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August 08, 2005
E-bay
I used to be a bit of an E-bay addict. In theory it seems ideal for someone like me who hates crowded shopping centres, dislikes chain stores just as much but is still partial to a good bargain. There was a time that whenever I decided we needed something I would fire up the PC and type it into the E-bay search engine. Oh yes I’m evil too, I cannot deny that a couple of times I have even muttered ‘gotcha!’ out loud when I’ve got in there at the very last minute and kicked someone else off the post.
However it takes its toll and the novelty after a while begins to wear off and I find I haven’t got the patience any more. Mainly because there are too many E-bay habits that really piss me off and force me to refuse to buy the item in protest.
So here it is; Eight E-bay habits that annoy Purple Elephant
1) Convoluted descriptions letting me know what you are going to do to me if I bid on your item and then refuse to pay. I find these as irritating as ‘Shoplifters will be prosecuted’ signs. We all know it’s wrong but if we really want to do it then are you really going to stop us? What are you going to do about it? Give me a negative feedback? Now I’m scared! And besides isn’t it the buyer who is taking the real risk? You never get a buyer sending a rude message with their payment saying that they are going to string you up by the balls if you don’t send the item.
2) Sellers who say that they prefer Paypal payment but if you wish to pay by this method then you must add an extra 50p to cover their charges. Well then you don’t prefer it then do you. We all know that Paypal charge for their services, if you then slap on an extra charge then that makes you just as bad as them. If you don’t like it then don’t offer Paypal simple as that.
3) Feedback obsessives. These take many forms the most irritating of which are
i) The Chaser; The endless emails ‘I sent your item two days ago and you haven’t yet given me feedback.’ I once got three of these from the same person in the space of two days. I think these people must get very little praise in their everyday lives if my prompt standard ‘Great seller. Thank you,’ means so much to them.
ii) The Playground Feedbacker; ‘I will give you feedback as soon as you give me mine.’ How old are we? Whenever I see this in a listing I wonder what E-bay would be like if everybody did this. Nobody would ever get feedback now would they? Get a grip.
4) Rip off postage charges; I know it doesn’t cost 3.50 to send a child’s t-shirt. Even if I didn’t I would soon find out if it came through my door sporting a 60p stamp. Except it’s not going to fall on my door mat because I’m not buying from you. So there. Lumped in with this one are sellers who don’t list postage charges. I’m not falling for that one and unless it’s something really special I can’t be bothered to email you either.
5) The rushed description; Let’s put some effort into this shall we. Think about what information the potential buyer might need to know, size perhaps? Could we please run the description through the spell and grammar check? (Combat’s? Who is Combat?) Also it is not difficult to copy the title and author correctly from the front of the book. (Virginia Wolfe? I think not!) And finally I don’t want to see text language in the description, it’s bad enough having to put up with it in text messages themselves but we are allowed God knows how many characters in an E-bay listing. C’mon ppl.
6) Having said that I don’t like elaborate descriptions. What is it with those silly graphics of cute little girls sucking their thumbs and things that flash and move across the screen? I can’t be bothered to wait for it to load.
7) ‘From a smoke and pet free home.’ I’ve never yet come across a smell or cat hair that can’t be removed with a run through the washing machine and why do people feel the need to impart this information when they are selling DVDs for example? Unless you have been wiping out the litter tray with it. I really don’t care.
8) I make it my policy to never buy anything with the word ‘WOW!!!!!’ in the title. I can’t explain why I hate this. I just do.
Needless to say I rarely buy anything from E-bay these days.
Feel free to add to this list if you so wish...
Posted by purple elephant at August 8, 2005 10:42 AM