Am I just unlucky, or has eBay turned into a sh*thole?

[Fender&EHX4ever]

I've had 3 bad experiences since December. I only really started using eBay about 2 years ago, and I've been lucky up to this point in doing transactions with reasonable people. Do you think it's getting bad because of our current economy, or has it always been this bad?

 

My last 2 bad experiences have been Seller Non-Performance. It's obvious why. The Seller auctions an item, but the auction ends lower than what they thought they could get, so they either 1) ignore the buyer and fail to communicate, or 2) make up a phony story about how the item is no longer available. How do you guys feel about that kind of business behavior?

[frankiej]

complete bull{censored} i tell you. Should sue mofo's like that.

ebay doesnt give you a certain price unless you put a reserve and if you dont do that and it doesnt go for what you wanted, tuff {censored}. Thats life.:poke:

[JVanDe7]

people are really crappy like that these days. they try to sell things for like, five dollars less than the item costs brand new. personally, if isn't saving me more than 25 bucks, i usually just buy the thing new so i can be sure that there aren't any unexpected "mods" or issues with the device in question. and you usually get a warranty when buying new. anyhow, yeah, people are jerks.

[HeartfeltDawn]

Ebay has gone to {censored}. I'm totally {censored}ed off with shill bidding. Ever since Ebay changed the listings so bidders became anonymous after the bids go above a certain threshold (I think it's

[Fender&EHX4ever]

 

It's {censored}ting on the small sellers which were the backbone of that company's rise. When they can report a 22% rise in profits for the first quarter in the current climate, you know someone's being {censored}ed over.

 

 

Exactly, which makes me begin to respect this decision: http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1938280

 

I just feel that eBay is making all of this money, but they don't have any real accountability in place. They are reluctant to penalize the assholes, because that means they can't continue to make money off of all the bogus sale fees.

[Ambient Exposure]

I just feel that eBay is making all of this money, but they don't have any real accountability in place. They are reluctant to penalize the assholes, because that means they can't continue to make money off of all the bogus sale fees.

So god dam true!!!
I've been going nuts about this for the past month. :mad:

[amp_surgeon]

The honest sellers are leaving eBay. Just read the threads in the "Sellers Central" forum. eBay is chasing them out.

The new fee structure lowers listing fees only slightly, while dramatically increasing final value fees.

They're now using the DSR stars to impose restrictions on sellers. They tell the buyer that a "4" rating is good, while punishing the seller for an average "4" rating.

PayPal can hold a seller's money for 21 days if they suspect that a buyer might be unhappy with the deal, but the seller is still required to pay for shipping and ship the item. Beginning in May, sellers can no longer leave negative or neutral feedback for buyers.

Some buyers didn't know that this new rule didn't go into effect until May, and as soon as it was announced they began threatening negative feedback immediately at the close of the auction if the seller didn't lower the final price. When the sellers responded that they would reciprocate, the buyers shot back "No you won't! You can't leave negative feedback anymore!".

eBay has also been playing around with new auction listing formats. One of the things they are considering is a warning in bold red letters at the top of an auction page if a seller's stars aren't high enough, something like "This sellers shipping rating is not very good". Unfortunately, they consider an average of 4.5 to be "not very good". Since when is it the sellers fault when a buyer pays for UPS ground and wants his item delivered tomorrow? Another thing they are considering is inserting ads at top of auction pages to other people's auctions. This is essentially forcing sellers to provide advertising space to their competitors.

The only sellers that will be left are the ones who sell huge quantities of crap from China and Taiwan, and who don't give a damn if they get bombarded with negative feedback and crappy star ratings. The system will also be crawling with buyers who don't give a damn about the final auction price, and will be threatening sellers with negs if they don't give markdowns and refunds.

eBay is turning into a war zone.

[NoirAbattoir]

I stopped selling on Ebay a couple years ago. I only recently began using it again, but only as a buyer and only for particular items (usually small items).

[MegaTom]

eBay has indeed gone to {censored}. It was a great medium to get rid of things that I no longer use, or to quickly sell something of value when money was tight for me. I was alway a little leery about buying through eBay, but I've managed to score a few great items from there. Out of 200-some transactions, 150+ being items I've sold, I think I might have had ?10 bad experiences, and even out of those, I managed not to lose any money.

But it's been slowly turning bad for me over the last 18 months or so, and now with these new policies that are coming now and over the next few months have completely and totally pushed me away from ever selling anything on eBay again.

[HeartfeltDawn]

Exactly, which makes me begin to respect this decision: http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1938280 I just feel that eBay is making all of this money, but they don't have any real accountability in place. They are reluctant to penalize the assholes, because that means they can't continue to make money off of all the bogus sale fees.

 

 

They never have done. Paypal is a sham. It deals with large sums of cash without proper administrative frameworks in place for dealing with said large sums of cash. When it comes to the assholes, there's nobody really wanting to chase them up.

 

Over 2006 and 2007, I kept following one seller who was buying Chinese guitars from Germany for under

[keithb7]

Ebay has gone to complete {censored}. My opinion is based on 7 years as an Ebay buyer and seller. I have over 200 transactions all with 100% feedback. {censored} 'em and their increased listing fees and selling fees. I have stopped using E-Bay since the summer of 07 pretty much. Since I have found forums like this one I buy and sell all my stuff direct. I use Craig's list a lot too. I hate corporate greed and E-Bay is about as bad as it gets. Publicly traded companies like Ebay are only interested in one thing, selling more stocks and keep raising stock prices.
Every quarter they love to publish and show huge profits as this keeps their stock holders happy. Corporate {censored}in' greed at it's best in our free part of the world. {censored}ers....I am pissed.

[MegaTom]

Yeah... {censored} corporations!! {censored} greed!!! {censored} anyone that tries to make a buck!!!!!! :mad:

But seriously... if there wasn't a dollar to be made, no one would bother going into business for anything.

[Fender&EHX4ever]

Yeah, I don't want get into a whole debate about the virtues of capitalism and buying low/selling high. If I have to point my finger, then I point it at the consumer who drives up the prices. That said, it might be close to the time for me to hang it up with my eBay days, cause I only have myself to blame for participating.

 

Here's another example of eBay bull{censored}. I emailed a seller yesterday to get a quote for shipping on a Deluxe size EHX pedal, and he tells me that shipping will cost between $20 - $40. WTF ? A USPS priority mail flat rate box w/ insurance is less than $13. And depending how much the auction ends at, he'll probably say that shipping will cost the full $40, if he follows through at all with the sale.

[HeartfeltDawn]

Yeah... {censored} corporations!! {censored} greed!!! {censored} anyone that tries to make a buck!!!!!! :mad: But seriously... if there wasn't a dollar to be made, no one would bother going into business for anything.

Nobody has slated Ebay for trying to make money. What they have slated is Ebay employming methods to make even more money which gouge the seller and provide no real tangible benefits from the low to middle volume seller. Ebay is aiming itself at high sellers in order to rival Amazon. The high sellers get more Ebay promotion. That's {censored}.

[HeartfeltDawn]

Here's another example of eBay bull{censored}. I emailed a seller yesterday to get a quote for shipping on a Deluxe size EHX pedal, and he tells me that shipping will cost between $20 - $40. WTF ? A USPS priority mail flat rate box w/ insurance is less than $13. And depending how much the auction ends at, he'll probably say that shipping will cost the full $40, if he follows through at all with the sale.

Every time Ebay raises the auction fees and the Paypal fees, sellers raise the postal fees. Ebay makes money out of both so they don't mind. Customer loses out and blames the seller.

There's greed on both sides. There are too many sellers out there who say 'Well, I want to get all my Ebay fees back through postage'. That's greed. Some people want a free service for selling.

You then have Ebay whacking up fees thus making it easier for bastards to justify {censored}ty postage. It's a horrible mess.

[Fender&EHX4ever]

 

Every time Ebay raises the auction fees and the Paypal fees, sellers raise the postal fees. Ebay makes money out of both so they don't mind. Customer loses out and blames the seller. There's greed on both sides. There are too many sellers out there who say 'Well, I want to get all my Ebay fees back through postage'. That's greed. Some people want a free service for selling. You then have Ebay whacking up fees thus making it easier for bastards to justify {censored}ty postage. It's a horrible mess.

 

 

I suppose the part that bothers me is that there is an element of dishonesty in this selling tactic. The seller sets the beginning price at $199, and says to contact him for a shipping quote, only to find out that the shipping will cost $20-40. Why not just start the price at $209 and make the shipping an honest price? Because the seller wants to lure the customer who doesn't suspect that the seller will charge $20-40 for shipping? That's lame. I hate that type of salemanship.

[MegaTom]

Nobody has slated Ebay for trying to make money. What they have slated is Ebay employming methods to make even more money which gouge the seller and provide no real tangible benefits from the low to middle volume seller. Ebay is aiming itself at high sellers in order to rival Amazon. The high sellers get more Ebay promotion. That's {censored}.

Obviously someone isn't following all of the posts in the thread.

Otherwise you would have seen that right above your previous post, I more or less said this same thing... and that the text you quoted was directly aimed at the person that posted right above it.

[HeartfeltDawn]

I suppose the part that bothers me is that there is an element of dishonesty in this selling tactic. The seller sets the beginning price at $199, and says to contact him for a shipping quote, only to find out that the shipping will cost $20-40. Why not just start the price at $209 and make the shipping an honest price? Because the seller wants to lure the customer who doesn't suspect that the seller will charge $20-40 for shipping? That's lame. I hate that type of salemanship.

 

 

...because a price of $199 attracts a lower Final Value Fee than the $209 priced item. $199 always looks cheaper than going into the $200 bracket so looks better to the seller. You then add a bit more to the shipping and handling to cover your fees. The 'shipping and handling fee' was a very American idea. We didn't have that in the UK on Ebay to anywhere near the same extent. Now it's commonplace and really it's come up over the last two years as the Ebay and Paypal fees have increased.

 

I hate the phrase 'handling fee'. {censored} it. If you're trying to make money out of selling your {censored}, don't charge your buyer because you have to go to the Post Office. When I sell small items like pedals, I go for cost price and add on 25 pence to cover the cost of parceltape. Usually I recycle as much as I can. Occasionally you do get people whining when they've been charged at pretyt close to cost price for postage that they haven't got brand new packaging. Well, duh! The intelligence of the buyer has gone down but isn't that true of all things when they get big? The bigger they get, the more of the idiot mainstream you get following you. And Lord, are there some dumb mother{censored}ers out there.

[HeartfeltDawn]

Obviously someone isn't following all of the posts in the thread. Otherwise you would have seen that right above your previous post, I more or less said this same thing... and that the text you quoted was directly aimed at the person that posted right above it.

Things get a little backwards on threads sp sorry about that. Not slating you, honest. Friends now?

[Snufkino]

I haven't found Ebay.co.uk so bad yet, though I've just this minute 'sold' a pedal which could of course go tits up.

I always naively thought the postage rates were accurate, but when I checked the cost of another pedal I was selling it was only

[MegaTom]

Things get a little backwards on threads sp sorry about that. Not slating you, honest. Friends now?

Friends!

[amp_surgeon]

There are some sellers on eBay who are gouging for shipping and handling fees, but it's not as common as you might think. Though some buyers might be stupid, most aren't. They know if they are being charged $20 to ship something when the actual shipping cost is more like $8. They can look up the shipping costs on the USPS or UPS websites. There are a LOT of posts on the eBay forums from buyers literally screaming because they got charged a dollar more for shipping than the actual amount charged by the shipper. When the seller sheepishly tries to explain this as covering the cost of their shipping materials, they are attacked as price gougers, sometimes even by other sellers.

Most sellers use the eBay shipping calculator, which means the buyer is paying precisely what the shipper is charging. The seller gets nothing for their packing materials, or for their time packing and shipping the item.

eBay presumes the seller will absorb the costs of selling on eBay, and that fees will come out of the seller's profits. They also discourage sellers from setting starting bid or reserve prices high enough to cover the value of the item plus fees because they want to make sure the item sells, even if the seller takes a loss. They are now even STRONGLY encouraging sellers to offer free shipping as an enticement to buyers! Basically, they don't give a damn if the seller makes any money or not, or even if the seller loses his shirt in the deal. They're only interested in attracting buyers back to eBay, and they don't care how many sellers they bankrupt in the process.

An honest seller cannot survive in an environment like that, which leaves the buyers having to deal mainly with dishonest sellers.

The concept of "shipping and handling" is a result of price competition. Sellers are forced to cut margins very thin when the market is thick with competition. If the costs of shipping and/or fees were folded into the product price, then the seller's product would look expensive when compared to his competitors. Most buyers compare the base price of the product only. I've even seen buyers in the US rave about getting something for 2% less from a seller in their own state, without even considering the fact that they are paying an additional 6% to 8% for sales taxes. Unlike the UK's VAT system, sales taxes in the US are charged by state/county/municipal governments. Buyers who don't live in a state/county/city where the seller has a physical presence are not subject to the sales taxes charged there. In other words, the state of California can't make someone who lives in Alabama pay their sales tax just because they bought something from a seller in California. Some states don't charge ANY sales tax!

Too many people just don't look at the "big picture", and consider the total cost of a purchase.

[Mojambo]

I avoid eBay whenever I can just to escape the fees.

[keithb7]

I am not against making a buck. What I am against is obvious signs of consumer exploitation. There is no reason to keep raising listing fees higher, and selling fees higher. The only reason is, they knew that had a good thing going and people bought into it. So they slowly edge and raise fees higher and higher to the our breaking point. Sell something on Ebay for example for $100. Add up all the selling, listing and Paylpal payment fees and Ebay just made at least $10. Remember Ebay bought Paypal so they get all the fees.

Are increased fees inflated to meet inflation? Not likely as these are a percentage of actual selling fees. The higher inflation goes the higher items will naturally sell for. Ebay is a greedy corporation. Their reputation has gone own severely world wide. More and more, Ebay is turning into a harbor for criminals to scam folks of their cash.

 

Go to google finance and look at the stock chart for the last 5 years...What happened on Dec 31 2004? Stock went down $20 in a month!

 

The stock analyst's had the following to say:" noted that the company's active user growth slowed to 1 percent year over year, which reflects challenges the company is having in generating buyer demand."

 

Slow growth. Hmmm..Not surprising. More and more people have had enough.

[HeartfeltDawn]

Amp Surgeon:

Agreed on all of that. I lived in Toronto for three years so had to get used to mentally adding on sales tax to any purchase. It was such a strange system having been used to good ol' British VAT slapped automatically on everything. Sadly many sellers on UK Ebay see the S & H fee and simply presume it's a way of paying off the listing fees.

If I give someone an incorrect shipping quote, I do give refunds for anything over