Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to expect the listed price to be what I pay on eBay?

36 replies

Allaboutthatcake · 17/01/2018 23:07

I’m sick of browsing eBay, finding exactly what I need for say 99p then I click on the listing, select the option I want and it turns out the organza bag I can buy to put it in is 99p but the item is £6. This is becoming more and more common and I find it so irritating. There’s no point in putting things in price order if the price listed is for a completely different item!

Another example - looking at nit combs (long story). I specifically want a metal one. I see one for 99p, it’s clearly metal in the picture. Great. I go into the listing and the one in the photo is 3 quid but I can have a plastic one for 99p.

AIBU? Should I just be patient and spend the time clicking into every individual listing?

OP posts:
ThisLittleKitty · 17/01/2018 23:51

Oh yeh this drives me mad.

GreenTulips · 17/01/2018 23:54

Not as bad as 'UK' only only to see its shipped from China and a 6 week wait! How's that possible?

Original poster
Allaboutthatcake · 17/01/2018 23:59

Oh yes greentulips that drives me mad too. I just want up front, truthful listings. Is it so much to ask for?!

OP posts:
Witchend · 18/01/2018 00:02

Try buying fabric. Every stupid bit you can buy a sample for 99p. I'll bet almost no one buys a sample.
And then you have one which you're about to order and find it's per 1/2 m.

19lottie82 · 18/01/2018 00:03

This is annoyingly, becoming very common.

It’s a trick that sellers use to try and get their listings to the top when buyers sort the cheapest to appear first.

condepetie · 18/01/2018 00:12

@GreenTulips people in China and other countries can sell at very cheap wholesale prices, however those prices are due to the items being shipped via actual ships in containers, rather than by air. It takes a long time for an item to be shipped halfway around the world when it's on an actual ship, but it's much, much cheaper than air transit.

WitchIwasaWitch18 · 18/01/2018 00:27

YANBU It is time wasting, frustrating and feels faintly dishonest.

Ariela · 18/01/2018 00:42

I hope you are reporting all these annoying cheats to ebay.
Personally I find it annoying in my day job as a retailer to get folk ask you for advice, which is freely given - then tell you 'I'll look on ebay and see if I can get it cheaper' without thinking how rude it is.

AuroraBora · 18/01/2018 00:51

Witchend yes to fabric!! I’ve been trying to find cheap cotton lawn on eBay and if you filter by cheapest first it has a load of 99p samples of £25/metre liberty fabrics before anything remotely useful. Argh!!

GameofPhones · 18/01/2018 00:52

As Justin said in the last Archers episode, it's always 'Caveat emptor' - 'Buyer beware!'

CherryMaDeara · 18/01/2018 06:09

GreenTulips people in China and other countries can sell at very cheap wholesale prices, however those prices are due to the items being shipped via actual ships in containers, rather than by air. It takes a long time for an item to be shipped halfway around the world when it's on an actual ship, but it's much, much cheaper than air transit.

condepetie the point is that if you tick the box saying you only want items located in UK, you shouldn't get items located in other countries come up. It is dishonest for people in other countries to list the item as being in the UK.

I have been caught out like this. I wanted to return something for a refund because it wasn't as described, and the seller in China didn't want to pay for return postage. They knew they were infringing eBay policy by pretending to be located in the UK so offered me the useless item for free.

Soubriquet · 18/01/2018 06:27

No it is a right pain in the arse.

"Ooo 99p and free postage bargain!"

"No wait...it's £6.99 and it's coming from China...bollocks to this"

GreenTulips · 18/01/2018 07:06

@GreenTulips people in China and other countries .... yes I know how it works - that wasn't the point . I don't want to wait 6 weeks. I want it's posted today.

BrawneLamia · 18/01/2018 07:14

Really annoying. I tend to scroll past all listings with a range of prices and look at the cheapest one with a single price. The China thing is really irritating too. I've started to use amazon more and ebay less for buy it now items because of these things.

19lottie82 · 18/01/2018 07:37

It’s not just Chinese sellers that do this, it’s pretty common in the U.K. too.

streetlife70s · 18/01/2018 08:06

Same Brawnlamia. I gave up eBay entirely a year ago for the same reason. So fed up of accidentally buying something from ‘UK’ then waiting weeks for it from China.

I shop on Amazon now. Although still lots of China sellers it’s much more obvious who they are and easier to avoid.

Original poster
Allaboutthatcake · 18/01/2018 08:07

Yeah it’s become very common, it doesn’t seem to be against the rules though.

I’ve now had three sellers in s row cancel my orders because they’re not in stock. Why list them then?!

OP posts:
10thingsIhateAboutTheDailyMail · 18/01/2018 08:09

I am done with ebay

It was good in the beginning, but to me pointless now

lalalonglegs · 18/01/2018 08:18

I had this earlier in the week trying to buy wood flooring. Virtually everything was 99p which I knew was for a sample but I had to click on every listing to find out what the price per metre would be which was tiresome. I then found some at a good price, phoned up to ask some questions and was prepared to buy it but it turned out the price per square metre listed (a) was only if I bought more than 200 sq m (b) didn't include VAT Hmm.

ShatnersWig · 18/01/2018 08:22

Was only thinking the other day that I used to get things off ebay with some frequency a good 12-14 years ago. Haven't used it for probably 10 now. Silly things like this cropped up occasionally and it used to annoy me. Clearly I made the right move!

Original poster
Allaboutthatcake · 18/01/2018 14:52

Was this on eBay?

OP posts:
CocaineAndCaviar · 18/01/2018 15:06

YANBU. I hate ebay now. It used to be brilliant for both buying and selling, now it's just shit.

Postage prices have become ridiculous (£20 for a tiny £1 item?!); stuff supposedly located in UK only to end up coming from elsewhere (usually China) after weeks of waiting; tracking numbers never work; items arriving and not even being close to what is shown in the photos; buyers signing stuff with a fake signature and then flagging up a ticket with PayPal/eBay knowing full well they ALWAYS side with the buyers and get their money back.

DGRossetti · 18/01/2018 15:12

I thought with all this artificial intelligence, they'd have nailed it ?

(OP has described what I call "The Amazon Problem").

Another bugbear, is when the filters only work with shit you don't care about (like colour) and don't allow you to filter on important stuff (like memory capacity).

Part of the problem is there's no staff at eBay/Amazon to actually do the work - they rely on the descriptions the vendors supply. And vendors worked out years ago, that putting "suitable for iPhone" in the description means that their phone sock will be top of the list when you are looking for sub £100 iPhones ....

19lottie82 · 18/01/2018 15:13

“buyers signing stuff with a fake signature and then flagging up a ticket with PayPal/eBay knowing full well they ALWAYS side with the buyers and get their money back”

If a buyer claims item hasn’t been received but seller has a proof of delivery then the seller wins all the time.

Littlepond · 18/01/2018 15:16

I never use eBay anymore for many reasons, but the misleading prices is so annoying, I agree.