered users in the uK and Watchdog manage to drag up 2 buyers who both chose to ignore ebay advice and use Western Union. Watchdog might have been better actually concentrating on the real issues.

What I thought was quite telling, and put the ebay report in context was that watchdog also managed to find gullible people who would admit on National TV to having sent thousands of pounds to scamsters for a lottery win they didn't even have a ticket for!

Soo

Minxz

tab99_uk wrote:

Watchdog did a great job on exposing Ebay they deserve it and should be closed down.

What about the honest sellers who make an honest living out of supplying buyers with lower priced good than the high street?
What about the honest mum who is having a clearout to get some cash for crimbo?
You can't tar everyone with the same brush hey!
Persoanlly, if it wasn't for ebay, my kids would have nothing for xmas, as i can't afford brand new expensive stuff- I'm buying second hand. :rudolf:

wendyl1967

I love ebay. I have bought about 40 things up to now. The most I have ever spent is £50. I would be wary of spending more than that and not getting the item. At one time the most I would risk was £20 so my higher limit is going up as I get more confident!


:xmassign:

lyniced

Johntea wrote:

Same old story.

Someone buys a expensive item from China, oh Western Union! Must be safe, it's eBay!

Someone buys a car in SPAIN!!! (Good luck getting that delivered ) sorry but he was so stupid he deserves to lose his money...

Absolutely nothing to risk on eBay as long as you take your time to understand what you are paying, what the item is and where the seller is based (Personally, I always buy from UK sellers).

I think you're totally right. I was tutting as they listed what those guys had done. Ebay says it doesn't advise Wester Union transfers and I would never buy a car from another country (let alone this country) on ebay. The only guy I did feel sorry for was the one who bought a laptop. I think he only got some of his money back, as he paid through PayPal. I was hoping at the end of the prgramme ebay were going to say they would give him the total amount back, but they didn't - shame!

But like you say, if you take your time and make sure you do a little research then there shouldn't be a problem.

notagain_3

Minxz wrote:

What about the honest sellers who make an honest living out of supplying buyers with lower priced good than the high street?

Unfortunately a lot of stuff on ebay is sold at a higher price than be bought from other online retailers (I'm not just talking about xboxs either).
The amount of stolen phones on ebay is criminal, and if the local junk shop tried that they'd be closed down right away - blocked and barred means its NOT there property to sell.
Some Ebay customers are not savvy enough to understand the concept of fraud and are far too trusting.
Ebay needs to restrict IP ranges to stop some of the less savoury countries from joining, and they need to use the IP to list where the seller or buyer is actually based, not where they want you to beleive they are based.

soolin

notagain wrote:

Unfortunately a lot of stuff on ebay is sold at a higher price than be bought from other online retailers (I'm not just talking about xboxs either)..

I'm not quite sure I understand this point. Ebay is an auction site so no one has to buy if they can get the item cheaper elsewhere.

notagain wrote:

Some Ebay customers are not savvy enough to understand the concept of fraud and are far too trusting..

I agree with this, but how does any company protect people against themselves, surely users do need to take some responsibility. Before ebay came along people would get scammed by blokes in pubs selling things from the back of a van that turned out to be empty boxes, or faulty goods, no one suggested that pubs should be shut down to step these crooks scamming inoccent buyers.

notagain wrote:

Ebay needs to restrict IP ranges to stop some of the less savoury countries from joining, and they need to use the IP to list where the seller or buyer is actually based, not where they want you to beleive they are based.

This is a nice idea but scammers move around. The 419 scams rarely actually operate from Nigerian ISPs, just recently they seem to be in the Netherlands for some reason and I'm not sure if the Dutch Government would take too kindly to ebay banning everyone with a Dutch ISP just in case.

Soo

bleugh

fair do's to ebay, I went on an xbox 360 scambusting rampage yesterday night and trashed about 70 auctions,
I reported as many as i could (about 30) and ebay removed about 3/4 of them this morning

they really do need something sorted tho, some email, or FRONT page warning

mind you, of about 20 idiots i've emailed warning them they are bidding on a scam auction, 3 of them (two yanks) have replied with a list of auction numbers asking "are these scams",

people are inherantly thick, there is only so much ebay can do

tomstickland

I never watch Whingedog. They specialise in finding the terminally thick and greedy to moan about sending £100 on a satelitte decoding avoidance unit that doesn't work etc etc.
Anyway, Ebay is just like anything else, you have to make your own decisions on whether something is a good idea or not.