EBAY R.I.P.

I can't truly claim to have been with Ebay since the very beginning but, let's say I was there from early on. Remember when Ebay used to be such fun? You would list an item and watch the bids come in as the days went by. Or you would put in an early bid and keep watching and raising your bid as things progressed, keeping your fingers crossed that you would win? How exciting was that?

Then Ebay got bigger and smart alec journalists started writing "How to win on Ebay" type artciles and all the sniping started. That was the beginning of the end for me, but it wasn't a quick death. No, more a long, creeping, wasting illness. Today I heard EBAY's death rattle and finally closed my account. My 10o% positive, never a cross word, account. One that I had so much fun with over the years. Closed. Never will I set virtual foot over their rancid threshold again.

What led to this? I mean, I kept on even after Ebay in their wisdom made it so that Sellers could no longer leave negative feedback for a non-paying Buyer, that was a pretty big nail in the coffin, right? A lot of decent 100% sellers left at that point, but I just decided that I would move all my doll sales to the more pleasant surroundings of Etsy and continue to mooch through Ebay manily as a buyer. A good decision... until this last week or so, when suddenly just being a buyer on Ebay meant I was setting myself up for abuse and nastiness, and reporting it to Ebay just got me a "Yeah, whatever" attitude.

I've heard all the horror stories about Ebay, they are almost Urban Myth, but until this week I have never had a bad transaction. as a buyer or a seller. When I have bought I always pay as soon as the "You won this item" email comes and always found sellers to be honest and nice. When I have sold items I usually give the buyer at least a week to pay before I politely email them a reminder and would never worry over a transaction after less than a fortnight. In the good old days I don't think you could cancel a buyers winning bid or back out of a sale as a seller unless certain steps had been taken and maybe 2 weeks had elapsed?

Here's why I closed my Ebay account and won't be going back: earlier this week I log onto Ebay and see a message. I open it and it's from a seller who says I won a DVD and need to pay for it. I remember bidding on the DVD but as I have had no "You won this item" email and there is nothing in my "Won Items" folder in My Ebay I am puzzled. I contact the seller, who ignores my message and just sends another "Pay for your item" message on ebay itself. If I hadn't logged into "My Ebay" I would still be non the wiser. I mess around with the page settings and can't find the "Won Items" screen anywhere. I am a bit worried as I had bid on a few other DVDs and non of the items I bid on are showing anywhere on the My Ebay page. Usually I figure that means I was outbid. I go to pay for the DVD and up pops another item on the invoice so I pay for both and head off happy that I have paid for all my winnings.

I got no more emails from Ebay and assume all is well. Then today, I'm bored and go to mooch around BJD sales on Ebay, I see an item I like and so add it to my watch list, this means signing in and I get a message flash up that I have a win cancelled by the seller and then get a foul-mouthed message from said seller that I haven't paid the £3.45 (or a similar amount) for the DVD I won and blah de blah. I was really shaken up and totally confused. I went to check it out and there was another DVD I'd put a starting bid on and forgotten all about as there is no record of it in My Ebay, I've had no "You won this item" email and it wasn't on my multiple purchase invoice the other day. We are talking a matter of days since this ietm ended and I look in my message folder and every day this seller has sent me a message and never once did the brain dead T*rd think of emailing me, because, guess what, some of us have lives and don't spend every waking moment of them trawling EBAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I rang "Customer Support" and wanted to ask why I was getting these abusive messages from a seller and why I am not getting any "You won" emails, etc... and was told in a very blasé fashion that Ebay changed their system a few weeks ago and no longer notifies buyers that they have won automatically, only if the seller requests it.

Two things made me mad there (i) that the ebay Customer Support person was not in the least interested that one of their "customers" is upset at getting abusive messages from another user, and (2) that this abusive user had opted not to bother notifying their buyers that they had won items then felt within their rights to send abusive messages when the oblivious buyer didn't pay immediately (I think it's been 4 days since the item ended).

I got even more angry/upset when I went to close my account and found that I couldn't because I had a "disputed transaction" so had to ring the badly named "help centre" again. Now I am telling them that I want to close my account because of abusive message from a seller and again there is absolutely no interest whatsoever, I'm just told how to resolve it (ie- accept that I am a non paying bidder after just 4 days). I also got even more upset when I relaised that Ebay are quite happy to let you close your been there for years 100% positive feedback account without letting you tell them why. They just have a complacent drop down menu with some generic "Ebay is great but I have a screw loose" options for why you are leaving.

Ebay made me cry and I am never going back. It's the end of an era for me and not a happy ending either.

Sorry for the rant but sometimes I think that is what blogs are for!