The Official EBay Discussion Thread

[redscampi]

5 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Ebay's "algorithms" and automated systems are about as stupid as it gets now. NEVER IN MY LIFE HAVE I NOT PAID FOR SOMETHING, but due to a seller apparently having problems setting up the controls on his end, my account has been suspended for "failure to pay", even though I was in constant contact with the seller while I continued to bid on sellers OTHER ITEMS.

The seller was supposed to suspend sale cancellations until I HAD BID ON EVERYTHING OVER THE COURSE OF SEVERAL DAYS AND REQUESTED A COMBINED INVOICE.

BUT...the automated system CANCELED several sales early due to "failure to pay", and put strikes against me.

Interestingly, the SELLER GAVE ME THE CANCELED ITEMS FOR FREE AS AN APOLOGY FOR MY "INCONVENIENCE" (I've spent over a grand with the guy in the last couple months) but eBay still has me suspended.

Furthermore, I WAS NOT NOTIFIED OF THE SUSPENSION AS EBAY SAYS IS THEIR AUTOMATIC POLICY, and didn't know of the suspension until I was just refused to be allowed to bid because of the suspension.

On top of that, their chatbot is a repetitive idiot that can't understand plain English, and they make you jump through hoops to talk to a live operator.

I'm sick and tired of "expert systems" that are designed by morons and can't deal with real situations, and I'm sick of fixing problems I DIDN'T CAUSE and that aren't my responsibility, yet they severely hamper my ability to do MY work.

If things I  build worked as poorly and intermittently as a lot of internet dwerbology, I wouldn't be able to get a job sweeping floors.

I have no idea what it's going to take to get this resolved...

 

Geez, that sucks! eBay is going to eventually manage to bring themselves down through gross incompetence and reliance on AI. They won't be alone in that boat, either. If this kind of idiocy becomes the norm for them, people will get fed up and go elsewhere for their needful things.  I hope you get your issue resolved asap.

Edited July 1 by redscampi

[Ace-Garageguy]

12 hours ago, redscampi said:

Geez, that sucks! eBay is going to eventually manage to bring themselves down through gross incompetence and reliance on AI. They won't be alone in that boat, either. If this kind of idiocy becomes the norm for them, people will get fed up and go elsewhere for their needful things.  I hope you get your issue resolved asap.

On the phone with a live rep, trying to get this mess sorted.  ON HOLD  We will see.  ON HOLD  So far I'm having to be kinda pushy to get ALL the strikes resolved, as they don't all show on the agent's end for some reason.

EDIT: SEEMS to be fixed, 20 minutes invested. Very helpful and professional live agent, in the US, speaking perfect English. Pity the rest of their system doesn't function as well.

Edited July 1 by Ace-Garageguy

[redscampi]

40 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

On the phone with a live rep, trying to get this mess sorted.  ON HOLD  We will see.  ON HOLD  So far I'm having to be kinda pushy to get ALL the strikes resolved, as they don't all show on the agent's end for some reason.

EDIT: SEEMS to be fixed, 20 minutes invested. Very helpful and professional live agent, in the US, speaking perfect English. Pity the rest of their system doesn't function as well.

Good to hear. Persistence can pay off. Unfortunately, so many companies have outsourced customer service to locations where it's VERY difficult to even communicate, much less obtain said service.

[Ace-Garageguy]

6 minutes ago, redscampi said:

Good to hear. Persistence can pay off. Unfortunately, so many companies have outsourced customer service to locations where it's VERY difficult to even communicate, much less obtain said service.

Yup. So I have to give feePay points for having intelligent US-based English speakers as live agents...but they sure don't make it easy to connect with one.

Unfortunately, being prevented from bidding on two items that were WAY under market value cost me quite a few bucks, assuming I can't find equally good deals...which I probably never will.

There is, of course, no recourse for that.

Nor is my 21-year perfect record untarnished. It will always show several "non-payment strikes" that were successfully "appealed"...which just isn't the same as having them go away...and all for something I WASN'T GUILTY OF. 

And THAT'S what chaps me the most.

[Rodent]

So, I bought a kit this morning while I was sleeping. When I was selling, I tried to end my auctions on Saturday or Sunday afternoons when bidders in the U.S. had time to compete with one another. This seller decided to end a bunch of their auctions at 6:00 AM PDT on Sunday morning. I had been watching this kit for a few days, and it had seemed to be not attracting much interest other than the first two bids. I launched a bid around 11:30 PM Saturday night and went to sleep. I woke up around 4:00 AM, and I was the high bidder at around $10 under my max bid. Woke up again around 6:15 and paid for my purchase. There had been no other higher bids. I think this kit may be worth $65-70, but I got it for $26 due to the seller not thinking about their ending time.

Yay me ?

 

[redscampi]

On 7/7/2024 at 10:32 PM, Rodent said:

So, I bought a kit this morning while I was sleeping. When I was selling, I tried to end my auctions on Saturday or Sunday afternoons when bidders in the U.S. had time to compete with one another. This seller decided to end a bunch of their auctions at 6:00 AM PDT on Sunday morning. I had been watching this kit for a few days, and it had seemed to be not attracting much interest other than the first two bids. I launched a bid around 11:30 PM Saturday night and went to sleep. I woke up around 4:00 AM, and I was the high bidder at around $10 under my max bid. Woke up again around 6:15 and paid for my purchase. There had been no other higher bids. I think this kit may be worth $65-70, but I got it for $26 due to the seller not thinking about their ending time.

Yay me ?

 

Good deal! I used to do this but it does get old and is frustrating when you miss out on something you want. Now I use a free sniping service with my highest bid and have a good night's sleep.

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

I got the last eBay erroneous-cancellation mess cleared up, and unbelievably, the SAME seller canceled an order AGAIN knowing full well I was bidding on more of his items before requesting an updated combined invoice.

He says he's reset the cancellation time multiple times, but eBay resets it themselves...and HE was supposed to call eBay and sort out HIS end.

So here I am once again, fixing a mess I didn't make, waiting to talk to a live agent.

Pretty sure I'm done with the guy after this.

Sellers...if you can't work the system, get somebody to do it for you...because this guy just dumped THE best customer he ever had.

EDIT: Got it sorted once again, but there have been other minor problems with him, like forgetting a few items in orders, and kinda poor packing of fragile things right next to heavy things that inevitably get slammed around by the PO. Nothing I can't fix relatively easily, and the guy is actually a very nice person. But don't make excuses like "I'm old". I'm old too. 

If you can't remember, write things down. And use some common sense when packing fragile plastic or wooden built-up models in the same box as heavy die-casts.

RANT ENDS

Edited July 25 by Ace-Garageguy

[Len Woodruff]

I listed a decal on eBay and mistakenly didn't reset the satrting price. Before I could change it someone bid on it at the .99 starting price. I would have set the starting price at $7.50

Should I cancel the bid (I am not sure how) or delete & relist?

I am tempted to let it ride just to see what happens.

Thx in advance for your comments.

[Straightliner59]

18 hours ago, Len Woodruff said:

I listed a decal on eBay and mistakenly didn't reset the satrting price. Before I could change it someone bid on it at the .99 starting price. I would have set the starting price at $7.50

Should I cancel the bid (I am not sure how) or delete & relist?

I am tempted to let it ride just to see what happens.

Thx in advance for your comments.

It's hard to say. I don't sell much on Ebay (the last time was about seven years ago), but, sometimes a low opening price can get more than one party interested, and things can take off. I'd probably just wait and see what happens. May I ask what they're for?

[Len Woodruff]

Funny Car Decals for Miller Warrior Monogram.

[Straightliner59]

1 hour ago, Len Woodruff said:

Funny Car Decals for Miller Warrior Monogram.

Man, that was a beautiful car!

[Ace-Garageguy]

FeePay just hit me with another new "policy" from out of the blue...automatic payment processing on AUCTION wins. Though they implemented it some time back for "offers", it didn't affect straight auctions. It's not on ALL auctions yet, but obviously it makes it impossible to bid on several items over several days, and request a "combined shipping" invoice when you're done.

The dweebiges running the show over there seem to be doing their absolute best to drive old reliable users away as fast as they can.

I've been a user for 21 years, have NEVER ONCE FAILED TO PAY for anything, but now that the management clowns are moving to treat everyone like the deadbeats, I'm pretty sure I'll be signing off shortly.

Just as well, 'cause I really don't NEED any more hobby stuff, and this is as good a reason as any to quit buying on FeePay.

Good job, dweebiges. Really good job.

 

[Straightliner59]

3 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

I've been a user for 21 years, have NEVER ONCE FAILED TO PAY for anything, but now that the management clowns are moving to treat everyone like the deadbeats, I'm pretty sure I'll be signing off shortly.

I've got to where I feel that way, about everything. I'm tired of being treated like the lowest common denominator. "Because some people suck, we'll just treat everyone like they suck!"

[peteski]

On 7/29/2024 at 12:15 AM, Ace-Garageguy said:

The dweebiges running the show over there seem to be doing their absolute best to drive old reliable users away as fast as they can.

Don't worry, eBay will unfortunately survive and even thrive because most of the unwashed masses using it don't really care how they handle things.  They are also too big and too well-established to fail. Sad but true.  I have also been a member since 1999, and don't like what they are doing.  Paradigm is shifting, cheese is being moved -  the world is changing (often not for the better). That's why I'm glad to know that I won't live forever. I couldn't take the continuous disappointment of things going to hell without a hand-basket.

[Ace-Garageguy]

The constant tinkering continues to destroy aspects of functionality that have been standard...and worked just fine...for many years, from search functions to display options.

Best analogy I can think of is some clueless "mechanic" who has no idea of how a carburettor or EFI works in the first place, but beats on it and twists screws and changes settings mindlessly, actually believing he's making it "better" just by "working on it", and eventually gets to the point where the car won't go down the road without bucking, spitting, coughing, and stalling.

                  

Edited August 20 by Ace-Garageguy

[Mark]

The constant tinkering and "improvements" are messing up everything.  

I'm waiting for some IT geek to explain how needing to be online in order to open a file is an "improvement".  All improvements are changes, but not all changes are improvements.  In fact, few of them are.

I'd like to choke someone at eBay over being constantly hounded about the availability of their app.  I've seen the pop-up hundreds of times.  If I wanted your app, I'd have it by now.

[Len Woodruff]

They took away my header information that showed total of Listings, Bids, Offers, Watchers & ending today.

Anybody else had this problem?

Anyway to get it back?

Edited August 22 by Len Woodruff

[Ace-Garageguy]

Over more than two decades, I've spent tens of thousands of dollars on eBay.

And now I'm finished.

I have a 100% perfect record, never a failure to pay on any purchase, ever...though one seller almost trashed that because of eBay's policy change on delaying payments to combine shipping on multiple wins.

But the last several auctions I've "won" have required forced payments that go through one hour after the end of the auction.

This makes it all but impossible to arrange for saving a little money with combined shipping, because many sellers just don't want to jump through the extra hoops to figure a shipping refund on multiple items and send it out after they've already collected...and of course eBay gets a cut.

 

Good job eBay dwerbles.

You can take your pathetic penny-pinching greed and stick it you know where.

I will never again purchase anything through eBay unless there is absolutely no alternative, as has been my attitude towards Bezos' Amazon for a long time.

 

Edited September 4 by Ace-Garageguy

[Ace-Garageguy]

It's not just me who thinks eBay's increasingly run by idiots. The search function for car parts has been abysmal for a long time, returning thousands of gibberish hits that have NOTHING to do with the actual search query (kinda like Google these days...hmmmmmmmm), but it's in every category now.

 

 

 

[LennyB]

If you do a search and put your inquiry in quotes you will get better search results. Both in Google and eBay. ie "AMT 41 Ford"

[PatW]

Yes after 15 years of buying and selling on ebay, a buyer requested I prove I have funds before even making a bid! The system threw me out three times one evening. Next morning I went through the same process and it was OK, but I still lost the purchase by a pound yes £1!

If it happens again I'm out!

[Len Woodruff]

Anybody loose their summary page that had Active, Watchers, Offers, etc?

I lost mine several months ago and can't find anyway to get it back.

Any thoughts?

 

 

[Tom Geiger]

“But the last several auctions I've "won" have required forced payments that go through one hour after the end of the auction.”

It’s a seller controlled setting. The default is 4 days and as said, some are set for immediate payment.

The immediate payment thing was lobbied by the hand to mouthers who needed the $20 from that used toaster right now.  I see the messages on eBay sellers boards with these idiots fretting about the nerve of buyers to wait a day to pay!

And eBay recognized these losers by adding a fee for immediate payment! And there is nearly a daily complaint that some jerk sold his laptop because his rent is due tomorrow and eBay put a 30 day hold on it.. new seller, high dollar sale in the most fraudulent category!

Most everything is in sellers settings, but they aren’t easily found and not that intuitive. They are impossible to find on the mobile version! 

I have my settings for 30 day payment. After that eBay will void the sale. I also have my shipping settings to combine multiple items and even to add an extra per item fee on International orders. 

Clueless sellers abound and I read the sellers boards both on eBay and Facebook for entertainment. Most of the complaints are user caused problems.

Recently a lady wanted to sell a used window air conditioner with “eBay Free Shipping”. She wanted to know if she needed to box it and if eBay came to her house to pick it up. She thought free shipping was free to her! Yea, they are out there.
 

Edited October 5 by Tom Geiger