Ebay, like all other large corporations are in business to make money. It no longer matters how. They know that if you stop using their platform 10 others will start. It is a perpetual revolving door of "who cares - 10 others will join today".
I am a long time client of ebay and used their site regularly.
The first thing that bothered me was when people started to offer a $100 item for $1 and shipping for $99.
They did this to circumvent the fees from the selling price. It was deceptive and ebay should have terminated their accounts. Instead ebay put fees on shipping costs to insure the scammers wouldn't be able to scam. But that punished the decent honest people. I once purchased a large, heavy item for $1200. Shipping was $600. I could not buy that item today because the selling fees and shipping fees would be exorbitant.
That ended listing and buying large items on ebay.
The next problem I have is when I look for some antique and a billion new items appear as "antique". I have to spend hours searching for what I want. It isn't worth my time.
Then there is the "numbers" game. I searched for a 5" hole saw from lowest to highest price. An infinite amount of offers popped up with prices quoted in a "range". ( ie $2.75 - 57.23) In these posts you select the size you want to buy but now I have to look through each one just to see what the 5" saw costs. More time wasted.
Next there is the "algorithms" game. This is when ebay steers you to a particular item. I looked for a computer module for my car and ebay presented one that was inoperative. Friends told me there about a dozen of them listed that didn't appear for me. Here's how that works: Someone has an item that has been listed for a very long time and is not selling. ebay will present only that item to a buyer who is not a regular buyer hoping that he buys it and the seller is happy finally selling it. Ebay is trying to keep the seller happy at the expense of the buyer. When my friends told me the item numbers of the items that did not appear on my screen I was finally able to see them. Deceptive.
With refunds, I and several friends have fought many times with ebay to get a refund from items that were not as described. Sometimes the seller never even answered ebay! Ebay would rather keep sellers with higher volume sales happy than you. You represent a small profit and the seller represents big money to ebay.
The worst thing for a seller is that someone sees your product and is ready to purchase it. They scroll down and see ebay lists ads of the same product for other sellers. Ebay makes a profit for listing these ads and doesnt care that they are directing your customer away from you. Why sell anything if ebay is going to steer your customers away to others?
These are things that I and others have tested and found to be true. I could go on with more.
Ebay used to be fun but now it has become so complicated that it isn't worth the time.
Every time they say they are improving or making it easier is a farce.
I don't know why no one has developed a rival auction platform that only charges a flat fee of $5 for selling and buying. If a million people list items and they sell that would generate $10,000,000 dollars.
Doesn't that motivate any or those computer wizards out there?
mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
