eBay sucks!
From the time I saw the cute 512MB mp3 player in my masters hands I became obsessed with buying one. I am a lazy guy who hates going all around chennai checking out prices. So I found a comfortable alternative ..shop online. My first choice was sify as I had seen a 512MB player for less than Rs3000 a month ago. But to my horror they had removed that item and I was forced to find other alternatives. I saw ebay.in ad while googling. I became a member and was astonished to see really cheap player( for 4000 bucks I could get a 1GB mp3 player!!!). So I decided to buy from eBay.
eBay offers two ways of buying an item:
1. You can bid on an item and if you are the highest bidder when the auction closes then you can buy it.
2. You can directly buy items that are listed as 'buy it now' where you have to just pay the price quoted by the seller(no bidding).
I decided to opt for the second choice. I found two items of interest in this category.
1. 512MB mp3 player @ around Rs2200 and
2. 1GB mp3 player @ around Rs4000.
Now this was excluding shipping and handling charges. You have to commit to buy i.e. enter into a legal contract that you will buy the item to know the additional charges. So I committed to buy both the items without checking out the payment methods(ok! this was really stupid on my part).
Now the payment methods accepted were
1. Payment through online icici bank transfer
2. Demand draft
3. Cheque
I was skeptical about all these methods as in these methods we have to pay first and then the product will be delivered. I made a quick search in forums for experiences of people who had paid beforehand and the results weren't convincing either. Many had paid thousands for a product and the product didn't turn up at all!. The seller had unregistered and wasn't responding to mails. On top of all eBay flatly said it wasn't responsible for anything and wouldn't interfere. Ultimately I decided not to buy.
After a few days I got a mail from eBay saying that an unpaid item dispute has been registered against me. Again I searched their site and came to know that when you commit to buy an item you have to pay for it no matter what. I was given the option of either paying for the item or talking to the seller and come up with an agreement . I messaged the seller saying that I wanted to pay through COD(cash on delivery) and as it wasn't available I requested him to cancel the deal. I also apologized for not reading the payment options properly. This left two options for the seller...
1. He could agree with me and call of the deal or
2. The seller could disagree and request for 'final value credit'.
Both my sellers opted for the second choice and I was given an 'unpaid item strike'. I had to do an extensive research on their site to know what it meant. 'Unpaid item strike' and 'final value credit' meant that after committing to buy an item if I don't pay then I'll have to pay a fine (the fine was some % of the product's price). This is what pissed me off!. I understand that this is effective for items that are bought through bidding 'cos a person could quote an high price for an item and not pay. This may deprive the seller of potential buyers who where genuine. But why the hell use this system for 'buy it now items'. The seller has nothing to lose. I again sent a message to the seller requesting as politely as possible to agree and cancel the deal. Now this was the worst thing - he said that if he agrees and cancels the deal then eBay considers it as successful transaction and he has to pay a commission to eBay! (what the fu**! don't they know the meaning of 'cancel'). Finally I have decided to close my account at eBay 'cos eBay SUCKS and it SUCKS BIG TIME.
Note: Watch out for my next post on 'Tips to change eBay sucks to eBay rocks !" .
posted by logic @ 12/19/2005 02:49:00 AM
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