I can’t stand eBay anymore!
Maybe Amazon.com has just spoiled me but dealing with eBay is just awful. I remember a long time ago when eBay just felt like a garage sale. Seller fees were reasonable and putting up a listing didn’t take 45 minutes.
As a buyer: It was fun bidding on items. I’ve now grown tired of it. I just want what I want at a good price.
As a seller: It’s never been more annoying.
Why was eBay started in the first place?
To make it easier for people to sell the crap that they have no more use for. Simple right? How did it become a marketplace of chaos?
As a seller: It’s become too expensive and too much of a hassle.
I recently put up around 20 listings, nothing sold, I paid eBay $230. Seriously?!
If I had a yard sale and nothing sold, I’d just have wasted my time but it wouldn’t have cost me anything.
Not to mention that I could’ve set up a physical yard sale in the time it took to put up all of those eBay listings.
It makes me not even want to sell on eBay. It could wind up costing me money.
Listings
Why the hell is it so complicated? Seriously? It’s 2010…for another few weeks at least, and eBay still feels like Web 1.0.
How does it serve ANYONE to have some listings with subtitles and others without subtitles? Why are we charging for text characters?
Why does having a a bold/strong HTML tag cost so much money?
<b> </b> <—$4 for that?!?! or this–> <strong> </strong>?!?!
Why are we limiting free photos to 1?! Seriously? 1 photo? How does this serve the buyer? How does this serve the seller?
Again, eBay is nickel and dime-ing every part of the process and it’s maddening.
How to fix it:
SIMPLIFY!
Enter the following information.
- Title
- Subtitle
- Condition (New, Refurbished, Used or Broken)
- Description (up to 1000 characters)
- Pictures (up to 10 pictures, eBay-hosted or externally hosted)
- Add video capability (up to 2, embed from YouTube or Vimeo)
- Category (up to 2)
- Tags (up to 20)
- Auction Price
- Reserve Price
- Buy it Now Price
- Best Offer (Y/N)
- Shipping options
- Return Policy (As-is with no returns OR returns within 14 – 30 days)
THAT’S IT!
Listings should be consistant, clean and easy-to-follow. Designer themes look like crap. If anything, let people choose some fonts. That’s it.
No designs, no frills, bells or whistles. That’s what stores are for…I’ll elaborate in the next section.
At the bottom of the page, put a Disqus-like commenting system. People can ask questions and the seller could answer.
Make EVERY listing $1 for up to one year. It can stay up as long as you want. How simple is that?
Ebay charges the seller a flat rate of like 5% of the sale price for EVERYTHING from ear buds to automobiles. How simple is that?
Stores
eBay has stores but quite honestly they don’t serve people like me, the original target customer. I have stuff to sell now and again but not all the time. I don’t want to pay $15/month but I’d like to have some space to showcase my goods that are for sale. How is it that WordPress can offer free domains for blogs, Gmail can offer virtually unlimited email storage and Flickr will give 100MB per month of photo and video uploads yet eBay acts like web hosting is at an all-time premium?
How stores should work:
SIMPLIFY!
Let anyone sign up to have a store for no charge. Have them choose to make their stores public or private (for a small extra cost $5 / year). Give them a vanity URL. Charge people monthly rent to have a store front. Let them design it HOWEVER they want! No additional charges. Make rent based on number of items.
That now becomes MY storefront, I have incentive to share that store with others. I have a connection with eBay…my own page! If I don’t list anything it just sits there and I don’t pay a thing. If I list 5 things, charge me a fee for 5 items. Create a weighted structure so the more items you list, the cheaper it is per item. This appeals to everyone, power-sellers and the every-once-in-a-while seller.
Make it easy to embed the store into a Facebook tab. Make it easy to drop a store widget onto my blog.
EBay reviews are awful
The 80 character review snippets are worthless.
“great seller and eBayer. A++”
“Awesome”
What does that tell you about the experience really?
Amazon has a useful and easy to follow system. You get an average rating based on a total of 5 stars and the reviews can be very detailed about the product. If you have a good experience or a bad experience you can talk about it.
With eBay, the buyer gets to leave one 80 character comment, to which the sellar can respond in 80 characters and then the buyer gets the final say. This is nonsense!
I recently had a very rude buyer who left me negative feedback in spite of the fact that I did absolutely everything I could to appease them including a full refund. Yet they get the last word which includes baseless accusations. So now I have 1 negative feedback which just annoys the crap out of me.
How to fix it:
SIMPLIFY!
To review a seller, use a thumbs up, thumbs down system: two thumbs up, one thumb up, thumbs down or two thumbs down.
Or use a rating out of 5 stars system…like everyone else. A seller with a 4.5 star rating means a lot more than someone with a 3200 and a purple star next to their name. A seller with 400 thumbs up and 3 thumbs down means more than all that other stuff they are currently showing me.
Then…this part is crucial, let people review and response.
Get rid of that ridiculous 80 character limit. Instead create a commenting system similar to Disqus. Let it go out into the social world and let people explain the situation. If the shipping was slow, let the buyer say that in their own words, if the seller had a reason, let them explain themselves. How does it help ANYONE to limit it to one small exchange with a really small character limit?
I know eBay needs to make money…
…but thus far it seems like their plan is to hide more fees. How about a different approach? Make it easier for sellers and buyers and they will bring in more business on their own.
Finally, a few other ideas:
- Let me see my entire buying and selling history, seriously.
- Let me integrate with my social graph by hitting “Like” for my favorite sellers and listings I’m interested in.
- Add a Tweet button too.
- Create eBay affiliates which would in turn create a micro-community of deal finders that profit from finding deals and sharing them online.
- Have eBay become a concierge for quick buying. If someone comes to the site looking for a Apple trackpad, for example, eBay could find the average final sale price from all of eBay and offer it at that price. When someone purchases at that price, eBay goes out and buys it at the lowest price available, ships directly to the seller and keeps the difference.
- If anyone reads this entire post and decides that they’d like to start their own auction site using these ideas, I’d like in on it please, I’ve got more ideas.
JC says
How about John Donahue give us a separate EBAY altogether, a different site.
Make it EXACTLY like Ebay was in the year 2000, and don’t change a DAMN thing for anybody or for any reason!
Call “EBAY ORIGINAL” for those who liked the OLD Ebay.
Allow personal checks, allow the bidder’s email to be displayed, allow contact between buyers and sellers directly. That was the fun, exciting way!
How about it, Mr. Donahue???
Jeff Gibbard says
I support this initiative 110%. That’s when I actually liked using ebay. There’s too much crap now.
Libertyman73 says
I hate ebay with all of its fees so i created an auction site. http://www.gobidn.com
Bob69 says
This person needs to make this website ASAP!
I’m tired of all the Ebay fees and crap they make people put up with.
I say you just start a website exactly how you worded it up there.(P.S. with a simple catchy name)
Sirjamil says
Thank you all for sharing your experiences with ebay. I had been using ebay since it first came out. I am happy that in all that time I never got rippedd off, but had one item that was not as described sent to me.
I complained to the seller and got a full refund.
I do however have a bit to say about ebay as a company. I myself was an ebay power seller…… and I say WAS because I have chosen to pull all future listings from ebay because they are crooks!
Let me tell you buyers what ebay does. First they charge sellers a fee to list your items on their site… while this is not unheard of and is somewhat reasonable, they then charge sellers a fee based on the amount you receive for an item if it sells, then when their pockets got fat from that…. one of their idiot administrators came up with the idea to force sellers to stop accepting money orders for payment and accept paypal instead. The problem with that is paypal is just another one of ebays companies… which means ebay is getting even more money from sellers each time they sell something, so let’s say a seller offers an item they paid $100.00 dollars for on ebay. The item won’t sell for $100.00 and over because no one wants to pay good money for anything on ebay, but let’s imagine it does, ebay will start by charging you the .35 cent or more listing fee….plus a final eval fee……plus their latest brainstorm of charging the seller a final eval fee on the shipping cost the buyer pays…then last but not least, when you the buyer pay the seller via paypal……you are charged another fee to receive your money… that simple $100.00 dollars you may, but not likely were able to sell the item for now becomes a measily $65.00 to $75.00 dollars you end up with. So consider the fact that some sellers will try to list that item they paid $100.00 to buy for $150.00 or more just to try and make a profit, right…..wrong. the higher you sell something on ebay the more money ebay makes from charging you all those fees.
You as buyers know what I am about to say is true: If you want to buy something on ebay, and you see two items….one listed at $100.00 dollars and the same item listed at $50.00 you definately won’t bid on the $100.00 dollar listing even if you know from experience that the item is worth $200.00 dollars, instead you will try and win the cheaper listed one.
I can’t fault any of you for that, it’s just smart. The problem is sellers who list the item for $50.00 are just hoping it will get bid up to $100.00 or more and end up losing out when it doesn’t…. also that’s where you end up with the crappy items listed at a much lower price but advertised as though it’s the same as the good one listed at the higher price.
That is the reason why when you search for an item on ebay, you see 90 high priced buy it now listings on a page with only 10 low priced auction listings.
Ebay is nothing but a scam not only to buyers but for sellers as well, and that is why in the last two years no one buys anything on ebay at a decent price from sellers, and the price on items like the economy has fallen to nothing! Items that are worth $100.00 should sell for $80.00 to $90.00 dollars but instead they sell for $5.00 to $10.00. That may sound great to buyers, but it also leads to crappy products, poorly shipped items and worst of all a crappy market, sure you are happy when you buy something dirt chaep, but what good is it if the market for it is now lower than what you paid for it?
Let me give you an example: a vintage 1970’s GI JOE in original box should be valued at over $100.00 dollars when in mint condition with no cracks or damage what so ever, yet since they sell on ebay for around $25.00…. they all are only worth around $25.00
I don;t sell on ebay anymore because it ruined the market for everything except cars.
Good luck buyers enjoy the deals now but beware.
T.J . Antipodes says
We should be supporting http://www.quicklsales.com.au
They have free listing and don’t take a final value you just pay a monthly shop fee which is less than ebays’s
Plus we can make the good cheaper for the clients.
Spread the word and get a more economical system going
Give ebay some competition. they have taken us for granted. NO MORE
Overstockbuys says
Super cheap clothes & More…
http://www.amazon.com/shops/OverstockBuys
http://overstockbargain.ioffer.com/
Jeff Gibbard says
Really? Are you serious? Is this really how you choose to share this information? Don’t spam my blog. If you are serious about building this conversation and want to promote your site in the meantime, I’m all for it, but this is just pathetic. Normally, I’d delete your comment, but I want everyone to be able to see how NOT to do it.
Guest says
Thank you all for sharing your experiences with ebay. I had been using ebay since it first came out. I am happy that in all that time I never got rippedd off, but had one item that was not as described sent to me.
I complained to the seller and got a full refund.
I do however have a bit to say about ebay as a company. I myself was an ebay power seller…… and I say WAS because I have chosen to pull all future listings from ebay because they are crooks!
Let me tell you buyers what ebay does. First they charge sellers a fee to list your items on their site… while this is not unheard of and is somewhat reasonable, they then charge sellers a fee based on the amount you receive for an item if it sells, then when their pockets got fat from that…. one of their idiot administrators came up with the idea to force sellers to stop accepting money orders for payment and accept paypal instead. The problem with that is paypal is just another one of ebays companies… which means ebay is getting even more money from sellers each time they sell something, so let’s say a seller offers an item they paid $100.00 dollars for on ebay. The item won’t sell for $100.00 and over because no one wants to pay good money for anything on ebay, but let’s imagine it does, ebay will start by charging you the .35 cent or more listing fee….plus a final eval fee……plus their latest brainstorm of charging the seller a final eval fee on the shipping cost the buyer pays…then last but not least, when you the buyer pay the seller via paypal……you are charged another fee to receive your money… that simple $100.00 dollars you may, but not likely were able to sell the item for now becomes a measily $65.00 to $75.00 dollars you end up with. So consider the fact that some sellers will try to list that item they paid $100.00 to buy for $150.00 or more just to try and make a profit, right…..wrong. the higher you sell something on ebay the more money ebay makes from charging you all those fees.
You as buyers know what I am about to say is true: If you want to buy something on ebay, and you see two items….one listed at $100.00 dollars and the same item listed at $50.00 you definately won’t bid on the $100.00 dollar listing even if you know from experience that the item is worth $200.00 dollars, instead you will try and win the cheaper listed one.
I can’t fault any of you for that, it’s just smart. The problem is sellers who list the item for $50.00 are just hoping it will get bid up to $100.00 or more and end up losing out when it doesn’t…. also that’s where you end up with the crappy items listed at a much lower price but advertised as though it’s the same as the good one listed at the higher price.
That is the reason why when you search for an item on ebay, you see 90 high priced buy it now listings on a page with only 10 low priced auction listings.
Ebay is nothing but a scam not only to buyers but for sellers as well, and that is why in the last two years no one buys anything on ebay at a decent price from sellers, and the price on items like the economy has fallen to nothing! Items that are worth $100.00 should sell for $80.00 to $90.00 dollars but instead they sell for $5.00 to $10.00. That may sound great to buyers, but it also leads to crappy products, poorly shipped items and worst of all a crappy market, sure you are happy when you buy something dirt chaep, but what good is it if the market for it is now lower than what you paid for it?
Let me give you an example: a vintage 1970’s GI JOE in original box should be valued at over $100.00 dollars when in mint condition with no cracks or damage what so ever, yet since they sell on ebay for around $25.00…. they all are only worth around $25.00
I don;t sell on ebay anymore because it ruined the market for everything except cars.
Good luck buyers enjoy the deals now but beware.
sugi891 says
I too am getting very tired of e-bay. I used to sell on it, but don’t any more. Their fees are outrageous compared to their competitors. Now, I may not buy much there any more either. When I previously bought something on e-bay, I always used to compare the lot picture to what I actually received. Now I can’t do that any more, because they will only allow buyers to see a thumbnail of the picture. The only way I had to ensure that I actually received what was promised is now gone. What are they trying to do, kill their business? And getting help from “customer service” ? What a laugh. I spent nearly half an hour trying to explain to their customer rep about this problem–and she kept asking about tracking numbers. The best way to ensure that you lose customers is not to listen to them. Just ask Netflix….
Jeff Gibbard says
I’ve dealt with eBay customer service too. It’s simply horrific. I don’t even bother with it anymore.
James says
I stopped using ebay buying/selling years ago. The cheap knockoff stuff that replaced the collectible type market. The knock off stuff I can find elsewhere on the internet minus all the various fees and buy that junk somewhere else. Also paypal kept playing around with my $. They would freeze my account, move money around, freeze, unfreeze. It was just too much hassle.
Jeff Gibbard says
I still use Paypal now and again, but I’m totally OVER eBay.
LONND says
OMG I soooooo agree with you! Almost word for word, thought for thought. I just came here after finally getting fed up wit Ebay. I was sniped for a much wanted and needed item in 2 seconds!!! Really! How can someone outbid me with 2 seconds left! Im tired of the whole bidding thing on ebay. Its stressful! Then sometimes I forget to bid… its just too much. And let’s talk about feedback. Im way past tired of people leaving that stupid ass “good ebayer, fast shipping” feedback!! Well what about the damn product! Did you even give it enough time to see if the crap works or fit well!! Jeez! Well how does it fit? Was it the same as photo? What size do you reccomend….like come on buyers, review the product!!!! Then I want to sell things, but who has a whole day to sit and list?! Then you have to figure out the most important pics to put because after the first the rest is expensive and then you hope your item sells so you can pay your two middle men and pray they dont kill you in costs….im just over ebay and they need plenty of changes!!! HOPE YOU READ THIS EBAY
Jeff Gibbard says
Thank you! I’m really glad you liked this post. It was written from the heart. I’m just totally OVER the whole eBay experience. Amazon is just a far superior experience.
Dog says
Yep. Been on ebay since late 90’s. It sucks now. Nothing to protect the seller. Got one neg feedback in the entire time I’ve been on eBay. The guy had a problem with the item and never told me about it, then 2 months later left a really nasty comment. Ebay used to be so fun.
Evanc511 says
Three years ago a hacker got into my Ebay account and started selling bootleg videos. I didn’t use Ebay that frequently so I never caught on, but when I got a call from a angry customer this person had sold to I immediately called Ebay. They had told me that my account was now suspended and they did not want to hear anything I had to say. Not only was my account hacked into, but the person responsible for suspending my account was never put to justice. I was not protected by Ebay and I had to pay for their lack of security. Whenever I call their customer support I get some third world country representative who barely speaks english and has no clue what I am trying to tell them. We need an online auction website like you described and put Ebay out of its misery!!!
Docmafia says
I had a very bad experience with eBay and lost $500 dollars because of them. This incident motivated me to start my own auction site and no I am not promoting. I went out a bought a auction script and I began to learn PHP and HTML and redesigned my own Professional auction site. During this time I struggled to figure out how much to charge at first I planned on pocket change. But then I watched a documentary on Facebook and realized that they are completely free and their net worth is huge. And then it clicked I made my site free because like myself a few years back when I was using eBay the users don’t have any money and they are trying to sell items to make some extra cash. So why extort from the members when you can make money off the people that have loads. So I made my site completely free to all members and make my profit off of advertising. Im in the grand opening phase right now and I am hoping for word of mouth to spread but it is my goal to become as big as Facebook and Craigslist and put eBay to sleep for ever, after all many big company’s were built out the frustration. So keep your eyes out for it . If the own of this site says it’s OK to post the web address then I will do so but I will not try to be shady and promote my site without approval.
Jeff Gibbard says
I have no problem with you posting a link to your auction site. Thank you for asking. Good luck with it.
nick says
I hate ebay horror story contest…ipad mini giveaway
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=390676314367224&set=a.388143534620502.1073741829.369961236438732&type=1&theater
eBaySpam says
I found three items I was looking for, in one day,so I signed up and bought. Then came the eBay spam. I hit “unsubscribe” eight times. I just got new categories of spam. So, I deleted my account. Sorry for the vendors, but some folks at eBay are making very bad customer service choices. A shout-out to eBay: put a “don’t spam me with anything, ever” option at the top of your list.
I was very happy with what I got, but very unhappy with the barrage of spam and the hoops to deleting my account.
eBay vendors are awesome. eBay sucks.
Just plain done with eBay.
Eric Hilgenberg says
Go to http://www.ezbarterbid.com in 31 days you will have a nice platform to sell on plus I will be listening to my customers to make it as seller friendly as I can
T.J . Antipodes says
We should be supporting http://www.quicklsales.com.au
They have free listing and don’t take a final value you just pay a monthly shop fee which is less than ebays’s
Plus we can make the good cheaper for the clients.
Spread the word and get a more economical system going
Give ebay some competition.
T.J . Antipodes says
We should be supporting http://www.quicklsales.com.au
They have free listing and don’t take a final value you just pay a monthly shop fee which is less than ebays’s
Plus we can make the good cheaper for the clients.
Spread the word and get a more economical system going
Give ebay some competition. they have taken us for granted
EAS says
Ebay’s customer service is awful. You can never get a person who has looked at your customer service issue thoroughly and nobody has the authority or desire to resolve anything except to sweep it under the rug. Twice I have purchased expensive items only to have the seller cancel the sale without my approval, and re-list the item at a starting price almost double of what I paid. In both cases, i had to pay much more to get possession of the item (I had already purchased once, and was legally mine). This is clearly unethical, but eBay punished ME for leaving negative feedback about these sellers. Unbelievable! They feel it is perfectly OK for a seller to back-out of a sale, even though when you are the buyer you are given notice when you bid that you are entering into a binding contract if you win the auction. So, don’t ever think you’ve purchased anything on ebay at the price you paid until you have it in your hands! It’s safer to buy form Amazon or another site which honors its sales and holds sellers accountable.
Obot says
Try Obot! It’s an easy new way to sell stuff safely.
http://www.obot.io
Simply tell Obot what you’re selling and get a special email to use wherever you advertise. Obot handles all the queries and lets you quickly track and respond to everything at your dashboard. Eliminate the hassles of existing classifieds options!
Magillacutty says
I think the only way to fix it is to stay away from it. It’s too big to try to fix and too much deep dysfunction has been embedded since 2008. I’m constantly looking for new sites to sell/buy on and I came across this one that’s being started by Mark Lore, the guy who started diapers.com and soap.com and later sold them to amazon for over 500M. I think it’s worth a look. They’re not open yet but they’re trying to build an instant customer base by offering free 6 month memberships if you sign up by the first week in Feb. Here’s a link if anyone is interested:
https://jet.com/#/ji/cks0n
Mo Abersheid says
Have a look at LocalBuy.me.
The ‘nearly free’ model allows you to sell with No commission fees,
only a small flat fee of as little as $1 for items that sell below $200.
Paypal accepted or you can determine your own method of payment. http://Localbuy.me putting the power back into the customer’s hands.