Rant about ebay

soolin

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

Those terrible traditional free payment methods so despised by ebay...

Thankfully now we can all get paid via an easily reversible and expensive method.

And as a bonus, get a warm glow from the knowledge that the extra 10% we've had to part with is going straight offshore to some Americans working out of a tax haven.

You are perfectly entitled to send cheques or lovely unsafe bank transfers if a seller is happy to accept them - however most buyers are now savvy enough to realise that they can easily get protection by using cards or paypal. I think you must be in a minority if you would prefer to buy using cheques or bank transfers rather than a card or paypal.

RFW

ChrisJJ wrote: »

I would of course expect a refund if I was the buyer, but I also wouldn't necessarily expect the seller to lose out if they had proof of postage. I'm sure ebay can afford to cover these cases.

Why would you expect Ebay to pay even if they can afford it? That's crazy, they'd be bankrupt in a week with all the conmen coming out of the woodwork.
One of the craziest things I've read in a while and I've seen a couple of election manifestos;)

Stoke

I've stopped selling on eBay nowadays. There's better ways to make money imo.

motorguy

Stoke wrote: »

I've stopped selling on eBay nowadays. There's better ways to make money imo.

+1

For small time sellers and disposing of household items its no longer worth the hassle - in fact ebay dont even WANT you.

Most of the stuff i dispose of that i'm no longer using is computer games, DVDs, blu-rays, books, and consumer electronics like mobile phones and tablets, so i now just sell them direct to one of the myriad of buying sites. Moreoften i find when i deduct all the fees and charges, its pretty much what i'd be getting on ebay anyway, and thats before you factor in risk.

RFW

Stoke wrote: »

I've stopped selling on eBay nowadays. There's better ways to make money imo.

I agree but more because Ebay was getting to be too much work for not enough return. Not because they wouldn't pay for any items that I never managed to have delivered.

RMS2

soolin wrote: »

When I certainly would never buy anything of value

Who cares?

RFW

RMS2 wrote: »

Yep, about 2005 the rot set in. And then when they made Paypal compulsory and no neg feedback, it was complete.


I wonder what will happen with ebay when Paypal splits off, because all the growth/profit has come from their side. When eRump is left, it will look bare.

So far it looks like they've set up a decent deal for both parties. Ebay is going to continue taking at least 80% of payments through Paypal, there are penalties in the contract if they go under and bonuses if they go over.

RMS2

RFW wrote: »

So far it looks like they've set up a decent deal for both parties. Ebay is going to continue taking at least 80% of payments through Paypal, there are penalties in the contract if they go under and bonuses if they go over.

So, if you had £50k (you had to, no choice, just this one) to invest in ebay/paypal and you could split it, what percentage do you would invest (remember, you have to invest and only in those two companies).

RFW

RMS2 wrote: »

So, if you had £50k (you had to, no choice, just this one) to invest in ebay/paypal and you could split it, what percentage do you would invest (remember, you have to invest and only in those two companies).

If they were equal amounts of each for the same value the answer is obviously Paypal. Ebay has a strong enough base that the split could do them some good. As a company that has no worthwhile assets left to strip they'll have to concentrate on getting the site to a good performance level. Only time will tell if that's achievable, as you know Ebay needs work, Paypal doesn't really. Although Paypal have a load of new competitors springing up and buyers seem to be more open to using them.
If you do have a spare £50k though, pm me, I've got a great website you can put that into;)