Sean K.

I used to love Ebay but its losing its lustre. Ebay does do a reasonable job of ensuring you are happy with your purchase. If you have an issue with a seller Ebay's dispute resolution system mostly ensures good lines of communication between you and the seller and Ebays team.

That said making the buyer return goods that simply don't match what was offered and at their expense is not on.If the seller wants their questionable items back it should be on them to meet the cost. Assuming of course the buyer can prove his/her case and this is not normally not that hard.

I have found in the last six or so months there is an ever increasing presence of shifty sellers on line. Especially from Hong Kong/China. So much so I'm for the most part no longer willing to buy goods from this region. By contrast UK/US sellers seem to be for the most part honest and I have rarely had reason to doubt them.

In summary Ebay is, in my opinion, a step up from sites like Alibaba but it needs to do more to police its sellers and come down harder on those who don't do the right thing by the customer.

I love on line shopping. I use Ebay on a regular basis and have been reasonably satisfied with them,. If a seller scams you they come to the rescue.

By contrast if I was asked to describe Alibaba I'd personally call it the wild West of e commerce. Theres no meaningful communication from either the seller or the so called customer reps on the site when there is a problem. I have a dispute under way and doubt very much I'll ever see my hard earned money again. My advice, stay away.

An update on my experience with Albaba. I was offered the option of a 20% refund or returning the goods for a full refund. Sounds good right? WRONG. Upon selecting the respond link in the email sent to me I was directed to a page with a picture of a lock telling me I could take no ACTION! So much for Alibaba's assurances! So I'm back at square one paying in full for an item that has a 50/50% chance of being counterfeit!

An update on my update. Managed to find a way of reaching the customer services rep. Took the 20% refund as I was not sure even if returned the goods the assurance would be honoured. Now the product has stopped working properly. Hardly a good outcome.