Ebay is so infuriating!!!
I’ve been running into problems with people selling things on Ebay. Every time I bid on something and win, the seller always sends it a month later or not at all. I eventually get my money back but it is so infuriating.
Recently I won a bid for a book (original price was $24.00) for $9.00 including shipping and handling. Everyday for three weeks I would check the mail looking for it, but nothing came. I emailed the seller a million times with no response. Finally this week he responds and tells me that he refunded the money back to my paypal account and that the book was returned to him from the post office damaged. I checked the paypal account and my money has not been returned yet. I emailed back stating this and asked why didn’t you email me letting me know that the book was returned damaged. He hasn’t responded back and now it has been three days.
So I emailed Ebay telling them what happened and they sent me a form letter stating that he will be reprimanded. But I see he is still selling things and people are bidding on them. I have left negative feedback to hopefully warn people not to buy anything from him, but I think it should be Ebay who somehow monitors or kicks him off, even if it’s for a couple of months. What’s more infuriating is I can’t find a customer service number for Ebay anywhere on their site.
But alas my tale doesn’t end there. I recently discovered www.clicheideas.com/amazon.htm – a website that lists the phone numbers to every company that does not seem to have a customer service center you can call like Amazon or Ebay.
So now I will talk to a real live person and tomorrow I get to test the phone number and give Ebay a piece of my mind.
this has long been a criticism of the ebay model of selling goods. fortunately i have bought a couple of things without incident but i am always suspicious. be sure to let us know how your call went with their customer service.
thanks for the link to the customer service numbers. i read an article on slate several weeks ago about the guy who discovered amazon's number & how he was trying, in vain, to find a similar number for itunes.
also, here is a list of how to talk to a person when using a telephone helpline.
I have never used ebay... a bit too intimidating for me. I do have a friend, however, that was "taken" on ebay. She had bid on an auction for an xbox or something similar, and someone contacted her with an xbox to sell. Unfortunately, she learned the hard way that ebay doesn't work like that and that if someone contacts you with something to sell, they're probably not legit.
i've been on ebay since the begining and at the begining i never had any problems. i don't use paypal either with ebay because there are too many ways people can take their money back after you sent the package out.