Pet Peeves On Ebay

Entire pages of stamps stuck down hard to the page. The first time this happened I thought maybe this was one unscrupulous seller that I could avoid. But it has happened again twice since then. I don't think I should need to ask every seller about this in order to avoid a few bad apples.

I try very hard to stick with other websites besides E-Bay. A problem I had earlier this year convinces me they are not at all concerned about the buyer, but 100% about the seller.
I won three auctions from the same seller; three stamps with a total bill of less than $3.00. I paid through PayPal immediately only to have the payment refused. The reason, according to the E-mail I received from the seller was a bad account number. I was given another account number, and paid the money. It was again refused; after sending the seller an E-mail asking what happened I did not hear anything back. Several weeks went by; each week I sent the seller a note asking for the stamps. He never answered.
Fast Forward a month or two, I received an E-mail from E-Bay saying that I needed to pay my bill. I tried again: refused again!
Called E-Bay, explained the situation. A few weeks later I got a bad E-mail from E-Bay, saying that my account was now marked for not paying! The final result? My account is now having a black eye; if this happens again my account will be suspended!

I've generally found e-bay to be a positive experience, but did have one blip when someone bought several items and never paid. The support and communication from e-bay was very poor and the whole experience frustrating. I try to remember that it was just one numpty and that there have been many more good experience.

I buy a lot on ebay. Here are a couple of things that I dislike:

1. "We do not ship to Malta" (although the seller ships to other EU countries).
2. Some sellers (especially on ebay.de) only accept payment by bank transfer (which has an additional charge of €6).
3. High postage costs, especially on cheap items.

Bulk uploads of 100's of items that all finish at the same time. Sellers (sorry guys) mainly in the US that don't seem to realise that you can still send a normal letter to Australia, without charging $8-$10 postage. Additional items attracting a postage charge (what is that about???). Loading listings into the wrong category (just for the record, Nyassa is NOT Nyasaland, and the Dominican Republic is NOT Dominica. If you haven't got a catalogue, or an atlas, use Google!)

I'll also chime in with a couple of issues with Delcampe.

First, the number of sellers that clearly only want to sell to their own countrymen by refusing to take Paypal or Skrill. Cash or bank transfer only. I recently found some excellent Hong Kong used in China that I couldn't bid on. I do hope there is an enthusiast in France, but apparently not, as the items had been listed for FIVE years! Irritating.

Second, woeful images like this (9.69kb)




I mean, why bother? Images like this show abject laziness and total disrespect to your potential customers.

The new ebay interface just blows. It takes lot more clicks to go back and forth between categories unlike previously when they had drop down menu to switch areas of interest.

Ram

Good post Jubilee!
I am finding dealers on the web that are professional
and I tend to gravitate there.
The prices are good, fast transits, and super packaging / invoices.

One does a lot of tyre kicking on ebay I am finding.

Another peeve is some vendors list for 6 weeks prior to auction.
I wonder if this is beneficial or not?

My pet peeve: sellers who combine shipping but add like 25¢ per addition item AND start with an outrageous shipping charge of something around $2 or $3 FOR A SINGLE STAMP. 45-65¢ for shipping, 4-10¢ per envelope, 1/2¢ for packing does not add up to $1.89! (if you live in a foreign country $2-3 is acceptable, even though it may not cost that much) Note to sellers: even if your auctions end cheaper I will NOT bid if I consider your shipping charges to be unreasonable, NO MATTER WHAT.

½c for packaging?? Clearly you've never bought from me!

Everything I send is in plastic, not glassines (because they're not waterproof), stiffened, with a packing slip (the number of items I get with no info as to where I bought them staggers me. I buy on 3-4 sites, and get a stamp in an envelope), and securely sealed with clear tape.

I charge £3 postage (I list on ebay UK from Australia). Postage is $2.35 (£1.50), printing and packaging is the balance. I've never had a complaint because EVERYTHING arrives dry, unbent and undamaged.

And I'll combine unlimited items for that charge.

Anybody who can pack well charges decent shipping charges in my experiences (when I say decent, I mean not charging 35¢ for each additional item and $3 to ship it 100 kilometers to my house (shipping is still 45¢, people)- most itms I've bought ar reused glassines taped to a piece of a "stolen" USPS cardboard mailer (EVERY overseas lot has been well packed, with plastic stack cards, wetness protection baggies/ other plastic covering- evidently there are much smarter collectors in the UK and Australia than the USA) and the envelope well sealed and in perfect condition (I have received MANY damaged items in the mail from the USA (they must have some special machine to maul the mail with nice stamps on it), but I have never had an item from as far away as Singapore look anything but immaculate.). Another pet peeve- I've never had a itemlost in shipping to me, but I always say "why didn't someone steal this" when packages come with the address clearly cut out from the paypal invoice and taped down. (ship from.... And ship to...)

All this chitter chatter is comforting
My experiences seem similar to everyone else.
It may be a bit clunky,
but Crikey, one does end up with some cool stamps
at the end of the day.
I had 300 ww delivered the other day for $4.95 plus ship
what other hobby delivers that?

Another pet peeve: people who use the print n' ship labels... Even discount postage that's been taped on, ink jetted or scribbled on is better. (I'm out of the running for TRS, but I think it's an idiotic program and it's better to get a package from an "UNKNOWN" seller that a meter from a TRS.)

I once had an envelope arrive from the US that was stamped with a couple of rubber stamps:

"Please Mr Postman - Deliver these stamps FAST"

and

"Philatelic mailing - please cancel lightly"

I didn't buy from that seller again

Mailing costs are a thing of the past for us!

We have had free mailing for some months now and we are very happy with the outcome.

Best bit is it just does not work out when you think about it and have not done it.

Packaging is our specialty and costs us just under 40c a go.

Many people will buy one item to see how it all works and then they come back........!

Are you saying that you offer free postage worldwide??