[jimluu]

To me ebay is not as much about value as it is about finding items that would be difficult to find elsewhere. Value is an added bonus.

Sorry to hear about your dilemma Robbie. I would try to negate the deal through the seller or through ebay. I agree with switcher, even though $5 is not much, paying it enables and encourages the seller to scam other folks.

[Al_The_Man]

I have been an ebay user since '98 and I look at it this way, I have been rooked a couple of times, especially early on, but looking at the big picture, I figure I am ahead of the game with all the deals on NOS at 10¢ on the $.
I am just sorry the worlds biggest garage sale was not around when I got started in the business, think of all the equipment that was out there waiting to be had and all that knew about it was just the local market.
Al.

[SORCHEROR]

not all are gouging shipping,ive gotten stuff for a dollar and paid 75 or 100 for ship + handling,they are trying to save money on ebays robbery,ebay charges for everything now,and if you list in a second catagory the listing price is double,they even charge for more than one pic,ebay is stealing from the public on the front,middle and the end,they own paypal,another criminal organization,you have a hard time getting your money from them once they have it,ebay raised prices this year and the ceo makes millions,tell me whats so hard in his job hes worth that much

[CNCRob]

Hopefully I just got my dispute resolved. Last night I just received one of those non paying bidder dispute notices from ebay. I clicked a link on it to contact the seller. I sent him a note that said; it say's on his ebay page twice he had free shipping and I didn't think it was right for him to deceive people like that. I also told him he didn't respond to any of my emails and his phone number wouldn't work. I also told him if he didn't remember putting the free shipping statements in his auction; to just go look for his self. After replying that message to him; I sent him another email with the screen shots in it. Ebay also replyed to my last message that I mentioned in my last post. It was probably not the same person from their first reply becase they said they took a look at the listing and they seen where it said free shipping also. They said they could understand my consern and they try to keep things like that from happening. But they just told me the best thing to do is contact the seller directly. Which I had been tring to do for the last week. Anyway the seller replied to my message in the dispute notice and pretty much said he was sorry and he hadn't received my emails (which I kind of have a hard time believeing). He said he had took off the $5.00 for shipping. I paid through PayPal this moring. I just hope he sends it to me now.

[CNCRob]

I forgot to mention that was my third Ebay auction to go bad in about the past 5 months. The first was when I ordered a Rc airplane plans cd. They said it included other aviation software in the Cd. When I received it; it was just some plans(not even as many as they said in the auction) and no software at all. I tried contacting the seller several times and he would not reply. Finely he replied to my last email and said he was sorry and that he had been having hard drive trouble and he would send it out as soon as possible. That was about 3 months ago and I haven't received anything from him yet. The second I ordered one of those usb/ to pc2 keyboard adapters(to convert a usb keyboard to a ps/2 port). I already had one for the ps/2 mouse port and knew the mouse one would not work with a keyboard. It said in their auction this one is for the keyboard and would work with any usb keyboard. They even had a photo of it in their auction and it had a symbol of a keyboard on it. I receive it a fews days after paying and when I opened the package the one I received had a symbol of a mouse on it. I tried it anyway and it would not work. I contacted the seller and told them about it. They said they were sorry and gave me a paper to print and fill out. They said to put the paper in the package along with the item they sent and they would send me another one like I was suppose to get in the first place. I paid for the item, shipping to get it here and shipping to send it back. I still havn't received the replacement yet, and that was around Feb.

[davereagan]

Guys,
I sell about $700 monthly on Ebay and probably buy $50-100 in tools and other things. My fees on that $700 are about $90 to Ebay. I got irritated with high shipping too, until I realized that getting that item for that price with low shipping was an illusion. The market is so tuned in on Ebay, that I've seen the same exact item listed "buy it now" for $12.00 with $3.00 shipping and $9.00 with $6.00 shipping, right down to the dime. The difference, as mentioned earlier is the $9.00 seller pays less in fees. If you are familiar with the listing fees, final value fees and Paypal fees, you'd quickly develop some compassion for the seller doing anything he can to lower his fees. Some things don't make much sense to seel on Ebay, like heavy furniture and roll away tool boxes. Have said that, it frosts me when a guy wants $8.00 for UPS when he could stick an endmill in a padded envelope and mail it for $1.00 Under 10 lbs, the USPS has been the way to go for me.

[Switcher]

I think that what happens on ebay is that a lot of sellers get caught up in the business, so much so that they aren't organized enough as a small business to keep track of what they are doing, let alone reply to a complaint, or question.

We all know that ebay isn't like it was back in the late 90's. Now, everyone & their brother has been their, done that!

Some folks don't see service as a part of business, I think all they see are $ signs. When in fact, the better the service, the more $$$!



.

[cdlenterprises]

Ebay isn't what it used to be but you can still find some great deals, especially on items that aren't mainstream. If you are looking for something that is popular, chances are you won't do too much better on eBay than you would retail(try buying a flat screen monitor or a cordless drill) What I'd like to know is where do most of these people get their inventory? If I had a dime for every article that I've read about people making a killing on eBay I wouldn't need to shop there. But I always have the same question: where to they get the goods?

I think everyone has been burned at one time or another on ebay. But if you look at what's gained vs what went bad, I think we're ahead of the game.

[cacrawfo]

Yo,
The one thing that really bugs me on EBAY, is the touted "3rd highest feedback" on Ebay. They are a seller named "bargainland"
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAP...ab=AllFeedback

Their slogan now is "where low prices come first and service comes second." Or not at all as the case may be. From what I can tell, they contract with large retail stores to buy all their returns, opened items, freight damages etc. They start all auctions at .99, and rape on shipping. They have an FAQ that basically reads "you get what we send you, and who cares if it is what we said it was." No refunds, no exchanges, no service.


Here is the kicker, they have a 90% feedback! That is HORRIBLE! They consistently get over 1000 negative feedbacks a month! How can Ebay pretend to police the sellers using the feedback system when they allow an operation like this to continue? I guess getting $1 + from every one of their 1,000,000 plus transactions greases things up nicely....

I'm bidding on one of their items though....

Carl C

[Al_The_Man]

Anyone who bids with a seller with over 1000 NF's a month should expect to get shafted, I also look at the way they respond.

Alot of people are still ignoring the FB system I guess

I'm bidding on one of their items though....

Carl C

[thkoutsidthebox]

Bargainland might have 90% positive feedback, but they have over 25,000 !!! unhappy buyers.

[steve323]

Another reason for low price with a high shipping cost is that the seller only has to refund the purchase price if the item is junk and gets returned.

[CNCRob]

I am watching a show on CNBC right now and they are taking about some of the same problems that were mentioned in this thread about ebay. They mentioned a compeditor to ebay http://www.ioffer.com/ . I haven't had time to check it out yet though.

[Switcher]

I am watching a show on CNBC right now and they are taking about some of the same problems that were mentioned in this thread about ebay. They mentioned a compeditor to ebay http://www.ioffer.com/ . I haven't had time to check it out yet though.

I checked out www.ioffer.com , not much of a compeditor with Ebay, one of the payment options on ioffer, is PayPal.

Last I heard Ebay owns PayPal.

So that looks like ioffer is boosting Ebays profit.

Not saying anything bad about ioffer.

Maybe they (ioffer) are setting their self up for a buyout from Ebay, you know the old YouTube/Google deal $$ ?




.

[Chester]

I like EBay. When I"m looking for really unique items, EBay has got it. Buyer Beware. If your going to buy something that is made in China, buy from the manufacturer thats in China. That is what makes EBay unique; because you can. Don't buy from a middleman. Chances are, It's less at your local retailers.
Another thing I REALLY LOVE is New products from small shops. You'll see it first on EBay.
As seen on tv schemes have put a lot of clutter onto EBay. But, if you use the tools EBay supplies, you can filter them right out.

[Prolightman]

been selling on ebay for over 8 yrs
really since it started
ftp via dos to my server
anyway
about bargainland
have you looked at some of the neg. feedbacks and what they person was crying about
come on most cases the stuff was junk they said it was junk
you can read the cost of shipping and still from some greedy part you have to get it away from someone else,they deserve it
I had a customer win auction from me I tried repeatedly to email them
finally I get an email from them diff then the one used on ebay and they said I had to many contact emails and was a scam
and would not buy my item,even gave me neg fedback for no reason at all
wow looked at there history they bid on a cheaper item like mine and wait
do you think they just figured it was ok to scr#$*%^ew me
yes they did
so I say buyers beware
go to a regular auction and see if you can get away with that the sheriff would be at your door

so ya if you don't like what the seller is doing fight to the death for your rights
but read all and don't be in a hurry
good movie to watch Flim-flam man

[unterhaus]

I had a customer win auction from me I tried repeatedly to email them
finally I get an email from them diff then the one used on ebay and they said I had to many contact emails and was a scam
and would not buy my item,even gave me neg fedback for no reason at all

I had a very similar thing happen on one of my items, the guy bid for my auction and then didn't monitor the email account he had signed up with Ebay on. I kept sending him emails, and he didn't get them. I even opened a new email account with hotmail because I thought maybe my emails were going in his spam folder, and he had a hotmail account, so i thought that might help, no joy. He kept sending me nasty messages through ebay. This was before they instituted the message system on ebay. The worst part of it was, he bid on the item as a birthday present for someone, he lived all the way across the country, and the auction ended 3 days before the party. So all of a sudden, his emergency was my problem. And the item was bulky, so I was charging actual shipping for once, usually I have fixed shipping to make payment easy. I finally got through on my Kissmy---.com account, which was pretty funny.

The sad thing was, I had a buy it now on there for the same price as my opening bid, and someone else bid the BIN price instead of hitting the button. That guy badgered me to close the auction and sell it to him.

[widgitmaster]

Just got a pat on the back from eBay, and thought I'd post it here!

"Dear Eric,

We're writing to tell you about an important announcement we've made concerning eBay policies and standards for seller performance. eBay is taking steps to protect the interests of good sellers like you and the consumer's overall experience on eBay.

First of all, we assure you that your current level of performance exceeds the standards. Congratulations and thank you.
Sellers are expected to perform in a manner resulting in a consistently high level of buyer satisfaction. If, over a 90-day period, a seller's interactions with buyers result in greater than a 5% level of buyer dissatisfaction as evidenced by negative/neutral feedback and/or Item Not Received complaints, that seller will be considered in violation of eBay's Seller Non-Performance policy. Note we're currently not including Detailed Seller Ratings in the enforcement of this policy since they're so new to the marketplace.

As a seller in good standing, you're well aware that buyer satisfaction is vital to your continued success -- and the continued success of eBay. Thank you for your solid track record and continued commitment to good customer service. We're confident that enforcing this policy will go a long way to keeping eBay a great place to buy and sell for you and for all our users.

Sincerely,

eBay Trust & Safety"

[harryn]

5 % negative feedback - well, if E Bay tracked their own customer interactions, I wonder if they would be above 5% ?

I like the general auction concept, and E Bay is certainly well established - maybe even a monopoly. How else could you do things like ban my wife from E Bay when she never had purchased or sold anything, and then refuse to even explain to us why ? I occassionally look at items on E Bay, but more and more I now look on craigslist.

[Claude Boudreau]

Overcharging for shipping is one thing ,you can at least find out that price before betting, but having an extra sellers fee being received only after you commit to buy is highway robbery to me. You should not have to buy anything before knowing the real total price.