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Why is Ebay so full of shite
BenB - 17/2/17 at 01:29 PM

Is is just me or is Ebay increasingly full of rubbish. My last three orders have all been jz. Ordered a rechargeable worklight from ebay. Never arrived. The seller got 1500+ negative feedbacks in a single month yet Ebay still insisted on me waiting two months for it not to arrive before refunding. Then I ordered a toy for my daughter . It arrived- quite clearly fake and a low quality rip-off of the real thing (shown in the photos). Got a refund. Then the replacement rechargeable worklight from another Ebay seller turned up. Supposed to be 30W LED. Turned it on- I reckon it's about 6W- I compared it to a known 10W COB LED worklamp and its not as bright. 30W my arse. So another muppet I'm going to have to deal with via Ebay resolution centre. If I wanted a 7W worklamp I'd use the slightly brighter one I've already got not buy a supposedly 30W one, wait a month to wing its way over from China then find it's bollocks. Hmmm. Going to take it apart tonight measure the true watts then stick in COB chips and make a proper 30W lamp and get a refund by supplying photos of the multimeter readings via resolution centre.

FFS. Watts is an SI unit of power. They can't put "Power: 30W" in the ad if it doesn't take / produce 30W. Now they could have been cheeky and stuck a low ohm resistor so it sucked 30W (even if it put out 7W) but it's not even doing that. Now it might produce the equivalent of a 30W incandescent lamp but that's not what they've said, they've said "30W LED worklight". I'm old enough to know to take any "lumens" ratings with a bag or two of salt but watts it watts!

The annoying thing with all of these is I'm not buying the super cheap "too good to be true" products.... And buying things from the UK is not protection, lots of them drop-shipped and still the bloody cheap nutsack you're trying to avoid.


Gre3D - 17/2/17 at 02:19 PM

i've bought some stuff from alixpress and i must say i have not been tricked,
i bought a chinese AC/DC tig welder from a dealer over here in Belgium. works perfectly.
maybe you're just unlucky? :-p


BenB - 17/2/17 at 02:29 PM

Perhaps- just seems bad to have to use the resolution centre for three purchases in a row- I worry they'll think it's me!!!!


r1_pete - 17/2/17 at 02:32 PM

Yep I recon a high percentage of stuff on there is cheap oriental fake rubbish.

I bought some cone air filters, the edges were so sharp you couldn't fit them, lacerated hands from a bloody air filter....

bought one tap mistakenly from the orient, it may as well have been made of lead.....

I generally filter on UK only, and now real careful about what I buy...

Some buyers are just as bad, sold a hand built guitar for 140 quid, there were over 500 pounds worth of components, and the idiot complained the frets needed finishing, he wouldn't send it back, just wanted money off, to ebays credit they did decline his claim because I asked him to send it back for a full refund.... he kept it... tosser


Ugg10 - 17/2/17 at 03:07 PM

I have had some mixed buys but bargains are becoming hard to find.

But the latest is probably the worst - bought a set of Wilwood 4 pots on buy it now price, thought they were a pretty good buy so snapped them up, pictures looked OK, dirty and the advert said they could probably do with a set of seals - fine, messages to the guy confirming disc size and what car they were off, all OK and what you would expect from second hand calipers.

This is what arrived !!!!



Pictures did not show this side of this caliper. Now not sure I want to trust them on my car !


morcus - 17/2/17 at 03:20 PM

Its not a new thing and I think the problem is the same on any peer to peer platform, too many people use it as a way to deliberately rip people off because thats actually a workable business model.


chillis - 17/2/17 at 03:26 PM

I've been on ebay from very early days and I'd its always been mostly shite or over priced. There's always a genuine bargain every once a while, but that's the ebay business model, you keep going back because there's always the chance of a bargain, just like a gambler.
I have always found if you go for something that seems too cheap the it'll likely be cheap crap.
As with any kind of auction don't bid more than your prepared to loose.


BenB - 17/2/17 at 03:39 PM

Perhaps they've just realised rather than selling cheap poo cheaply they can sell it for almost what the real items costs (therein making the buyer thing its real) and make more profit. It's clearly a buisness model as said- the fake toy seller just instantly refunded and said "keep it" so clearly they're not bothered about an individual case like this, they'll just move and and hope the next sucker doesn't notice.


907 - 17/2/17 at 04:42 PM

eBay feeds on greed. Which is why it does so well in these times.


I prefer the Gumtree system.

I bought myself my Christmas present off Gumtree, a Cannondale Synapse.

Saw the photo's, read the description, went to view, test rode, and then parted with my money. What can go wrong?
It wasn't perfect as the bloke was the type that fiddled with anything that had an adjustment screw, but I factored in
£25 for a service at the LBS so no prob.


FuryRebuild - 17/2/17 at 05:56 PM

I now just go to Amazon. I gave up getting bargains from eBay. For some specific stuff I will buy, but I'd sooner go to Amazon. If I do buy stuff, I look hard at the country of origin as well.


motorcycle_mayhem - 17/2/17 at 06:00 PM

quote:
Originally posted by 907
eBay feeds on greed. Which is why it does so well in these times.



Just about sums it up.


balidey - 17/2/17 at 06:43 PM

The problem is that ebay has got too big and too popular.
That is what attracts the sort of people you don't want to buy from or sell to.
But if you go into it with the right frame of mind, then you sometimes find a good buy.

Their adverts are also quite contradictory.
If you are a seller, then sell all your stuff and make a fortune.
If you are a buyer, then look at all these mega cheap bargains you can get.
Well. Which one is it?

And as for Amazon, watch out, it is quickly going the same way with the Market Place. People fed up with ebay, move to Amazon, then eventually the bad sort of sellers will also go over.
Happened with Play.com a few years ago.


BenB - 17/2/17 at 08:09 PM

Only people to make a fortune through Ebay are Ebay. Sold a 750 quid inverter, did the advert, took the photos etc, total involvement of Ebay was just hosting the advert for the one week it was for sale before it sold. Ended up paying Ebay and Paypal fees of just shy of £100!


Banana - 17/2/17 at 08:26 PM

I hate the way you have to select if you DON'T want stuff shipped from China. Surely it should an option you can select if you feel inclined to included tat from across the globe.

Amazon is the same, and it is even less clear if the stuff is coming from China.


David Jenkins - 18/2/17 at 08:06 AM

I only buy stuff from Amazon if the ad says "supplied by Amazon" - not the market place, nor "shipped by Amazon on behalf of..." - at least then any disputes are direct.

Apart from situations where I just want a small number of odd-sized screws I rarely bother with Ebay, although I always click on "UK only" and I've also got to know a reliable set of suppliers. However, it's clear that quite a number of "UK suppliers" are just back-street warehouses for imported Chinese rubbish, so that option no longer works reliably.

I've also found that a little research on Google can often find larger items direct from reputable suppliers at lower prices than ebay - in some cases I've gone to local shops and paid less than ebay! Sometimes, if you can identify the ebay retailer, it's cheaper to go direct. Crazy.


bonzoronnie - 18/2/17 at 11:53 AM

I have been on ebay since the early days.

Yes I agree it has become a breeding ground for counterfeit gooods, poor quality far east crap & an absolute haven for scammers & crooks.

I rarely sell on ebay now that their fees are so high, if I do, I make use of the classified listings.

That said, ebay has & still is a great market place if looking for hard to find or obscure items.

For example.
I recently overhauled 2 outboard motors for my boats.
All of the parts I needed were sourced from the USA.
Several parts were obosolete & no longer avaiable in the uk.
With the global shipping program costs included, prices were still less than 50% of the UK dealer prices.

The availability of these parts from the USA saved 2 perfectly good engines from being broken for parts, not to mention the hassle of selling said parts.

My feedback score is over 1,000 & can honestly say I have never had any major issues as a buyer or seller.
Sure, have dealt with a few idiot sellers & buyers but I guess that's par for the course for such a big platform.

Given that I live in the ass end of nowhere, I guess for the kind of things I buy, ebay will still be go too source.