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!