@timme.au2015,

I wouldn't say that I am cynical about memberships, offers, etc... but I am cautious.

My view is that as a general rule, one doesn't get something for nothing. If eBay is offering discounts as part of a benefit scheme (i.e., eBay Plus), eBay is getting something out of it. Obviously there is the benefit of an assured amount of money coming in from eBay Plus membership fees - and assured money is not to be underestimated. It also seems to me that eBay have done the number crunching and calculated that they will gain at the expense of someone else.

Some of the foreseeable results of eBay Plus seem (to me) to be

• some buyers increasing their eBay spending just to get what they consider the highest benefit out of their eBay Plus membership (spending more than they can really afford, in some cases)
• some buyers not buying enough to offset the eBay Plus membership fee
• some buyers over-using the free returns to the point that they will be put on notice by eBay (perhaps by PayPal as well) as having abused the system
• some sellers falsely inflating costs (as crow has described) to give the illusion of a saving that has not actually occurred
• some "free postage for eBay Plus members" offers falsely giving the impression of a saving when those same items are available with free postage (AKA postage included) without being an eBay Plus member.

I think it's open to abuse, and I certainly wouldn't pay to gain a benefit which may anyway turn out not to be such a benefit after all. Most of us are price-comparison-savvy nowadays, surely! I cannot count the number of times that I've found better value through doing the thing, and even more so through face-to-face negotiation. I often find that shopping in-store has benefits that flow on from my shopping decisions, such as being able to talk through item features, hearing about soon-to-be-released new models that might suit me better, and so on.

eBay Plus may suit some people. It isn't for me.

ANYWAY... in terms of being cautious, I am sorry that you were caught out by eBay Plus terms & conditions. Of course you should have read the T&Cs... but research shows that the majority of people don't. If you contacted eBay using the regular eBay phone number, it does make a horrible sort of sense that the CS rep to whom you spoke didn't advise you about how to cancel your eBay Plus membership - but I agree that it's confusing and that you may have expected the call to be all that you needed to do.

My advice is that you take on a little of my caution. Memberships are very very very often set up in such a way that you must SPECIFICALLY follow a particular method in order to cancel. You would certainly not be the only person to try to cancel eBay Plus membership (or any other online membership) without following the exact procedure outlined in the T&Cs; be aware that this is part of how online memberships work, and it always works for the benefit of the company or group offering the membership. I know those T&Cs can seem like too much stuff to read - but it's to your benefit to read them.

I so frequently see TL; DR posted. Sometimes it's in response to long-winded or wordy posts. (Guilty, m'lud.) But you owe it to YOURSELF not to be a TL; DRer when it comes to terms and conditions relating to your money. If you don't read those T&Cs, and lose out, you'll kick yourself!