eBay is Knernackered

[pratty]

When they put the fees up recently it was reported at the same time that the site had gone down for the tenth time this year, presuming then that this was number eleven which is absolutely ridiculous.

I've no stake in ebay, but it pisses me off that companies that you're paying money too can stop providing the service you're paying for and just say "Sorry for the inconvenience," and expect that to be a satisfactory response. However if you're a day late paying them whether it's your fault or not, they hit you with panalties and/or cut off the service with no ifs or buts. If "We apologise for the inconvenience, we hope to resume regular service shortly," is good enough for the consumer then it should be good enough for them.

[Treguard]

Spent nearly an hour on hold to eBay customer service yesterday, because since May they've cocked up their seller rating system and its started counting any 'item not recieved' case opened as a defect, so my defect rating has gone above 5%, which basically limits me to selling 15 items or £350.00 a month, whichever comes first.

Now I understand people want to recieve items quickly, but I'm not responsible for royal mail transit times. If I post something and it doesn't get there for a week rather than the 2 days ebay thinks it should take, theres nothing I can do about it. Unfortunately all a buyer can do to check where an item is under the new system is open an 'item not recieved case'. Which would be fine if when the item is recieved, it comes off your ratings. It should, but it doesn't. I spoke to a guy at eBay who basically, told me they should be able to remove them from my record, but they're not able to, they're getting hundreds of calls like this every day and suggested I send a letter to customer service. I asked if that would help my situation he said 'no, but we're reporting it to them every day so if customers start doing it as well things might change quicker'. Sodding useless. Basically it would take over a year of selling 15 items a month with no extra 'defects' being recorded just to get my selling limit back to where it should be before they cocked things up. I'm just glad I don't rely on selling on ebay for my actual living.

[shiftytigger]

By now you would have thought someone could come up with an alternative to ebay by looking at all the mistakes ebay are making and doing the opposite.

Ebid is mostly full of crap , shame as its the closest.
Shpock has potential but needs a more structured payment option if you deal by post.
Amazon marketplace is slow trade if you're not selling brand new stuff.
Play.coms playtrade has finally closed down - a move that was expected after they shifted to marketplace only.

I have no website creating skills or any idea how to run one otherwise i'd give it a go.

[Matt_B]

eBay just did what most successful businesses do. They were very good while they were growing, but once they'd cornered the market it's all become about ruthless exploitation of their position.

At the end of the day, you can try and sell your stuff elsewhere, but if eBay is where you're going to get top dollar - and despite all their crap it usually is - people are still going to use it.

[nokgod]

I have no website creating skills or any idea how to run one otherwise i'd give it a go.

boyo from this very site tried doing that a few years back. Most of us regulars on here chucked stuff on there to help get it going but the lack of traffic just killed it. We just ended up buying stuff from each other....i know he tried really hard to get it going, but its just not that simple to get off the ground, unfortunately.

[Megamixer]

Just logged in and everything on my account seems to be fine, including stuff that I was already selling. I had listed a load of DVD's literally minutes before the site went down yesterday so I'm considering myself lucky that nothing was damaged...

There has been a ridiculous amount of glitches over the past year though. One that annoys me (but isn't really a deal-breaker) is that my profile image keeps deleting itself every few months

I have no website creating skills or any idea how to run one otherwise i'd give it a go.

boyo from this very site tried doing that a few years back. Most of us regulars on here chucked stuff on there to help get it going but the lack of traffic just killed it. We just ended up buying stuff from each other....i know he tried really hard to get it going, but its just not that simple to get off the ground, unfortunately.

I had some great deals off gamerbay but I always felt guilty that I'd won things at stupidly low prices from good folk on here!

[DoraemonTheCat]

eBay just did what most successful businesses do. They were very good while they were growing, but once they'd cornered the market it's all become about ruthless exploitation of their position.

This.

They make such a song and dance about "100 FREE listings" - yet they are gaining as the more that gets listed, the more they make in total Final Value Fees and charging on the postage which I still think is scandalous. Sadly though, for some including myself, it's a necessary eveil.

[rocky1980]

Final Value Fees and charging on the postage which I still think is scandalou

That one really gets me, half the time the amount you are "allowed" to charge is not enough to cover the postage , They are trying to force sellers to offer free postage so ebay can become more like Amazon

[sscott]

Not bought anything on eBay for a year and have not missed it all. As for selling stuff, seems far more trouble than its worth.

[clarance]

I'm finding it harder to sell stuff on eBay these days - harder for the private seller to justify those 99p sales anymore.

Buying on the other hand, it's the only way to go - they have the market for second hand obscure tat still, and where else can you still buy useful trinkets for a couple of quid form China, including your postage?

[oldtimer]

no loss there then

i second that hahaahah

[Son_of_Shinobi]

Well, eBay UK is down AGAIN!!!

If this continues it is going to harm confidence in selling for a great deal of people.

I hope the PR team doesn't lie and say that it was "scheduled maintenance" - they only ever do this at very early times of the morning - not betweem 11am and 2pm!

[Black Ridge]

^ I can get on fine on my phone but not via my desktop. I'm going through the windows phone app

[Son_of_Shinobi]

Well, I had my eBay opened since yesterday, so I could get in - but any item I clicked on in my watch list, it then wouldn't load the page for that item. Comes up with standard Network Error Message. According to others, they can get to the login page, but they can't get past that :

http://downdetector.co.uk/problems/ebay

Look how long is has been down and how many people have logged complaints!

[Son_of_Shinobi]

It gets better (worse) - check some of the comments!

http://www.isitdownrightnow.com/ebay.co.uk.html

Peeps be getting angry!