To E-Bay or not to E-Bay that is the question?
By Lord Banks, 2nd Sep 2011 | Follow this author
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Posted in WikinutBusinessEthics
E-Bay was a ground breaking selling and buying tool. I have noticed changes and changes for the worst in my three years experince of using E-Bay. I hope this article is of help to other users.
To E-Bay or not to E-Bay that is the question?
To E-Bay or not to E-Bay that is the question?
I joined E-Bay in 2008. I had heard rumours of the site being very cheap to buy from and a good way of selling unwanted items of your own. I’ll be honest I do not know the potted history of E-Bay. This will be of course available on Wikipedia another online wonder.
I do want to concentrate on some of the pit falls there are to buying from E-Bay. I haven’t personally sold anything so I will leave that aspect for another writer to cover. I have to admit that my first limited purchases from E-Bay were good no doubt about it. Things however are changing? Perhaps it was my misconception but I thought of E-Bay as being a site for second hand items of all descriptions. Also I thought that the new items sold on E-Bay were cheaper than can be found in any retail store.
To back this up my first half dozen purchases were indeed cheaper than any retail store I could find. I put this down to the seller of the item not having a shop to run and staff to pay. I further imagined that the seller would have perhaps a ‘Del-Boy’ style lock up with cheap off the shelf goods.
If I wind the clock forward to 2011 my purchases from E-Bay are now a very mixed bag and I have lost my faith in E-Bay. A few things have changed in my opinion. The main stream retail industry has woken up to selling on E-Bay. New items are for sale amongst used and alternative non genuine items. Please let me explain.
My car a Ford Mondeo was stored for over a year and through the harshest winter I can remember. So to that end I wanted to spruce the car up with a few new parts. The car has Ford Alloy wheels which are in good condition. In the centre of the wheel there are chrome centre caps with the Ford logo on. These had corroded and the lacquer had lifted. I looked on E-Bay and sets of these centre caps where available.
The sets of caps x4 where £12 they were non genuine and this was stated in the advert, I.e. a copy of an original Ford part. They were not the only advert for these centre caps. Clearly corroding centre caps is a common fault. I was about to purchase the £12 set when I saw an advert for
“Genuine Ford Centre Caps”
These were priced at £8 so I was more than happy to purchase the genuine items. I was just about to click buy when I noticed on the buying screen it said,
“Quantity 1”
I looked further and assumed it was for 1 set I.e. 4x centre caps but oh no! it was just for 1. I did some research into other aftermarket or second hand items for my Ford. Every now and again an advert would be there for a genuine Ford part amongst adverts for non genuine after market parts.
The difference was the Ford parts were for quantity 1 every time! The adverts were worded cleverly to match the non-genuine parts. The Ford dealers had even taken the Ford part out of the box and taken a photo of the part against a wall or on a table just as if a private seller had taken the photo.
The world market has realised that E-Bay is a powerful selling tool. I for one was always searching for an item on E-Bay before looking for another online seller. I relied on online sellers as I am disabled and last year I was unable to walk at all.
Along the same lines recently I wanted to upgrade my car’s front side repeater lamps. The car came with orange lamps and the later cars came with white lamps. I decided to upgrade my cars lamps to white. I found a few lamps that were second hand and looked a little tatty so I ignored them and I found 2x lamps marked as genuine Ford parts. The lamps were supplied from a company with ‘Ford’ as part of their name.
I ordered the lamps and sure enough two days later the lamps arrived however they were wrapped in a jiffy bag only? I expected a box considering plastic lamps are fragile. I opened the box and a load or road dust and dirt fell over my lounge table! The parts were clearly taken off a scrapped or written off car and stuffed in a jiffy bag and sent to me. They didn’t even have the decency to clean the items.
I was furious I could see no where in their advert that stated,
“These are used items but in good condition”
I studied every minute millimetre of the advert and in the summary of the item on the buying screen one word stuck out ‘Used’ I complained about state of the delivered items to the seller direct and I received and apology for not making an attempt to clean the parts. However there was no apology for a miss leading advert. Its buyer beware taken to a new level.
My run of bad luck continued. My fish tank has large cold water specimen fish in it. As the fish grew and grew the underwater filter was not supplying enough oxygen for the fish. I therefore needed an auxiliary air pump. I studied all the adverts and they mostly stated,
“Dual output silent air pump”
The average price was £30. I carried on searching and found one for £16 that looked ok and doubled checked this item wasn’t ‘Used’ The item said ‘Quantity 1 New’ I paid for the item and my fish waited with baited breath for the pump. The pump arrived in box that had been cello-taped together clearly it had been opened before. The pump itself looked ok but had several minor scratches on it. I saw the electrical plug on the item and I was amazed. I haven’t seen a plug that old since the 1970’s It was black and made of brittle plastic and has a red sticker saying ‘13 amp’ on the top which was scratched and falling off.
The pump was sold by an Aquarium business not a private seller and was clearly marked as ’New’ I plugged the pump in and I thought a military jet perhaps a Euro-Fighter Typhoon was flying over head! The noise was unbelievable. I no longer need an alarm clock to wake me in the morning. I must add I sleep upstairs and the fish tank is in the lounge.
Two of my recent items I should have returned for a full refund due to being not as described in the advertisement. If you read the returns policy for most E-Bay items it’s a nightmare. You the customer has to pack the item securely and pay the cost to send the items back. Regardless of if your claim is valid or not the packaging and postal costs are down to you. Which means you pay to get the parcel delivered to your and pay to send it back if its faulty. Why is this? Surely if the goods are not as described you are entitled to a full refund including 2x P&P.
I’m sure some of you reading this article have wonderful things to say about E-Bay. I did for a while however over the last 12 months or so I feel generally the site has encouraged sharp trading or is at least not too bothered about negative feedback? That’s another thing E-Bay will not let you leave any comments but ‘Positive’ feedback for the first seven days after purchase? E-Bay claim this is a period you should give the seller to right your complaint. Even after seven days only ‘neutral’ feedback is allowed.
In conclusion from my own experiences. Always read the advert for whatever you are buying 3 times at least 3 times. Use the asking questions facility on E-Bay to the seller. Remember E-Bay has grown into a multi million pound giant now and its not a glorified car-boot sale anymore. Please do your research before clicking on E-Bay. Find out what you want to buy and the average price for that item its essential now to do this.
Lord Banks
Comments
2nd Sep 2011 (#)
I have made E bay Purchases, but never sold there.
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4th Sep 2011 (#)
Great stuff. But you've driven me MAD, Lord Banks. My husband is an avid E-Bayer and HE drives me mad too!
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2nd Oct 2011 (#)
Useful and cautious advice, LB..I have been lucky so far, as never had a problem with ebay, but after reading this, I will take extra care...Thank you for sharing this, LB..
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