I'm really fed up with ebay.

Beetlemama

Honestly, when it started it was so much fun to crawl through the bargains and pick up a few nice little bits at good prices....now it's pretty much just a horrible experience every time.

I bought a new pair of leather shoes for my son, the first pair were cut up on the sole so I sent them back and she sent me some more, these don't fit at all, they're the right size, but the straps don't fit across his foot - he's a standard size. Still battling that one, in the mean time I've had to spend another £30 on different shoes from somewhere else.

I bought a 32gb card for my husband's new tablet and a little leather case for it - two different sellers, card is a fake and only holds 4gb, case is rubbish and doesn't stand up or cover the tablet properly, and it wasn't 99p or something, it was £12.95.

It's just getting so depressing to keep buying things and fighting to send them back. Plus with all the businesses on there it's so hard to find a decent second hand bargain item.

I don't know, it could have been a really good thing, but it seems all you see now are unhappy buyers who got ripped off and the poor old decent sellers getting skrewed by evil bidders buying items then claiming their money back.

When DS was a baby a decade ago, we bought loads of lovely things on ebay, all sorts of clothes and furniture and toys, everything was nice. It's a shame but I don't think we'll be using them any more, of the last 4 things I bought, three have had to go back as defective. The only things I am keeping are a pack of socks hard to muck-up a sock.

techspec

I must confess to hating Ebay with a vengence - and just wish there was a viable alternative.

I loved it when it came out aswell - ahh, them were the days.

Just filled out another one of their pointless surveys. Gave them 1/10 as usual.

The 40% BUy IT NOW rule ruined it for me. Why force sellers to have a ridiculous buy it now? I used to tempt buyers to buy quickly - with a slightly higher BIN. But who in their right mind would pay 40% more - just to get it quicker? So i've dropped BIN's - which just drags out the sale.

david29dpo

Same here.
I have recently had 3 no shows (collection only items) 1 not received item (got to wait a month for a refund)
I can't neg the buyers.
I think Ebay are getting to big for there boots, nothing lasts forever.
I just wish someone would start up an alternative (BIG opening for someone!)

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

RE fake SD cards, you get what you pay for and some things like this shouldn't be purchased from unknown sellers. I buy Gillette razor blades but only from Amazon or Tesco, it's a shame not to be able to support smaller sellers but the risk of fakes is too high with some products and to be fair to eBay on this one they aren't really at fault, plenty of reviews on Amazon mentioning false cards from marketplace sellers. It's just an epidemic of fake crap imported from China.

xcarlyx

I brought some boots off ebay - one of the studs was messing and they are honestly lethal when I wear them. The amount of times I nearly slip

RFW

david29dpo wrote: »

Same here.
I have recently had 3 no shows (collection only items) 1 not received item (got to wait a month for a refund)
I can't neg the buyers.
I think Ebay are getting to big for there boots, nothing lasts forever.
I just wish someone would start up an alternative (BIG opening for someone!)

There are plenty of alternatives that have opened and closed over the years, quite a few that are still around.

As for disgruntled sellers, there will always be plenty of those. There are ways to reduce non payers but there will always, inevitably, be some. Please make sure you register them as non payers, to reclaim fees and stop them bidding on other seller's items.

As for buyers with problems that's never nice to hear. If you do have an issue with a problem seller, go through the correct channels to get refunds, etc but also remember to leave low star ratings and negative feedback, that is the best way to ensure that other buyers have less problems. It is also the reason there is no longer negative feedback that sellers can leave. If you are a disgruntled buyer you can leave negative feedback without any fear of retaliation or your account being affected.

Always worth pointing out that millions of items are sold every week on Ebay without any problems for buyer or seller, this is essentially a complaints board where they get highlighted as almost being the norm.

Crowqueen

In reality, to do as well as eBay, the other sites would have to do the same as them; charge the same and have the same buyer protection policies. The sites that prosper (Amazon and Play) do that, the sites which don't (most of the rest) try to skimp on some aspects of the site which attract buyers. It doesn't work on their fee tariffs.

If you are a disgruntled buyer you can leave negative feedback without any fear of retaliation or your account being affected.

It is pretty prudent, however, to have separate buying and selling accounts in order to keep your sales safe from an unhappy seller looking to cause trouble.

terra_ferma

david29dpo wrote: »

I can't neg the buyers.

Why not? Maybe you have to wait (a couple of weeks? can't remember), but you should be able to leave fb for any seller.

I'd like to say that I buy quite a bit off eBay, and I'm always very picky about my sellers. I've never had any problems, mainly because the sellers dealt with any issues (INR, or damaged, incomplete etc) very professionally.
I've never had to spend money to return anything, unless it was a my mistake, or a change of mind.

the lower your fb as a buyer the higher fb from the seller you need to go for, the more you know your way round, or are familiar with the items you want to buy, the more risks you can take.

POPPYOSCAR

Just sold something for £4.20 and the fees totted up to nearly £1, is it worth it I ask myself!!

soolin

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

Just sold something for £4.20 and the fees totted up to nearly £1, is it worth it I ask myself!!

So what would be the alternative? Obviously you could give stuff to charity but it you wanted cash for it then I am not sure what else you could have done.

I am a huge buyer on eBay, I buy dozens of items evey week and have an occasional issue, but no more than I used to. In fact I suspect I have less issues now as I am a more savvy buyer and can weed out sellers that are likely to cause me problems.

Maybe other long term users are taking more risks with sellers than they used to hence having more problems overall?

jetplane

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

Just sold something for £4.20 and the fees totted up to nearly £1, is it worth it I ask myself!!

The £3.20s can soon add up, however I find that the time it takes to photograph and upload the item and list it with accurate description and correct p&p, then wrap and post it puts me off selling. I suppose it's different for business sellers but it's time consuming for the occasional seller.