21 years old and currently living in the UK with my husband Steve and five reptiles. I am an insuran...
21 years old and currently living in the UK with my husband Steve and five reptiles. I am an insurance underwriter currently doing an Open University degree in Modern Language Studies (English and French).
Member since:12.11.2005
Reviews:17
Members who trust:3
Ebay - everyone knows it as THE auction site; and the truth is it can be a wonderful site until things go wrong.
I have used the site for many years for buying and selling - I've sold everything from cars to guitars and clothes. Listing an item for sale is relatively easy - you can upload pictures, write your own description and set up an auction to last a varying number of days. In addition, you can state a 'Buy It Now Price' which means that people can only purchase the item at the price you have dictated. Ebay will, of course, invoice you for a listing fee and take a small percentage of the final sale price.
If your item is relatively rare or valuable, you can find yourself making an awful lot of money on Ebay as people will specifically go out hunting for certain things - there are enthusiasts of all sorts lurking on Ebay just waiting to snap up a bargain!
As for buying - if, like me, you don't have time to sit around watching an auction religiously, then Ebay has a clever scheme in which you can enter a highest bid and other people's bids will raise the item's price accordingly.
You can find an enormous range of items on Ebay - beautiful clothes not found on the high street, rare signature guitars, electrical goods, Porsches - even packets of half-eaten crisps have known to be vended via Ebay! It is certainly a haven for anyone wishing to buy an item at, sometimes, a fraction of the price.
However, like everything, Ebay has its disadvantages. I have had a great deal of problems with those who bid on items that they cannot afford - this is a trap many fall into, such is their wild desire to attain the item they are bidding on - they lose all sense of reasoning and rationality! It is incredibly inconvenient as often I have found such people to be unresponsive to communication, and rude in these circumstances.
You can log such events in a 'dispute', in which the offending Ebayer can argue their corner and attempt to resolve the situation by either agreeing to pay or admitting they are unable to do so, in which case you can leave them...
Negative feedback. Feedback is a vital and integral part of Ebay as it is an indication of experiences others have had with this buyer/seller. Unfortunately, some people do not endeavour to rectify a situation before leaving negative feedback, and then are loathe to retract it. I had an unblemished record of 100% positive feedback until recently when I made an extremely simple mistake of sending the wrong CD of the correct band to the wrong person. Had they contacted me, I would immediately have exchanged the CD for them; however they did not think to do this and unthinkingly left rude feedback. If you have a bad experience on Ebay, it is always worth contacting the seller first to explain the problem as, often, it can be an elementary error that is effortlessly settled.
There are some real idiots on Ebay, as aforementioned. I have heard horror stories of people forking out hundreds of pounds for an item that never arrives; a friend of mine received abusive messages from a sore loser simply for bidding on an item and winning it at the last minute...I've bought 'size 8' tops that actually transpired to be size 12 and far too big for me; the seller even had the audacity to inform me that I was wrong and they were a size 8...despite the labels, and fit, telling me otherwise...
Ebay can be an extremely gratifying experience if you buy from reputable sellers (it is worthwhile taking a minute to check out someone's feedback before bidding on their items), and if you stick within the rules. Bidding on an item on the site is, essentially, a legally binding contract and you should never bid on an item that you know you cannot afford.
The trouble is with Ebay, that we all essentially love a bargain and some people just don't know when to stop...*looks over at bag collection*. Yup, I've been hooked too :)
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Feb 14th, 2006
very helpful by (71%):
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