Brutal (e)Bay bashing blogger

I was reading some blogs and saw this post referenced on digg and several other 'news' sites.

The author, Jeffrey Young at ZDNet had a very bad eBay experience and really attacks the marketplace: "A tale of damaged expectations, misleading descriptions, manipulated bids, colluding sellers, meaningless “feedback ratings”, and financial shenanigans, all of which is part of a recent eBay experience."

Ouch!  Jeffrey iterates 5 major eBay problems.  I have to agree that 2-5 are valid concerns that the entire community is grappling with.  Number 1 (Second Chance offers) is off base.  Unfortunately like many buyers Jeffrey misunderstands the terrible ebay proxy bid system.  Someone (maybe his daughter) needs to teach him about sniping which is what most buyers do because the proxy system is so messed up.

Regardless, this was widely distributed today and probably read by hundreds of thousands if not millions of potential eBay buyers. 

Comments

[ilias]

hello,

i havent been using ebay for so long, but i hate o ne thing: some weird bids where it seems that the owner outbid you, then offers you a second chance. Or more subtile, just outbid you 1 hour before the end, and then stops...

do you know if there is a solution to that? Especially for low volume sellers...

Regards,

ilias,

[Mordy]

As a seller with multiple accounts I still never get why people get so peeved when they find out that you are one and the same. I mean every mall has a Victoria's Secret, The Limited, Express, Bath & Body Works, etc. No one seems to mind (know) that all the stores are owned by the same parent. I am just tired of being accused of fraud, shill bidding and worse just because we operate more than one eBay store.

[Chuck]

I had to blog this also.

I hate when a high profile figure uses their standing to condem a market based on 1 bad transaction. Especially when he did not have a chance to have a successful transaction in the first place. $3000 Prada handbag for $300? Come on.

This guy ranks right up there with Clark Howard in my book.

Chuck

[Richard Chemel]

Scott,
I agree with John on this one. As you and most paypal users know that all he has to do is file a not as described. No big deal. Sure eBay has issues, but one bad experience shouldn't taint the experiences millions enjoy.

RC

[John]

How many potential buyers will read this blog? The post is on a technically - oriented site, and (1) most readers have probably been dealing on ebay for a long time, (2) there aren't very many of them anyway, and (3) everyone has seen these frequently groundless bitch sessions on virtually every single company doing business on the internet ad nauseum.

I definitely agree with your assessment of the problems, but don't believe this one rant will materially affect ePay's business anyway.