David Hurst

It’s about time I had another rant about eBay. It still amazes me that people put up with their crap, and here’s my latest experience:

I’ve been looking to buy a motorcycle. I found something local and perfect for my needs on eBay. I messaged the seller, looked at the merchandise, made my bid. The auction was due to finish today and I was the high bidder - yippee. I had the cash ready and I had agreed delivery terms with seller should I win the auction. But lo and behold, when I logged in this morning, no trace of my bid whatsoever in the My eBay screen. So, I checked my email and it turns out my bid was cancelled because “the item is no longer for sale”. Presumably the seller did a behind the scenes deal with another eBay punter. So, I am back to square one.

Had I, the buyer, failed to meet my obligations, I would receive an eBay strike and negative feedback. But it would seem the seller can do whatever the hell he or she wishes. I can’t think of an auction house anywhere where bidding would be stopped because the seller got a better offer elsewhere, so why should this be the case with online auctions?

eBay have this big graphic on their home page at the moment: “Your pound goes further with eBay”. Rubbish! If you do manage to successfully purchase something, beating all the last minute bid snipers, and without being conned in the process by one of the many crooks operating on eBay, chances are you will have paid over the odds for your item. There are very few bargains on eBay, except in the busiest categories.

I could write a better auction website in my sleep. The problem is getting people to use it. Will the sellers come if there are no buyers? Will the buyers come if there are no sellers?

So we’re stuck with eBay then? Not at all! I think I’ll go and quietly scour the classifieds in the local press and see what I can find - I bet I get a better deal that way anyway.