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I wanted to provide somewhat of a counterpoint – I have been using e-bay (Australia) for about 7 years. I sell all kinds of stuff ranging from a broken bookcas

by luke_s 14y ago

I wanted to provide somewhat of a counterpoint – I have been using e-bay (Australia) for about 7 years. I sell all kinds of stuff ranging from a broken bookcase for $1, which I didn’t want to haul to the tip, all the way up to a boat for $950. I also run a small business selling items via a website and my e-bay account [1][2]. Overall I’ve found my e-bay experience to be very positive. I’ve only had one person who I suspected of scamming me, when they claimed they didn’t receive the item I posted. The vast majority of users are just normal people looking to pick up a bargain. It helps that some of my items are pick up only and that I am not selling electronics. Every few years an article like this pops up and I get concerned and start looking at other places to sell my products. What I inevitably find is that no other auction site has the users base that e-bay does, so my items inevitably don’t sell, or the price is significantly lower than what I would get on e-bay. It’s possible to build a better experience than e-bay, but up until now nobody has managed to do it. Finally, I think what the writer of the article was looking for was an ‘unpaid item dispute’. He needed to open once against the original bidder, and if they didn’t don’t pay within a certain time limit, and then I believe e-bay will refund the fees. E-bay also records unpaid item disputes against buyers and will limit what they can do. [3] [1] - http://myworld.ebay.com.au/sleemancorp http://myworld.ebay.com.au/sleemancorp [2] - http://www.grafting-tool.com/magento/index.php/ http://www.grafting-tool.com/magento/index.php/ [3] - http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/unpaid-items.html http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/unpaid-items.html

DanHulton 14y ago
OP here. Glad eBay is working out for you! Honestly, there are a lot of tools and useful techniques for sellers to get a positive experience, but they're just hidden or you only seem to learn them after you've gotten burned already. As a seller who hasn't been on eBay for many years though, it's just a very harsh experience filled with hidden pitfalls. And I was able to submit unpaid item disputes successfully for the majority of the oustanding fees or I'd have been on the hook for closer to $70. However, there was a final $2 that they refused to refund because certain selling fees are un-refundable for some reason, and that's what I got stuck with in the end.
- excerionsforte 14y ago
  So wait, you basically got around $68 back and you posted this blog post ABOUT losing less than 5% (around 3%) from a failed transaction? Whereas there are other people who have legitimate complaints having lost >50% of their item value along with fees. Wow..... I really do want to understand the rationale behind this. Explain.
  - ckrailo 14y ago
    I think he did it for all the time wasted and dealing with such a horrid experience on top of the $2. It's also opened up a discussion here where people have had even worse experiences. I think it's a great discussion to have.
    - excerionsforte 14y ago
      Realistically, how much time did he waste over the benefits of the actually selling the item to someone who pays for the item. You take a risk when you enter into a contract without knowing what you are doing. How bad was the experience really? He said he got back MOST of what he wanted, but it appears that he needed to get $2 more in order to close this case, but they would not refund an unrefundable $2, that I would bet is told to you when you hit the confirmation page. The OP goes to the extreme length saying to never sell on eBay, which is a crap response considering what he got back. eBay is a reasonable place to sell products to legitimate customers. Bad experiences exist everywhere, but it is not the overwhelming culture the OP makes it out to be. The generalization of his "bad" experience is not reasonable, so I'd like to know his rationale for doing that.
      - DanHulton 14y ago
        So let's say you sign up with a hosting provider and they are just terrible. Your site's down all the time and FTP is slow as molasses, etc. You go ask for a refund because not only did they not provide the level of service they advertised, they actively wasted your time. You'd be just fine if they said "Sure, but only most of it because of reasons"? There's a lot of people echoing my experience here. So if there's a lot of people selling on eBay and getting nothing out of it but losing small amounts of money each time, I'm cool if that's something I prevent.
damncabbage 14y ago
http://gumtree.com.au http://gumtree.com.au is on the rise for things like your bookcase, but I agree, the market on eBay is much larger.
- Adirael 14y ago
  That's eBay's property too.
  - damncabbage 14y ago
    Really? Ouch. :(
- luke_s 14y ago
  Yeah, funnily enough I listed the boat on gumtree as well, but got nothing but scammers! There was about 5 people that contacted me trying to run this scam: http://www.mactalk.com.au/8/80486-paypal-scam-carsguide.html http://www.mactalk.com.au/8/80486-paypal-scam-carsguide.html With the listing on e-bay I got two enquiries, both of which were legit. One of the interested parties ended up buying.
- damian2000 14y ago
  For used cars, gumtree is the business. I just sold a used car on there and had several times the response I did from the same ad on carsales.com.au, which cost $60, was much harder to use and so was basically poor value for money.

by luke_s 14y ago

DanHulton 14y ago

OP here. Glad eBay is working out for you! Honestly, there are a lot of tools and useful techniques for sellers to get a positive experience, but they're just hidden or you only seem to learn them after you've gotten burned already. As a seller who hasn't been on eBay for many years though, it's just a very harsh experience filled with hidden pitfalls. And I was able to submit unpaid item disputes successfully for the majority of the oustanding fees or I'd have been on the hook for closer to $70. However, there was a final $2 that they refused to refund because certain selling fees are un-refundable for some reason, and that's what I got stuck with in the end.

excerionsforte 14y ago
So wait, you basically got around $68 back and you posted this blog post ABOUT losing less than 5% (around 3%) from a failed transaction? Whereas there are other people who have legitimate complaints having lost >50% of their item value along with fees. Wow..... I really do want to understand the rationale behind this. Explain.
- ckrailo 14y ago
  I think he did it for all the time wasted and dealing with such a horrid experience on top of the $2. It's also opened up a discussion here where people have had even worse experiences. I think it's a great discussion to have.
  - excerionsforte 14y ago
    Realistically, how much time did he waste over the benefits of the actually selling the item to someone who pays for the item. You take a risk when you enter into a contract without knowing what you are doing. How bad was the experience really? He said he got back MOST of what he wanted, but it appears that he needed to get $2 more in order to close this case, but they would not refund an unrefundable $2, that I would bet is told to you when you hit the confirmation page. The OP goes to the extreme length saying to never sell on eBay, which is a crap response considering what he got back. eBay is a reasonable place to sell products to legitimate customers. Bad experiences exist everywhere, but it is not the overwhelming culture the OP makes it out to be. The generalization of his "bad" experience is not reasonable, so I'd like to know his rationale for doing that.
    - DanHulton 14y ago
      So let's say you sign up with a hosting provider and they are just terrible. Your site's down all the time and FTP is slow as molasses, etc. You go ask for a refund because not only did they not provide the level of service they advertised, they actively wasted your time. You'd be just fine if they said "Sure, but only most of it because of reasons"? There's a lot of people echoing my experience here. So if there's a lot of people selling on eBay and getting nothing out of it but losing small amounts of money each time, I'm cool if that's something I prevent.

damncabbage 14y ago

http://gumtree.com.au http://gumtree.com.au is on the rise for things like your bookcase, but I agree, the market on eBay is much larger.

Adirael 14y ago
That's eBay's property too.
- damncabbage 14y ago
  Really? Ouch. :(
luke_s 14y ago
Yeah, funnily enough I listed the boat on gumtree as well, but got nothing but scammers! There was about 5 people that contacted me trying to run this scam: http://www.mactalk.com.au/8/80486-paypal-scam-carsguide.html http://www.mactalk.com.au/8/80486-paypal-scam-carsguide.html With the listing on e-bay I got two enquiries, both of which were legit. One of the interested parties ended up buying.
damian2000 14y ago
For used cars, gumtree is the business. I just sold a used car on there and had several times the response I did from the same ad on carsales.com.au, which cost $60, was much harder to use and so was basically poor value for money.