I really, really f**king hate eBay . . . .

maw4neu

I recently advertised a guitar on eBay as well as the Fretboard . . . I had an offer from a guy on eBay who included his phone number in the text . . . I told him that I wasn't interested but then found that eBay had frozen my account . . . I tried to get in touch with eBay but ended up having an onscreen conversation with one of eBay's staff that didn't resolve anything. So I was penalised because some space cadet sent me his phone number. My eBay auction was still active but off everyone's radar . . . I could edit or end it but no-one else could see it. 

A day or so later my guitar sold so I took down the eBay Auction immediately . . .Today I got an invoice from eBay for £54.97 which is impossible as I had not sold anything on eBay for months . . .

eBay had included a Final Value Fee for the guitar I sold on the Fretboard . . . They believed that I had called the Space Cadet who sent his phone number and arranged a Private Sale with him which I hadn't . . . I've spent nearly an hour on the phone arguing my case with 3 x separate people, I even offered to send a transcription of my conversation on the Fretboard with the gentleman that bought my guitar . . .  

Eventually after some very heated discussion I was informed by Clyde that I had justified my case and that my account would be credited . . .  That's fucking good of them  . . . I hadn't done anything wrong in the first place . . . ! !

JDE

That’s ridiculous. The fact you have to “prove” something to them is insane. Did they ask you to do a polygraph?
I have bought and sold on there for years, but I think once my current crop of stuff is gone (we have way too much stuff in our house and its more financially beneficial for us to use eBay than do a boot sale), i’m just gonna be a buyer. Their system has become too much of a pain in the arse and too many of the people are weird as fuck.

ICBM

Don't sell on Ebay.

The end.

shrinkwrap

Estate agents pull that one if you arrange a private sale and you're already signed up with the agent. They claim their advertising and promotion was key. Wouldn't be surprised if in a year or two Ebay won't back down at all.

Philtre

ICBM said:

Don't sell on Ebay.

The end.

And don't buy on Ebay, either.

The real end.

BahHumbug

I've been lucky to have not had any really bad experiences with ebay.  Over several years I've had plenty of good ones.  However after a several month break from ebay selling, I recently listed a few items for sale.  Again, no really bad experiences, but in selling maybe 8 items, I had loads of minor PITA experiences.  I won't bore you with the details, but it left me feeling that ebay just isn't worth the hassle any more.  Shame.  It was good once.

Strangefan

Facebook market is where its at these days, yes you get alot of tossers and time wasters but all my stuff always sells 

iseverynamegone

Many years ago eBay was a platform providing individuals a place to easily sell:buy with eBay taking a small commission which everyone was happy
with. 

Now eBay is a business providing businesses with a platform to sell to individuals with little interest in individual sales. 

Just avoid where possible really for selling. 

Lodious

ICBM said:

Don't sell on Ebay.

The end.

This a thousand times. If you haven't been personally burned by them, there are enough examples of outrageous behaviour by eBay that it's just not worth selling through them. 

darthed1981

ICBM said:

Don't sell on Ebay.

The end.

My time on TFB has convinced me I'd rather give things away than sell on eBay.

Your work is done chaps!

JezWynd

My time on TFB has convinced me I'd rather give things away than sell on eBay.

I have 700+ transactions on eBay, roughly 50% buying/selling split. I've never been ripped off by buyers or by eBay. Bottom line is - stuff sells on eBay. If you wait for the £1 deals, treat your buyers decently and are careful it can work.

SouthpawMark

Ebay is fine, as long as you can put up with idiots who get the hump when you decline their derisory offers.

steveledzep

JezWynd said:

My time on TFB has convinced me I'd rather give things away than sell on eBay.

I have 700+ transactions on eBay, roughly 50% buying/selling split. I've never been ripped off by buyers or by eBay. Bottom line is - stuff sells on eBay. If you wait for the £1 deals, treat your buyers decently and are careful it can work.

^^^ This.  I have over 1,000 +ve feedback on eBay both buying and selling.  It works for me because I manage it, just like @JezWynd ; says. 

ICBM

 I have about 500 transactions as both a buyer and seller - but from several years ago when quite a few of the rules were changed to heavily favour buyers, only as a buyer. I won't sell any more because although the chances of something going wrong are small, if it does then you really have almost no comeback. And it doesn't even have to be something which is within your control.

I also work for a mail-order company which sells on Ebay - the number of problem transactions and buyers is rare, probably no more than 1%, but they do happen - and if you can't afford to simply write off the goods and the money then you're in trouble. Easy enough for a mail-order business selling low-value items, you just refund or replace it... not for a private seller with a high-value item.

Fortheloveofguitar

eBay pulled my guitar sale listing last week as it flagged that I said ‘No Paypal’

As it was a collection only listing you’d have to be a complete fool to accept PayPal but apparently that’s their rules that you must accept it. 

Happy to leave their sellers wide open to a PayPal claim once the item has been collected. 

DB1

Fortheloveofguitar said:

eBay pulled my guitar sale listing last week as it flagged that I said ‘No Paypal’

As it was a collection only listing you’d have to be a complete fool to accept PayPal but apparently that’s their rules that you must accept it. 

Happy to leave their sellers wide open to a PayPal claim once the item has been collected. 

That's interesting. I always put 'cash/transfer only' and have never been pulled up on it, so perhaps they're tightening that one up as well. I think eBay's fine - the £1 offer is all I'd use though, and always sell face-to-face. I appreciate it's not practical for everyone though. If eBay pull me up on it, then I just won't use eBay, because I don't want the potential hassle of PayPal etc.

Moe_Zambeek

You still have to offer PayPal but they also say that for collection you can specify cash on collection. Any other words and your auction will be pulled or denied. 

if I was to sell something off eBay I leave the auction running but with an inflated price berceuse of ebays rules stating they can unilaterally decide to charge you a final value fee. 

As noted above proceed with caution. I only do collection sales for low value stuff these days. I don’t really buy there either because there’s so much fakery.

CHrisP86

I’m avoiding eBay for selling.

Was selling an amp a while back and ended up in a conversation with someone over a possible trade. Never exchanged mobile numbers and the other guy just stopped messaging me.

My ad was still live on eBay but I got the threatening messaging from them saying they suspected me of selling outside of eBay. Ridiculous! 

Fortheloveofguitar

They stated in the email that the phrase ‘No paypal’ was flagged 

GoldenEraGuitars

I’m just shy of 2000 feedback on eBay. Got totally shafted once, many years ago over a black star amp I shipped. Other than that, I’ve not had too many issues. Only in the last two months have I suffered at the hands of people who clearly shouldn’t be allowed near a computer. 

Bidley

1200+ here on eBay. Can count the amount of issues I've had on one hand. It's getting worse, but I need my stuff to actually sell, and I can't be dealing with complete morons on Gumtree and Facebook offering 10% of the advertised price. At least you can auto-decline on eBay.