Helen 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.

My transaction was with www.the-online-homebrew-company.co.uk but they belong to this online business community. My advice would be to avoid them at all costs. They took the money out of my account the day after my order was placed (3 weeks ago now) and as yet no sign of any goods. There is no phone number to contact them on and repeated emails to them have gone unanswered. Today I got an email from them stating that they hadn't asked for enough for postage and if I gave them another £5.20 they would send the goods. I am still not sure if this company are scamsters or just very very poorly run but at the moment I am tending to think the former. I have opened a dispute with my bank over the money they took from my account and if it is not refunded within a reasonable period I intend to make reports to the National Anti Fraud Network and the Office of Fair Trading. Save yourself the hassle and shop elsewhere.

Don't use this site. They took the money out of my account the day after my order was placed (a month ago) and since then I have heard nothing from them. There is no phone number to contact them on (I know - silly me, I suppose that in itself should have set off alarm bells) and I have sent them umpteen emails and heard nothing. Further research on online (too late) suggests that this is their form and from what I have read and heard they seem to be a totally sham site with no actual goods at all.