The six golden rules of ebay discussion area

lynneinjapan

I'm with darbooka. I've sold a few things on eBay and tend to charge a minimum of £1.50 P&P, even if it's only going to cost about 30p in stamps. Sometimes it is just a matter of sticking it in a Jiffy bag that you may already have handy, but often a lot more effort than that is required. For example, I sold a Japanese fan (not the folding type) which wouldn't fit into a normal-sized envelope and required a good half-hour's worth of creative packaging to make sure that it stood a fair chance of getting to its destination in one piece. Then there's the trip to the post office, not forgetting to fill in one of those slips for proof of postage... and that's not to mention the fees that eBay and PayPal charge. If you sell an item for £1 and the buyer pays by PayPal then you end up getting something like 70p after all the fees have been paid - hardly worth the effort! We're not allowed to levy a surcharge for payments by PayPal (because of course it's owned by eBay and so they WANT us to use it) so I get round this by offering a discount of 50p or £1 on the P&P if the buyer chooses to pay by a method other than PayPal. Most of them opt for the convenience of PayPal anyway.

I paid £39 P&P on one item I bought, but it was a brand new wedding dress being sent from Hong Kong, the seller was very upfront about the P&P, and the selling price before P&P was just under £10! eBay might view this as fee avoidance but I was a happy bunny!

xerxes_2

My rules for E-bay are simply: don't buy anything for more than around £20.00.

I've found E-bay very useful as a seller, I advertised the items honestly and got a fair price with minimum fuss. Things have not gone smoothly when buying. I've bought a few low value items without any problems. However, as soon as items start to become more expensive it all starts to go horribly wrong and as the article states, the seller ratings are sometimes of very little value.

I've had items for which I am the winning bidder withdrawn at the last minute, which is very frustrating when you've been bidding and waiting for 7 days. People should put a reserve on items they are willing to accept, rather than mess people about.

I purchased an electrical item for around £100 from a seller with a perfect rating. It was advertised as new, but when it arrived it was tatty and didn't work. The seller was no help whatsoever and was clearly just offloading and item he'd broken. This is when I found that the payment protection plan isn't worth the pixels it's written on. It only covers non-delivery, not faulty items and or dodgy sellers - BEWARE.

It's often the case that items on Ebay sell for only slightly less than retail. For me personally, I'd sooner pay the extra 5% for something from a reliable retailer and have the reassurance that the item will be as advertised and that you can return it if it's faulty.

If Ebay does not take action to stamp out the fraudsters and scammers or offer more protection I can see that many more people will, like me, learn from bitter experience and decide that it just isn't worth the hassle or the risk.

taxspider

Just read the ebay advice and it prompted me to register as a user and reply in the thread. In the last week an ebay seller has sold at least 4 brand new chainsaws for between £110 and £125 plus £15 postage. The exact same chainsaw was on sale in Aldi at £89.99. We think the guy went and bought a handful and then put them on ebay to make his profit. My partner, having seen this, even considered doing the same himself, but didn't have the money to lay out in the first place. The folk who bought from ebay were still getting a bargain, but they would have done better to visit Aldi first. Maybe other sites to visit in addition to the likes of Pricerunner if looking at brand new stuff on ebay would be Aldi, Netto, Lidl etc, as they often have goods of that type on sale.

If you see electric lawn rakes on ebay brand new they are in Netto this week at £29.95 - very cheap!!

Sofa_Sogood

taxspider wrote:

Just read the ebay advice and it prompted me to register as a user and reply in the thread. In the last week an ebay seller has sold at least 4 brand new chainsaws for between £110 and £125 plus £15 postage. The exact same chainsaw was on sale in Aldi at £89.99. We think the guy went and bought a handful and then put them on ebay to make his profit. My partner, having seen this, even considered doing the same himself, but didn't have the money to lay out in the first place. The folk who bought from ebay were still getting a bargain, but they would have done better to visit Aldi first. Maybe other sites to visit in addition to the likes of Pricerunner if looking at brand new stuff on ebay would be Aldi, Netto, Lidl etc, as they often have goods of that type on sale.

If you see electric lawn rakes on ebay brand new they are in Netto this week at £29.95 - very cheap!!

Hi

Good first post but it's one where I can see the other side of the coin.

I don't live near an Aldi, Lidl, Netto etc. I don't live near a post office. It would cost a fortune in taxi fares for me to even get to one, if I could. My husband could but that's another matter

When these sales and offers are on, I have to shop online (or ask someone to get these things, post them on to me etc etc), so effectively, some things can be cheaper.

I'm not in the outer Hebrides by the way, and I can see it from your point of view (after living in a city) , but sometimes, if we really want something and can't get it, why not pay a bit extra on eBay? It's just free enterprise really But only in cases like this.

I haven't gone completely nuts

Yet .... lol.

Sofa_Sogood

In my own defence, I should add that I don't sell on eBay. But that's only because no-one wants sheep droppings, acorns, or squirrel doo dah.

But if they do - give me a shout

Jiwell

So far everyone seems to be thinking about buying on EBay UK - but please remember anyone, anywhere in the world with an internet link can sign up. With any Internet purchase it is wise to check WHERE the goods are coming from! If it is outside the EU and costs you more than £18 (before postage) YOU ARE LIABLE FOR VAT AND OFTEN CUSTOMS DUTY - Royal Mail/Parcelforce will collect this on delivery plus their handling fee.

marsha8

I am an Ebayholic & have "won" about 160 items in the last 2 years.I love a bargain & certainly when it comes to perfumes,toiletries, batteries for my digital camera,ink cartridges for my HP printer I have had some bargains. I am a cautious buyer & tend to put in my first bid in the last 30 seconds to keep the price down I am however careful & read the sales patter thouroughly & weigh up postage costs which must be fair.I have had my fingers burnt occasionally but the fault has usually mine rather than the sellers.I view my feedback & theirs as an important part of the transaction.Beware bogus e-mails - I get several a week & try to "bounce" them back to the sender.As I live alone & am retired this is a great way of filling lonely hours.

jb84344

Sofa_Sogood wrote:

In my own defence, I should add that I don't sell on eBay. But that's only because no-one wants sheep droppings, acorns, or squirrel doo dah.

But if they do - give me a shout

Sounds great...How much do you want?

simon253

I recently bid for a Praktika digital Camera - and 'won' the bid along with 5 others for £58.
However prior to sending the money i found out that what they advertised as a 6.6 mega-pixel camera was in fact only a 3.3 mega-pixel camera.

I therefore Emailed the seller - told them that i would not be purchasing the camera as it was not as advertised.

They tried to conn me by saying the camera has something called 'interpolation' technology which makes it 'as good as a 6.6 mega-pixel camera'

I'm not convinced and the advert is clearly mis-leading- even Pratika themselves on their web site advertise the same camera as 3.3 mega-pixel.

the other day i received a letter from a German Solicitors threatening to take me to court if i don't pay the £58. The alternative was to send them £20 for them to 'forget it'.
I've never received the camera - I don't want the camera !! Its not what they say it is.

The company is 'photoshop2000' or 'fotoshop2000' - BEWARE of them - check out what they are selling VERY CAREFULLY before buying.

kansas_2

victor2vt wrote:

You must always look out for scam e.mails that purport to come from e.bay.
They have the same logos on but as soon as you see them asking you to "Confirm your identity" or "We are updating our records" and asking for your credit card details, THE. E.MAIL IS A CON, TRYING TO GET YOUR CREDIT CARD DETAILS.
E.bay NEVER ask for your credit card details.
If you receive an e.mail like this send it directly to
spoof@ebay.co.uk
They will then look into it.
If you think you have been conned into giving your details they advise you to change your password immediately.
I'll forward Simon an example of a spoof e.bay e.mail so he can publish if he wishes

This happened to me, when my Ebay account was compromised. I notified Ebay immediately, and was told my account would temporarily be suspended for security purposes. To date, my account has never been re-instated, despite my sending numerous emails, which were met with computer raised replies, which bore no relevance to my query.

Sadly, I remain a very despondent/disillusioned former Ebay user.