eBay

midwestmenswear · ‎01-10-2019

As a seller on eBay, I'm quite embarassed by the customer service I've gotten on eBay lately.

Typically, I would recommend eBay as a great place to buy because I've enjoyed patronizing it in the past. In the past, I've enjoyed buying on eBay and have told others to buy there - great place to haggle! Great place to shop! Great place with no problems!

But lately.... so disappointed with the experience.

For Christmas, bought two items and the sellers were terrible.

One was advertised to be a US seller but that was an outright fraud - was in China and the item was child size when I ordered an adult item.

Second item was also a gift and was late; I received no communication from the seller after I asked about the timing of delivery. I'm ok with missed deadlines because things happen, but I'm not ok with radio silence.

As for selling, the views here have tanked, but of course if I put more into it I would probably get more sales.

My big question is how in the world can we continue to sell on a platform that allows terrible sellers to continue to scam people, and eBay won't step in and help? I'm caught in the timeframe that is basically limbo where eBay won't step in (and my seller in China claims they don't have the item... of course you don't, China shipping takes longer than US shipping).

adkhighker · ‎01-10-2019

@no_zero369 wrote:
@moondogblues wrote:
General reply...

I buy certain things from China...embroidery floss. I shopped around till I found a seller with great quality and a price 5 times cheaper than Joann's. Yes, it takes about 3 weeks to get to me but I buy several at a time. I also bypass the dept stores here with the 500% markups and buy a lot of clothes from China. Most are just fine, some go into the rag bag, but at 3 or 4 bucks each I have a great wardrobe and no one has to know it didn't come from Macy's...not that I would care about that.

I do worry about child labor and sweat shops...
What you are "buying" with that 500% mark up is:
someone local who cares about you as a customer,
the ability to inspect the product before purchase,
is there to talk to you usually in the same language,
help you decide if item is fit for purpose,
often times can help you get what you need in spite of what you "want!"
can resolve issues with purchases and
who supports the local economy with jobs and taxes paid.

There is a "cost" over all to always buying the cheapest item in the world.

But stuff like this is why B&M retail is under tremendous pressures these days.

Shoot, was in Sears exercising the Craftsman Life Time Warranty ( I paid that 500% premium for a reason) and an associate from Bedding next door came over & covered. The Associate reported they can't sell mattresses anymore. Buyers come in, try out all of the options, figure out what they like/want and then leave and go buy the mattress on line. How is that fair to the local business that helped educate the customer?

I tried that once with some mattresses in a store in my area, but it was only because the salesperson in the store actually told me to do it. The store he worked in was notorious for putting obscene prices on their mattresses beause at the time they had no other competition. He told me they have a price matching policy and if I could go online and find a better price on the exact same mattresses, they would gladly meet it. So I copied all the necessary model names and numbers of 3 different mattresses we were interested in, went home and spent hours without finding any other mattresses with the same exact model name or number. When I went back to the store and told him I couldn't find any other mattresses online with the same names and numbers, he laughed and said "That's because you won't find them." Apparently, the manufacturers at that time were giving unique model names and numbers for each of their retail outlets to prevent people from doing price comparisons online, LOL. I don't know if it's still the case or not that they do that.