[Bunno Smurf]

Ok I'm interested to know what everyone thinks are the most annoying aspects of ebay (Apart from Dyar trying to outbid you on a sockel!!)

My number one pet hate at the moment is emailing a seller for postage costs well in advance of an auction ending and getting no response. ESPECIALLY when it has a very cheap BIN price! I'm getting very tempted to just take a punt on the cost. I have a fair idea what it should be but its always nice to know beforehand so I'm not subjected to yet another postage rort.

Personally I wonder why sellers don't reply.....don't they want to sell their items? I know Raelene and Trish waited a very long time for a seller to send an invoice at the end of an auction which seems crazy to me too......don't they want to be paid???

Rant Over.......next please!!

[hfos]

My number one pet hate at the moment is emailing a seller for postage costs well in advance of an auction ending and getting no response. ESPECIALLY when it has a very cheap BIN price! I'm getting very tempted to just take a punt on the cost. I have a fair idea what it should be but its always nice to know beforehand so I'm not subjected to yet another postage rort.

Bomb them with mail. If they haven't replied after 24 hours, send the message again. 24 hours later, same thing. If the closing date is getting really close, send the message 3x. You've nothing to lose, right?

[Bunno Smurf]

hehe yeah Robin. I've sent them a couple now.

3 smurfs from the US shouldn't be too much should they??????

[hfos]

I find it depends per seller, I still notice crazy price differences for seemingly similar items...

[Guest]

Sometimes the seller responds straightaway and ebay's system takes hours even days to get the email through. Quite often I get questions from ebayers hours later than when they sent it. It is par for the course that an email won't arrive until after the auction finishes. I think you will find ebay's system is very slow. Also ebay invoices get stuck in spam filters, AOL is a real pain in the bum for that especially.

[Fram]

Apart from everything mentioned and shill bidding, I have a problem with sellers that ship worldwide but can't bother to give the information needed for an international payment (like IBAN and BIC codes in Europe). I'm willing to pay, just give me the bloody info please!
And blurry pics for special smurfs. If you simply sell a lot or if you are not a serious Smurf seller, I have no problem with a small pic or even missing pics, it can be fun waiting to see if you are lucky. But if you are a true Smurf seller and claim to have something rare or valuable, then at least provide a decent pic so we can judge for ourselves on condition and so on.
Other ones; private ratings, private bidders (I mean an auction where the name of the bidders isn't shown), retracted auctions, changed descriptions after you have bid (like Karen had), auctions that come up on your search term but have absolutely nothing to do with it, ... I'm certain I forget a whole lot, but these will do for now!

[steveparkes]

Sellers who nick your pictures to put in thier auctions..that really hacks me off

[Bunno Smurf]

hmm Fram...yeah those blurry pictures annoy the heck out of me too.

I also hate sellers who list all the smurfs in their lot as "excellent condition" and when they turn up 1 out of 10 is in excellent condition. One lot I got had a hockey player in it with a broken hockey stick...there was superglue on the hockey stick so you can't tell me it was "broken in transition". I know one person's "excellent" is different to another but I don't think a broken hockey stick constitutes "excellent".


rant rant rant

Robin: Tell me about it.......from the US it is a whole pile cheaper to get the smurfs sent in a padded envelope than a box I have found so I generally request a padded envelope now. It also depends on whether they use USPS or UPS...One is dearer but I forget which.

[Rachel]

I think I dislike many of the moans mentioned already, poor descriptions, high postage costs, stealing other pics etc.

Another of my pet hates is when a seller finishes an auction early because they have been made an offer. You know more often than not the seller has been ripped off and would probably got more money by leaving the auction run. I know there is now a facility on Ebay for making offers (I think anyway) but it really does annoy me when you receive the email half way through a week say the auction has been ended.



Great post Linda.