Everything But The House

As a buyer - I won a number of items and ok with the overall experience except for one transaction where an item I purchased from Ohio was shuttered in transit. It was carefully wrapped however a part of the stone sculpture has chipped. Beautiful piece of art that I purchased in excellent condition is now a mediocre third grade with the chip in the front. I took all the pictures and sent to customer service. They replied promptly that they will pay me half the value back for the inconvenience and file the insurance on my behalf. As I later learned filing the insurance on my behalf meant they will pocket the money they receive from the insurance. I also wander if they claimed full value of destroyed art piece or a partial refund given to me? Seems like another excellent way to make money off people. Customer service was extremely rude handling this one.
I sell lots of stuff on eBay and believe in honest description. If I were a seller I would love company that sells for me to provide as accurate of a description as possible. I noticed that their descriptions are extremely limited and contain general versus specific titles. I am a lamp collector and I see beautiful lamps sold there for pennies just because of general descriptions missing specifics. Antique Victorian banquet lamp named old lamp sold for two dollars was worth well over a hundred to a collector. This makes me question employees of the company as providing less than optimum titles for items create many opportunities for inside jobs. Seemingly they are not interested in sellling some of the items for a profit to their sellers or their company.
Lastly, moving small items to Ohio was a brilliant way to get into people's pocket even further. What happens to fragile collectibles? What happens to broken stufff? Thinking about insurance and it's not going to sellers based on reviews. Again, poor titles and description of collectables in Ohio... What happens to stuff that doesn't sell? They get all items from people hoping to sell to make money and basically pocket it in a warehouse where people loose any control over belongings. I would be interested in bidding if items were local but not bidding on items in Ohio. Many people feel that way, which limits pool of qualified buyers to Ohio residents and driving the price lower. I am thinking again of the inside jobs and how many employees have an opportunity to profit by providing poor titles and descriptions by basically stealing from people who would like to sell. I also wander if the company has local stores to sell items they don't sell during an auction, that would make a lot of sense and explain ridiculous way they handle items people submit to them.

I discovered EBTH a couple of years ago. The site has evolved to the point where it is no longer user friendly.
1. I won and paid for a rug and never received it and contacted the site several times with no response.
2. Chalked up the rug to a one time error and continued using the site. Then the issue was not receiving an item for weeks after paying for it. Missed a couple of birthdays that I bought items for. So, I decided to shop without a deadline.
3. Then while back they changed the site so that items reappear. It takes too long to scroll thru new items because if the repeat lots showing in the feed. Many many times I just x'd out of the site and stopped looking for anything I might want to bid on. I'm not an idiot. If I don't want to bid on an item the first time I certainly am not going to bid on it the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th time is shows in the feed.
4. And the final straw. The new check out policy is cash you out the evening of the sale.
The problem with this is I am a travel nurse. At times, like this week, I am no longer at the address I was at when I placed the bid. Before when I checked myself out I could refigure the shipping based on a new address I could enter. Not now.
I emailed at the time of the win. And it was too late. I was told I could contact UPS and change the shipping address. I did. UPS said no and didn't offer an option but then if you aren't trying to track a package or ship a package contacting UPS is useless. I then contacted EBTH and provided an update that did not offer on option to change the shipping destination. Per EBTH house there is an option. Per UPS there is not.
I quit. Keep my money. Throw the fur in the trash. After decades of auctions you won't see my 2 cents again.