Thread: Has Ebay Gone Bad?

My last four transactions over the last three months on Ebay have been bad.

I sold a NWOT HH ski jacket to someone who sent me pictures of the newly arrived jacket blood stained and dirty. (It was only $30 and he didn't want to send it back to me, so I refunded his money.) I practically gave away some used once Head Supermojo 193s and the guy put in his feedback that I taped the skis together and the tape residue was hard to get off the base. Sure, maybe if you're a retard.

Then, I ordered yellow ski goggles and got dark amber ones from a group in China. Not that big a deal, but annoying, since I wanted them for night skiing. Finally, bought a new high end point and shoot Fuji which came with a scratched screen. Am in the process of contacting the seller in FLA to ship it back to him for either a new one or a refund.

I'm thinking of not using Ebay any more, after fifteen years and a couple of hundred transactions. Never had trouble like this before with them.

I guess editing a post on the app double posts it.

I sold 8 items recently, most above a couple hundred bucks. Everything went smooth with all of them. Only issue was with the ninth from some dude in Tiawan who won even though I said US only. Filed a claim so as not to deal with him and he apologized.

It hasnt gone bad. It has always sucked.

I just sold a bunch of bike parts and had zero problems. One person started bugging me about a shipping number the day after the auction and there were some stupid questions about the items. Its not perfect but it works better than anything else to get rid of stuff and make some money quickly.

I hear what you're all saying. Maybe I've just had a run of bad luck.

Recently I've sold a bunch of crap I was surprised anyone would ever want to buy, and had a low ball "or best offer" for a pair of skis and bindings accepted.

Fee bay used to be better, it still has a place when I am looking for something off the beaten path. It just seems like its become a huge dumping ground for cheap knock off and counterfeit goods, fee bay pretends to care but they're making money on every transaction either way. I also dislike them because they are tying to completely ruin Craigslist.

I got people waiting, not bidding, then low balling after auction ends. Kind of like TGR

But fees have gotten bad again.

Juries out..........

This. It certainly is useful, but it's always been full of scammers and retards.

My favorite was "I accidentally bidded and did not really mean to buy it"
yah but you have to confirm the bid
"yah i accidentally confirmed also"
Yah but then you did not contact me
"It was an accident, I cannot pay"
I accidentally reported you to ebay

Originally Posted by toast2266

This. It certainly is useful, but it's always been full of scammers and retards.

In which respect it's just like the non-virtual world.

I've been lucky. I have bought or sold 250 items, and I have only had one problem, and ebay resolved it by giving my money back.
Its been pretty good for me, but times change.

I've been using it for 14? years now. It seems worse than it's ever been as a buyer for scammers, poor quality listings, and high final bid prices - especially if you aren't buying from an "established" "big volume" merchant who, unless they are in China, probably are selling shit.

As a seller it's become much more hit/miss I think because of decreasing buyer volume. I've had problems with deadbeat bidders, bidders bitching about "high shipping prices" when the price was quoted in the listing. Maybe it's the everyone expects a deal with Amazon quality everything now?

I've actually had some terrible Ebay experiences lately. Took me 4 auctions and a call to Ebay customer service to sell a watch. All buyers with low feedback that refused to pay. Seems worse now then it used to be.

Just when I was about the try to sell something on ebay for the first time.....

A veritable crapateria of other people's shit.
And the general public.
It was cooler in the wild west days of its beginnings.

Alot like ski forums

A company I work for sells on eBay and the number of scumbag buyers who abuse eBay's Buyer Protection program to get refunds while keeping the goods is stunning.

Probably still okay for small-time sellers within a niche like biking or skiing, but the large sellers have gotta be considering pulling the plug. It's just not worth the high fees and constant losses to buyers who know how to work the system. (Tip: NEVER sell to overseas buyers, particular eastern Euro countries. They will rob you blind, and eBay Customer Service always sides with the buyer no matter what the circumstances are.)

I'm in the process of dealing with my first non-paying bidder. He bought some sunglasses via BIN on Monday, said he would pay tomorrow (Tuesday) and I haven't heard a peep since then. Told him I'd report him tomorrow morning if I hadn't heard anything from him by then.

Any pro-tips on how this process works? I assume I'll at least be able to recover my seller fees?

I hear what everyone is saying. The dude I bought camera from is making good on sending me a new one now that I've sent the damaged one back. It's a shame that so many people are having to struggle to make their transactions satisfactory. If you bid and win, you should pay right away. If you sell, you should make sure your product is good.

Part of the problem is there's no way for sellers to leave feedback for shitty buyers. I've had 99% of my transactions go smoothly on there, but recently I sold a rear shock (mountain bike) to a guy and he left me negative feedback even though it was his fault. He bought the wrong size shock, and tried to blame me for advertising it incorrectly... except he claimed it was a size that didn't exist. Not only could I not leave him negative feedback, there's also no way to respond to the negative feedback he gave me.

When selling on Ebay these days, you just have to make sure everything is correctly represented in pictures and description. Cover your ass and you'll be fine. As a buyer, I think it's better these days because sellers are going out of their way to make sure everything is perfect.

Worst part of the equation is the 10% ebay fee and the 3% paypal fee. and with paypal being virtually the only way to shop on ebay, it's a guaranteed, 15% commission. So to sell something - other than to just get rid of it, the price has to really get up there or else you're taking a hit.

Yeah I agree- EBay is the marketplace of absolute last resort for me, I occasionally will buy something off of EBay but selling has become too big of a hassle. But then again, maybe I'm just spoiled by TGR.

I have some ski stuff priced really cheap on eBay right now that nobody seems to want (nobody here would want it). Is it a big deal that I'm saying returns are not accepted? I'm about ready to switch the sales over to something like returns accepted at buyers expense.

Overall ebay has been good for me.