Just wanted to say....

[cttwelch]

First of all, I would like to say that I have spent THOUSANDS of dollars here on ebay since I discovered it way back when...

A couple years back, I sourced parts out to build a 3D Printer. Well, I had about 30 items in my cart and made the purchase. I waited the 6-8 weeks for delivery. LESS THEN HALF THE ITEMS ARRIVED!

I had to involve the dispute center on approx 15 items for that purchase.

That was my last purchase about 3 years.

Fast forward to 8 weeks ago, and now today. I made a purchase for an item, and again, it never arrived. I asked for it to be reshipped. They denied, and refunded me instead.

Its obviously a shady seller, as if you review them, so many negative reports. How does EBAY allow these sellers to stay in operation here? I'm thankful the refund process is fairly painless, otherwise I would not have taken the chance with that seller.

Bottom line is, with sellers like this still here on ebay, I can no longer waist, not only my time, but everyone's time in general.

So long as ebay (and sellers) remains to operate this way, I can no longer use this service. And even at this point, even if they did turn things around, I would not be comfortable purchasing from here again.

/Rant

P.S. Also, sellers dropping the purchase price to an extremely low percentage of actual item, then inflate shipping charges to match, or exceed what would otherwise be a 'normal' purchase price is also wrong, and very shady.

Good luck to others, but I'm out!

[femmefan1946]

EBay doesn't use feedback to assess sellers.

That is done by Disputes through the Resolution Centre.  If a seller is not refunding buyers who start Disputes, he will soon accumulate Defects and be closed* down.

Feedback does give a snapshot of his customer relations. Less than 40 % of transactions get any feedback.

A seller with less than 98% FB should be avoided. Less than 99% if the seller is overseas.

Not only the rating should be looked at, the actual FB should be read. Negative FB can be sorted out by clicking on the number. Keep in mind that some people can't be satisfied and their FB may sound ... odd. Those can be ignored.

What you look for is a pattern of slow delivery, non-delivery, poor quality, bad communication. Of particular interest should be angry responses from sellers, they won't be easy to deal with.

Never accept an offer of a replacement. It is possible it never arrived because it never existed. Vapourware.

And if it does arrive it will be no better than the original.

Inflated shipping prices is a good sign of an incompetent or scam seller. At one time eBay did not charge fees on shipping costs, and crooked sellers would move their real costs to the shipping, cheating eBay out of their fees. Those sellers didn't treat their customers any better.

Today eBay charges the same fees on sales and shipping. Any seller who is inflating his shipping is either stupid or thinks the buyer is.

*And even before being closed, his fees may rise and the number and value of his listings be restricted.

[cttwelch]

Sorry, but your response does not give me any confidence within the ebay services.
Ebay SHOULD review the sellers a little more proactively then just by dispute center. Clearly ebay is aware of these shady sellers but chooses not to do anything about it. The sellers have learned the ebay system, and scoot around ebay AI bots.
Why cant ebay review the sellers and vet them before the buyers have to?!
As you pointed out, they are more or less easy to find.
Thanks for your advice, but I'm just not going to use the ebay service at all. There are so many 'safer' online stores.

[mrdutch1001]

please define "safer" online stores...it's still a matter of weeding out the good from the bad on the internet...

Just as on eBay, other selling venues are for the most part made up of goodness BUT...

Online buying and selling can be a challenge for both buyer and seller...

 other online selling venues are just as open to scammers and fraudulent  happenings and that includes both buyers and sellers...it's not just sellers...

No matter where you go on the internet there is both good and bad.

[cttwelch]

I've used most of the big online sellers. ebay offers the biggest percentage of misleading products,
poor seller performance and shipping issues of them all. (My experience)

Even the reviews are questionable! - Google that one!!
- Fake review services were used, and ebay was 'ordered to address the problem' That was a year ago (News link posted: 5 Jan 2020)
- Ebay acknowledges it, and 'Promises to crack down' on it. (News link posted: 8 Jan 2020)

P.S. I agree: "No matter where you go on the internet there is both good and bad."

[femmefan1946]

Reviews are product reviews, linked to specific products.

EBay did a terrible job of setting this up, because if someone has a bad transaction with" tylerstuff"   (not a real member)  on a poorly packaged QBXminimoto/axolotl (not a real thing) , he could leave a review of the transaction and every listing for a QBXminimoto/axolotl  in future would show that review, even from other sellers who package well.

Feedback is personal.

That is what tylerstuff's unhappy customer should have left. "Poor packaging left damage Refund slow" for example .

That would only show on tylerstuff's Feedback page.

EBay does give members the choice to leave standardized FB.  If you look at my FB left for my customers, the only thing that changes is the date. And nothing changes when I leave FB for a seller.

It helps to understand the system and the jargon of each site.

EBay gives unwarranted prominence to feedback.

AZ gives prominence to reviews, but I only recently learned they have feedback on sellers too.

Another difference.

EBay is made up entirely of individual sellers. (Some are big time, like GoodWill or the Chinese mega-sellers).

AZ sells its own products and also has individual sellers.