Ebay is not for me

[Pale Rider]

Looks like I've made a bit of a bodge up on ebay.

I pressed 'buy' on a bike component, but then decided not to complete the purchase at that time.

The delivery date was a few weeks away, and I wanted to ask my bike shop if I could use them as a delivery address.

I've done that in the past for other online purchases, but it's only polite to ask first.

The ebay item was new, not an auction, so I don't think I did anything wrong by not following through with the transaction.

The trade vendor appears not to agree and opened a dispute, or whatever ebay calls it.

Cue several messages and emails.

I now have a long email from ebay customer services telling me I've done nothing wrong by cancelling at the early stage I did.

The vendor might be annoyed because it appears they may have been charged a 'final value fee credit', although crucially, ebay tells me that charge will be credited to the vendor's account following my cancellation of the order.

It all seems a lot of fuss and bother over nothing.

I'm not keen on ebay's general insistence on using Paypal, after my bank suspected Paypal was the source of a security breach on my current account a few years ago.

This latest episode - albeit of my own making - has reinforced my view that ebay is not for me.

 

[TissoT]

If you didn't follow through with the transaction after pressing the "buy" button
I don't see how you have done anything wrong that warrants anything negative for the shop you where thinking of buying from... I think it used to be if you press the buy it now you bought the item.
Its now the case now until you make a payment .

 

[Andrew_P]

The seller got charged and has asked you to agree to cancel so they can get their fees back, what is wrong with that? Really you should have established if you could post it to you LBS and if the delivery time was what you wanted before clicking buy now. It not a maybe buy now button I'll get back to you later .. :-)

 

[midliferider]

Well, after reading your post, I now have more confidence on e bay.
It has a system to resolve disputes.
It has come to a reasonable decision, the one you wanted. I am sure it required few e mails but still has worked.

 

[Cuchilo]

Ebay is crap nowadays . The last three transactions i have had have been against ebay rules but they dont seem to care about that . One was a machine i put a cheaky bid on and won . The buyer said his mother had sold the machine while he was out of the country . The a selle smp carbon saddle that was fake but i had to pay the postage to get my money back . The seller is still selling fake saddles ! And now today , a machine i need for parts and is as rare as rocking horse poo . I'm bidding on it and the bidding is low . Its now been sold before the end of the auction

 

[midlife]

I'm sure that when I've clicked BIN you get to a page that says you commit to buy it, selling regs aside I guess that's when you sit and think if you want it

Shaun

 

[Globalti]

We've used Ebay to sell hundreds of items of clothing, shoes and other carp that we would otherwise have taken to a charidee shop or thrown away, and we've turned them into cash, which we've used to buy stuff we do want. Out of 370 transactions we've only had two or three that have gone wrong and they have been resolved.

 

[Mrs M]

Mr M bought a golf club once on EBay.
Looked OK in the pics but when it came it was all scratched and not in the great condition described.
Traded in towards a new club and got more trade in value than he paid for it so luckily (for him ) worked out.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

ebay has been an awesome source for some more unusual things for me (i.e. vintage clothes and NOS bike components), but I don't think I'd use for 'normal' shopping.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Same as monkey, I've had access to stuff; books and records that were really difficult to find before the internets. Occasionally buy normal stuff but only if it's not available elsewhere, or for cheaper. I don't sell much now but if I do I take extra care to ensure everything is just so.

 

[Sbudge]

Ebay is crap nowadays . The last three transactions i have had have been against ebay rules but they dont seem to care about that . One was a machine i put a cheaky bid on and won . The buyer said his mother had sold the machine while he was out of the country . The a selle smp carbon saddle that was fake but i had to pay the postage to get my money back . The seller is still selling fake saddles ! And now today , a machine i need for parts and is as rare as rocking horse poo . I'm bidding on it and the bidding is low . Its now been sold before the end of the auction

I used to use it quite regularly for both buying and selling but over the last 6 months ago it certainly seems to have made a pretty sharp turn for the worse. Last few transactions have all had major issues.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

EBay's great for buying, crap for selling. The number of time wasters seem to be growing.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Ebay is great if you are buying provided the seller isn't a nobber.
Ebay is great if you are selling provided the buyer isn't a nobber.
I've yet to determine if the % of nobbers on eBay is more or less than the % of nobbers in the general population but my hunch is that the % is about the same.

 

[Globalti]

I sold my tatty old leather motorcycle jacket to a punk boutique owner in Tokyo.

I use Ebay for stuff like pen refills and shoe laces for which I can't be bothered to go to the shops.

 

[Andrew_P]

Honestly, eBay sales are much tougher than any other sales platform. Its still like the wild west on there.