Shop Doc Forum » General Questions

1. Anonymous
   Unregistered

   So eBay is returning to its roots, the auction of used or surplus stuff. They really have screwed up a great thing by focusing on new and trying to be Amazon lite. When eBay was young it got its cache` by helping people run little auctions online. Then they got greedy and went after big companies like Motorola and they clamped down on the games people played on the mom and pop sales. The unintended consequences were that it became too dangerous for the little guys tp do auctions online and they all sought the sBAYstore, or selling with a fixed price, which is fine but its just another billboard with no charisma.

   Is eBay dead or does it still perform a useful function.

   Posted 3 years ago #

2. Anonymous
   Unregistered

   I wouldn't shed a tear if eBay out of business. I stopped buying on eBay years ago, because 90% (not an exaggeration) of the stuff I bought was not as described, broken, or wasn't even delivered after payment was made. Didn't matter if it was an individual seller, or a small business. Even when I "had the goods" on him or her, eBay's "fraud service" would never investigate. I believe it's because they make their money from sellers, not buyers.

   "Feedback" is a total joke. A lot of buyers are afraid to give bad feedback because the sellers hold them hostage, whitholding delivery of goods already paid for until the buyer places a good feedback. I've been slammed with a very malicious, dishonest feedback by a seller, just because I had the courage to tell the truth. He shipped me something totally inferior and a different model than what I purchased, and would not make good. I had canceled checks, pictures of the auction, hardcopy letters that proved my case. Did eBay even look? No.

   Any bad feedback against a seller gets buried in the volume of sales sellers make. That's why checking someone's feedback is not necessarily going to protect you. Negative feedback impacts occasional buyers far more than sellers, because it's there for everyone to see.

   Finally, why is it the buyer ALWAYS takes all the risk in a transaction? He has to pay FIRST before the seller ships. And if the seller goofs, sends the wrong goods, or does something dishonest, the buyer AGAIN has to take all the risk by sending the bad product back to him first. Chances are he will not see either his money or the product he bought.

   Posted 3 years ago #

3. Anonymous
   Unregistered

   First of all, eBay has stopped having feedback for buyers, I'm pretty sure, so that changes the dynamic described by Engineeringtech a little bit.

   But eBay is definitely a crap shoot. I can't tell you how many times I've bought product off it and it was not in the condition described by the listing. It's to where I assume something I buy off eBay is going to be in worse condition than they say. I don't know why it has to be like this, but it is. Unfortunately sometimes you're stuck with this situation when you're looking for something rare.

   Finding what you're looking for in a brick-and-mortar facility is always preferred. The worst is when you get something off eBay, it's not in the condition as listed but you accept it, then you find the same thing in a brick-and-mortar facility, in better condition, for a lower price. I usually end up just buying it anyway and cursing myself for not waiting for fate to deal me what I needed.

   It's true everyone going with buy-it-now takes some of the fun out of it, Lloyd. Even when it's more convenient to just buy it then I wish that I could find it at auction instead.

   Posted 3 years ago #

4. Anonymous
   Unregistered

   Our company has more than 1000 stars on eBay all positive. We have bought and sold a lot of stuff and most transactions have gone smoothly. When eBay was younger they were great, The site was gamed by a bunch of Eastern European pirates so now you have to use common sense and spend more time researching your purchases but I still consider it a great instrument for buying and selling machinery and accessories,

   Posted 3 years ago #

5. Anonymous
   Unregistered

   I hope no one thought I was slamming all eBay sellers. I'm sure there are many more honest sellers than dishonest. But personally, I had more bad experiences than good.

   Frankly I never understood all the complaints by sellers against buyers. All a buyer has to do to protect himself was wait for the check to clear before shipping. True, he might lose some time and the small expense of re-posting, but buyers risks are much higher. A buyer pays upfront, and then is at the mercy of the seller. If the seller is a jer, and decides to ship a rock, the buyer gets a rock. eBay could fix the sellers issue by granting the purchase to the second place bidder, or refunding the auction fees. And there must be some sort of low cost third party verification system that would help buyers.

   One other thing they could do is disallow last second bids, by extending the auction for 15 minutes from the previous bid. Ever have the only bid posted for 7 days, only to lose the item in the last few seconds? I think some unscrupulous sellers have friends or employees place bids at the last minute in a ploy to get a "feeding frenzy", or to withdraw the item because they don't think the bid is high enough. That's what the reserve is for.

   Posted 3 years ago #

6. Anonymous
   Unregistered

   Disallowing last second bids? I don't see how you can do that -- I don't think extending the auction for 15 minutes from the previous bid would work.

   Last second bids are the nature of free market capitalism expressed through eBay. True, the Internet makes the way it's expressed somewhat absurd, but there it is. I've often wondered if unscrupulous sellers have friends bid up the item -- surely it does happen -- but I think it'd be hard to really make that work consistently. And if that process drives the price higher than you're willing to pay then it's still just the nature of eBay: you get priced out of stuff.

   But I definitely know what you're speaking of EngineeringTech; like I said above, I've gotten to where I assume anything I buy on eBay is going to be in worse shape than it's listed as.

   As for the site being "gamed by a bunch of Eastern European pirates" -- I don't buy from outside of the U.S., at all. Maybe that limits what I get but I just don't want to deal with the shipping and currency exchange and just the general uncertainty of buying from overseas.

   Posted 3 years ago #

7. Anonymous
   Unregistered

   When shopping, eBay has become my "last resort" option. I gave up selling there a couple of years ago, after the fee schedule hiked up one too many times.
   Unless they radically revamp the feedback system, I don't see how they can move forward.

   Posted 3 years ago #

8. Anonymous
   Unregistered

   I do know of people who have lost due to the bogus second chance opportunities where people who have lost out on an item are conned into sending money to a blind account never to be seen again.

   Posted 3 years ago #

9. Anonymous
   Unregistered

   What fee schedule? Aren't fees mainly applied to sellers? Also, isn't feedback just for sellers now, so wouldn't affect you as a shopper?
   That's crazy about people getting conned into sending money to a blind account - unfortunate.

   Posted 3 years ago #

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