ebay Suck

[AnaKhouri]

I have been selling some items on ebay for my dad and when I found myself with a question, I discovered the Sellers' Forum. It is replete with tales of SCs and scammers (as you can imagine), but this one made me laugh out loud and cry at the same time.

Seller ships an item to a buyer. It is breakable so the seller wrapped it in many layers of bubble wrap and sealed the box well.

When the package arrived, the buyer messaged the seller that the item was broken and he wanted a refund. He said she wrapped it so well, he was late for work and was impatient so he yanked the bubble wrap and the item few from his grasp and hit the floor, where it broke.

And obviously this was the seller's fault for doing such a thorough packing job!

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

The buyer left the seller negative feedback and the seller wasn't able to respond in kind, amirite?

[AnaKhouri]

I don't remember if she mentioned that part. Ebay's policies are a big topic of discussion on that board though.

[Pixilated]

I once had someone mail me some breakable stuff in a padded envelope ... she was shocked to hear the items had been damaged.

"But ... I wrote Fragile all over the envelope!!!"

[HiddenMica]

There's a scam going around right now where people are buying new i-pads and then shipping their old broken one back. Ebay does almost nothing to protect the seller in this kind of situation. The buyer just makes it look as close as possible and there is nothing that can be done since they can always claim that the serial number was different on arrival or something of that sort. It's actually really sad and a lot of people are moving to amazon because they have better policies to protect their buyers and sellers on top of far fewer fees with just as many options to sell as Ebay.

[Casino Jockey]

as soon as i can i'll post my ebay story but as it is currently subject to a police investigation i don't want to say too much now except it looks like i'll be winning and justice is sweet

[Zellie Crescent]

Last year I got a game off of ebay me and the seller were at eachothers throats, because I thought he just took my money and he thought I was trying to screw him over to get my money back and keep the game. It turned out the post office didn't send me a notice until like a week and a half after it got there, I told the seller what happened and appoligised a million times and he turns right around and says I'm a shitty buyer.

[Geek King]

as soon as i can i'll post my ebay story but as it is currently subject to a police investigation i don't want to say too much now except it looks like i'll be winning and justice is sweet

Sounds juicy. I, for one, hope to hear the story when you are able.

[Canarr]

In Germany, ebay has lost a lot of its appeal because their policies have reduced the number of private sellers drastically. Nowadays, it's mostly commercial sellers using the platform as an outlet of their regular store, which means Amazon is often cheaper (and a lot more comfortable to use).

[mhkohne]

In Germany, ebay has lost a lot of its appeal because their policies have reduced the number of private sellers drastically. Nowadays, it's mostly commercial sellers using the platform as an outlet of their regular store, which means Amazon is often cheaper (and a lot more comfortable to use).

For a while now, Ebay has been catering more to the commercial crowd than the private buyers. Their fee structure, the changes to reputations, etc, etc all lead to more more big junk sellers, and fewer individuals. On the one hand, if a seller has a long history with EBay it's easier to see if they are useful to deal with. On the other hand, when I sell stuff on EBay these days, I'm losing like 20% in fees between EBay and Paypal.

Amazon is OK for some stuff, but for unique items (I fool with old arcade games, so I'm sometimes looking for old manuals, or parts) I don't think there's a good way to list stuff on Amazon, is there?

[Canarr]

I wouldn't know, to be honest; I normally only buy stuff, both on Amazon and Ebay. If I really have anything to get rid of, I visit a flea market.

[RetailWorkhorse]

For a while now, Ebay has been catering more to the commercial crowd than the private buyers.

Huh, this probably explains why I haven't been able to locate a partial bus conversion (22 feet isn't big enough anymore!), nor a used Jeep Wrangler 4x4 that isn't on a dealer's lot. I was beginning to wonder. Well, back to Craigslist, I guess.

[ADeMartino]

Last year I got a game off of ebay me and the seller were at eachothers throats, because I thought he just took my money and he thought I was trying to screw him over to get my money back and keep the game. It turned out the post office didn't send me a notice until like a week and a half after it got there, I told the seller what happened and appoligised a million times and he turns right around and says I'm a shitty buyer.

OOOOOoooooohhhhh, don't get me started on eBay and their ack-basswards policies.

I bought a vintage stereo receiver from an eBay seller once. I did the whole PayPal thing right away - he had his money in like two days. And then I waited. And waited. And waited. And waited.

Two weeks went by, no delivery. Emailed the seller. Seller said the item had shipped UPS, but he didn't have a tracking number.

GIANT red flag, but there's nothing I can do but wait at this point.

More time went by - a few emails back and forth, and at the six-week point I start the 'bum seller' process with eBay and PayPal.
-
He was all over my shit like RIGHT AWAY - come to find out, he's never even shipped the item - hence no UPS tracking number. He gave some cockamamie story about spilling something on the receiver and not wanting to ship it in 'dirty' condition.

eBay did nothing. Paypal did nothing. The asswipe had my money AND my item, and got mad that I'd dinged him in the feedback. On top of all this, he turned around and negative-feedbacked ME.

Then there was the whole fiasco with a camper van I sold.

http://www.customerssuck.com/board/s...ad.php?t=90360

I realize the camper fiasco wasn't eBay's fault, but it just seems that these are the kind of people eBay attracts, so I'm done with 'em.

[Dreamstalker]

I'm pretty much done with fleabay as well, save for the odd buy that I can't find on any of the other sites I use. Buyers have ALL the power (which can be good if you're dealing with a shady seller), and good small sellers can get screwed with impunity. The last item I sold on there was a replica scrimshaw corkscrew. It was in bold red font in no less than three places that this was a resin replica and NOT real. If the price wasn't enough of a giveaway, you could tell by the photos.

A guy buys it, then turns around and demands a refund due to 'misrepresented item'. Already seems a bit fishy, this one. Eventually, I get through his head that no item, no money. I need it back first. I get the item back, and...he cut into the handle near the corkscrew to 'test' it So now I can't resell it, and the screw section is slightly loose in the socket so I don't think it's even usable. I mention that the item is damaged and as per my TOS (little did I know that those are now unenforceable), I will be applying a damage charge. Get a shitstorm of 'how dare you not refund my money! you cheated me!!!1111" Since he paid by Paypal, I have no choice. So no money, a damaged item (not even mine), and dinged on feedback.

Some of those buyers have started to infect another site I sell on (which was conceived to NOT be ebay). Luckily the support team is composed of humans and they get the boot pretty quick.

[Sapphire Silk]

What site is that? Because I could use an alternative to eBay.

I won't use eBay to sell anymore. Which is a shame because I regularly bought and sold gaming material on eBay. But the fee structure takes away practically all my profit, and I got tired of the scammers and the idiots to tried to treat me like I was a regular business (I'm not, just a hobbyist).

I just can't get anything on Amazon to move, and their pricing isn't favorable either. So I've given up on that as well.

Craigslist is too full of scammers and EWs who lowball the price and then expect me to drive too far out of my way to deliver to them. One guy tried to get me to take money off the price because he had to drive an hour to get to my town to pick up the item, and got nasty when I flat out refused.