Has Ebay really got this bad?

[Lyndaishistory]

"Warranty Information:
I'm going to start by saying the item is sold "AS IS, That is, no refund!" But it doesn't matter. As long as you submit a request for return under the category of "not as described" (even if it was), eBay will allow you to send back the item despite any of my objections or how valid your reason is. Want a bad ass CPU for a weekend lan party? Order here and when your done return it under the "not as described category". Want to test out a piece of hardware you aren't familiar with? No problem! When you're done with it just request a return under "not as described category" (even if it was). To reiterate, the party line is, the item is sold as is with no refunds. But just tell eBay it wasn't as described (even if it was) and they will seize the money out of my paypal the second you request the return. When I ask eBay to intervene, there automated system will automatically grant you your request regardless of any objections I have, or evidence I wish to present. AND.... if that isn't enough, it will generate a return label and you can send it back at my expensive. So, even though I'm just one guy working out of my garage, selling used electronics, you can buy with the same amount of confidence you would with Amazon, because as far as eBay is concerned, I may as well be."

Seen a lot of these types of messages in independent sellers listings, recently.
Has Ebay really go this bad? I remember it being a great place to sell things but recently I sold a couple of things that (unfortunately) went for 99p. I ended up owing ebay money for those listings.
Is there an alternative? Or will Ebay continue to get worse?

Link:
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sigma-Designs-Realmagic-EM8300-/163201304485?nordt=true&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.m43663.l10137

I haven't bought anything off ebay in 10 years. Used to use it with some regularity, although mostly for smallish items. Think that says it all.

I've given up on eBay altogether.
I sold a bugaboo stroller. Local collection only. Took detailed photos and listed that it was all there except the rain cover but I provided a link to purchase a new one.
Woman with private feedback bought it. No message to arrange to collect for a week. I always send a courtesy email 24 hours after a collection only item sells. I then sent another after 3 days. Was about to relist and she messages that she will be sending a courier. She then paid PayPal.
I politely refunded and said no courier, I didn't have a box big enough and it had stated collection only.
She finally turns up to collect out the blue, luckily I was in. She was exceptionally rude demanding to know why I didn't have extra cosy toes and asking for the price of the rain cover taken off, which I declined but I gave her the option of backing out. Her partner threw the buggy in their truck. No thank you, money chucked at me.
Within two hours she started a case and won. I had £150 and a buggy stolen from me. Police had no interest either as it's a civil matter.
However, I bought an exhaust for my car a few months back which never arrived. Was listed as 48 hour courier. Sat in for 4 days. Even Yodel admitted they had lost it. Seller sent forged signature document to eBay, eBay ignored my evidence of emails from yodel admitting liability. I lost £50.
Watch gumtree though, I've had scammers on there too. And Facebook are terrible as people can down rate you out of spite (Was selling a vintage hifi worth over £100, buyer offered £20. When I said no he down rated me for fair pricing and friendliness).

I’ve used it for years with relatively good experiences, both as a buyer and a seller. I just sold a pair of used shoes on there and got a decent price for them.

I have had one buyer claim not to have received a dress. I had proof of postage but not signature as I’d just sent it standard second class. Had to refund her. I could have claimed it back from Royal Mail, but I didn’t bother.

I also had a complaint that a dress I’d sold was damaged and had been (badly) repaired. It was a second hand one I’d found in a charity shop and didn’t like on, so I sold it. The buyer was absolutely right about it and I had to refund her, but rightly so.

Another complained about the stitching being a bit stretched on a dress I sold. I offered to let her return it to me and I’d have refunded but she said it was ok. Didn’t ask for any compensation or partial refund or anything.

Bad experiences as a buyer, when I’ve had to report have been when I bought a pushchair through buy it now and paid for it, only to be asked for more money afterwards . Obviously I said no.

I also bid on a pushchair before I looked again at the photos and realised it was a different model to the one advertised. I confirmed with the manufacturer etc and then had by bid removed by eBay, as the seller wouldn’t reply to me when I pointed it out and said I no longer wanted to bid.

I eventually got my secondhand pushchair off eBay when I bid on an auction. I bid up to about £80 and got it for £40, as not enough other bids. My dad went to collect it for me and the seller was really pissed off at how little it had sole for. My poor dad didn’t know what to say! The seller was demanding to know if I planned to resell for a bit profit on eBay. It was a bargain, fair enough. My dad gave him a bit extra as he was so grumpy about it. I don’t know why he didn’t put a reserve on it tbh!

Every other transaction has been fine though. I’ve bought some shot products on there, but never any out and out scams that I know of.

I think it works as long as you aren’t too fussed. I don’t know how people make a living out of it. It’s just a way of getting rid of stuff for me. And I only post decent stuff for low prices, so I’m usually pleasantly surprised!

I'm not selling on there anymore as I'm sick of this happening. Just happened with a pair of boots. I just told them to donate them to the charity shop. Bet they don't.

Jesus typos^^. Sorry. My phone has gone a bit weird today!

I gave up a few years ago despite being a member who bought and sold since 2003... remember the days of posting a cheque?!

I loved it. Like a giant online boot sale.

I haven't had any particularly bad experiences but I read so many dreadful stories on the mumsnet eBay forum I decided stop as it seemed only a matter of time.

Three things killed it for me:

1/ Inability to leave negative feedback for buyers.
2/ Royal Mail increasing postage costs a few years back.
3/ EBay encouraging international selling from private individuals so you get messages from all over the world when you are selling an item for a few £. It is just too much hard work for a few £ profit.

Facebook marketplace is s good place to sell at the moment. I'll wait for Facebook to interfere and make that so business like it puts individuals off.

I love eBay as a buyer but I'm wary as a seller after reading horror stories on here.

I only sell if it's a large item that I can get cash on collection for or a small low value item that I won't be out of pocket for if it goes tits up. I've not been scammed as a buyer or seller yet and I've been using eBay since 2006.

Jaffa you are clearly part of the problem

I find that with FB and Spock that everyone wants something for nothing and half of the time they don't turn up to collect.

FuckPants, thanks for that. If the item was at the delivery office and unclaimed, it would have been returned. I didn’t have a red card or I would have got off my lazy arse and gone to the delivery office. It’s not the buyer’s fault the item didn’t arrive.

And Fairgame, if the problem is scammer buyers, in what way am I part of the problem?

A friend of mine has been trying to sell a sofa. Potential buyer was interested but can't collect so was wanting to discuss couriers etc, friend sent her phone number in a message. Ebay have accused her of trying to sell it 'privately' and have charged her £20! The sofa hasn't sold.

No I won't sell on there any more. Sold some kids clothes in perfect condition. Buyer then lodged a complaint they were stained, when I asked where the stain was it was the front which I'd taken photos of. Not impressed

I’ll never use it to buy or sell again. Had two really bad experiences as a seller.
Proper aggressive cunts. Completely trying to rip me off. Both times claiming I was scamming them with fake goods. I was just selling two bottles of perfume I’d had as gifts but didn’t like. It didn’t matter what I said. They got their money back and both arseholes had opened and used the scent (one nearly half the bottle) making a resale entirely pointless.

I've done a lot of selling on eBay as a business seller but I'm having a break from it at the moment as it was getting irritating. The majority of sales were trouble free but the small percentage that weren't took up a lot if time.
These were my bug bears:
EBay fees going up a lot.
Seller support sometimes excellent, sometimes dire.
I always sent Hermes tracked, sometimes customers claimed it hadn't arrived even when they'd signed for it but eBay usually found in my favour.
Clothing buyers grr! We were selling brand new ex catalogue stock, all in bags and tagged. The amount of people who tried to claim not as described or faulty when really it just didn't fit so they didn't have to pay return postage. Not only did this cost us in postage (eBay told me to put postage up on all items to cover this) but it showed as faults on my account.
I might come back to it but not with clothes!

I still use eBay to sell and haven't had too many bad experiences, but I find it best to put stuff up with no end date as Buy It Now, but allowing people to make an offer. The BIN is always what I would love to be paid for the item but I will often accept around half. It means you'll never have a bidding war and end up with a massive payday, but you'll never end up with stuff going for 99p. Fingers crossed it continues to work out well for me!

Watch gumtree though, I've had scammers on there too

Gumtree is now owned by bay

Interesting that others have also had had buyers suggesting a courier for collection only items, claiming that they'll take the hit if the item goes AWOL. It's worth remembering that the responsibility for getting items to the buyer is always the sellers ... something that the scamming buyers have probably factored in when suggesting "their" courier in the first place

I had this when selling a valuable antique and received the most filthy abuse when I refused a courier on the above basis. And ebay wouldn't remove that either ...

@19lottie82 They're saying the original item was lost in the post and they have dispatched another (which also hasn't arrived yet)

It's an item by a British brand that has been discontinued and their registered address is in Manchester so I think it's a case of crappy customer service rather than scam and I can open a case up to 90 days after so I will get my item (eventually) or a refund so I'm irritated rather than concerned

I used to love EBay I hadn’t used it for years but tried to buy two items recently.

The first item I bought was done by a U.K. only search as I wanted the item before we went on holiday. Head office address was Manchester and delivery was 2-3 days. I received an email a few days later advising delivery was going to be another week. I tried to cancel as the item would’t be delivered on time. Couldn’t cancel as the item was on its way from China. I emailed the seller who begged me to accept and not request a refund and begged me not to leave negative or neutral feedback.

The second was with a ‘click and collect’ item.

I was the only bidder so won the item. I tried to pay after the auction ended but the C&C wasn’t working. I decided to try again in the morning. Same problem.

I contacted the seller to explain - no response.

I contacted eBay when I eventually found how to contact them and chatted through their online helpdesk. I advised of the problem. They said there was a problem on some C&C and he would report it to IT so they could look into it. I asked how long it would take - he didn’t know. I asked if there was a way to work around the problem and he said to pay postage. This would make the item £12 dearer. I asked if eBay would refund as it was an issue beyond my control. No they wouldn’t.

I contacted the seller and explained the situation. I asked him to see if he could sort out the C&C from his end, I also explained that I would pull out of the sale as I could not pay via C&C. I had also informed EBay of this.

Seller got back to me a couple of days later advising C&C wasn’t a listed option - I sent screenshots showing the C&C advised as an option. Seller wasn’t happy but cancelled the sale.

I have never used C&C before or since.

I am totally put off using eBay now.

@Puzzledandpissedoff that figures. Although their Twitter help was so good both times. Couldn't fault it (and due to one chancer being threatening over the phone and leaving pretty vile voicemail threats I had to involve the Police, gumtree actually cooperated and helped and later banned the individual involved).

Now it makes sense that they've recently added feedback on there.

You need a 24 hour dedicated customer service team to sell your old stuff on ebay these days.

@TheOnlyLivingMumInNewCross how did the buyer get the money back if cash on collection?? I always assumed that PayPal can't take money from your account if there wasn't a corresponding transaction/enough money (I may of course be wrong)

@MorrisDancingViv that was what I thought, and when I contacted eBay they said they could indeed take it. Especially as the buyer originally paid me via PayPal.

@MorrisDancingViv as mentioned I no longer risk selling on there, but unless it's changed recently you have to offer Paypal as an option, even with supposedly cash on collection items

Since there can be no proof of delivery scammers were taking massive advantage of this, so ebay announced that "Item Not Received" refunds would no longer be granted when goods have been collected. Unfortunately, seller reports suggest this isn't working and that the refunds are still happening

Amazon is even worse! They will charge more than twice what you are selling a book for, and then take awhole month to send you any money you might have made.