Gangster Octopus, it isn’t just the fee hikes. Fee hikes we could live with. It’s the fee hikes, and the lies, and the broken search function so our items are invisible, and the statement from Meg herself that Stores will be deliberately disadvantaged vs all other available items, and the double billings, and the lack of competent people at the help desk, and the lies, and the blaming of the sellers every time anything goes wrong, even when it’s patently obvious that it’s Ebay’s slipshod, go-live-now-and-debug-later code…
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the stores’ listings are at the bottom of the page, after the auctions, right? That’s not invisible. It’s easier for me as the customer to evaluate the products that way, when they are separated out. I guess eBay is placing a priority on the buyer, not the seller, in this instance.
I too wish they’d crack down on the people charging outrageous shipping. The way I deal with that is by having a column on my search screen listing the shipping fees. Anyone who doesn’t check that is not looking out for himself.
And I think that’s the biggest issue. If bidders would actually not bid on items with crazy shipping and handling, these guys would stop doing it. The bidders in their attempt to get a $1.00 playstation, don’t seem to care that they’re paying $300 in shipping…until the item arrives with $20 shipping. Then they get all pissy.
Dude, did you really believe it was going to cost $300 to ship your item? Worst, often these types of auctions usually have a no refund on shipping disclaimer and don’t take credit cards. So even if the seller admits his mistake, you only end up with a dollar and no means to recover your funds.
As far as what shipping should be. How does eBay know what my costs are? Do I drop ship? Does the item require extra “handling”, such a fragile item which must wrapped in a certain way in order to be covered by insurance?
The best way for eBay to crackdown of fee avoidance is by spending some of that advertising budget on a marketing campaign to educate the users; anything else is a waste of time.