I'd rather use rotting cabbage flavour toothpaste than ebay! (ebay.co.uk)

Member Name: myonlinestuff

Product:	ebay.co.uk
Date:	07/06/09 (100 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Range of items.

Disadvantages: Customer care is worse than any other company I have dealt with.

At last an opportunity to tell people to stay away from the worst company I have ever dealt with! The arrogance of ebay is outstanding, there are some obvious benefits to using their site but in my opinion the way in which they treat sellers is inexcusable.

I think ebay's biggest assumption is that if you are selling on their site then you "need" them, when it came to me they were wrong and I suggest everyone adopts the same attitude. Don't put all your eggs in one basket, if you do decide to sell on ebay don't use it as the only outlet you have as sooner or later they will mess you around.

My last dealings with them was regarding the sale of second hand computer parts. It wasn't until my auctions had finished and Paypal had received my money from my buyers that I found out that if you sell items within certain categories that Paypal / ebay withhold the payment for a period of time until either; i) The buyer leaves positive feedback or ii) The period of time elapses without a complaint being heard.

They held all of the funds and would not even release the postage costs so I wouldn't post the items until I had either been paid or the postage fees had been released. I would have been more willing to play by their rules if the postage fees were forwarded immediately and my understanding was that buyers pay for the postage not the seller pays for it and you get it back later.

I had to contact all of my buyers and one even complained to Paypal that when he sent funds it was not for them to hold, he sent with only one purpose, that I would received the cash for the item he bought. He was also dismissed by Paypal / ebay with them not being interested in what people expect from them and showing more interest in the repetition of policies designed to maximise their profit.

The funds, of course, remain in Paypal's account so they are stealing the interest and to make sure you don't have a choice but to feed their account they won't let you sell in these certain categories unless you accept Paypal.

The ebay community lost out when I stopped using them, I made loads of purchases and sold honestly and fairly. I wouldn't be unfair in saying that from making around twenty purchases a month for several years I have only bought twice in the last year. Most websites have now caught up too and the price gap between new items on ebay and elsewhere is insignificant.

The only plus point I am willing to concede is the range of items you can find on ebay is huge. Not enough for me though, I no longer have an account and the only time I buy from ebay is when I can't find what I want anywhere else, I get someone with an account to buy what I want for me.... I mean that too, I'd pay another retailer double the price to save me using ebay but sometime because of range you can't buy elsewhere.

My advice to you is to try another auction site, the only thing ebay have over the others is numbers and I'm not the only one that feels this way. Close your ebay account and join a site that is interested in it's customers! I have pasted a link below but it's not a recommendation yet as I am still to try them.

http://uk.ebid.net/indexmain.php

Summary: Run away, they are greedy, uncaring and unhelpful.