Have you seen the the eBay bidding policy?

It eliminates the bidder's ID so you do not know who you are bidding against.

Everyone should know who they are bidding against, so they can tell if they are real or not, if they are shill bidders, if they bid early or late, and so on. Many Corvette parts will fall under the new policy.

I sent my letter of complaint.

Reply to
Tom in Missouri
Loading thread data ...

Although they do offer a method of finding needed items I pretty much quit using them when they stopped showing when an item was listed. They still show days remaining but not the date entered. Odd, because I see no benefit to the auction service but just takes away another bit of information for the bidder. After one bad bidder experience and trying to get anything out of them and the item enter date omission I just don't go there much. Plus they and Paypal have a poor attitude about firearms although they'll sell anything else pertaining to firearms that will make them some money.

Let us know what your reply form letter says, I'll not waste my time on them any more.

I would almost sleep with Barbara Streisand rather than use them anymore. Please note I said "ALMOST".

Reply to
Dad

Reply to
aaa

Did you read the policy? Items over $200. With the price of oil pans, thermostat bolts, and others going nuts, $200 is not that uncommon for Corvette parts.

Try any Corvette car and see what it looks like. Here's one.

formatting link
Of course, the link wraps, so you may not see it. In that case, search for any of the following items:

170045869205 160048919483 190049813706

I also dislike the new search format. They sure make it easy for people to decide to quit. For all those that suggest an alternative, there is Yahoo auctions, but they were a bit slow on traffic. There was another, but it was more like a selling section on a forum, where you lined up to ask about the item. Still, they have done a few makeovers on the look in only a few months, so maybe someone has something out there that has them nervous.

Reply to
Tom in Missouri

Go back and take another look, Dad. They DO still show both the date and time the item was listed as well as the length of the auction and time remaining. Not on the search result listing, but on the individual item description.

Haven't seen the new bidding policy that Tom refers to but... Most savvy eBayers don't get involved with bidding wars, per se. They "Snipe" - either manually or using software designed to do it for them. You see an item you want, determine YOUR maximum bid and then that amount is entered at the last possible moment. eBay's proxy bidding will then bid exactly what it takes (up to the amount you set) win the bid or it won't accept the bid if someone's outbid you.

As for the individual sellers making their auctions private (no bidder's ID's shown), that's their right and one has the "right" to just ignore that auction. Still, with sniping I don't know what difference it really makes.

One thing that I've noticed that eBay recently changed is the seller's ability to "hide" his/her feedback rating. Never could figure out why they would establish a feedback program and then allow the sellers to conceal their rating. Made no sense. Glad to see that's changed.

Your complaints about their crappy customer service response, etc. are well founded.

Thank God! You could have lost an eye with that nose!

Reply to
Unquestionably Confused

formatting link

Thanks for that, Tom. I now see what you're talking about.

It still doesn't bother me all that much BUT eBay's explanation is pure Barbara Streisand (sorry, Dad)

They say, in pertinent part:

"From the beginning, any member of the Community could request the contact details of any other member and the bidding process was very transparent. As we've grown, we've limited communication to members involved in transactions with each other. Additionally in 2003, we eliminated the public display of email addresses from the site, and therefore, required thousands of people to set up new User IDs. Naturally, as we've stepped up education and other efforts to improve safety, the bad guys continued their efforts to try to exploit our members.

The User IDs of members ? plus their member information such as feedback and previous bidding and/or buying activity ? have always been freely available to anyone visiting the site. Members have been able to access this information from the item page, bid history page, and Advanced Search by Bidder feature. Unfortunately ? while bid history and contact information about trading colleagues are helpful when evaluating a transaction, and provide a level of trust within the transaction ? bad guys can use this information for potentially harmful purposes.

One way they use this information is to send unwanted commercial spam, spoof emails, and fake Second Chance Offer emails. While legitimate Second Chance Offer emails are a great tool on eBay that give sellers the ability to offer another buyer an additional item they may have available, fake Second Chance Offers and other types of solicitations sent by bad guys generally lure the targeted member off the eBay website and collect payment through an unsafe payment method, such as wire transfer?all while providing the false impression that eBay endorses the transaction..

As our Community knows, the problem of spam, spoof and fake Second Chance Offer emails has not gone away. In fact, despite industry leading efforts to educate the Community about online safety (eBay Toolbar, tutorials and safety messaging), partnering with law enforcement and industry groups, and investments in technology that make the site more safe ? we've seen this problem grow. Increasingly, sellers and buyers have turned to us for a solution."

Nonsense! All they are trying to do is preclude buyer and seller from getting together off-site and cutting a deal that doesn't include eBay. They want to protect their turf and keep earning their commissions. Nothing wrong with that. eBay's a great tool for buyer and seller alike but why not be honest? I don't begrudge them a commission on the items that I sell. They didn't get to be the "Golly, gee, whiz dot com" they are by doing charitable acts.

Reply to
Unquestionably Confused

OK. I see what you mean. I stand corrected.

Reply to
aaa

eBay's a great tool for sellers. Buyers aren't quite so lucky as the deck is stacked against them by the sheer number of potential bidders, let alone the eBay rules. On the other hand, eBay has made local retail outlets more responsive.

Reply to
ACAR

It isn't all that great for sellers, either. There are so many ways a bidder can screw a seller, it is surprising how many take the chance.

I've had to relist many items after a no pay bidder has won. A friend had to relist his mother's car he was selling something like 4 times, it being "won" with the buy it now by deadbeats and other messes.

We had one jerk in the early days that we'd ban, then he would create a new ID to come win and not pay. We have no idea who this guy was or what his reason, maybe he thought we were someone he knew and hated, but we ended up creating a new account and losing the feedback we had so as to break the trail after changing IDs to get away from him.

I've had numerous "my mother just died" or "my mother just went to the hospital in critical condition" yet they would continue to buy and sell through the whole time they weren't paying me.

eBay's mistake is allowing items to be "not available" during the auction. This allows people to advertise it, then pull it to sell offline, and not get charged. I can't count the number of auctions I've lost that were good deals (GREAT deals), that the seller suddenly pulls 2 minutes before the end. In 7 days, he hasn't noticed "an error in listing"?

In a real auction, once you enter it, it is available through the entire process. You don't suddenly "lose" or "no longer available" to sell it privately. This is their big mistake.

Reply to
Tom in Missouri

Hmm, you are definitely mistaken on this one. I just checked out a few random auctions and that info is all still there plain as day.

That is sick!

Reply to
Jon

I did and it still only listed the ending date. After looking further I did finely see that the details were hidden on that particular item. So I went back to the last search items and they were all hidden for some reason. My guess is that I didn't use it enough to see when they stopped listing the start and finish date together. It is now listed as ending date and time by itself and the start time and date is listed in a separate box as "Listing and payment details".

My bad, but I guess I didn't miss anything just as they won't miss me.

Reply to
Dad

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.