The continuing scandal that 'Ebay' has become

Back in October last year I purchased two items from an Ebay 'Power Seller' in the U.K. I duly sent off payment a few days later. In Ireland PayPal - an Ebay 'service' - falsely advertise that a debit card can be used on their accounts. Not so. If you don't have a credit card, no PayPal. Kind of makes you wonder "why bother with PayPal at all?"! For this reason I had to pay the old fashioned way - by post.

After a couple of weeks the seller opened an 'unpaid item' dispute. Following my assurance that the payment was sent, about a week further on I got suspicious. I decided to check with the post office ( I sent it registered ) and sure enough, I discover that it was delivered but no one was home to sign for it! The seller then goes "oh well, I was on holidays. It's not my problem".

Sensing that I was not happy, she then left two unpaid strikes on my account. I eventually got these removed. In the meantime this odd seller went and collected my payment and sent it back to me, unopened. I left her negative feedback, but ebay promptly removed it. Doesn't say much for Ebay does it?

Ebay was a great resource, but they've gone 'Hollywood' and will, I have no doubt, trip over their success. Remember a time when everything was 'go on Amazon'? Then Ebay got really big. People are just as likely to try Ebay as Amazon for books etc. now. I would not be the first one to say this, but Ebay are doing a shake - down of smaller buyers and sellers.

Along with the banning of 99p 'Buy it now' listings on the U.K. site, the change to feedback rules for sellers ( who can no longer leave negative feedback ) and the obvious contempt for smaller buyers will backfire.

Ebay should see themselves as having a duty to warn other buyers of someone who messed me about like this woman did by allowing negative feedback to stand. Clearly the only thing that's in their hearts is money.

In the future Ebay will become less and less relevant: Power - seller junkstores and high priced 'Buy it now' sellers will become the norm. And guess what? - that's the death of everything which made Ebay special. My exprience has been stomach - churning.

In fact it is a small step away from Ebay being complicit in fraudulent activity. They can wave goodbye to my custom. I have about 87 transactions completed in 2 years on it ( 100% positive feedback ). What Ebay are too dumb to notice is the value of the items I purchased: in almost every case, high.

Hurry up Google, and set up a better service!