"E bay has grown to an uncontrollable proportion.Many years ago they were good to the customers and helpful,nowadays they don't even list phone #s.If the transaction is smooth then obviously you don't have a problem but if something goes wrong then you are really screwed,you sent an email and you get different repplies from different people,with really stupid suggestions or they don't read what you sent or they don't understand.They are very greedy and allow all kinds of dishonest people to do business: hey... if someone defaults once: ban that person for ONE year if it happens a second time then for ever,that's how you weed out the "scumos". They are too gredy and don't care.How can you allow to do business a person that have many negative scores? .Is there any other choice besides Ebay?Because with competition they would be less arrogant.
Ebay has become so greedy that as of May 2008 sellers cannot leave negative or neutral feedback for buyers ...Why ? so that buyers no matter how dishonest can keep buying and filling the pockets of the ebay owners.Amazone.com has become a much better choice.The fact of the matter is : Ebay has become a cesspool.Too big,too greedy,too risky,too unpredictable. "

"Excellent customer service."

"Why do people complain about ebay, ebay works great. Thanks."

"I have made hundreds of purchases from ebay and hundreds from amazon. What I have learned is that amazon cares about its customers and its reputation and ebay does not. I have been cheated many times by ebay sellers, but only once at the amazon marketplace. Anytime I have a choice now, I buy from amazon's marketplace rather than ebay. "

"I purchased an item through the Microsoft/Live.com/Paypal/Ebay promotion that was integrated into www.live.com 's search engine for 35% cashback based on purchase using Buy It Now (BIN) and PayPal. I purchased an item using this method and have screenshot of the experience. As I continued through the process, I get hung up after commiting to buy the product with the fact that the integration of the 3/4 products is broken and I cannot pay for the product, even though PayPal and eBay are integrated.

I thought this is easy, I'll contact customer service... well I'm on day 14 and there is still no resolution. The email I recieved as a response clearly did not know of the promotion or the terms of service. I responded and it's been 7 days without a reply. The order was cancelled, but I still did not receive my product. I rather have the product I had commited to buying, rather than not having anything at all.

Apparently eBay rather have people not buy things than do buy things. That's a terrible policy and business model."

"Ebay does not enforce its own listing policies, and the feedback system is virtually useless.

Their customer service is a joke.

The people that answer phone calls only direct the caller to help articles or forms on the website. Any complaints or concerns that you send via the available contact forms on EBay are answered with a form letter response.

The whole system is structured in such a way that you will never speak to anyone with any authority and no one will ever look at the “big picture” if you are having a problem with a seller, particularly a high volume seller. You can report a listing violation, you can request feedback withdrawal, you can open unpaid or undelivered item disputes, each of these processes occurs in a vacuum. No one will ever look at all of them together and connect the dots.

There are people that have set up EBay stores that simply post a bunch of listings for all of the items they carry, regardless of whether or not they actually have the item to deliver. If you report the listing violation EBay will do nothing. The ad will stay up until it expires.

So, a seller that does this on a regular basis would have a lot of negative feedback, right? NO, and here’s why: If you leave negative or even neutral feedback for them THEY WILL LEAVE NEGATIVE FEEDBACK FOR YOU, and then demand mutual withdrawal. EBay still allows the seller to leave feedback to your account even if the item violated listing policy!

I left negative feedback for a seller because he did not have the item listed and did not let me know for over two weeks. I also reported the listing violation. He immediately left negative feedback for me and even used the word “backordered” in the feedback comments, thus admitting the listing violation. He then opened an unpaid item dispute, even though I paid with PayPal and he knew I had record of it.

The only thing EBay did about any of this was to remove the unpaid item strike from my account when I appealed and sent proof of payment…and they acted like they were doing me a BIG favor. They even sent me some links to some helpful articles to read, so maybe I could learn not to screw up so bad in the future.
"

"I have a great experience here. Had some broken items. But overall sellers have always worked with me and I've had a happy experience."

"So far I've had only one problem with eBay. I bought a subscription for a magazine and never got it. The thing is that it takes a while, and there's a wait time of over 3 months which ebay and the credit card company cannot take care of. The main thing to care is to really check into the details of the description of products and the seller's feedback. But I like ebay since I sell stuff in there and it works fine. And sometimes this is a better option than a new shady company that would steal all your information. It's also a great place to find some stuff that you won't find anywhere else."

"Ebay serves as the legal background for many dishonest and/or unprofessional business operations. (individuals, private persons, it seems, are not that much represented on ebay as sellers, but mostly as buyers).

I won a bid on software, and found out, that the software was illegal. I would have spent over 700 Dollars, and then would not have owned the software.

I declined to accept illegal product, and got my money back with the help of my credit card company.

I contacted eBay about this illegal software, and they could not care less. I never heard of the seller facing any consequences.

A lot of the software on ebay is not legal in one way or another. You spend money, and you are then not the legal owner or license holder. If you use such software for business, you may be charged with software piracy.

Other typical eBay scams: selling gray market goods, especially cameras and camcorders(without telling you so, of course). These do not carry an USA warranty. In case of a defect item, you will not get the usual warranty service.

The ebay rating system is useless, as it favors the seller. If you, the buyer, get cheated, and post a negative review, you will get a negative review in return, together with insulting remarks. Just to make it look it was your fault.

This is why even bad sellers have 99% positive feedback.

The only way to fix this, would be: first the seller leaves the feedback (did the buyer pay on time?) Only then the buyer would leave feedback, thus making revenge feedbacks unlikely.

Of course, ebay would never change their rating system. Because so many sellers would see their ratings slide and truly reveal the nature of ebay:

This is a place where you should not spend your money if you want good quality for your money.

This is a place where you can lose a lot of time, money, and nerves for the (never kept) promise to save a little money.

This is a place, where you cannot check the quality of goods before you buy them. And this quality is often below acceptable standards.

The trouble are not the individual sellers. The trouble is with those semi-pros, that do ebay selling for a living. Many of these ebay "power" sellers could not sustain a real business with the kind and quality of service they offer.

Recommended: Check resellerratings for dealers of the kind of product you want. Go to a reputable dealer. If the price of what you want is higher than you can afford, buy a more modest item, or apply for credit, or buy later.

Don't try to pay less than a product's LEGAL street price is.

This especially goes for software.

You will pay more. But at least you will get a real product, not one of those fake or malfunctioning things you are likely to get on ebay.

Always consider: if the price seems too good to be true, it ALWAYS IS.

After I got almost cheated on ebay for my software, I went to the company that made the software, and bought it directly from them, at the source. And crossed a few software titles off my list that I didn't need that badly (and found out, I didn't need them at all).

And you know what: I saved 100 dollars, and got real, genuine, and legal software, that I now own without doubt.

PS: if you want to save on software legally, look for internet rebate coupons."

"Items are usually cheap. Can find rare stuff. Usually problem free for the most transaction. "

"I ordered a Zen touch 40GB,
but creative didn't accept my paypal,
eBay didn't let me cancel the order and didn't pay any attention to my answer,
they just gave me a strike.
i'll leave eBay as soon as possible"

"Ebay suspended my account. I have been a user there for eight years, with a 100% feedback rating. I let my brother try and sell a video game character, and Ebay cancels the auction and bans my account. Upon faxing in my signed appeal, which states I will not knowingly sell what Ebay thinks is prohibited items, I receive an email stating they have banned my account permanently. There is no easily listed phone number, so I can't even speak to a human to dispute this injustice. Ebay not only has very poor customer support for both sellers and buyers, they also give you zero second chances. "

"I won 5 genuine Ralph Lauren Polo short sleeve shirts on EBAY at a great price costing me only $17 per shirt with shipping. The shirts were great and I saved alot of money buying on EBAY. I have ordered for 2 years from EBAY and never really had a problem as a BUYER. I have only sold items a few times on EBAY and that was my only bad experience. After a BUYER won my item I had for sale she refused to pay for it after 5 days had elapsed. So to help her out I sent a mutual agreement that we both decided not to complete the transaction so she would not suffer and I could relist the item for no charge. This set the BUYER off and she left me negative feedback even though she still refused to pay for the item. So the way EBAY works I got stuck with negative feedback for trying to help a BUYER out who was obviously mentally ill. She left EBAY as a member a month later and still I have her negative feedback for a item she agreed to buy from me but never paid for. The EBAY feedback system is broken and their own rules make it not work. Feedback from people who refuse to pay for items should be removed and feedback from members on EBAY who are kicked out for fraud etc also should be deleted. Still you can get some great deals on EBAY "

"I was starting out to sell products on ebay and was building reviews. I was actualy either breaking even or selling some products below my cost in order to build up a good accout with positive reviews. After selling on ebay for a couple of months and building up my reviews, Ebay decided to shut my store. I had 100% positive feedback. I used to sell a lot and buy a lot from the ebay community. After shutting my store, I attempted to resolve the problem with them many times to no avail. till today, they never even provided me with a reason as to why they shut my store. They even sent me emails stating that I should not even bother calling them or email them ever again. I have been very upset. I have been upset mainly because they never provided me with a reason as to why they terminated my account. Maybe ebay is a big company and they do not need my business, thats fine. But I will never use ebay in the future. "

"On Dec 13th, 2006, I bought a Nikon D2X camera body on eBay. I paid the item right away to the seller after auction through my PayPal at same day. No response after I sent my payment to the seller, and I never received the item from the seller too. I opened claim against the seller through PayPal, and my claim is granted through PayPal on Dec 31, 2006, but due to no money in seller’s PayPal account, I could not get my money back. I was very disappointed on the resolution and I called PayPal customer service on Jan 2, 2007, and both PayPal’s representative and supervisor told me that nothing they can do for this transaction except they sent an email to seller, which they only did once. I told them that the seller is still an active eBay and PayPal member, and the seller live in US, why PayPal can not do more to help me to retrieve my money. I was also disappointed because PayPal’s customer service does not work properly, the service was not performed correctly either. I lost $2780 through PayPal, and I felt that they just don’t care at all and they do not want to help and protect their customer.
"