Is E-bay going down hill

[Guest]

You can't put in your listing that you don't accept PayPal either,eBay will close the listing and give you a warning!

I thought that might be the case, but some seem to have claimed success doing so.

[eightpot]

What do you do when you have a virtual monopoly and want to extract more money from your users?

 

Cream some more off by taking fees from the postage costs as well:

 

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/shopping/2013/09/ebay-sellers-beware-its-fees-now-eat-into-postage-costs

[Tony Brooks]

I think that I am right in saying that Credit card companies have refused legitimate refunds for payments via Papal because you are paying a third party, not the seller.

 

I would rather pay a little more and deal with a real live company that does not do all it can to nullify my consumer rights

[cheshire~rose]

If selling something that is to be collected DO NOT accept a Paypal Payment!

 

I had a preset statement I used in the text of auctions for items to be collected explaining why I could not accept it. eBay never removed my auctions but I have not listed anything since the spring so their policy may have changed.

 

People are scamming sellers with items for collection. They pay by Paypal then rock up to collect the item. you hand it over in the secure knowledge you have their paypal payment in your account. They then a short time later tell ebay they have not received the goods. Paypal refund the money and they have your item and their money.

 

The ONLY proof of delivery acceptable to Paypal is one that is trackable online. Even if you have a signed reciept from the buyer saying he has the goods they do not accept it because they cannot be certain it is not fraudulent

[Jerra]

The ONLY proof of delivery acceptable to Paypal is one that is trackable online. Even if you have a signed reciept from the buyer saying he has the goods they do not accept it because they cannot be certain it is not fraudulent

Interesting! However isn't the final result of a tracking system a signed receipt when the item is handed over?

[Paul C]

Interesting! However isn't the final result of a tracking system a signed receipt when the item is handed over?

 

No, not just the signed receipt - its an electronic record of the courier firm, which will give the status of "delivered", possibly with a signature - and all points in between too. Not so easy to forge the tracking for a parcel delivery on a courier's electronic system.

[Jerra]

 

No, not just the signed receipt - its an electronic record of the courier firm, which will give the status of "delivered", possibly with a signature - and all points in between too. Not so easy to forge the tracking for a parcel delivery on a courier's electronic system.

It still amounts to signed receipt. When I take a in parcel I am asked to sign. I would be interested in what the legal difference between a hand written/computer printed receipt and an electronic one is.

 

I suspect it is merely Paypal finding another way of wriggling out of its responsibilities. Retail business happily relies on till receipts or in some small businesses hand written ones.

[onionbargee]

only problem i have is they have reduced the protection from time wasters for sellers, you can't bad feed back them. Hiking up the selling fees to 10 % did not help. But any physical auction is 30 % premium so it's still reasonable.

[Paul C]

A signed receipt is just between seller and buyer. A delivery tracking record involves a neutral third party.

 

I agree with you in that you're right that Paypal likes to wriggle out of its responsibilities, though.

[blackrose]

I don't think ebay is getting any better or any worse. I just use it for buying mainly. I did sell a motorbike for nearly 1200 quid last December on ebay that I hadn''t had any luck selling on Bike Trader.

 

I know it's frustrating as a buyer when something goes wrong, and a thread on the forum sometimes feels like a good place to let off steam!

[David Mack]

A friend of mine sells second hand books as a sideline. He stopped selling on Ebay when they introduced a requirement that, for books, the winning auction price had to include postage and packing. Some of his stock was going for less than the cost of the p&p. He now sells on Abebooks which he is much happier with.

[comfortably numb]

What I dislike about ebay is that you can't leave negative feedback about a buyer. Last year I sold a van to a winning bid or £1200 (payment on collection) but 3 times in 3 days the biidder didn't turn up for the prearranged collections. When I gave up on him I contacted the 2nd best bidder who'd bid £1,000 but he had in the meantime gone elsewhere.The 3rd highest had bid only £600 so I decided to re-list it and ended up only getting £700 for it.

 

So that time wasting lowlife winning bidder messed me about and had cost me £500 but ebay don't have the facility to .leave feedback on buyers which IMO is bad because he seemed the type who will mess others about.

[onionbargee]

i did just buy a used 10 tonne Hi Force hydraulic jack for £18, listed as £578 in RS catalogue, so i'm not complaining.

 

I have no idea what to do with it yet !

[Orca]

i did just buy a used 10 tonne Hi Force hydraulic jack for £18, listed as £578 in RS catalogue, so i'm not complaining.

 

I have no idea what to do with it yet !

Was the postage £560 per chance. . . .!??!

 

But seriously, the Ebay bargain fest is a never ending feast - even if the platform itself has been slowly sliding into the sand these past 5 years or more. 1999 - 2005 were the best years of Ebay imo..

[mrsmelly]

Hi

 

I have used it extensively for over ten years. I hate shopping so I always use ebay and get whatever delivered. I never buy my cars anywhere else, a huge choice of every imanginable model. of course some are crap as they are at car dealers and everywhere else you just have to know what you want.I bought a car last night from ebay and picked it up, its way better than described and an absolute bargain that I would not have found using any other buying method.

 

Tim

[jonathanA]

I've had more problems in the last few months than in all the years I've been using it. I detest Ebay and Paypal and try to use gumtree and preloved instead whenever possible. They are awful when there is a problem and the much paraded 'protection' they claim is very limited. That said its success makes it hard to ignore and like anything I think you have to be careful and have your eyes wide open at all times.

Edited September 11, 2013 by jonathanA

[carlt]

I bought a car last night from ebay and picked it up, its way better than described and an absolute bargain that I would not have found using any other buying method.

 

Agreed.

 

I am picking up my next, highly unfashionable, car on Friday for £30 more than its scrap value and driving it straight to Cumbria.

 

If it gets me there and back it was cheaper than hiring and anything more is a bonus.

 

If it doesn't make it it goes straight to the scrapyard and I'm £30 out of pocket.

 

I am, however, confident that it will be fine for the duration of its 6 months MOT and I will get at least 1/2 a year's motoring for less than what many folk pay per month for their shiny new motor.

[Paul C]

Agreed.

 

I am picking up my next, highly unfashionable, car on Friday for £30 more than its scrap value and driving it straight to Cumbria.

 

If it gets me there and back it was cheaper than hiring and anything more is a bonus.

 

If it doesn't make it it goes straight to the scrapyard and I'm £30 out of pocket.

 

I am, however, confident that it will be fine for the duration of its 6 months MOT and I will get at least 1/2 a year's motoring for less than what many folk pay per month for their shiny new motor.

 

Sounds interesting - what kind of car and how much?

[carlt]

 

Sounds interesting - what kind of car and how much?

Toyota Carina, £210.

 

Boring reputation for bullet-proof reliability.

[Chertsey]

Toyota Carina, £210.

 

Boring reputation for bullet-proof reliability.

Pah! That's £2 more than I paid for my 240. Mind you, that was getting on for ten years ago (and it's still going great).

[steelaway]

The best thing about eBay is getting rid of unwanted goods - furniture/bathroom suite/ward robes/fireplaces etc etc.

The grief of taking large items to a dump it site is getting worse - NO VANS ALLOWED!

I have put all these items and more on eBay with .99p start and they have all sold. The most rewarding is the fact they are collected and taken away for FREE!

 

Alex

[carlt]

 

The grief of taking large items to a dump it site is getting worse - NO VANS ALLOWED!

 

I have a Peugeot 806 Eurovan for such occasions (£500 with full MOT and 6 months tax off Ebay).

 

Seats out and there's as much room inside as a medium sized van but it is allowed in the tip.

[Paul C]

The best thing about eBay is getting rid of unwanted goods - furniture/bathroom suite/ward robes/fireplaces etc etc.

The grief of taking large items to a dump it site is getting worse - NO VANS ALLOWED!

I have put all these items and more on eBay with .99p start and they have all sold. The most rewarding is the fact they are collected and taken away for FREE!

 

Alex

 

Vans are allowed at our local tip, but you need to fill in a form to get a permit. Which is PITA. They don't allow commercial waste, but they allow domestic waste including vans, trailers etc with the permit. I believe the council have an obligation to take away large items such as you mentioned, if you don't have a car/van then you can phone them up and they'll collect.

 

Of course, selling them for a little bit of money is always more preferable!

[Guest]

I think our best eBay bargain was a folding leaf table for our boat. The wood colour is a perfect match for the inside of the boat. It was from a guy who sold returned stuff from Argos that had been damaged and returned.

 

It had the tinniest dink on one edge but was otherwise perfect, from memory they retailed at well over a hundred quid from Argos and we got it for less than a third of that.

[Orca]

The grief of taking large items to a dump it site is getting worse - NO VANS ALLOWED!

Thankfully Northants reneged on that ridiculous rule years ago; as have many others - though many Counties (seemingly Warks if Carl's post is anything to go by!??!) still enforce it.

 

I remember once a good few years back, taking the oil I had changed in my Escort Van into Rushden tip for recycling - and I turned up in the van with it (which was my then daily runabout). I was turned away (that's around 5 litres of oil) on grounds of 'Trade Waste. I went home (not on a boat then) and fired up my MK2 Escort I had in the garage, put the oil from the Escort Van in the boot and went back to aforementioned tip. Hey presto, no problems!!

 

In a similar vein, Drivers of car derived vans who used them for PLG use, have been 'demonised and loaded' by insurance companies of late. It was far cheaper for me to insure a Volvo T5, than an Escort Van (in terms of PLG useage) within the last 3 years or so. Prior to that, forget it.