I have purchased quite a few times on ebay.in. I have found them to be good and didn’t face any problems before. So I thought its a good site. But the real test for any online site is in 3 things - (1) ensuring the buyer gets excatly what he pays for and in perfect condition, (2) ensuring he gets in on time and (3) ensuring that they resolve problems when they happen.
I have found, to my dismay, that ebay customer support and resolution is very poor. I had bought a panel for my phone and the wring item was delivered, I was told to courier it back for a refund. I did. Thankfully the seller accepted the mistake and did the refund. But no one advise on how the courier charges are to be refunded. Then after a online chat with ebay, I was told to send the bill via scan to them and ebay would do the refund if approved.
That was 10 days ago. Am still "online chatting" and they are to "get back". There is no integrated customer service cell where a complaint number is registered and followed. Here, you get automated mails and nothing else. You will be told that they will get back in 48 hours, but that’s not the case. You need to follow up. The guy on the other end of the online chat has no ability to do anything but to respond as per the normal templates. There is no resolution to your particular problem immediately.
My lesson has been that ebay is ok if no issue happens. When it does, they are really bad and you will regret buying from them. Customer support is non existent. It’s like you are dealing with a monster with many faces who does not want to give you any personalized help.
From my experience, I believe it is always better and advisable to buy directly from store if possible. At least you know what you get and do so immediately. Else pray nothing goes wrong.