Ebay

sansnom · 24 Sep 2015 at 12:09

I recently started using Ebay and I just have to ask...is it just me or is it the most convoluted system for buying and selling, ever?

Tried to sell an item and request cash payment on collection - this is not an option. Spend 48 minutes with an Ebay representative to try to figure out how to accept payment by cash. Gave up and advertised it on gumtree and sold it 7 hours later.

Tried to buy an item today - 2 options: pay by paypal or pay by credit card. Select pay by credit card - get an email confirmation to say I need to contact the seller and give them my credit card details to complete the purchase. Obviously not going to send my card details by an email over to some random seller (wtf ebay?) so spend another 1 hour and 14 minutes on chat with some imbecile representative to find out that I need to:
-contact the seller
-request a Revised Invoice
-wait for the Revised Invoice to be issued then proceed to 'Pay Now'
-Select pay through Credit Card
-Find out that pay through Credit Card actually means pay through Paypal guest using my credit card details (and ultimately still end up paying through paypal)
-Contact ebay customer services to get an explanation as to why after all this I'm back to square 0 only to be told you can't pay through credit card directly and must go through Paypal.

Is it just me or is Ebay totally *******? I cannot understand how a system which is so convoluted can be so popular?

Diddums · 24 Sep 2015 at 12:11

It's crap, avoid.

Cosimo · 24 Sep 2015 at 12:13

Diddums said:
It's crap, avoid.

Advice from personal experience or just following the nay crowd?

Captain · 24 Sep 2015 at 12:14

Diddums said:
It's crap, avoid.

It's great for buying, crap for selling.

Sho · 24 Sep 2015 at 12:15

Clov!s said:
It's great for buying, crap for selling.

Ekim · 24 Sep 2015 at 12:16

To be fair the payment system isn't convoluted. You are making it convoluted by not wanting to use PayPal?

tek2k · 24 Sep 2015 at 12:17

EBay is so dire. Their system really is garbage unless you want to be forced to use paypal

sansnom · 24 Sep 2015 at 12:20

Ekim said:
To be fair the payment system isn't convoluted. You are making it convoluted by not wanting to use PayPal?

well to be honest I don't know much about paypal and I'm worried to use it because I hear a lot of stories about people being scammed through it.

I would prefer the protection my credit card offers me as in the past, if I've had a problem with a seller, I just call them and get my money back within 5 minutes and let them deal with the seller directly.

It's not just that their system seems to be convoluted - it's also the fact that you can spend hours talking to their reps and still get nowhere as well. It's infuriating.

Greebo · 24 Sep 2015 at 12:25

sansnom said:
well to be honest I don't know much about paypal and I'm worried to use it because I hear a lot of stories about people being scammed through it.

I would prefer the protection my credit card offers me as in the past, if I've had a problem with a seller, I just call them and get my money back within 5 minutes and let them deal with the seller directly.

It's not just that their system seems to be convoluted - it's also the fact that you can spend hours talking to their reps and still get nowhere as well. It's infuriating.

You can pay through paypal as a guest with a credit card. Double protection then.

Its a buyers dream Ebay anyway as all items bought come with a 6 months warranty free of charge even if its 2nd hand

Kronos · 24 Sep 2015 at 12:26

I gave up selling years unless there is no other avenue but still buy loads of stuff not found elsewhere.

sansnom · 24 Sep 2015 at 12:28

Greebo said:
You can pay through paypal as a guest with a credit card. Double protection then.

Its a buyers dream Ebay anyway as all items bought come with a 6 months warranty free of charge even if its 2nd hand

According to my convo with ebay useless representatives just now, if you pay as a guest through paypal it's counted as a paypal payment, not a CC payment, so my credit company will not get involved if there's a dispute then and I'll have to go through paypal only.

Are you sure about that double protection?

Greebo · 24 Sep 2015 at 12:36

Well unless things have changed ive done chargebacks in the past on my credit card which was used to pay via paypal.

However, mostly paypal just cough up anyway.

Ive just got a £2,973 chargeback from paypal over a dispute. Took 9 days and then they gave me the money.

Greebo · 24 Sep 2015 at 12:39

According to paypal owns page they have chargebacks via the credit card

https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/paypal-safety-and-security

Although Which points out the seller must have a 'Commercial Entity Agreement' with Paypal

http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/section-75-of-the-consumer-credit-act

Diddums · 24 Sep 2015 at 12:44

Cosimo said:
Advice from personal experience or just following the nay crowd?

Very much personal experience. I've had people try it on for phones, pc components, a telly and an amp. Oddly all tech. I've sold loads on there but it got to a point where it just wasn't worth my time any more as I had gotten very wary and had to vet each sale.

Granted the things I sold had a huge influence on the chancers I seemingly attracted.

Semple · 24 Sep 2015 at 12:51

Greebo said:
Well unless things have changed ive done chargebacks in the past on my credit card which was used to pay via paypal.

However, mostly paypal just cough up anyway.

Ive just got a £2,973 chargeback from paypal over a dispute. Took 9 days and then they gave me the money.

Is that from PayPal's internal chargeback scheme? - i.e. your CC company never needed to get involved.

MSE wrote an article (here) as a lot of people were assuming you'd get s75 protection from the CC when paying via PayPal. Unfortunately PayPal are just the middle men, so PayPal pay the seller whatever price you agreed upon, and then your debt is with PayPal.

eatcustard · 24 Sep 2015 at 12:54

Only use ebay if you can stand the loss

eatcustard · 24 Sep 2015 at 12:56

OP

If you want cash on collection, your just write it in the description.

Also you need paypal to sell on ebay anyway

Greebo · 24 Sep 2015 at 13:06

Semple said:
Is that from PayPal's internal chargeback scheme? - i.e. your CC company never needed to get involved.

MSE wrote an article (here) as a lot of people were assuming you'd get s75 protection from the CC when paying via PayPal. Unfortunately PayPal are just the middle men, so PayPal pay the seller whatever price you agreed upon, and then your debt is with PayPal.

Yeah the £2,937 was through paypal. I didnt need to go to the card holder for it.

Belly · 24 Sep 2015 at 13:33

I've NOT sold anything but as far as purchasing small items eg: magnifying glass, luggage scales, gardening gloves, Velcro ties , HDMI leads, watch batteries etc the system is very good indeed.

Thus far, having 400 purchases I've only had to contact the seller twice for non-delivery, in each instance they have sent replacements.

I haven't and I will NOT link my purchases direct from ebay to paypal (one click or something) preferring to log-on to the paypal site each time. If I'm NOT mistaken a few years ago ebay accounts were hacked and ebay advised everyone to change their passwords. I believe that if it had happened to me the fraudster could have used my account to buy things but the purchase wouldn't be actioned through my paypal account. I might be wrong of course

paradigm · 24 Sep 2015 at 13:36

Given that Gumtree = eBay anyway, it's still been a win for them