My new problem with Ebay

Good morning everyone.
You know my wife is an awesome person. She is very bright and perceptive!
Recently we decided we had a few items we needed to get out of our lives and so we decided to sell them online ( in fact my old DVD of Braveheart just shipped out this week).
I suggested that we could sell them on Ebay so that maybe people would bid them up and we would get more, but she decided to list them on Amazon at a flat rateand now I tend to agree with her that Amazon was the better choice and let me tell you why.

1. Because Amazon is better to the seller/s.
They do what they need to do to make money yes but they don’t have all the “hidden fees” that Ebay likes to shove into the mix.

And for me more important the recently discovered point number…

2. The integrity, or lack thereof, of the people who sell on Ebay, and the system employed BY Ebay that contributes to people getting stuck with a bad deal.

I recently realized that out of the last 15 transactions I have had on Ebay only about three or four of them have been satisfactory. That’s a dismal number. That means that Ebay’s satisfaction rate for me is only, approx, 5%
Now I know that I am having to face a case of caveat emptor or “buyer beware”, I also am aware that there is supposed to be a description given that gives all the details about the item. But first while Ebay does claim to have a set up that is supposed to look out for the best interests of the customer/s all too often that seems to fail. And second when you are being forced to bid on items in short time allowance and the description given is either long and rambling or worded so it is misleading and you miss the warning/s given then the system does not work.

And I know that often the items being purchased may have been badly used or may not be in the best of shape.

But in the cases of caveat emptor the way that a buyer can beware is through having access to reviews of the seller and/or the product.

Ebay has a review service but it is a one time shot. Ebay will not allow you to correct a mistaken report. Once you have submitted it you have no recourse but removal of the report. So if you submit your report in good faith then the seller or the product screws you over that’s it all is done.
This creates problems in that I have had cause to find fault with something after having given it a good review. But I cannot go back and alter the review or somehow get the satisfaction I am looking for in the product. And that is the key, once the business has your review in hand they have no incentive or desire to remedy any issues or problems come up after words.

Really any other store where customers were only getting 5% satisfaction would not be in business long.

BTW the transactions that were satisfactory? A set of street lights for an HO scale train set, a classic style view master 3-D viewer and a Peter Pan DVD.
What did I order that was unsatisfactory?
My laptop computer, they sent a faulty power cable… twice! The first cable almost burned up and set fire to the socket it was in!!!
A couple of HO scale train engines that did NOT perform upon receipt.
Two portable DVD players, one lasted three months the second lasted 1 and a half months.
A laptop computer that didn’t have a hard drive in it.