Things that irritate you on eBay

[Menard]

Most of us have probably bought items off of eBay, and most of us probably have some gripes about things that irritate or annoy us on eBay.

Aside from their site being being so bloated that it eventually brings my browser to a crawl, some of what irritates me on eBay:


I am presently doing a search for the term 'shortwave' on eBay to find non-shortwave radios. Why? Because it seems that quite a few sellers think that a radio that has a police band, or at least one more band than the standard AM/FM bands, makes it a shortwave radio, rather than having bands that actually receive the shortwave spectrum.

The singular form of lenses is lens, not lense.

Auctions with wallpaper sizes images, and many of them, that not only require scrolling left and right to see the image, but take forever for the page to load.

The "I have not tested it with batteries" excuse. Really? Just how difficult is it to put a battery in something that takes a common battery size?

What the hell do you mean it takes $50 for the shipping to send a 2 pound item via priority mail?

"I don't know anything about operating radios". Huh? Hey; try the 'On' switch (it's the one that says 'On').



What irritates you on eBay?

[ghouck]

Lol, I've b***hed about this before: Sellers that say "buyer pays actual shipping", then won't ship to Alaska (or Hawaii). It REALLY got me right after 9/11, when every F-ing auction in America had an American flag plastered all over it, the flag with 50 stars, , but they wouldn't ship to Alaska, even though it's not their dime. Real patriotism, why don't they just say "We support 96% of our country"?

Since we're complaining about eBay, I'm going to throw Craigslist into the mix: I REFUSE to buy from anyone that does the keyword spam BS. IOW, someone selling a yamaha dirt bike, and they throw "ducati, kawasaki, suzuki, honda, atv, banshee, harley, davidson, hd, can am, polaris, crotch rocket" in the ad just to herd in people that are looking for, ,well, not a yamaha dirt bike. I was at one time emailing them from a bunch of different email accounts asking them about their Ducati or their Harley, etc, , but that was just too time consuming.

The BEST of eBay, was years ago I would look for machinist tools, and I would search for "thingy" or the names of popular machinist tool makers that are slightly mis-spelled. I would get auctions where some person (often a woman it seemed) was selling machinist tools they knew nothing about (hence the word "thingy"). More than once is was a woman selling off her husband's tools, and didn't know their value, and didn't name them very well so they got overlooked and went for CHEAP. Sucks for him, I guess he pi$$ed off the wrong woman. .

[Menard]

Here's one that not only uses 'short wave' in the title and description, but cb as well; and it has neither a shortwave nor cb band on it.

multi-band short wave cb radio

[CheezeFlixz]

A lot

In addition to those listed ...

Item Location "United States" then it ships from China.
Any listing from China. Often the item is $0.99 and shipping is $49.95.
Blurry photos.
It doesn't take $9.95 to mail a DVD.
Music on ads or those annoying talking ads.

[Trevor]

"I don't know anything about operating radios". Huh? Hey; try the 'On' switch (it's the one that says 'On').

 

[dean]

Shipping is the most annoying thing: I know how much things cost to ship, it annoys me to be completely ripped off.


The other is fakes.  We get burned everynow and then by people with fake headphones, or speakers, and I have to break the bad news that they've bought fake gear. 

[Jack]

I don't even use Ebay any more.  For DVD's there are so few good deals it's not even worth looking.  And then there's all the people with their ridiculous shipping charges, just another layer of junk to sort through.  And I got ripped off a couple of times by people who became "no longer a registered Ebay user" right after I sent them my money, and the system wouldn't even let me leave negative feedback.  And I'm sick of waiting for auctions to end and having someone outbid me by fifty cents.  The fact that they even have computer programs to do crap like that automatically...who needs it.  Probably my biggest complaint is that you click on an item and then realize you've stumbled onto some amateur web designer's gi-freakin'-normous webpage that's probably drawing information from ten different sources and it takes forever to load up.

I just order my DVD's from the sellers on Amazon.  Lots of great deals, vastly larger selection, shipping is ALWAYS $2.98, no waiting for auctions to end, if there's a problem contact Amazon and they'll get you a refund in 24 hours.  Feedback is honest because the sellers can't leave retaliatory (or any) feedback.  I guess Ebay switched to the same policy now, but whatever.  A bit too late for this ex-customer.

[Psycho Circus]

It annoys me when I do a search say for cds, and type in the artist and nothing comes up. I then type in the cd title and get results from international sellers, with the artist listed! 

I also, hate when people do not leave me feedback and I also don't understand why people don't pay straight away when they have won an item. If you can't pay for it, don't bid! And when they have just won and outbid someone, that means that they are "online", so just pay when prompted! 

[Trevor]

Bootleg DVDs on sale there are the one thing that gets me a little  .

Copies of the SA film Shangani Patrol were for sale there and that film will only be on DVD later this year. I hate it when people rip my heritage off.

[Mr. DS]

Most have been already mentioned but I'll reiterate a few.  
1.) The shipping scammers who charge outlandish amounts to ship a 99 cent item via first class. Maybe they are thinking shipping peanuts or bubble wrap are expensive?
2.) The one Circus just mentioned about people not paying after auction close.  A lot of them put the final bid five minute before the close.  You'd figure if they cared that much, they'd pay right away.  
3.) Lack of feedback.  I pay for my stuff right away so I figure that should be enough for positive feedback.
4.) The fact Ebay seems to turn a blind eye to certain people who have several reports of negative feedback.  I thought there was a limit a member could get.
5.) The epic Supreme Court-like battles you have to go through if your merchandise is not shipped.  That accompanied with Ebay's laze faire attitude about it.  They basically used to say (in so many words) "don't bother us unless you REALLY need to.  
6.) Sellers who simply can't figure out how to ship an item a few days after the sale.  I had to bug a few after 10 days of waiting.  Of course when the package was received it was post marked 10 days after the sale close.  
7.) Too many fly by night businesses sellings stuff.  I recall when it first started it was mostly small collectors selling items of interest. Now its places from China hawking just about everything.

Theres more, but I should stop now.  Does anyone get annoyed with Half.com?  I think their media mail prices are a bit too high.  

[ghouck]

The fact that they even have computer programs to do crap like that automatically...who needs it.

If eBay really cared about leveling the playing field, they would have the auctions end at random times within a specified timeframe. The whole "bid at the last two seconds" is BS, take away the ability to know exactly when the auction will end any better than a few hour timeframe and it will be much better IMO.

[Allhallowsday]

I have been buying and selling on ebay for over 10 years.  This year, I sold quite a lot and did well (selling collectible toys and ephemera - TV photos, magazines, holiday decorations, that kind of old stuff.)  That being said, I've had most of the problems cited as a buyer, but as a seller holy moley!  People bid, but don't pay, don't respond to invoices sent twice, don't respond to ass-kiss emails where I couldn't possibly be any nicer... so, I open a non paying bidder alert, and suddenly I get a response (immediately) to THAT insisting "payment already sent" with a date 10 days before, my name and a check number...    Uhm, right.  And the dope has the nerve to write "don't know if check cleared."  So I follow up on the non paying bidder alert, 4 times, never any response, and of course that check "lost in the mail" I suppose    Finally, I close the alert which means a non pay strike against the bidder - who immediately leaves me negative (my first ever)!!     Okay, I can't retaliate under ebay's new rules (like that would help) have my feedback sullied after over 10 years, I complain to ebay fill out their form and ebay says "doesn't meet criteria for removing negative feedback...!!"    

I had a weirdo send obscene messages thru ebay's messaging system to taunt or insult me, an ebayer that I do not know, had no business with,  other than he had outbid me or I had outbid him a few times years ago.  I reported to ebay.  Know what they did?  NOTHING!!!   

Paypal required by sellers.     I've stopped selling primarily for this reason.  Ebay doesn't make enough with listing fees and final value fees, and then get to clip a share of your paypal payment??? 

I'm hating ebay these days. 

[Psycho Circus]

Paypal required by sellers.     I've stopped selling primarily for this reason.  Ebay doesn't make enough with listing fees and final value fees, and then get to clip a share of your paypal payment??? 

I'm hating ebay these days. 

Yeah, I had no idea they had invoices for selling and using paypal as well as insertion fees at first. I don't sell alot of items at once, so money I do make as credit through paypal is sucked out out again to pay Ebay! 

[CheezeFlixz]

Zero bidders, bidders with zero feedback that doesn't know who the system works or some clown bidding with no intention of ever paying. I've been burned to many times and 90% of the time it's a zero bidders.

I no longer accept ZERO bidders, I'll cancel their bid in a second and I say so right in my auctions NO ZERO BIDDERS. Learn the ropes on someone else's auction.

[ghouck]

I am not 100% convinced there isn't some kind of funny business going on behind the scenes. Across my last dozen plus eBay purchases, EVERY one of them went EXACTLY to my maximum bid EVERY time without fail. If I could hit lottery numbers that consistently I'd be one rich individual.