Anyone Else Fed up with EBAY?

[jabalong-migration]

As only a casual user of eBay, I'm finding this thread quite interesting, as have been wondering about the change to not allowing Seller feedback. As someone who has only been a buyer on eBay, I feel quite liberated now to be able to leave honest feedback, whereas before I held off for fear of reprisal feedback from the seller. And it's been good timing for me, as I just had a nightmare purchase, where the seller more than deserved a negative rating. And in fact he's gotten about a half a dozen in the past month, so at least I felt vindicated that I was on solid ground (and ended up getting a full refund - thank you PayPal). Most importantly, I'm glad that other buyers can beware now, whereas under the previous regime maybe none of us would have felt comfortable leaving negative feedback and future buyers would be none the wiser. But on the flip side, though I felt I was behaving completely appropriately in seeking a refund (item never arrived, waited two months, contacted the seller a half a dozen times with no reply, etc), I do see the potential for abuse. If an item isn't sent with tracking, what's to stop someone from just claiming it never arrived? And if sellers can't leave any feedback, then no opportunity for a pattern to emerge if it's a repeated scammer for future sellers to see. I suppose eBay/PayPal would say that they police this kind of thing, and I imagine they would though have no experience with multiple claims. I'd think it's a bit like an insurance company, where the first claim goes through okay, but they start to squeeze you if make too many claims. Anyway, I don't know what the answer is, as seems the no feedback option is being abused by some buyers/scammers. It's a shame, as I don't think the previous system worked either from a buyer's perspective, at least not in terms of having an open forum for honest feedback. Not sure what the solution is. But I hope a fair balance can be found as I love eBay, or at least the idea of it.As an aside, I'd make a short comment on the point below...

 Originally Posted By: kahml

Based on his feedback left for others, he has a PayPal address that is >not< the one that he wants the items shipped to.

 

I know that invalid contact information will get you a suspension, but I don't know if having different addresses is a violation.

 

It's not, I have 5 different addresses on file with paypal..in four different countries and have been using them for years

Thanks for the clarification. And I sincerely doubt you abuse the system.This bidder seems to have a propensity for negging sellers when they ship to the "confirmed" PayPal address.I can only wonder as to >how< he communicates the "where to ship to" information....Larry

As an "international" eBay user, there is absolutely nothing wrong with multiple addresses - for some of us, it's just our normal lives. For instance, I'm registered with eBay in one country (where I'm originally from), with PayPal in another (where I currently live) and have purchases delivered to up to three countries where I split my time. A few years back, had another problem with not receiving something (fortunately it came in the end), but when I politely let the seller know, she started ranting about how I was registered in different countries, had multiple addresses, etc, as if somehow that was the reason the package she sent hadn't arrived. I found that most irritating in this digital age of living and doing business across the world, and specifically as I'm very fastidious about my purchases and making everything clear (it actually had nothing to do with the item going to the wrong address, but some problem with the shipper). The reality is that maintaining different addresses and clearly identifying which one to have a seller send something to is very simple and straightforward with eBay/PayPal. From my experience, there is no excuse for there to be any confusion on where to send something to. And if some buyer is trying to scam sellers by having stuff sent to one address and complaining it didn't go to another, don't understand how they'd be allowed to get away with that. The transaction record ought to be plain to see in eBay/PayPal as to where the buyer asked for it to be shipped. Anyway, just want to speak up for those of us doing transactions across countries, as I sometimes feel like a second-class buyer when dealing with sellers in the US. Wish I did live in the US, as would be much easier and cheaper to ship, but I don't and am still a good buyer, even if I'm a bit of a global vagabond with a few too many addresses.:PPS. Does anyone still use checks or money orders? Haven't written a cheque in probably seven years and arranged a money order in at least 10 years. Guess I could understand maybe in person or doing something by mail, but if we're talking about e-commerce via eBay then surely payment ought to be settled electronically too. Have no problem with eBay limiting payment to PayPal and other electronic methods. I'm also pretty happy with the integration between eBay and PayPal, as I find it works nicely. For instance, on my recent non-delivery of an item and subsequent claim, it was all quite seamless between the two companies. My only caveat would be a wariness of monopolies. So I'd hate to see eBay only limited to PayPal transactions, just on principle, but have no problem with it being electronic payments only. It's about time really, we're in a digital age and there's this thing called the internet.

[Flaming_Telepath]

I'm starting to notice a really bad attitude on EBay, and after selling off a few extra items a few weeks back, I get some strange emails today, with thinly-veiled threats that they'll leave me negs if I don't send a refund and let them keep the item.

 

They haven't asked for so much outright, but it's moving in that direction. Naturally, they'll get jack sheit from me without sending something back but this behavior is obviously due to the "Neg the Sellers" plan at EBay.

 

I am about 2 minutes away from never selling on that POS site ever again. It's just pure stupidity to work under such a flawed system.

 

For a period of close to two years, I'd list anywhere between 150 and 300 books a week on eBay, week in, week out.

 

In the last 21 months, I've done so on one solitary week.

 

And that will be the last time I do it at all.

 

eBay bears no resemblence to the site I joined eight years ago. I will have no part of their corporate whoring.

[UnboxingTreasures]

eBay is beginning to suck.

 

With all of the innovative minds out there, there's no reason there can't be a better option within the immediate future.

 

All it would take is a computer savvy developer along with a well-known name in the hobby to promote the new auction site.

 

It doesn't even have to be a huge Google. If the merchandise is limited to comics buying/selling, the bandwidth won't be necessary to have such a huge host... maybe Joe Q can start a new site after he's finished runiing a coupe of other Marvel titles...

 

 

But in all seriousness, the web programming isn't a big deal, the web layout isn't a big deal... the only drawback is the traffice. And I believe if a major news source promoted a new auction site, that buyers and sellers would be able to migrate to a new site in a very short period of time.

[Boba]

have you visited comiclink or commicconnect?

[Ogami]

I'm starting to notice a really bad attitude on EBay, and after selling off a few extra items a few weeks back, I get some strange emails today, with thinly-veiled threats that they'll leave me negs if I don't send a refund and let them keep the item.

 

They haven't asked for so much outright, but it's moving in that direction. Naturally, they'll get jack sheit from me without sending something back but this behavior is obviously due to the "Neg the Sellers" plan at EBay.

 

I am about 2 minutes away from never selling on that POS site ever again. It's just pure stupidity to work under such a flawed system.

 

For a period of close to two years, I'd list anywhere between 150 and 300 books a week on eBay, week in, week out.

 

In the last 21 months, I've done so on one solitary week.

 

And that will be the last time I do it at all.

 

eBay bears no resemblence to the site I joined eight years ago. I will have no part of their corporate whoring.

 

this is the kind of objective opinion, or educated opinion, I should say, that I've been looking for.

 

I recently came back to Ebay as a seller, after being off for at least 3 years, and found the experience very unrewarding, but fortunately not damaging.

[lizards2]

I heard of what another auction site does - gives bidders 4 additional minutes to bid on something (as long as they have submitted a bid before the auction closes to the non-bidders). This would make it fairer for the folks that actually want to bid on something for their collection, leaving 4 additional minutes for the "players" to bid. It would also solve the problem of snippers bidding in the last 30 seconds, snatching items out from under bidders willing to bid higher. Seems to benefit everyone except maybe the snippers that aren't really willing to competitively bid on an item. I snipe myself, but I always am amazed how folks who seemingly "want" an item, wait till the last day to bid, throw up a bid only high enough to be "high bidder" and expect to remain the high bidder through the day until the end of the auction, and then lose because someone else "watches" the item in the last few minutes and snipes it before the hammer falls.

I think the idea has merit and deserves consideration. That and dropping fees or extending listing times.

Bob

 

I hat snippers

[Boba]

actually, I'm in the market for a hat.

[the blob]

So far so good, no problems that didn't get fixed. Had a problem with a chargeback and some nasty e-mails that turned out to be some computer glitch.

 

Of course, I have really been very passive lately. Were I operating at my 2005 and 2006 volume it could be a different story.

[the_Greatest]

Does anyone know why when I viewed one of my listings this morning at work, my photobucket linked image was at about 20% of the size it should have been?

I cancelled the listing because I couldn't do anything with the pictures after a bid was made, and now when I look at it at home, the photo size is back to normal?

 

[Subliminal]

Sounds like a photobucket browser compatibility issue I read in a post here a few weeks ago.