I’ve been with eBay since the early days, buying and selling. Back then one managed to get some great bargains, unusual items you really struggled to find in regular shops, and even selling an item was a doddle.
But eBay became massive. As with a lot of companies( such as Facebook) when they become massive, they forget where they came from and what they were about in the first place.
Where to start?
Customer Service. Almost completely no existent these days. It’s a hair raising nightmare to try to get in touch with customer services. Then I end up somewhere in India. No disrespect to this fine nation of great history and tradition, but I really am sorry I cannot understand a word you are saying most of the time. You are reading from a script of standard Q & A’s, which really do not resolve an issue. Or, I write to you, dear eBay, and I get some standard and automated responses. Now help me to understand, and how you can justify calling this’Customer Service’?
Selling. Dear eBay you really take the mickey out of us private sellers. Your final value fee of 10% incl postage plus Paypal fee really take the biscuit. Moreover, you really leave us with very little protection from dubious buyers. They may have a fantastic feedback record but it still does not give me an idea how they perform as a buyer, since one can’t leave negative feedback.
Buying. Well, as aforementioned there are no bargains to be had anymore. The majority are now traders, many of them must be living in cloud coo coo land as their prices are more than inflated. There are only few such as outlets( Sports Direct and Superdry), where its worth getting the one or other bargain. I have stopped buying cosmetics, perfumes etc some while ago. It’s a proven fact that there are a lot of fakes on there these days.( It doesn’t come as a surprise that China’s economy is booming) . These days you get better value from high street shops and online traders such as ASOS. And if you are lucky you find some fantastic discount vouchers/codes, too.
Dear eBay you still bank on the fact that you have millions of members and therefore a bigger audience, which other sites( Gumtree, Pre Loved) can only dream of. Well, for now anyway.
Sorry to say eBay that I will cancel my membership with you. Over the past few years you have not treated me well. You don’t see me as a valued member because I am not a trader. As a private seller you deny me the benefit of doubt and have little or no flexibility when it comes to resolve an issue. You are incapable to review each case on its own merit and resort to blanket decisions, which might be simpler for you, but could be of greater consequence for me.
Dear eBay, I think you have passed your’best before date’ some time ago. More and more people go away from eBay. Maybe even you will see the errors of your way one day. One can only hope.