How do Ebay get away with this?

markbloke

stevew8975 wrote: »

No - they have the largest market share due to popularity.

A monopoly would mean that ebid. cqout, 121bid, bonanzle, ecrater, amazon marketplace, playtrade, pgbids, specialistauctions etc would not be allowed to trade, and everyone who wanted to sell online would be obliged to use ebay.

Now that's clearly not the case is it? :rolleyes:

Very good point. I shall re-phrase:
"I'd agree. eBay themselves are lazy and greedy because they've got the largest market share (other excellent internet auction sites are available)."

bap98189

markbloke wrote: »

Very good point. I shall re-phrase:
"I'd agree. eBay themselves are lazy and greedy because they've got the largest market share (other excellent internet auction sites are available)."

Ebay are a business. Their main aim is not to keep everyone happy, but to make the largest profit they can. If that is what you mean by greed, then your problem is not with Ebay but with the whole system of capitalism.

markbloke

bap98189 wrote: »

Yes, but consider Ebay's point of view. They have recently been successfully sued in France for £40million because they allowed people to trade goods that infringed trademarks, designs etc. They cannot allow people to do this or they open themselves up to legal action.

Therefore they put in place a policy that prevents it happening again. If someone complains about another seller, they remove those goods from Ebay and put the onus on the seller to prove they are not doing anything wrong.

As for not investigating themselves, do you think they have the time or resources to investigate every complaint? The costs would be astromonical and it is simply not worth their while to do so unless you are a very large seller.

Wouldn't it be easier for the police to just shoot everyone who is reported to be a terrorist without bothering about justice? They're very busy, bullets are cheap. It might be effective, but it's a rotten way to treat people.
I was selling as a business on eBay, but quite frankly it turned out not to be worth the bother or cost. I've had a competitor shut my auctions down twice by complaining that I hadn't displayed a business address. I pointed out to eBay I had (they hadn't even bothered to look). After a struggle I was allowed to re-list. Once eBay, Paypal (National Bank of eBay) and the taxman had their cut there was little incentive to carry on anyway so I don't miss the one-sided cut and thrust.
If they're only going to support "very large sellers" they could at least warn sole traders that they're starting up shop in Dodge City.

markbloke

bap98189 wrote: »

Ebay are a business. Their main aim is not to keep everyone happy, but to make the largest profit they can. If that is what you mean by greed, then your problem is not with Ebay but with the whole system of capitalism.

Capitalism as a whole is not without its flaws (you might have noticed a few problems with it recently). Simply being in favour of something generally doesn't mean turning a blind-eye to faults. It certainly doesn't mean I have to like it when I'm treated badly.

cyril82

bap98189 wrote: »

Ebay are a business. Their main aim is not to keep everyone happy, but to make the largest profit they can. If that is what you mean by greed, then your problem is not with Ebay but with the whole system of capitalism.

i think most people don't have a problem with ebay making a profit, huge or small, i think it is their general contempt for those who generate their profits and actually pay to use their services (sellers).

No business has a long term future treating it's customers like something they stepped in.

Not even one as big as ebay.

go4it

bap98189 wrote: »

As for not investigating themselves, do you think they have the time or resources to investigate every complaint? The costs would be astromonical and it is simply not worth their while to do so unless you are a very large seller.

It took me the whole of 2 minutes to see that the seller was talking rubbish.

It should go like this:

SELLER: Mr Ebay I'm scared of competition, lets shut this auction down, I have errr design rights for this product.

EBAY: What is the design right number?

SELLER: 12345

EBAY: Lets check on IPO.GOV.UK... (2 mins pass), no sorry that product looks nothing like what you are claiming. Go away.

EBAY: By the way Mr seller you are not a registered business. You can be bothered to fork out for design rights but can't be bothered to register as a business seller. Your account is deleted and you are suspended.

I wonder if I can claim that I have design rights to the wheel or an ipod?

zorber

cyberbob wrote: »

If you rented a shop in the high street would you expect the landlord to sort out a selling dispute with another shop?

No I dont think so. So why does everyone expect ebay to sort these sort of things out. Ebay is a vehicle to selling it has rules but disputes between sellers need to be sorted by them.

If you are in the right a solictor to write to the other seller and ebay (so that you can sell the items again) is probaly your best option

just the same as if you had a high street dispute you wouldnt expext the landlord to come in and take products off your shelves and say you cant sell it. If ebay arent going to police the site properly it shouldnt leave it self open to user abuse. Ebay should be kicked out of this country or forced to comply with trading standards rules and regs and the FSA as well.

cyril82

zorber wrote: »

Ebay should be kicked out of this country or forced to comply with trading standards rules and regs and the FSA as well.

I totally agree, ebay seem to have a very simple approach to complying with multiple countries legislation, they just make up the rules themselves...saves learning other peoples laws...genius.

RFW

zorber wrote: »

just the same as if you had a high street dispute you wouldnt expext the landlord to come in and take products off your shelves and say you cant sell it. If ebay arent going to police the site properly it shouldnt leave it self open to user abuse. Ebay should be kicked out of this country or forced to comply with trading standards rules and regs and the FSA as well.

There are landlords who can do just that, take stuff of shelves, enforce what a tenant sells, it is their property so if its in the lease they can do it, usually in big centres its the big stores that dictate what the little ones sell, that's the way of the world unfortunately.

In the last couple of years Ebay have done a lot to clean up the site, there is only so much they can do though without checking every listing individually which would mean a hell of a price hike to staff.

As far as I know Ebay haven't been prosecuted in this country under trading standards legislation (I may be wrong on that).

I still can't work out why people get so worked up about Ebay and how bad they are and then continue to use them.

frivolous_fay

janeinlondon wrote: »

Ive got to agree There is almost no point n fighting this case out with Ebay. They wlill just do as they want and try not to get involved and make up their own rules. I would go down the route of complaining that the other seller is breaking a design right of yours. Ebay don care about you or the other seller, they are just covering their own backside. The same can be said of Paypal too.

COOKIE STUFFER.
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