eBay and its demise…..

eBay has long been one of my favorite internet destinations.  Until recently I hadn’t sold too much through the online retailing giant.  More recently I have been running a business out of my house offering low price wholesale parts.  I sell these items through eBay and Amazon.  It seems over the years that eBay has lost its true identity, or maybe after all these years its true identity is finally coming out.  Either way my frustration when selling an item through eBay is unparalleled by anything I’ve ever experienced.  They are focusing so much on providing the buyers a better experience that they are losing their sellers.  Not only that but the fees they charge to do business are absurd.

Most recently, after selling 10 items in the past 2 months, my funds have been held by PayPal for up to 21 days while I get a good seller track record?  I have been selling on eBay for 12 years and like previously stated have sold over 10 items in the past 2 months.  Now they want to hold my funds.  I called PayPal to get the low down on the latest maneuver by eBay to alienate its sellers.  The nice lady proceeds to tell me it is eBay that is holding the funds not PayPal.  I wanted to shout, eBay owns PayPal, I realize it is ultimately eBay but you should know why……  I get transferred to an eBay rep, most likely at PayPal.  She proceeds to tell me that I have sold 24 items this year and only need to sell 1 more to graduate from the program, as she called it!  Really I have sold 24 items and this is the very first time this is happened but all I need to do is sell 1 more thing and you won’t hold my money any longer?  Needless to say the argument went nowhere and I am still waiting on my funds.  The good news for me is I have a good rep with Amazon already so I am going to focus my sells there as opposed to eBay who only wants to fee me to death and then hold my money 21 days.  Funny thing is I bet they took their fees immediately…..

 

The demise of eBay.

eBay constantly lets me down as a Seller. I have sold numerous items on eBay over the years and more than 85% of winning bidders never pay! You may be asking yourself how there could be so many deadbeat bidders on eBay. It’s simple actually, eBay doesn’t allow Sellers to leave negative feedback to buyers! You may be blown away by this news but eBay feels they are protecting their buyers from evil sellers. Ebay keeps track of “strikes” against buyers and will supposedly flag their account after so many.

eBay was at one point the best place to buy and sell on the web, but in today’s society with the Craigslists, YardSales and other services offering FREE classifieds eBay really falls behind. However, eBay is established and well known so it still attracts a huge audience. The fall of eBay will not be the double charging it’s Sellers (Paypal + eBay fees) but the fact that it will not protect them! If eBay doesn’t get it’s act together soon it will fall by the wayside and be even more irrelevant than it is already becoming.