Ebay's and Paypal's Loss

[kaibacorp*]

I've been a member for about 10 years and I have had many problems with eBay.
Up to this point I have been as tolerant as a saint; but no more.
I'm throwing eBay where it belongs; in the garbage and here are the reasons why.

- Unacceptable customer protection. I was sent a DOA item worth around $1500 and seller refused to refund. eBay did refund me, but about 10 months later.

- Inventing nonsense reasons for denying customers protection. For example; poker software designed to improve your poker play is ineligible for buyer protection because eBay consider it the same as gambling. And I only have to speculate that, that's the reason because they either wont or are just unable to give the reason why they deny customer protection.

- Online help page says wait time for eBay support is 1 minute. Real time is 30+ minutes.

- eBay charging sellers fees for postage cost; which is unethical.

- Originally they screwed over sellers and to some degree buyers by a complicated money exchanging scam. Later on they changed their policy on this and allowed customers to hold different currencies; e.g. AUD & USD.

I think eBay was originally a good idea, you know, like ordinary people selling stuff over the internet to each other. But now it seems that it's become an amalgam of online stores. They have gone away from that original idea of democratising selling and buying in a safe environment where for example your wife can sell that toaster oven that you accidentally bought. They've went from that idea to pandering to argumentative, giant online stores who hate their customers.

I can't recommend eBay a.k.a Paypal to anyone unless it was a life or death kind of situation because all that they are, is another business with $$$ symbols in their eyes, more than happy to rob you whenever they get the opportunity.

[this-one-time-at-bandcamp]

I guess the only thing that can put eBay right is competition.  

A dozen challengers to eBay's dominance have come and gone over the years.

[kaibacorp* · Accepted solution]

eBay started charging for postage because sellers would lowball "buy it now's", and jack up the postage.  I bought a hand-stitched wall hanging of plum blossoms back years ago.  It sold for $40, but the shipping was $150 from China.

I figured that would have been the reason. It puts sellers in an awkwared position. So now we have to charge postage cost + 5% (or whatever) for the fee. How can eBay call it a postage cost when it's now a postage cost + eBay fee? - That's what I find deceptive about it.

For the solution; I think I will stick with eBay until something better pops up. It's hard to say what went wrong with eBay, but I think it was probably just greed.

[#4 · Accepted solution]

eBay started charging for postage because sellers would lowball "buy it now's", and jack up the postage.  I bought a hand-stitched wall hanging of plum blossoms back years ago.  It sold for $40, but the shipping was $150 from China.

I figured that would have been the reason. It puts sellers in an awkwared position. So now we have to charge postage cost + 5% (or whatever) for the fee. How can eBay call it a postage cost when it's now a postage cost + eBay fee? - That's what I find deceptive about it.

For the solution; I think I will stick with eBay until something better pops up. It's hard to say what went wrong with eBay, but I think it was probably just greed.