Ebay going belly up?

[weisyboy]

acording to today tonight ebay is not going to last mutch longer due to poor customer service.

i do not belive that this is at all true there are so many people on ebay it would take one hell of a lot of people to leave.

and as for there customer service.

my question is what customer service?

you are dealing with other people not with ebay so the customer service depends on the seller not on ebay.

[Stuart]

I don't watch those b***s**t shows. Sorry, but they are just totally full of inaccuracy and crap. I saw the corresponding article in a PC magazine (written in conjunction with the Today Tonight or whatever it was). Combination of a bunch of whiners, and some solid grievances.

I don't understand their base premise about eBay being uncontactable. Whenever I have needed to, I have emailed eBay and always received a timely reply.

When I've needed more immediate help, I've used the live-help, and had a conversation online with someone from eBay within 30 seconds.

Needless to say, I rarely buy off eBay - too many bad deals. I've been generally very happy with selling. Buyers generally have been fine, and I've had a couple 100 successful sales of stuff I no longer need.

So eBay about to fail? I really don't think so.

[prozac]

[quote=weisyboy;706477]
my question is what customer service?
quote]

That's when everyone you buy tools from is quite happy to sell you lots more tools off-line, and with a big smile.

prozac

[Incoming!]

Mmm - I wonder if that means that paypal is looking shaky as well. Time to withdraw all funds methinks, if there is any truth in the rumour.

[Claw Hama]

I have bought a heap of tools and other trinkets from ebay and have never had a bad deal or experience, I think its the best thing since battery drills.

[weisyboy]

it is a greate recorce.

they dont miss a trick. ebay charges a fee to list, a % of the final sale price, then paypal charges u a fee when they pay and tehn charges you again to withdaw your money.

[Stuart]

Today tonight creating an accurate rumour? That's even less likely than eBay failing

[rod@plasterbrok]

I had a very successful ebay store until they jacked up the price by over 100% making it no longer viable.

I know many other who also closed their stores.

[aljenit]

it is a greate recorce.

they dont miss a trick. ebay charges a fee to list, a % of the final sale price, then paypal charges u a fee when they pay and tehn charges you again to withdaw your money.

Sure they charge fees for service.They are providing a forum for transactions, just like a LIVE auction house charges lot fees & buyer & seller premiums. No difference IMHO.
They won't go belly up, but they don't have to improve there administrative game until there is competition for them???? :?:? Graysonline,auctionbidz,ozfreeonline don't seem to becoming coming close to Ebay's market share. Are there any others in the ballpark?

[DavidG]

Imagine if Amazon moved into the auction area.

[Stuart]

Wonder who will buy who - I imagine one will try to take over the other before they actively compete. Both are very big on acquiring other sites.

[RufflyRustic]

Amazon?? Interesting!! They may have the internet presence but do they have the ability to deliver?

[Stuart]

They are that big, but as far as buying eBay? Both are probably too big for the other to afford. Both have their fingers in many many pies.

Google could swallow both I imagine (and one day might!)

[woodbe]

Ebay has generated a lot of bad press for itself by hiking it's prices and trying to make the penny sales unprofitable. They say that they are trying to lose the fleamarket image.

I unloaded about $700 worth of old stuff on ebay this month, seller fees ran $42 odd. Give that these items were going to sit unused in the cupboard for the next 100 years, that's not a bad deal from my point of view.

Amazon run a secondhand product setup already, but I think they are too US-Centric to be relevant to Australia as an auction site. They are also under the thumb of many US manufacturers and won't ship a lot of product to Australia.

Google has been setting up payments, I wouldn't be surprised to see them move in this area, but who knows?

woodbe.

[Stuart]

I did the same - moved about $2K worth, and it cost about $130 or so. There is no way I'd have gotten the same return from any other selling channel, so for me eBay still has plenty of life. Hopefully it still has the next time I need to upgrade some tools!

[Gra]

the big question is, if there is a run on paypal, will ebay sue today tonight for spreading rumors or defamation or ???

Just thinking out loud here

[Incoming!]

I wonder if the bad customer service is the alleged problem with paypal's freezing money in the event of a dispute. Could just be net myths, but there are quite a few horror stories re double payments, freezing of money for months at a time, and no legal recourse (financially viable recourse, that is)

[bsrlee]

I watched some of the show while cooking dinner the other day.

1 fairly concrete complaint was with PayPal, Ebay' s wholly owned subsidiary, freezeing a blokes bank account because of 'irregular transactions' - he had only 1 transaction ever, the buyer had confirmed he had recieved the goods, was happy with the goods & had not instituted any complaint - PayPal were just sitting on about $8,000 of the sellers money. In the US this apparently is a common occurrence with PayPal, if you have a fair ammount of money in the bank account linked to PayPal they send down a reverse transaction for the value of the contents & 'freeze' or zero your account, then stonewall you on any details - such as 'irregular transactions'.

No.2 was a whiney kid, who actually seemed to have a point - he had paid for some goods, never delivered so he complained to Ebay. The seller then supplied a parcel tracking number that was stated by Australia Post to be bogus. Ebay then said basically - tough, he supplied a number, we don't care that it is bogus. The second part of his complaint was that when you contacted 'live help' all the advice given was just cut-and-paste text from the on-line 'help' - no actual help was given, just a mindless parroting of the standard text.

As for the 'Ebay going under' line - absolute B.S of the first order. No company can go on expanding at an exponential rate for ever - which was what the drongo presenters were trying to imply. There are simply not enough people. The ever expanding line is what the con men use in 'pyramid selling' and similar schemes - just keep recruiting people & you will get rich - but pay us lots first, you never get paid because there are not an infinite supply of gullible victims.

Ebay is quite happy being the biggest fish in the biggest pond, but some shareholders seem to be demanding ever increasing profits, which is what is driving the increased fees. Whether this will enable some smaller fish to survive remains to be seen - Ebay has deep pockets and could easily club any serious competitor out of the market, and being international in scope it would be hard - but not impossible - to take action against them for monopolistic practices - look at Microsoft, propping up Apple in the US to keep an illusion of competition going, but being 'spanked' in the U.S. & Europe for being naughty, but nothing really changing - in Microsoft's case n the U.S., they simply threatened to pull the U.S. Government's permission to use Microsoft products - use Unix they laughed.

[patty]

just my observationWhilst I agree with some who have stated here there are still some good bargains to be had on Ebay, I believe it has become to "commercialised" if that is the right word to use? that the majority of it now is just an advertising tool classifieds (the trading Post website is the same) for companies shops outlets etc that really offer no genuine discounts or excellent buys and basically just use it is a "email brochure" and the so called "refurbished products" are so overpriced you are better off going to buy new at the local Harvey Norman or whoever when their on special and get the full Warranty and all the guff without going through all the "red tape" so to speak, when Ebay first started it was great! bargains were everywhere! now it is so popularised by resellers predominantly,preying on private sellers,these resellers have the buying power and push the Auction sale price of the sellers items to ridiculous levels making it not worthwhile even seasrching for a bargain anymore Greys Online is also going that way!!!

[Stuart]

As I mentioned - didn't see the article, but read the writeup in the PC magazine.

Can't speak for other people's experiences, but every time I've used the online help, I've had quite an amicable conversation with the other person, and have always been happy that I have understood the answers given (whether or not I was on the winning side, I've agreed with the result). I can't actually think of a time where I didn't have my issue resolved with only a few minutes of conversation.

Re Paypal - I tried once, selling items offering Paypal. I did not like the level of access to my money afterwards, so I now refuse to offer it as an option. I might have missed out on some bids, but that's the choice I've made.

I have bought using Paypal quite successfully, the most recent from GMC (toysfortheboys)

[Cruzi]

Its a crock, eBay will not be failing soon.

Paypal is no longer an option as a) the fees stink, and b)the buyer says I never recieved the item, the money goes back , worse still the money goes whole, so you are out of pocket the initial fees. This is good for buyers who don't get items, but it is abused because the onus is on seller to provide proof of delivery.

Ebay Protection is a crock.

Bought 2 handplanes from a seller, who then dropped off the face of the earth. Ebay wanted copy of bank statment, proof of auction, my details (including if I scrunch or fold), proof of non-delivery (!?!?!?) and charge $25 per item. So before recovery process began was down $50 in their fees and $20 in postage, out of a total bill of $134. Failed to prove they were never delivered, saying the item is not here is not proof apparently.

However, when I left feedback of "No delivery, No communication, Ebay protection a joke" it was gone in 24hrs.

[echnidna]

I closed my ebay shop as the fees were disgusting.

I buy & sell with paypal. It is extremely convenient as I live in the sticks and I don't have to post credit card details every time I want to buy something. And I can buy from os too.

I don't have any issues with Paypal fees. You go to your bank and get a foriegn currency bank cheque and you'll really find out about high fees. Paypal is very cheap compared to banks.

I empty my paypal account AND the tied bank so theres normally only $100 floating in it.

[Cruzi]

Paypal is very cheap compared to banks

Yes and no, for small transactions it is cheaper, for large transactions it is very expensive compared to banks.

[woodbe]

I happily pay using paypal and creditcard, it works well. You need to be a regular seller to make it worthwhile to accept it for selling as the upfront fees for a trader account are too high.

The stuff I sold recently was all paid direct deposit. No one questioned the lack of paypal, and the cash was in the account within 24 hours.

woodbe.

[snowyskiesau]

I don't think I used Paypal for any eBay purchase. It's all been direct deposit.
The exception was a lathe I bought which was COD - but it was delivered.

No problems to date with any purchase.

The only complaint I have with eBay is really with some (most) of the sellers and their shipping charges.

[Incoming!]

There is an interesting range of experiences on this thread which seems to parallel ebay/paypal experiences that one reads about on the net.

And that's worrying. If you could determine once and for all that a particular service or site was either good or bad, you could make your decision accordingly, as to whether or not to use it.

But with both ebay and paypal, there doesn't appear to be any consistency. It seems as if you just have to ride the rollercoaster, and wait for a possible spill - a bit like the sharemarket.

In the meantime, I think I'll take Echidna's advice and keep emptying the paypal and allied account.