5 ms·

PRO TIP eBay: people don't use your site not because of prices but because you are a horrible company to deal with.

by petraeus 9y ago

robbyt 9y ago
...the horrible site is just the cherry on top
- notyourwork 9y ago
  Elaborate....
  - manigandham 9y ago
    slow, confusing, outdated UX with poor search and overloaded crap results
Shivetya 9y ago
I don't agree. As a buyer I have never had a problem they did not settle to my satisfaction. I did make sure in each case to have my facts in order. I tend to buy mostly antiques, glass and china, and have had three bad purchases which were fraudulent in some manner. This out of nearly three hundred purchases. I also purchase consumer items like batteries, dog toys, beef jerky, a DJI drone, and whatnot off the site. Now as a seller I have no clue, but I have no clue what it is like to sell on Amazon either. I do find ebay easier to navigate by leaps and bounds over Amazon. amazon fills my pages with more trash than I ever want to see.
- jtth 9y ago
  As a buyer you're more than protected. As a seller, I'm exposed for 30 days, because you can, for any reason, choose to return the item with a full refund, and just say it doesn't work. Ebay does not take evidence from the seller that this patently untrue. I've been burned twice this way and lost hundreds trying to sell two laptops.
  - dsfyu404ed 9y ago
    One of my friends in college would buy stuff at auction. He said electronics were a shitshow for many sellers. He said you're asking to get screwed unless you list serial numbers and have photo proof of functionality and mention it in your listing. In the hundreds of transactions conducted by the university club I was a part of (we sold IT stuff that went missing on its way to the dumpster). Based on his advice we generated packing lists that included the device serial, tests performed, by who, when and screenshots. We never had a problem. Our biggest worry was the accuracy of the fish scale we used to weigh shipments. There's people out there who make a business out of buying stuff from sellers who are far away, claim warranty and then resell the working item.
  - hkmurakami 9y ago
    Yeah eBay made a choice to only cater to mass sellers (and not indivoduals) and push the cost of fraud onto the seller.
  - Alupis 9y ago
    > As a seller, I'm exposed for 30 days, because you can, for any reason, choose to return the item with a full refund, and just say it doesn't work. This is simply how eCommerce works. You have to accept returns... and 30 days is just about as short of a period you can reasonably make. > Ebay does not take evidence from the seller that this patently untrue Neither does Amazon, or Walmart marketplaces. This is simply standard for there marketplaces. Buyers get peace of mind, which encourages more purchases. This "scam" works on Amazon too - so it's not just eBay or something about how eBay has done things. As a seller, it can be a pain sometimes - but it's a cost of doing business and must be accounted for, and planned for before you sell the item. If you're trying to just sell something and walk away, CL or your local classifieds section is the place to be.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
  - oh_sigh 9y ago
    Yup...I sold an iPod on eBay years ago, and the person I sold it to claimed that I only sent him cables and a rock, so eBay gave him all of his money back and he got to keep my iPod. Never used eBay since.
e40 9y ago
And it's full of scammers. Last time I tried to sell something, it was a huge PITA, wasting weeks. Ended up using CL and sold it in a day.

PRO TIP eBay: people don't use your site not because of prices but because you are a horrible company to deal with.

robbyt 9y ago

...the horrible site is just the cherry on top

notyourwork 9y ago
Elaborate....
- manigandham 9y ago
  slow, confusing, outdated UX with poor search and overloaded crap results

Shivetya 9y ago

I don't agree. As a buyer I have never had a problem they did not settle to my satisfaction. I did make sure in each case to have my facts in order. I tend to buy mostly antiques, glass and china, and have had three bad purchases which were fraudulent in some manner. This out of nearly three hundred purchases. I also purchase consumer items like batteries, dog toys, beef jerky, a DJI drone, and whatnot off the site. Now as a seller I have no clue, but I have no clue what it is like to sell on Amazon either. I do find ebay easier to navigate by leaps and bounds over Amazon. amazon fills my pages with more trash than I ever want to see.

jtth 9y ago
As a buyer you're more than protected. As a seller, I'm exposed for 30 days, because you can, for any reason, choose to return the item with a full refund, and just say it doesn't work. Ebay does not take evidence from the seller that this patently untrue. I've been burned twice this way and lost hundreds trying to sell two laptops.
- dsfyu404ed 9y ago
  One of my friends in college would buy stuff at auction. He said electronics were a shitshow for many sellers. He said you're asking to get screwed unless you list serial numbers and have photo proof of functionality and mention it in your listing. In the hundreds of transactions conducted by the university club I was a part of (we sold IT stuff that went missing on its way to the dumpster). Based on his advice we generated packing lists that included the device serial, tests performed, by who, when and screenshots. We never had a problem. Our biggest worry was the accuracy of the fish scale we used to weigh shipments. There's people out there who make a business out of buying stuff from sellers who are far away, claim warranty and then resell the working item.
- hkmurakami 9y ago
  Yeah eBay made a choice to only cater to mass sellers (and not indivoduals) and push the cost of fraud onto the seller.
- Alupis 9y ago
  > As a seller, I'm exposed for 30 days, because you can, for any reason, choose to return the item with a full refund, and just say it doesn't work. This is simply how eCommerce works. You have to accept returns... and 30 days is just about as short of a period you can reasonably make. > Ebay does not take evidence from the seller that this patently untrue Neither does Amazon, or Walmart marketplaces. This is simply standard for there marketplaces. Buyers get peace of mind, which encourages more purchases. This "scam" works on Amazon too - so it's not just eBay or something about how eBay has done things. As a seller, it can be a pain sometimes - but it's a cost of doing business and must be accounted for, and planned for before you sell the item. If you're trying to just sell something and walk away, CL or your local classifieds section is the place to be.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- oh_sigh 9y ago
  Yup...I sold an iPod on eBay years ago, and the person I sold it to claimed that I only sent him cables and a rock, so eBay gave him all of his money back and he got to keep my iPod. Never used eBay since.

e40 9y ago

And it's full of scammers. Last time I tried to sell something, it was a huge PITA, wasting weeks. Ended up using CL and sold it in a day.