Enough with eBay!

[onesixright]

I'm so done with the ignorance of eBay, it's designed over a decade ago and hardly evolved. Their import and shipping policies, search and notifications are utter shit (IMHO). 

Maybe it's me. So cast your vote and let's see if I'm the moran. 

[RGB255_0_0]

I'm not sure you can blame eBay about importing. This is more your government/EU issue. But I do not know your specific issue?

In any case, as a buyer I like eBay for its buyer (PayPal) protection. I've yet to try the protections on Banggood or Aliexpress though, but I have no qualms about the protection (again, as a buyer).

Importing depends on the country and courier as far as I'm concerned and have dealt with: i.e. I can't find a pattern besides the courier.

[nctnico]

I'm so done with the ignorance of eBay, it's designed over a decade ago and hardly evolved. Their import and shipping policies, search and notifications are utter shit (IMHO). 

Import and shipping charges are not under Ebay's control. Also Ebay never got much love from the Dutch (*) so the Dutch version of the website is only just functional. If you want the shopping cart function you have to change to Ebay.com or Ebay.de.

(*) Ebay just got ignored by us so as a revenge Ebay bought the most popular Dutch 'craigslist'-ish website for 250M euro but never integrated it into Ebay because they probably understood it wouldn't work. The latter is rather unique for a US based company.

[Elf]

I can't say that I particularly like having to deal with eBay and the variety of potentially dodgy sellers, but I keep going back because it seems to be the only practical place to obtain used, obscure things.

I certainly don't use it for transactions on costly new equipment, though (say, new items $250 or above). I would rather pay more to a reputable shop and get the benefit of easy returns, exchanges, and support.

As far as the design of the site, it isn't particularly modern, but I don't feel like it is missing any critical functionality for the way I use it. YMMV.

[JPortici]

it sucks in the sense that every other week they implement some shit that respins the UI and the week later is gone for another shit
italian ebay always had broken categories, it's very hard to filter away the bullshit sometime so i have to dive between pages of chinese crap to find what i want

And now i'll say poo and doo-doo so i'm complete with excrement synonims

[tooki]

I'm so done with the ignorance of eBay, it's designed over a decade ago and hardly evolved. Their import and shipping policies, search and notifications are utter shit (IMHO). 

Maybe it's me. So cast your vote and let's see if I'm the moran. 

You think eBay is bad?! You haven't seen bad until you've used ricardo.ch, the indigenous online auction site that gets used due to nationalism. Saved searches don't really work. The site is buggy as hell. Usability problems abound. Images get shrunk to uselessness. And the app gets things even worse.

But even worse, it has no buyer protections whatsoever. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Their only layer of protection is verifying accounts by snail mail when creating a seller account. So you at least know they're human, but if the seller doesn't hold up their end of the bargain, you have to take them to court.

And it's full of resellers selling the same Chinese crap we get on eBay for cheap, but at 4x the price, plus inflated shipping. For example, if you search for soldering stations, you get a dozen buy it now offers for 936 and 858 style devices at a hundred bucks a piece, with maybe 2 or 3 real auction items.

Unfortunately ricardo.ch has the mindshare here, so if you wanna buy local, you have few alternatives. :/

[onesixright]

Let me elaborate.

I'm fully aware of the different country extensions. I most of the time use .com. And it's one of my problems. It's retarded that the extension all work like shit.  I'm swapping between: .com .de and .co.uk.

Currencies are swapped.  Shown in dollars, while filtering is in local currency 

I get import cost that are simply ridiculous : 4 USD part, shipping 26 USD (for < 50 grams) + import 12 (while this way below the import threshold)  The possibly to do the import yourself is not possible.

Then there are a ton of sellers where it says "contact seller for shipping cost", and they simply don't reply.  ( ok, may not eBay's fault. But I suspect it's hard to setup the "specs" for sellers, which leads to this bs)

I "check" follow this search, and tada (!) ton emails, but when I click the item I often get "doesn't ship to your country". When I asked eBay  about this,  they claim everything works fine. Right.

On top the whole interface is so outdated. A 10 year old designs a better UI. Im using eBay for well over a decade, and its basically still the same.

It's just feels messy.  Maybe that's the charm?

The ONE good thing is buyersprotection. But that's about it.

[james_s]

I don't like eBay, but there's no denying that they have the largest selection of random stuff and the largest audience bidding on it. Buying is a far better experience than selling these days, their policies are heavily weighted in favor of the buyer. I hardly ever sell anything anymore and I don't think they care, they make most of their money from big sellers. Dealing with eBay always feels a bit like dealing with the mafia, I think I would trust most mafia guys a bit more.

[MadTux]

I'm so done with the ignorance of eBay, it's designed over a decade ago and hardly evolved. Their import and shipping policies, search and notifications are utter shit (IMHO). 

Maybe it's me. So cast your vote and let's see if I'm the moran. 

You think eBay is bad?! You haven't seen bad until you've used ricardo.ch, the indigenous online auction site that gets used due to nationalism. Saved searches don't really work. The site is buggy as hell. Usability problems abound. Images get shrunk to uselessness. And the app gets things even worse.

But even worse, it has no buyer protections whatsoever. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Their only layer of protection is verifying accounts by snail mail when creating a seller account. So you at least know they're human, but if the seller doesn't hold up their end of the bargain, you have to take them to court.

And it's full of resellers selling the same Chinese crap we get on eBay for cheap, but at 4x the price, plus inflated shipping. For example, if you search for soldering stations, you get a dozen buy it now offers for 936 and 858 style devices at a hundred bucks a piece, with maybe 2 or 3 real auction items.

Unfortunately ricardo.ch has the mindshare here, so if you wanna buy local, you have few alternatives. :/

Lol, exactly what I think of ritardo. And their ripoff auction fee is even higher than on ebay, so I decided to f*ck them long ago. Now I sell my non electronics stuff on tutti.ch. Also no buyers protection, but at least it's free.

[TheSteve]

I don't like ebay but where else can you find loads of test equipment for often very good pricing(mainly the US market though which is the catch).

[nctnico]

I'm so done with the ignorance of eBay, it's designed over a decade ago and hardly evolved. Their import and shipping policies, search and notifications are utter shit (IMHO). 

Maybe it's me. So cast your vote and let's see if I'm the moran. 

You think eBay is bad?! You haven't seen bad until you've used ricardo.ch, the indigenous online auction site that gets used due to nationalism. Saved searches don't really work. The site is buggy as hell. Usability problems abound. Images get shrunk to uselessness. And the app gets things even worse.

But even worse, it has no buyer protections whatsoever. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Their only layer of protection is verifying accounts by snail mail when creating a seller account. So you at least know they're human, but if the seller doesn't hold up their end of the bargain, you have to take them to court.

That just sounds like the 'local' online market place Ebay runs in the NL. A couple of times per year there is a story in the news how people managed to take other people's money running some kind of scam on it. Sometimes I buy or sell stuff the local online market place but the actual transaction is always face to face.

[mmagin]

My only real complaints about eBay are:

• The people who try to act like "well, it powered up but I don't know how to test" along with some blurry photos when they probably know that it's broken.
• Perfectly clean vintage gear that gets beat to shit because they don't know how to freaking pack things properly.
• TEN FREAKING PERCENT, and that doesn't include whatever you paid paypal.

[EEVblog]

I reluctantly use it for both buying stuff (new and 2nd hand), get "market prices" on stuff, and also selling stuff (new and 2nd hand).
It's always been "the place" to buy and sell stuff and that has what has kept it alive despite all the ridiculous things they have done.
Same reason I reluctantly use PayPal.

[EEVblog]

• TEN FREAKING PERCENT, and that doesn't include whatever you paid paypal.

Try selling on Amazon, 10 percent on ebay is cheap.

[EEVblog]

Dealing with eBay always feels a bit like dealing with the mafia, I think I would trust most mafia guys a bit more.

LOL, unfortunately true.
They know that countless people have built their entire businesses on ebay and they have no option but to bend over and take any changes up the clacker.

[EEVblog]

BTW, for Joe Average selling their random 2nd hand goods in Australia, Gumtree has become the new defacto standard, and that's the why ebay likes it.
Ebay own Gumtree BTW 

[Halcyon]

Same reason I reluctantly use PayPal.

Likewise. I signed up years ago when I began using ebay to buy and sell some odd stuff. Paypal might carry on and think they're a bank; Well I have news for them, even if they are governed by the same financial services guidelines in Australia.

Months after I signed up, verified my bank account details etc... they "restricted" my account, wanting me to send them scanned copies of my driving licence etc... Umm... no. That wasn't happening, so I just ignored it.

That was about 4 or 5 years ago now and to this day my account is still in restricted status. It doesn't prevent me from buying things or sending/receiving money, the only thing I can't do is close my Paypal account. Whoopie doo!

I bank with a smaller bank who just after one phone call created me a "sub-account" linked to my primary one. Essentially it's an entirely unique bank account number from the outside, which I only use for Paypal and crap that doesn't matter. With one phone call, I can just as easily close that sub-account and any direct debit authorisations to it become null and void leaving my primary banking account intact.

Screw Paypal. If they needed my information, they should have asked for it upon sign-up and let me make that decision. They aren't getting anything out of me -- Name, rank and serial number only.

[tooki]

My only real complaints about eBay are:

• The people who try to act like "well, it powered up but I don't know how to test" along with some blurry photos when they probably know that it's broken.
• Perfectly clean vintage gear that gets beat to shit because they don't know how to freaking pack things properly.
• TEN FREAKING PERCENT, and that doesn't include whatever you paid paypal.

1. isn't an eBay problem per se, it's a problem with all auction sites.
2. Even less limited to eBay; heck, you get stuff shipped from Amazon improperly, and you'd think they know what they're doing. (I've occasionally wondered what percentage of LCD, and in the past plasma, TVs from online vendors get broken in transit, due to impact or being shipped laying flat.)
3. 10% isn't that bad, all things considered. Compared to selling on craigslist (or local equivalent) you pay a fee on eBay, but you likely get a higher sale price that more than makes up for it.

[station240]

Ebay in Australia pretty much sucks, between the cost of postage and ebay's fees, there is nothing cheap bar stuff from china.
Gumtree isn't a solution, as it's not setup for people to mail stuff, any anything interesting is interstate.

The ebay test equipment section is a complete joke, being buried in "Industrial" and no one listing anything remotely interesting.
Tons of junk from china in all categories, or from huge sellers which are either overpriced or dishonest, ebay turn a blind eye to this.

In an ideal world ebay would be replaced with a site orientated for small businesses and the average person selling stuff they no longer need. But this cannot happen as corporate laws would oblige the company to take any takeover bid from ebay if it were more than the current share price.

[ZeTeX]

eBay is great but I only use it because it is 10x cheaper and there is much more items to choose from compare to what you can get here locally.
for example, I have only 1 or 2  local "real" electronic stores, and LM337 cost 2.3$ for 1pcs, including the bus it is about 4.35$. for 4.35$ I can get at least 5 of those from ebay if not more.
and this is not the best example, what if there is a part that they don't sell at all? distributors want at the minimum 10$ for shipping. my part is only 1$!

[janoc]

Lol, exactly what I think of ritardo. And their ripoff auction fee is even higher than on ebay, so I decided to f*ck them long ago. Now I sell my non electronics stuff on tutti.ch. Also no buyers protection, but at least it's free.

Add in the French leboncoin.fr. Now that is not an auction site, more like Craig's list type of thing, but no protections anywhere, the interface is beyond basic and the only way to not get robbed is to be super careful ...

[mmagin]

• TEN FREAKING PERCENT, and that doesn't include whatever you paid paypal.

Try selling on Amazon, 10 percent on ebay is cheap.

I guess I am not surprised. 

[avrishuvorlaz]

I'm so done with the ignorance of eBay, it's designed over a decade ago and hardly evolved. Their import and shipping policies, search and notifications are utter shit (IMHO). 

Maybe it's me. So cast your vote and let's see if I'm the moran. 

"Maybe it's me. So cast your vote and let's see if I'm the moran."

^ 

We say no more.

[james_s]

2. Even less limited to eBay; heck, you get stuff shipped from Amazon improperly, and you'd think they know what they're doing. (I've occasionally wondered what percentage of LCD, and in the past plasma, TVs from online vendors get broken in transit, due to impact or being shipped laying flat.)

My friend bought a nice vintage turntable for almost $400 and it arrived completely destroyed. This was a heavy thing, weighed around 30 lbs and the seller put it in a tight fitting box with a layer of bubble wrap. I've had stuff come in a box full of foam peanuts with nothing to keep it from shifting around, some people just lack a basic understanding of physics and then blame the shipping company. Pack something like it's going to tumble down a flight of stairs.

I ordered a fiberglass shower stall kit from a big box hardware store, shipped from their warehouse to the store where I picked it up. The first two were broken and I had to drag them back. Finally the third arrived with no visible damage, I couldn't believe it took so many times for the store to get an intact product form their warehouse to their own store and this wasn't particularly cheap, they were close to $400 each. On top of that they gave me a discount because I had to make so many trips to pick up and return the things and waiting for the re-orders put me more than a month behind schedule.

[joeqsmith]

I closed my eBay account many years ago.  Rising costs, Paypal, dealing with dead beat buyers.  Now days, things just hit the recycle bin or I give them away if I no longer have a need.

I did attempt to buy something a couple of years ago on eBay without an account.  Paypal still had records of my CC and would not allow me to use it.   I would have to get a new card just for Paypal.  Not worth it for me.