Friday, October 2, 2009

Extreme FAIL: ebay Edition



I started shopping thrift stores for Lacoste polo shirts to sell on ebay during my freshman year of college. Everyone wanted that little alligator. It turned into a nice little way to make some extra beer lunch money. After having 200+ transactions I closed my ebay account a few years later. I was tired of people not paying for things they bid on and the occasional (poorly) attempted scam was irritating.

After a few years of trash talking ebay and avoiding it at all cost, I had a few things that I wanted to sell. Craigslist is great, but it is a much smaller market for specialty items. I decided to try ebay again. Wow. They seem to have gotten their act together. The site is much easier to post on, and they even have a little button I can click that makes me feel nice and warm inside: "Block bids from buyers who might make transactions more difficult or expensive."

The following are direct quotes from emails I received after my first 3 times sold on ebay:

June 27, 2009


"Dear rprobay,

We have a little bit of a misunderstanding her. My son was
bidding on this item without me being notified. I do not want him
to have this item and furthermore I can not afford it. Is there any
way you can cancel this transaction. I understand your situation.
Thank you.

- jomamameh"

September 17, 2009

"Dear rprobay,

hello,

I am a civil worker. I won your item and want to buy it for my chat mate

in Nigeria.

I will be the payer and will pay you for it which includes your shipping

fee.

Also, i will like to know if its in good condition as she nags a lot. I

will

pay through paypal account and will do that as soon as you reply me if you

are willing to sell to me. i should have done it but i just got a call that

i will be in Guatamela tomorrow morning and i dont know when i will be

back, so please help out.

Thanks and may God bless you.

- dobuyallgoods"

October 2, 2009

"Dear rprobay,

Hi Seller,

I will be able to send you the money via PayPal i will to buy this item for my son who his studying in West Africa for is up coming graduation as a gift so i will add up the shipping cost to the fund so hope to hear from you soon.my claramalezieux@gmail.com

Thanks.

- cleokat33"

Is it possible to sell items on ebay without having to jump through hoops? Am I the only one having this problem? I doubt it. So the question arises: What will it take for ebay to fail as a company? As far as I am concerned they have already failed as an auction site.

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