J C.

I started using Listia 3 years ago, and I've seen everything there is to see on the website. I also experimented quite a bit with the many features of the website, and have come to the conclusion that while some of the "negative" reviews on here are a result of people not reading rules or understanding how the website works, the majority of the negative reviews are a result of the poor customer service and scams promoted by the website.

I'll break down the positive and the negative for all interested in the site, and I am indeed covering everything as I have perceived it, so pay attention:

The Positive:
1. You can sell old belongings on the website and retain their value in the form of a website-only currency that allows you to essentially trade for other old belongings that may interest you more.
2. The format for listing auctions and their rules is fairly simple, and runs smoothly.

The Negative:
1. "Listia's Tom F.": His job is to essentially dismiss the wrongdoings of the company and make those who have had problems look like they were mistaken, or had lied in order to end up in whatever bad situation they did. That's my perception as a result of the way I have observed his handling of the many complaints issued here.

For example, one user claimed it took 3 weeks for Listia to respond to a support ticket. Listia Tom responded aggressively by saying that they "certainly do not respond in x amount of weeks", therefore calling the individual a liar. Interestingly enough, however, many including myself have had issues with support tickets not being paid attention or dealt with for weeks on end by Listia. It is a real problem, but to anyone new Tom's commentary makes it sound like that would never happen, when in fact it does.

Not only this, but when new users have had issues regarding signup or having their accounts randomly banned, he has been intentionally unhelpful, often saying "well, if something happened it was definitely your fault" despite the fact that I have a friend whose account was banned without reason. (It took this friend nearly a month to finally get into contact with Listia and get his account back, and even they couldn't provide explanation for why it had been banned, as there was no reason cited in their logs. So yes, Tom, it does happen.)

And Tom? Good customer service acknowledges wrongdoings and promises to resolve them! You, however, attempt to demerit or cover them up.

In addition to this, interestingly enough, a day after a friend of mine posted a negative review of Listia, a new passive aggressive review was written by a random new user here for 5 stars- and the details of the review made fun of everything my friend had said in his review.
This suggests Listia had written the review itself to negate the bad experience and boost the star rating on Sitejabber.
(And I'm sure Tom will claim none of the above is true, and attempt to have my review removed for pointing out the fact that he openly attacked a user's credibility and lied.)

2. While the basic functions of Listia are enjoyable, there is a lot of bad to be said about the concept of the "credit" currency not retaining any actual monetary value. While it is stated on Listia's legal terms that credits do not hold real monetary value, the basis of the website (essentially SELLING objects with REAL monetary value) negates this fact. Listia tries to hide behind possible responsibility for monetary loss by making this statement, but by law anything traded for currency has physical "value" beyond that of "Credits".
Not to mention the fact that regardless of ALL of that, all objects still hold PERSONAL value to an individual.
3. The online "value" of credits changes constantly. I know this concept is hard for people to understand, so I will explain; You sell an item, people win it by bidding with their "credits". You earn the credits after they receive the item. So for example, say you sold a DVD for 25,000 credits. That seems like quite a bit at the time, as Listia will be selling 25,000 credits for something along the lines of $20. However, the very next day Listia will instead sell 25,000 credits for $10. Now, your credits have become undervalued. You didn't truly make $20, because it was reduced to $10. While this doesn't immediately sound like it would have an impact on you, consider this: Now, more credits are worth less. So your measly ******* will not allow you to bid on something you may have been able to win before, because now people can obtain exponentially higher amounts of credits for less money. A toy goes from being worth 25k to being "worth" 50k as a result of the inflation.

4. Little kids and scammers are running amok on this website, and unfortunately, this simply is NOT considered a professional website, so bullying, death threats, and scams are rather commonplace for a "common" user. I'm sure many will tell me that it's your own responsibility to not bid on "too good to be true" auctions, and to ignore nasty commentary and threats, and I am aware of the issue, but many others are not. Listia Moderators will make comments on some of the scam auctions, but never have them removed despite the fact that pictures and information regarding the auction are all obviously stolen from other websites. They might ask for a scammer to add another photo with their username next to the item they are claiming to sell, but they wont remove the auction even when the user becomes threatening or makes it obvious they are attempting to scam others. In addition to this, while warnings may be given to bullies (individuals making offensive comments on other auctions, or individuals threatening people to send them something "or else") I have yet to see these people every actually banned from the site.
5. The purpose of Listia SHOULD be and WAS to get rid of used items, but unfortunately many are using it to make profit off of others now instead. For example, one woman has been auctioning off "human hair" based wigs that are supposedly worth $300 new... But if you do a quick "search image with Google", you can find the same wig (that is proven to NOT be human hair, and NOT be valuable) for $10 on Amazon.com with free shipping. In other words, these individuals are intentionally deceptive because they want to make a profit off of those who believe Listia is competent enough not to allow people to sell knockoffs.In addition to this, there are numerous others clogging up the Listings page with knockoff technology like supposed iPhones and iPads from China. It is more than evident that they are scams, and yet? Despite many users notifying Listia, the sellers continue to sell the illegally branded technology on the website.

6. Let's stick to that point for a moment- the objects being sold on Listia. One user claimed earlier that inappropriate / dangerous objects are being sold much more often on Listia as of late. They even cited Nazi memorabilia, in addition to KKK rallying gear, cigars, certain illegal knives, and guns that are SUPPOSEDLY BB Guns, despite this point being completely unverified. In addition to this, MANY fake purses, pirated videogames, pirated movies, and other miscellaneous technology is being circulated on the website. Listia has a number of these items banned, and yet, yes, I and many others have seen them sold on the website without moderators removing them or warning the sellers! Not only this, but we as honest users have REPORTED fake items and Listia has NEVER addressed such auctions. So some are making the equivalent of a few hundreds dollars in credits off of random bags they stuck a fake label to... Tom, you can't tell a review here that it doesn't happen if they saw it themselves!

7. Listia does NOT protect it's users from potentially mentally ill, disturbed or troubled individuals. A particular user has been wrecking havoc on the website, scamming everyone she buys from by claiming that everything she receives is broken for nearly EVERY transaction, and making fun of, threatening to hurt and "ruin" users she interacts with. The most she has received is a month ban, but she's up and at her cruel shenanigans day after day regardless. Look up HippeeMama and look at her Buyer's feedback... And Listia, if you care at all, look at this woman's message logs! She is dangerous!
8. The surveys and free downloads Listia promotes to earn credits are all scams! And they LIE about them being scams, too! Other users have complained here regarding this issue, and Listia Tom's first responses were that they were either lying or mistaken, if you go far back into the first 20 reviews. Yet... how can they be lying or mistaken when I've found a way to prove they're not?

For the hell of it, I created an email account to use when all of the surveys and free downloads promoted by Listia in exchange for credits asked for it.
Now, years later checking this email, scam and spam emails still roll in from "Russian Women looking for a Rich Boyfriend", a fake Amazon email spelled AMAZ0N with a 0 instead telling me my account has been hacked into, and various Dental Implant, Burial Insurance, scam Car Insurance and Viagra ads.
Not to mention the fact that EVERY email that contacts me from a supposed corporation is from scammers pretending to be the corporation, and furthermore, the emails have viruses attached to them! And finally... the free downloads are all credit card info-stealing Trojans! They will claim to be Sports toolbars or special programs that allow you to customize your Internet Browser, but as of now I have found nearly every one to be a malicious type of spyware. The worst I encountered was a keylogger, and the fact that Listia has been made aware of this time and time again and has not stopped working with the "companies" they do to promote this spyware suggests Listia is indeed an operation based on fraudulent "business", rather than respectable/reputable business.

If you dont believe me, feel free to look at the accompanying screenshot of the emails I received as a result of signing up for Listia's promoted surveys and downloads.The email account was specifically made to sign up for anything Listia promoted me (surveys, downloads, drawingss coupons, sample organizations) in exchange for credits, so nothing there is something I encountered/obtained elsewhere.