Ebay Greed, fight back

even_steven

Ebay & paypal fees only affect sellers, who are presumably selling to make a profit. If you're trying to make a profit off ebay, I don't see how you can complain that ebay are trying to do the same.

I'm all for competition though, if there were alternatives to ebay and paypal I'd use them. Sadly, a lot of people would need to use any alternative services before they get to the ebay/paypal levels, and those people probably wouldn't make as much money selling to fewer people in the meantime.

greed free Auction site

Surely a contradiction in terms?

richie7_2

Doesn't TAZBAR.com just have a great big PayPal logo on its main page? Surely eBay are taking a cut here as well then?

I think eBay's main problem is that they take a cut at every single level but then don't seem to take too much responsibility when anything goes wrong. They just make out that they're a conduit for sales and are not involved at all... other than taking a listing fee and selling fee and a cut of the sale via PayPal of course and then acting like God when it comes to refunding... even though they're not a party to the sale. Ahem! And how come I'm able to spot several hundred blatantly pirate DVDs every time I go on without having to try? It's almost as if they're quite happy to turn a blind eye as long as they make a profit. Wooops... I used to love eBay but perhaps being screwed over too many times recently has made me slightly bitter... do you think?

cheets99

I hope other auction sites do take off, eBay would be forced to lower its fees and beef up security.

But do you think scammers, pirates will not go over to TAZBAR etc. they will be doing the same but not paying fees, haha, more money for the scams :P

animalmagic_2

richie7 wrote:

Doesn't TAZBAR.com just have a great big PayPal logo on its main page? Surely eBay are taking a cut here as well then?

I think eBay's main problem is that they take a cut at every single level but then don't seem to take too much responsibility when anything goes wrong. They just make out that they're a conduit for sales and are not involved at all... other than taking a listing fee and selling fee and a cut of the sale via PayPal of course and then acting like God when it comes to refunding... even though they're not a party to the sale. Ahem! And how come I'm able to spot several hundred blatantly pirate DVDs every time I go on without having to try? It's almost as if they're quite happy to turn a blind eye as long as they make a profit. Wooops... I used to love eBay but perhaps being screwed over too many times recently has made me slightly bitter... do you think?

I think you have a very valid point & it shows that Ebays protection is more in the writing than the doing.How long will it be before they start charging commision to the buyer?

d0cketts

Apparently there was a time when eBay was free to list on, so just think what it would be like now, chaos, but while the fees do prevent some scammers most get through but why should eBay care they only refund your final value fee if a scammer buys from you, they keep the listing fee

animalmagic_2

d0cketts wrote:

Apparently there was a time when eBay was free to list on, so just think what it would be like now, chaos, but while the fees do prevent some scammers most get through but why should eBay care they only refund your final value fee if a scammer buys from you, they keep the listing fee

Thats a big amount ifthe item your selling is in the hundreds.

soolin

You do get a relist credit though so if it sells the second time you only pay the one set of basic listing fees you would have paid on the first auction.

You can also do a second chance offer which would result in no additional listing fees being incurred.

Soo

kevinyork

I think on balance the fees are reasonable in terms of procuring a sale however I resent the total lack of any effective customer service in return for the fees paid.

e.g. Appalling responses to queries raised or reports about infringements...totally condescending and the eBay person writing back rarely fully reads and addresses the issue raised.

The constant 'we take blah blah blah very seriously and always take action' which translates as we employ a small handful of staff to try and deal with reports about fake goods, scams etc and don’t even deal with a tiny fraction of them...result - eBay has a growing reputation as a place to be ripped off. If they cared about cleaning up their site then why has the 'report this item' link on every listing still not appeared after many promises?.....reason-they know they will be bombarded by reports of infringements and could not (and do not want to) deal with them.

Both eBay and Paypal appear to pay chimps as their front line with the public....they are just pretending to provide a customer service. Scratch a little deeper and its just a front with no substance behind it. As long as you dont have a problem eBay/Paypal works fine..otherwise you are on your own.

In the US, eBay.com has a better reputation and provides better customer service-still not perfect but better. They police their site better and have introduced steps to stop the flood or far east sellers on their site whilst the UK site is inundated with 1p Chinese electronics with £29.99 postage.

soolin

I actually think the poll is interesting for what it shows. 43 people voted that ebay is greedy, yet only 4 have voted they would look for another site.

Personally when I get bored with ebay, which no doubt I will one day, I'll give up entirely I won't look for another site. I'm actually cutting right back at the moment purely as I've been offfered contract work that pays so much more than my ebay profits. Although I'm still selling a few items every day the fact that I am not constantly running back and forward to the PO or continually dealing with 'where's my item' is a relief.

If I had set up a rival site to ebay I would be very scared by now..as I think a lot of people would just give up, rather than switch. I think the rival sites have missed the point, and possibly missed the boat as well.

Soo

SmileBeHappy

Well it makes sense, everyone always wants to pay less to maximise profits but realise they won't make as much profit by using another site, despite free listing, because it simply doesn't have the fanbase, members, and reputation ebay does

Laura