Com'on they have almost lived thier life and if they don't make some major changes then they will just fade away as so many other companies have.

They also withold your payment from auctions for up to 21 Days (or until you receive +ve feedback).

this has happened to me due to one stupid buyer not reading my auction and then leaving -ve feedback.

Now any payment for any auctions for PC/elextrical stuff are witheld for up to 21 days.

I have a feedback of over 500, so I am not some cowboy, but I am for forced to accept paypal even if I dont want to.

The no -ve feedback policy for buyers is idiotic.

They are going to alienate more and more people.

Lets all move to Ebid.Net

Come on people lets start using QXL and restore some competition to this market.

How are you supposed to tell if someone is trustworthy or not?

"Look! I have 100% positive feedback!" (Never mind that it's the only auction I actually sent payment for/cheque didn't bounce/didn't give the seller a run-around)

Bad bad idea. Glad I never gave in to the ebay addiction... (mostly cause I can't stand PayPal)

So what the hell CAN you do if a buyer doesn't pay?

Of course, what happened to a friend of mine (I wouldn't touch ebay with a 13 linguine barge pole) He left negative feedback for a seller that hadn't delivered and then the seller left negative feedback for him as "revenge".

Not to mention the ever increasing scam count since credit cards are getting tougher to crack.

Not to mention, that if ebay have PROFITS of 2bn, holding the INCOME for an extra 21 days probably earns them a tidy bit of interest too.

I use ebay/PayPal because it's safer for me, as a buyer.

I've bought stuff that's not turned up and the buyer disappeared, and I got my money back fairly quickly (within a month) of raising a dispute.

I've also used ebid where I was scammed for £60 and was told by ebid to "contact the credit card company for a refund" and "contact the police" and that was all they were prepared to do.

Credit card company paid up, grudgingly, three months later. The police said it was a "civil matter" and told me to go forth.

ebay/Paypal is as successful as it is because of the backup they have when things go wrong. It there's another service out there with the same safety net, they need to do some advertising.

Tux - cos I think he's cool and no other reason.

ebays fees are extortionate and rules are just nonsensical. ebid is where it is at, way cheaper and easier to use, plus they will honour your existing ebay feedback when you create your account!

Ebay have too many staff and the devil makes work for idle hands, they built it up and can't leave it alone and to keep themselves in a job they just keeping messing with the formula. I was probably at it's peak a couple of years ago.

Jim Ambach, vice president of Seller Experience should lie down and die, or change his title to VP of Bad Experience

to start an ad-supported auction site

Have you ever sold anything on ebay? oh what a joyous experience, 6 attempts to sell my mobile phone due to scammers, the money came through, i was dubious so waited a day, and sure as hell the payment disappears, now if i had send the item paypal would have done nothing to protect me. And if it isnt the scammers, paypal will scam you, google "paypal nightmares" and enjoy the reading. they willingly hold your money, a buyer can pay for something when it turns up, one email to paypal and the money is stolen... YES STOLEN from the sellers account, afterall a buyer wouldn't lie would they?

buyer support is generally fine, its the sellers that get ass raped

Down in kiwiland we have the very successful TradeMe, virtually no-one uses eBay for local stuff, only overseas... me thinks it's time TradeMe went global

I guess all the complainers above are doing something wrong... I'm not sure what it could be since eBay and PayPal have made it as easy as possible, but hey who am I to call you a bunch of tools?

I sold a tad over $78k worth of merchandise on eBay last year. I had no NPB's (non-paying bidders) and only one fraudulent payment and PayPal caught it before I did. Seeing as how I was selling 2nd hand computer parts it sort of puts a lot of the statements above in doubt.

As for the fees, yes they suck, but in reality they are cheaper than a real auction house, and similar (after figuring everything in structure, taxes, utilities, etc...) to the cost of selling things retail when the customer uses any kind of card (debit/credit) and the kicker is that PayPal gets the money into the bank faster than Merchant Services. I think it's sort of funny that so many people on the Register website seem to have such a hard time with eBay PayPal...

I have been shafted several times by US buyers who didn't understand pounds were not dollars, or that there was a big pond in between us, or that a carpet is a heavy heavy item. These people then left negative about ME - in one case pursued me for non delivery on an item they refused to pay for. We SHOULD be able to leave negative f/b - there is a process for canceling it if it is untrue. This was a bad decision.

Just allowing paypal on eBay does this not fall within the competition law and policy in Australia http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/22/10/34830529.pdf that prohibits anti-competitive behavior (monopoly) and unfair business practices?

Before long it will happen in the UK and effect businesses like nochex.com – netbanx.com

http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Free-Articles/The-Briefing/20080417-RBA-to-weigh-in-on-eBay-case-at-ACCC.html

as far as i am concerned if i cant pay by paypal i dont bid any other method is to much trouble

I have until recently been a happy seller with ebay and paypal however I recently sold a laptop that was returned to me as having a faulty DVD drive however the item had been either damaged in transit on return or damaged by the buyer. The buyer did not return it insured or registered and upon fixing the damaged screen at my cost I find the DVD drive was fine anyway.

However Paypal had gladly refunded the buyer at my loss and ebay still haven't refunded the FVF on it. Ebay to this day request that I send them proof of the refund via fax which I've done 10 times from 3 different location. I've also emailed them what I faxed and each time I get the same automated email telling me they haven't received it and how to fax it.

Now I am a very unhappy ebay seller and I hope the choke on the 2bill profit!

Um. When did Ebay kill the ability to leave negative feedback for buyers?

I bought something, didn't read the fine print in the microdot about the quantity (seller stated one thing, then 2 screens further down stated something else in a smaller font), and I left neutral feedback for the seller on that item. The seller then left negative feedback in revenge. That was less than a month ago - so it's a recent thing (or perhaps regional).

And...yeah, why can't sellers leave neg. feedback for buyers? I don't think I deserved the negative; but just like there are sellers who screw up massively, there are buyers who screw up massively. I think that maybe there need to be guidelines for posting negative feedback - maybe a mandatory 24 hour wait period before negative feedback goes live, and then the seller or buyer has to click it live and essentially say, Yes, I still want to post this negative feedback; but it shouldn't be removed as an option.

The U.S.A. is planning the largest Ebay Boycott in history beginning May 1st, 2008. It's time for all of the countries to join together and let Ebay hear our voices! Australia's angry. The U.K. is angry. The U.S.A. is angry. Let's show Ebay we are UNITED & STRONG! The U.S.A. has at least, 11 boycott Ebay websites and we welcome all!

May 1st & beyond, Ebay Boycott !