Buyer vows to never do business on eBay again

[mandy]

Have you ever bought anything on eBay? The online auction house is an excellent way to buy certain things, such as DVDs and books, often at knock-down prices. I say “is an excellent way”, but that should read “was an excellent way”. A once-supremely useful buy/sell mechanism has been hijacked and should now be avoided at all costs.

Call me an ageing hippie if you must, but what I liked about eBay, its ease of use and reliability apart, was that it was C-to-C e-commerce.

Customer to customer. Generally speaking, eBay sellers were regular people, not the greedy, profit-crazed business people that one often has to deal with online and, sometimes, in the real world...

Greedy sellers, folk with no moral compass, have invaded eBay...

full article: http://www.theroyalgazette.com/apps/pbcs.../108120162

[BellisimaJ.]

A once-supremely useful buy/sell mechanism has been hijacked and should now be avoided at all costs.

A very telling comment. Are you listening eBay? 8)

[xppman]

eBay has been loosing buyers and sellers for quite some time.
The eyeballs just are not there like they used to be and many of us,
(including eBay) has know this for a least three or four years.

It's no wonder they have tried every combination
imaginable to get back that "loving feeling" that "trust"
or that "magic".

It's simply not going to happen IMO

Just like in a relationship.

Once you've "stepped out" on your partner and it's discovered.
The "trust" and the "magic"... is simply never going to return.

Just imagine the millions who never bothered to post about
their true feelings of ebay in forums, blogs or internet articles.

Then go take a look at the overall numbers ebay reports as users.
Last time I checked close to half the registered users
were NOT active in a 12 month period.

[mandy]

Followup to last week's article.  The newspaper's readers respond:

And the moral is ... steer clear of eBay

Last week's column on the swine that have taken over eBay appears to have touched a chord in Bermuda. Letters from readers reveal that I'm not the only one to feel the heat of the online auction site attracting the wrong kind of people...

Like you, I've purchased quite a few things from eBay and was really hooked at the beginning when I had no problems. Now it has 168 million users at last count and with that huge market, the unsavoury elements of this world are counted among them. I must say that your article really got me thinking about whether or not I should purchase again. I probably will, but only if the item is hard to obtain (elsewhere)." ...

full article: http://www.theroyalgazette.com/apps/pbcs.../108190119