The Ebay Boycott, And Why I’m Not That Bothered
Today is the boycott of Ebay by a group of sellers protesting the new fees, terms and conditions being handed out to traders on Ebay. To be honest it’s mostly about fees.
And I’m not that bothered, because I no longer see Ebay as a ‘good’ internet company. Yes I still use it, there’s no other place on the web that carries so much junk treasure, and you can always get some incredibly weird stuff, or memories, at a good price. But it has serious problems, and I can’t see a clear way out for them.
Firstly, as a buyer on Ebay, the sheer volume of identical products, especially in consumer electronic peripherals, mostly from Asia, is plluting the search. Yes it does mean they always aheva bright pink PSP games case about to finish, thus looking attractive, but that timed stagger through the listings makes it absolutely full of junk. Snipers are still a huge problem – coming in at the last few seconds of an auction and watching the robots inflate the price up by huge amounts in the last thirty seconds is very disheartening.
As a seller, the fees are quite high, there are cheaper places – and of course you’ve the hidden transaction cost if you use Paypal (which Ebay will do its level best to get you to use). You;re flooded with fake buyers who don;t pay up, won’t read instructions, or win the auction and then say they only use Western Union and can you ship it out to their Uncle in Nigeria. The sale should be the end of the ‘fun,’ not the beginning.
I have to say that Amazon, and specifically their ability for you to sell your own copies of books and DVD’s (or other product in their catalogue) is much more useful for me. I’ve had a number of books and games on Amazon, where I can set the price, and they’ve shifted very quickly, with far less hassle than Ebay. And as a buyer, it’s much easier to find goods, stay within our budget, and not watch the cost shoot up by 400-500% in the last thirty seconds thanks to snipers and lurkers in the auction website. After the ease of selling on Amazon, the fast bank transfers, and feeling a lot more secure, I think I’ll stick with Amazon for the big purchases.
OK, so stay at Amazon. You have written an article mentioning the boycott, but have failed to mention in any depth, any of the reasons why sellers & buyers are actually boycotting. It’s not mostly about fees. It’s about a number of issues, like loss of Feedback rights, and consequently being deluged with scam buyers, for example. ‘Today’ is not the day of the boycott, the boycott lasts a week, do some research!
Thanks for the comment – if this was an in-depth look (say on BBC News) then yes, going into the detail would be fine. But it’s a personal blog, and as I write “I’m not that bothered.” Ebay as a company is flawed, no steps are taken to fix it, this is tinkering at the edges when the competition (Amazon et al) are doing it so much better.