What's up with the eBay revolt?

[adk]

I keep seeing all of these news articles about people planning to boycott eBay's new policies and fees, but none of them really spell out what is actually changing. Without debating whether or not anybody will actually boycott eBay, can anybody tell me what exactly is changing?

 

[iTeen]

people are getting tired of ebay's ****...

 

[0007776]

What is happening is sellers will no longer be able to leave negative feedback about buyers.

 

[iTeen]

What is happening is sellers will no longer be able to leave negative feedback about buyers.

so if a buyer doesn't pay...the seller can't leave negitive???
thats BS

 

[Virgil-TB2]

What is happening is sellers will no longer be able to leave negative feedback about buyers.

And that is not only a very *good* thing, it's also unlikely that any "revolt" will happen as the sellers have no where else to go, whereas the buyers do.

 

[0007776]

it's also unlikely that any "revolt" will happen as the sellers have no where else to go, whereas the buyers do.

The sellers could move to craigslist.

 

[adk]

Ok... it almost seems like a good thing for most buyers. There have been times where I haven't left a bad rating when I should have for fear of "retaliation feedback."

 

[Virgil-TB2]

The sellers could move to craigslist.

Good point.

kind of a different community though.

 

[devilot]

The sellers could move to craigslist.

Which has enacted aggressive filters causing numerous "ghost ads" whose direct URL works, but leaves the ad unable to be found via search-- rendering those ads useless.

Check their help forums. There are a lot of unhappy folks.

 

[xUKHCx]

I got feed up with eBay due to their fees and their handling of my account which was closed after it was hijacked and I sold £130,000 worth of generators overnight. I followed correct procedure to the letter and they arsed me about majorly.

No craiglist over here

 

[weckart]

Oh yes there is.....

http://london.craigslist.co.uk/sys/

for example. To be perfectly honest, it just looks like a low-rent LOOT ad.

 

[Hankster]

Just too many scammers on eBay and in reality eBay and PayPal sides with the sellers WAY MORE than the buyers.

 

[ewxlt]

Ebay and Paypal have almost non-existent customer service. I believe that it's impossible to actually speak with someone on the phone at either place.

But, like gas prices, there are no other options, no where to turn to still have that kind of market.

 

[SthrnCmfrtr]

Try ePier. It's really small, but I came across it the other day and it looks promising. Competition's a good thing.

The unholy partnership of eBay and Paypal is just too damn greedy nowadays.

 

[protozoa]

I gave up on eBay about a year ago, and will never go back.

I used to primarily be a seller. I had a number of situations where buyers would do completely stupid things... like blaming me for the slowness of the postal service in Brazil.... or argue with me about how much it costs to ship to Australia... or saying I lied about how large something was, even after I had photographed it next to a ruler!

I would appeal to eBay to help with the disputes, and they were (more often than not) completely useless. Some of the responses I received from eBay were saturated with misspelled words and grammar errors. Pathetic.

On top of all this, eBay is mostly a buyer's market. Unless you are essentially running a retail operation on the scale of a small business, you don't make much money on most stuff. Between their low-ball shipping calculations and jacked up fees, I would routinely lose more money than I'd make. I think the last straw for me was discovering that they were charging my seller's fees to my credit card without telling me.

There aren't many dot com companies out there that I'd cheer if they went under, but eBay is one of them.

 

[katejones]

As someone who only buys on ebay. I see it as a good thing. Lately every third transaction I do fails due to the seller. I bought a $1500 aud epiphone guitar in which the seller had sent me fake photos told constant lies, and it ended up being a chinese replica (value 200 usd). I contacted ebay did the claims things, emailed gibson guitars, the australian anti counterfit people. I never got my money back.

So I vouched never to buy anything again without using paypal.
My next purchase is dvd for $13.75 after a month I email them and ask if they sent it , they said it must have got stolen from my mailbox (I use a p.o box) and if I send them another $13.75 they will send out the dvd.

While I wont complain about the price some people charge for sending to australia I just wont buy the item, but sometimes you see stuff like 50 usd postage with usps for a watch.

So maybe some of the bad sellers will leave as they will not be able to scam so much without getting negative feedback.

 

[protozoa]

While I wont complain about the price some people charge for sending to australia I just wont buy the item, but sometimes you see stuff like 50 usd postage with usps for a watch.

$50 may be a little high, but run a check on the shipping calculator. A "one pound or less" package going by USPS from the United States to Australia is $37 by International Flat Rate Box rate (and that probably doesn't include insurance, which would cost some more). Then you have to figure that the seller has to purchase a box, tape, and packing material. Plus, it's reasonable to pay for the time and gas that the seller invests to pack and mail your item. When it's said and done, you wouldn't be far from $50.

Obviously, there are less expensive options than International Flat Rate Box, but they take longer. My theory was the longer my item was in the mail, the better the chance that it would get lost, stolen or damaged.

Buyers just don't seem to understand that smart sellers are not willing to accept any loss when it comes to the packaging and shipping of an item. The buyer pays for that, and it always seems to cost more than they think. Considering all the fees are described on the auction page, I was always amazed when buyers were shocked.

I definitely had more problems with my international buyers. I remember one guy in South America who actually gave me his old mailing address, and then filed a complaint when the item didn't make it to his new address. Some people are just amazingly idiotic. Eventually, I stopped opening my auctions up to foreign bids. Unfortunately, I'd still regularly get winning bids from international buyers. So I had to either sell to them or go through a major hassle with eBay to get my item re-listed.

I was an excellent seller. Even with all the problems I had, my feedback rating was 100% positive when I quit eBay (that was after hundreds of sales). My item descriptions were spot-on, and my fees were accurate and fair. I shipped the item the same day I received PayPal payment. I'm sure there are plenty of scammer sellers out there; but all I came across were uninformed buyers and pathetic customer service from eBay.