eBay UK

I use eBay quite often for the most part. I switched to them after experiencing Amazon's dodgy search engine and business practises. You really need to beware of what is offered. READ IT CAREFULLY! There are plenty of dodgy sellers that will say one thing in the title, but something totally different in the advert. For example I was looking at a MacBook pro computer from 2014. The title said it was brand new. The description said it was refurbished with "brand new refurbished parts." A clear conflict in terminology to confuse potential buyers. As a rule, just steer clear of anything that is refurbished, unless it in a sealed box from the manufacturer that says it's refurbished.
The real problem with adverts like these is eBay refuses to do anything about them. You report the advert, but it's never removed or changed. This particular advert is still there, unchanged after reporting it weeks ago! Next is the search engine. When I search for something, I am usually very specific about what I want. I include an exact description, model numbers, etc. Do I get what I want? Yes and no, but more often than Amazon. EBay has also adopted the practise of loading your search results with useless rubbish that isn't related to your search. They seem to think it will entice you to buy what ever rubbish they feed you. No... i just close the page and purchase nothing! And finally the area in which you search. Call me stupid, but I thought when you select "UK Only" it means you will only see results from the UK. Nope... You'll get loads of results from the USA and Australia... but not the EU... wonder why. I won't purchase, say a MacBook Pro, from the USA or Australia. You get screwed with Paypal's exchange rate, you get screwed on the shipping and you get screwed on the import tax. Need I say more?
A final note... if you have a problem with a seller, DO NOT CONTACT EBAY! Open a dispute with PayPal instead. Unlike eBay, PayPal is a financial institution and are governed by the same authority governing banks. They are required, by law, to investigate the dispute, just as your bank would investigate. I would say around 90% of the time you'll get a refund from PayPal. If your parcel doesn't arrive, PayPal will require the SELLER to provide tracking information and proof of delivery. EBay requires YOU to prove that you didn't get the parcel... and just how are you supposed to do that?

EDIT: More eBay stupidity... Their search engine is as useless as Amazon! I did a search for a particular SSD that would replace the overpriced SSD in my MacBook Pro. I specifically searched for a 2TB (Terabyte) Sabrent SSD. Notice in the picture, the very first item is a ONE TB SSD! Did I search for a one tb ssd? No, I did not. I searched for a 2 TB SSD.

I love Ebay, I spend hours on it almost every day. However, I am going to give my 2 cents worth on the downsides. Their website could be drastically improved. There are a lot of issues with searching for items.

For example I live in Ireland but when I search for items with shipping to Ireland items that won't ship come up in the search. This slows my search drastically. It is very easy to get caught out on shipping too. When you are doing your search items have a shipping cost at the bottom of the add. When you click into the ad this could change drastically. Also the shipping charges are very often excessively high. I can almost always beat there prices as a private consumer with a courier than they charge and by quite a margin.

When purchasing more than one item from a seller, the price for shipping often goes up at the same rate. This is sharp practice in my opinion. I also take issue with navigating the after sales/customer service side of things. It is very frustrating and you would need to go on a course to figure it all out.

All in all, I am happy with Ebay. I cannot wait until they extend the full buyer protection beyond Pay Pal. A very welcome development indeed.

I loved the idea and the concept of ebay but their customer service is very bad.
I would recommend to pay via your credit card and not use pay pal.

Ebay sellers are currently fighting a losing battle against buyer fraud on Ebay, and why can't their be a rating system allowing sellers to rate their customers. A recent telephone conversion with a member of Ebays customer support team left me disgusted, I was told "their is no way that a system will be put in place to allow sellers to rate their buyers as we will loose buyers which happened before and is why the system was removed" If sellers do report a buyer an they are investigated, due to data protection they will not get any kind of feedback whatsoever regarding the investigation which may or may not have taken place.

Online selling across all ecommerce platforms knowingly is becoming increasingly competitive, more so on fee based shopping channels with their manipulating systems and high seller fees. Unfortunately Ebay only makes the competition that much harder as the non existent seller protection keeps ebays turnover from falling and the sellers taking the losses in their favour.

I believe their is a way we can allow sellers from all online ecommerce platforms to record and search for suspected dishonest buyer claims. Thorough a data base which would be accessed through registration, allowing for verification of the user and in line with the data protection act. Once live for a short period of time and presuming that people are willing to enter data in regards to buyer claims the data base will enable read outs on Usernames/UserID's, including information such as returns, lost parcels and a whole list of other similar statistics. It will grow to enable many other types of statistics to be generated within the unfortunate area of online fraud. The statistics which we are not informed of by many companies due to a potential loss of their customer bases will be readily available and could potentially be an invaluable source for many businesses with concerns in regards to fraud online. Your comments would be much appreciated regarding this and if you are a person willing to enter data in a simple way please say and thank you for your interest.

This site is really good is your a buyer looking for a bargain buy. Although you should be wary or bad sellers that sell fake stuff, don't ship on time or are just silly. But I've had some good sellers on there, once I ordered a yoshi bag for a tenner(ish) and got it the very next morning!: D

BUT, if you're a normal person looking to sell some old stuff from the attic or under the bed then I'm not so keen. There are so many fees involved in selling your item and I think the percentage they take off your final sale price is really cheeky! I sold a kinect on there and was amazed at the difference in the sale price to the price I got after the fees were took off. I'm sure it's an amazing site for business's.

I am a relative newbie to eBay and in principle I think it is great. Great idea, great mobile app and some great finds to be had out there in cyber auction land.

But...

My beef is that I don't think their customer service is up to scratch.

99.9% of people operating on eBay are honest, and I have bought things and had them come so carefully and beautifully wrapped that I have felt guilt stricken for the knock down price I've picked them up for. Mind you I have also sold stuff at silly money myself and diligently wrapped and trotted of to the post office as soon as the 99p hit my Paypal account! So that's all good. That's when eBay is doing what it should do and is at its best. But I just don't feel they are able to address problems. Even relatively simple ones.

An issue I have had twice now is getting something that is significantly different in quality to what was advertised. When this happens eBay customer support are great at getting on to the seller and advising you that if you return the item you will get a refund. The problem is the item must be returned by tracked mail in order for the process to work. The actual dispute resolution process requires the tracking number. And also if you are dealing with someone who has been less than honest in the first place, well, let's face it you are going to want to track your return.

Tracked mail is expensive. I have had to pay £13.45 to get a refund of £45. I took the hit on this one because it was a private seller and I felt I had no choice.

I currently however have a similar situation but this time with a business seller. Commercial sellers on eBay are covered by the UK Distance Selling Regulations. But some seller and eBay itself do not seem to understand or accept this. They have asked me umpteen times to foot the bill for the tracked return of a faulty item. In this instance it will cost me half the value of the item to return it. I am going round and round in circles with customer service representatives who do not seem to understand quite rudimentary regulations and who just keep replying with the same answer.

I imagine I will eventually just give up. But also, sadly, I think I will end up giving up on eBay. It's all just a bit too much of a gamble. And it only takes you to be swindled once or twice to lose the benefit of all the bargains you have had. Which is very sad for those honest people behave within the rules on the site.

I think it will be back to Amazon for me. They really are the gold standard for customer service. A site where you really can shop in total security and knowing that you will be looked after if there is a problem.