I've only had an eBay account for about 45 days. In that time, I've successfully purchased 2 items and unsuccessfully tried to purchase another 2. My two "unsuccesses" were both where a seller listed an item for sale at a wrong price or did not have the item to sell. Supposedly. LOL. eBay allows a seller to CANCEL at whimsy, with a simple statement that "eBay understands that there are certain circumstances under which a sale must be canceled." without specific parameters. You couldn't get away with that in a traditional environment, nor with Amazon.
And... here's the kicker - both of these sellers have 100% positive ratings AND one can't leave feedback on a canceled order. eBay works very hard to suppress buyer feedback. I bid upon and bought stuff based on buyer feedback, only to learn now that all that feedback is managed.
So.... 50% of my orders have had some type of eBay protectionism applied to the seller and absolutely no protection (beyond the minimum legal requirement) to the buyer.
Next time some eBay vendor whines and cries about the exorbitant fees that eBay charges, remind them of the valuable "protection" eBay offers the seller.
Just for giggles, eBay lists a "health crisis" as a reason for NOT closing an account. I always viewed death as a heath crisis. LOL. These guys are just intimidating. So... I've flagged my credit card to deny all eBay activity as fraud for the thirty days I'm waiting for the divorce from eBay to become final. So unhappy with eBay.
So, eBay wants to keep dead people in accounts - this keeps stock price up, and
50% of my attempts to purchase are fake listings - growth in listings also helps eBay stock
So, I'm thinking this through - eBay wants in the banking business desperately, but who would engage any company with a lack of ethics in a financial arrangement? Heck, they can't even administer the law within their own Seller community, how are they going to administer financial regulations in the heavily oversighted world of banking? It's like Kroger also wants in the banking business. would you give control of your assets to an organization that can't even keep milk stocked in the dairy case?
On the other hand, take a look at Amazon.... values buyers and has built a reputation for customer service that over-arches the individual Amazon resellers. To such a degree that Amazon Web Services has become the defacto leader in large scale eCommerce. Mainly due to the reputation built in a relatively short time.
I would suggest to eBay that a re-addressing of corporate policy be reconsidered with an eye toward consumer protection law. You can't list something you don't have. You can't list an item for a price and not sell it. Well, I guess that in the case of eBay you actually CAN!!
Inceptions
