Ebay going belly up?

[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.