Reply to "eBay has lost their collective mind"

I have used ebay since its inception, and I will tell you that over the years it has become more difficult to get things resolved. It was never easy in the beginning, but it has steadily gotten worse as the site has grown. I did have one deadbeat seller who for 3 weeks kept saying he was going to ship, but never did after multiple excuses. Finally I started the process with Paypal before Ebay took them over and I was able to get my money back. I left negative feedback to which he responded with incoherent rambling negative feedback. I was then able to respond once again to his feedback and that was how it ended. I couldn't get the negative feedback removed when clearly the seller was in the wrong. I got screwed and yet I got dinged on my feedback. That was a long time ago and it was obvious the feedback system was broken even then because of all this retaliatory capability. Now paypal sucks sellers dry if you don't have a business account with them in their 3% fees. What a crock.

FINALLY the rest of the world caught onto Ebay and many of the deals have dried up and lots of idiots on that site driving used items past what they could be had for on the net or at retailers Brand New just so they could BEAT other bidders. Stupidity at its finest. A lot of false advertising on ebay as well as people have pointed out. All it takes is getting burned a few times and you will find its not worth it for the risk you take buying stuff on ebay. Shipping schemes are rampant as well. I was selling my used books from school and didn't have tracking in the beginning to keep costs down. Well some guy back east said he never got it and I couldn't prove he didn't so I was out 40 dollars and the book was a loss because media mail wasn't insured. He could very well have gotten the book but I couldn't prove it. So after that I always paid for the stupid tracking or delivery confirmation. There are a lot of Scams on the net and you have to be aware of them. There are so many variables involved, especially assuming the buyers know their own damn shipping address.

Even on craigslist I had a guy tell me the part number for an oil pan off a box that was for another oil pan. I show up after driving 45 minutes and it turns out the pan I was expecting to get was mounted to another engine "they didn't want to part out." The pan he was offering was a different pan and the kid was "selling it for his dad." Idiot didn't even know what he was selling. I wanted to smack the idiot on the head, too bad there there is nothing to replace the wasted gas and time I spent driving out there.

The one thing I like about the forum here is its small and people's reputations are at stake. People are more trustworthy, whereas on big sites like ebay, people just don't care. They are more anonymous and that is what shady people enjoy the cover of.