| Product: |
ebay.co.uk |
| Date: |
04.08.02 (472 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: Bargains, Good Navigation, All Purchases Insured
Disadvantages: Beware of Fraud, Limited Insurance
Overview
The e-bay auction community is to date the best online auction that I have come across, i have looked at others like yahoo and freeserve auctions but i must say that they do not even come close to e-bay. They also offer many alternatives for payment such as pay-pal, bid-pay, escrow aswell as the traditional of methods such as cheque or credit card.
Layout
The layout of this site is excellent, at the top of the page are the user functions such as browse, sell, search and community. At the left of the page are the main categories for the items currently open for auction and the main part of the page are links to the hot picks, featured items and gallery items. The featured items are those the ones that are considered to be very good bargains and the gallery items are the ones which have many pictures of the goods on display.
Community
The e-bay community is quite good and is kept up to date with news announcements, typically about the enhancements that they have made to the site. There is a section for users to submit or read users experiences on e-bay and also a chat function so that you can talk to other e-bayer's which takes the form of a user-forum so that messages can be posted. They also offer help to people who are selling items for charity.
After each transaction, both the buyer and seller can leave feedback which can be either positive, neutral or negative. If the transaction was smooth then the buyer would probably say something like "goods exactly as described, prompt delivery" and the seller "prompt payment, good e-bayer!". Each member gains a point for each item of feedback that they get which is visible and takes the following form:-
0..9 - sunglasses, relatively new user
10..99 - A "Yellow Star"
100.499 - A "Turquoise Star"
500.999 - A "Purple Star"
1000..4999 - A "Red Star"
5000..9999 - A
"Green Star"
10000..24999 - A "Yellow Shooting Star"
25000..49999 - A "Turquoise Shooting Star"
50000..99999 - A "Purple Shooting Star"
100000+ - A "Red Shooting Star"
Content
I was absolutely blown away when browsing the open auctions. The range of items that people are selling is unbelievable - i have seen them sell tv memorabilia, antiques, computers, consumer electronics, holidays, cars - you name it and it you will probably find it here, they even have a section called "weird stuff" and believe me, some of this stuf is weird!!
Quality Of Content
I must say that from the stuff that I have bought on e-bay the quality has been exactly as it was decribed in the description of the item. In fact the computer that I am using now is one of the items that I have bought on e-bay and have had it for two years now with no problems (touch wood).
Security/Privacy
Security is of prime concern when making transanctions of this nature and I was satisfied to read that all transactions are automatically insured. When a user signs-up for their account they have to provide their e-mail address in addition to their other details, you are not allowed to use a hotmail account and I believe that you are not allowed to use any of the free e-mail accounts that are avaialble. This is of-course a good security measure so that unscrupulous members can be traced. Also when signing up you have the opportunity to give yourself a user-name so that your e-mail address is not on show for all and sundry, users can request your e-mail address if they have any questions to ask.
Bid Tracking
The tracking of bids is quite good, when you first place your bid you can see what the current bid amount is and enter the maximum amount that you would like to bid, also shown will be the increment of the bids so your first bid will be the current
amount plus the increment, so for example if the current amount is £30 and the increment is £5, if you specify an maximum bid of £70, then the current amount will change to £35 under your name until somebody out-bids you. The rest of the bidding is automatic until your maximum bid has been out-bid and if you wish you make a further bid.
All notification is sent to you by e-mail, you will receive an e-mail showing your original bid and further e-mails if your maximum bid has been out-bid. An e-mail is also sent once the bid is closed to notify you if you have been successful or not and if so details about on how to contact each other (typcially contact is via e-mail).
Customizability
I found the customizability a particular useful feature of the site. The feature is available on the "My E-Bay" section and allows you to keep track on the items that you have won, bid on and watching for up to 30 days which I think is good because it keeps things in clear sections rather than just a single list.
Own experiences
I have current bought 12 items through e-bay. This computer was one - I also bought a laser printer, 2 network cards, some books, digital camera, laptop and some blank DVD discs to name a few of them, which were all bargains.
Other peoples experiences
I do however know someone that shelled out a lot of money for a DVD burner that never arrived (this is still currently being investiaged) - he did however claim on the e-bay insurance and got an almost total refund which i believe to the total cost of the item minus £30. The insurance took around a month to come through which was an anxious time for him. He did tell me however that the person who he had the transaction with was a person with a (0) sunglasses rating, so a word of warning for anybody using e-bay or other similar online auctions is to make sure that you completely trust the person/people that you are dealing with a
nd try to deal with the companies that sell on e-bay.
Rating
9/10 - no problems so far!
Summary:
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