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I've played that slot machine, and it does an excellent job of replicating the experience of eBay -- put time and money into it and still never get what you want.
2 replies
I've played that slot machine, and it does an excellent job of replicating the experience of eBay -- put time and money into it and still never get what you want.
I was wondering what was happening, but I don't mind :P I'm bidding on something and no one finding it for a day means it'll probably be cheaper.
But seriously, they have a workaround, couldn't they redirect the title page search to do that automatically while they fix/upgrade whatever is happening? Or at least have an error page suggesting how to do it.
I gave up on eBay years ago. Their business practices have chased off their customer base to the point that they are irrelevant.
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@chrisholland03: Agreed.
It's a sad place now. I used to buy things on Ebay frequently, but their high fees inflicted on sellers mean much higher prices for buyers. So I usually either find used things on Craigslist or go without.
@chrisholland03: agreed. i still have an almost 4-digit whatever-it's-called. amazon for me from now on.
@trixrabbit: That's all fine and dandy, except the original intent of the site- to provide an auction environment for people to sell and buy each other's stuff- exists only in anemic, subject-specific smaller sites outside of Ebay. Ebay really is the only viable online venue for such diverse antiques as pottery, photos, fabric, stereo and musical equipment, viewmaster reels, etc etc. I only turn to ebay for used and hard to find items. Amazon doesn't work for that sort of purchase at all.
It's ironic, really, the eventual downfall of ebay will probably be tripping over themselves abandoning the original spirit of the site, trying to be an alternative to Amazon.
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@zandar: \"It's ironic, really, the eventual downfall of ebay will probably be tripping over themselves abandoning the original spirit of the site, trying to be an alternative to Amazon.\"
I thought they were already doing this?
R.I.P. Ebay
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The worst part is that sellers with stuff ending tonight are seeing their stuff go for a fraction of what it is worth. With no search to use, nobody is able to find their items.
I've already seen giftcards sell for a quarter of their value :(
Ebay is such a frikkin mess, no accountability and no respect for their customers.
@scoobydoo: Even though Ebay screwed up the search, the sellers could have put a reserve on their item.
@Dafrety: Why? Perhaps the reserve was met? Reserves are bad for sales, and most people avoid them. When you list something, you do so with the understanding that Ebay is going to be working. You do pay them about 10% of your money.
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Yeah, try closer to 15%. Don't forget the bite that Paypal takes (owned by eBay) and the fact that Paypal is now the only choice for accepting payments.
Just for reference, they seem to have fixed it now.
I feel bad for the sellers that got screwed, they pay to put things up, but the average user wouldn't have been able to find their auctions for hours. Especially since most people only bid in the last minute, which I think is strange, because if everyone just bid their max amount at the start, the prices would be the same. If you got sniped you got outbid, if you wanted it, you should have put it higher.
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What a relief! I searched eBay earlier for Wusthof knives but found no results. I thought they were just all gone from eBay!
\"Watch for eBay's reputation to take a major hit after this incident.\"
Why? eBay and vendors selling on eBay don't have a good reputation to begin with so nothing is going to change with the latest farkup.
@StanTheManDean: That's mighty sweeping generality you're making that slams a lot of honest sellers.
How about a bit less hyperbole so you don't insult thousands of honest sellers for no reason? I've bought plenty of things on eBay with no problem.
@yodel:
Name one.
I can't. I am sure you can't either.
Need a camera? How about a computer? Maybe a whole-house generator? NOBODY selling these products on fleabay is honest.
How about a baby swing, a Brady-Bunch Lunch Box or a cat scratching post? Yep, you are about to be scammed, deceived or just plain ripped off.
@StanTheManDean: Yea actually me and my 100% rating. I bought a laptop from Ebay a years ago and had no problem with the sale. Oh and the 1/24th scale commemorative Bullitt/Steve McQueen Mustang I bought a while back was no problem either, maybe from the same seller as your lunch boxes but I wouldn't really know for sure. All the assorted bike parts I've bought from Ebay were no hassle sales as well.
Apparently I missed fact that baby swings, lunch boxes, cameras and computers encompass ALL the items for sale on Ebay but that's your world I guess where stereotyping is ok. Enjoy.
@StanTheManDean: Now, now, this eBay seller has a stellar reputation! I've saved thousands of lives with my bed bug proof mattress protectors (NYC, we're here for you!)
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It doesn't matter what this does to their reputation. They already have a bad reputation, which only got worse after they acquired PayPal. Besides, it's not like they have any real competition in the online auction scene anyway.
What is this thing you call \"Ebay?\" Haven't used it in recent memory.
All of the sellers should take their stuff and go to.....
Well now...just where would they all go?
@squishyalt: exactly the problem.
It reminds me a lot of the state of file sharing during the fall of Napster. Napster had to crash hard before the userbase moved on. That's what it will take to motivate users to move on from Ebay. As long as it has a semblance of functionality, it will continue to draw the majority of buyers and sellers.
To get everyone to move to one other place, a site has to posess the same ease of use with none of the drawbacks. I've seen a handful of inferior sites make a run for it but none of them designed well enough to become THE Ebay alternative.
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@chrisholland03: And what should be do in Canada? Amazon here, has a very limited choice, and no ''international'' shipping.
I hope Google will bring eBay down with an international alternative. Soon.( I don't see anyone else with the necessary budget...)
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I did a search for 'Corvette'... I've bought two and sold one off eBay... 'No Results Found' was reported a few times and I got an 'Apache Server Error' the other few times....
That slot machine sucks down money. You have to do like $4 a spin and keep jamming that button to keep the multiplier up for whenever to bonus appears. I did win like $500 off it once though.
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Oh, noes! A whole day without scammers!
My heart goes out to all those poor schlubs who waited around to be scammed on eBay.
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@flugennock: Yeah, just think of all those fortunate sellers who missed a day of false 'item not received' claims, demands for partial refunds because they 'paid too much, and if you don't I'll neg you' and unwarranted chargebacks from scamming buyers!
I'm more concerned with another problem I found on Ebay today... apparently because of some French ruling about selling perfumes, you cannot buy condoms. Ebay's explanation is that due to \"technology limitations\", some unrelated items may be blocked.
I gave up on Ebay as a seller when their $xtra Selling Manager Pro took all items paid for and threw them into \"shipped\" completely skipping items that NEED to be shipped. They knew of the bug and did nothing to warn sellers, many of us lost our high volume business's because of it.
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I stopped buying on Ebay a while back. The shilling got old. Amazingly, after I was outbid and did not up my price, 100% of the time, I was contacted by the seller for a 2nd chance buy. I declined 100% of the time.
@smiling1809: I wish that happened to me. Every time I try bidding on ebay I get outbid at the last second by some jerk with apparently bottomless pockets.
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There's another effect of the outage I haven't seen anyone else comment about: all of my saved searches seem to have gotten wiped out, and it seems to be because the tools along the left side that help narrow down searches are missing. Wonder when those will come back?
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LOL
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\"Watch for eBay's reputation to take a major hit after this incident.\"
...eBay/PayPal's reputation couldn't get any worse if they started posting videos of how to properly butcher kittens.
Ebay banned me after my very first purchase because I didn't receive what I had ordered and had the nerve to complain about their highly rated seller. F*** ebay!!
All the changes that have taken place have sucked all the fun out of Ebay. It used to be the best place to find good deals but now the prices are about the same as Amazon. I'll take Amazon over Ebay anyday.
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Meh...their usual outage policy to sellers is for them to just \"suck it up\" (happened to me enough times) so I doubt much if anything will change.
@catnapped:
That's their usual everything policy to everyone.