"Though there are already numerous complaints on here, I am contributing my own experience.

For years (since 2000) I was a semi-regular buyer/seller. That came to a halt last fall (2011). Not only was I cheated on a few listings I'd posted, but they decided to modify two of my listings (and the prices) without my consent. Upon contacting their CS, they played dumb with me at first insisting they 'didn't know how/why it happened'. Then a more competent Rep told me they were allowed to make certain changes if they received consumer complaints.

Consumer complaints? Since when? I never received any such email notifications. They were full of crap.

I ended up having to edit those listings at my expense. I should have just removed them.

Later, I ordered an item that was priced cheaper than Amazon. Though eBay sent me 1-2 email confirms, I never received my item. It was useless contacting customer service. They could give two s^%^%&. Instead, they played me around the Resolution section while promising they'd contact the Seller. To date I still do not have that item, and the Seller (and ebay) have my $$

And YES - THAT SELLER was conveniently listed with a 100% Gold Star rating... How does that grab ya.

Ebay has become a sad, disreputable online auction dealer with ever-increasing listing fees, taxes, etc. and unscrupulous large and small Sellers. Their "customer service" is for the birds. They don't care about you - only your pocket book.

Do yourself a favor and use extreme caution when dealing with them. Their "rating system" is a joke: modified over a year ago in order to keep their complaint levels at a minimum. The accurate term for this practice is Deception - or Caveat Emptor."

"I order a E6000 industrial strength glue from a ebay seller in April of this year and was pleased with the fast shipping and product description.
I've been shopping on ebay for around six months now and have only had two parcels gone missing since that time.
Ebay is okay if you buy from reputable sellers, however I do agree there are scam artist about.
Ebay has a buyer protection act which covers buyers in the event of non delivery, fraud and other disputes.
"

"I have been buying and selling on eBay for over 10 years. I have over 1500 feedbacks and many more transactions under my belt between two IDs. I have watched eBay decay as a company over the years. Not that it was perfect to begin with. I don't do much selling anymore. The experience as an eBay seller is just too unpleasant to be worth it for me. The two single biggest mistakes made were making PayPal an eBay company and not allowing sellers to leave negative feedback for buyers. The one long term mistake is the consistent fee increases for sellers while doing little to nothing to increase customer volume.

If I got into the weeds on all the ways eBay could improve for both buyers and sellers this would turn into a page-long argument. Suffice it to say that I will continue to buy on eBay as long as the fee increases for sellers don't equate to higher prices as a buyer (which already can't be said for many items), but I will find another venue to sell any items I want to get rid of."

"i have purchased an item in ebay and i had a problem with it,the seller golf456green send me a damaged phone, i try to fix the issue with him and i didint get an answer from, so i have contacted the ebay customer service, they vote in my favor and ask me to send the item back to the seller so i can get the refound, so i did that, but ones i send the item back, they vote in the seller favor and now he have the phone and my money, i call 3 times to the customer service and they promess me that they will try to get the item or they will take actions agenst the seller but nothin have bean made so far, i have recieve a lot of email from them a few weeks ago and now that i try to get the case id or any of thos email, they are not there, they have deleted the information about it, the case id is ***-***-****, the worst thing is that i spoke with a supervisor and he didint do anithing abot it, he just tell me what i want to hear, but no action have bean take about my issue, THIS IS THE WORST EXPERIENCE EVER."

"Seller never sent item, I had to make PP claim.
Then they sent the item. did eBay help me with this? No.
eBay have NO email support, NO web support. Only Phone support,
do you like waiting 30 mins on hold? Then eBay is for you.

The prices are 15% higher than elsewhere. Why? eBay Fees."

"they were recently sued for 35 billion dollars. so guess what they did? jacked up seller fees! what morons!"

"In LOVE with Ebay. Highly recomend!!!! so cheap and easy to use. AMAZING!! "

"My review of ebay is in regards to their resolution center. I am disappointed as a buyer, that the resolution center has failed me and benefited the seller in delaying my refund. Using the resolution center, I was directed towards contacting the seller with my claim for return, exchange of defective items. Subsequent items that were exchanged were also defective, and I returned them immediately. I went back to resolution center to follow up with my claim, and to my surprise, no claim was in existence. I telephoned ebay, expressing concern, and they informed me that I failed to file a claim. I informed them that I used their resolution center and contacted the seller. Nothing in the process indicated to me that there were additional steps. The ebay representative informed me that contacting the seller through the resolution center is separate from actually filing a claim. He advised me that in the future, it is best to do both at the same time. I am disappointed by this cryptic process, and I will be refraining from purchasing anything through ebay in the future."

"ebay's one-sided feedback system. SELLERS have NO recourse.

How fair is a system when only one side is allowed to voice their opinion ?

In government, that is called communism or an anarchy.

Learned today that ebay will only remove a negative feedback for 2 reasons. Negative left with positive review. Negative left with foul or threatening language. That is it ! NO OTHER REASON will ebay remove that negative no matter what. NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT other than pay off the buyer to do it.

Buyer last second bids, tries to beat me down on fixed shipping, wants me to sell around ebay, complains about detail " stated " in auction. I said return for full refund.Buyer wants either $20.00 off sale or I pay to have him ship back for refund. Returned item, had to pay shipping.

Ebay " automatically " refunds the money BEFORE I have a chance to inspect the item returned. Buyer leaves red negative feedback.

I got a real good lesson today on how ebay DOES NOT represent the seller no matter how disreputable the buyer is. AND they distribute money from your account as they wish.

Plain and simple.

ebay needs a wake-up call."

"Just looking for every venue available to ensure that people know how much of a rip off EBay is to sellers. extremely high fees on the product itself (9%), and then fees for using PayPal (which is owned by EBay) Now, EBay is charging 9% fees on the shipping charged. For those trying to conduct business honestly and openly, this is just ridiculous. Sellers are, of course, going to pass on these charges to their customers.
I encourage everyone to use any other means available to buy and sell items."

"Sold an e-gift card on ebay. The buyer used the gift card but then filed a case saying he has not received the gift card. Ebay sided with buyer with no investigation.

Called customer service and the attitude was ridiculously bad.

Avoid ebay if you can. Amazon is not a whole lot better but certainly better than ebay in its current days."

"great place to buy cheap stuff but can be more friendly in their customer service. feel like communicating to a robots "

"Ebay never really cared about our best interest as buyers or sellers but they have really just gone off the rails. The recent change to charge a 9% valuation fee on shipping is just the final nail in the coffin. I sold a $90 item, which I had weighed and measured before the auction, that would cost $45 to ship to most of the country. Instead of gouging the buyer I just charge what it cost me and I provide the packing material.
Now ebay takes 9% from the final value (which I am okay with) and then they take $4 off the top of the shipping charges. When I called to inquire the 'Peggy' told me it was 'no different than before except for the extra 9% charge'.....and she repeated this over and over like I would suddenly believe her...it didn't happen. And then she switches to telling me that it is to combat high shipping costs and when I told her that it actually means I should have RAISED my shipping cost to $49 just to cover the fees she just could not follow me. WOW!"

"I have never had an issue with eBay and will defintely shop there again! As with most things, you just have to be careful and look at who you're buying from, that's why there are feedback stars! "

"Great site if you are a buyer not so great if you are a seller. They have changed their site too many times for the worse. From their feedback system that buyers can only use to not being able to contact them unless you want to wait on the phone for 30 minutes. This is a huge online company and they do not even have an email! and they took their live chat off! Just plain lazy and bad customer service for a website."