Whenever I go on eBay to buy something, I don't really trust the seller's ratings because they all seem the same and you can't find ratings for the item you're interested in, which is annoying unlike Amazon, I guess that's why Amazon is better than eBay. The point is, on eBay you can't tell for sure if the seller is trustworthy or not, and what really bugs me is when sellers try to scam people by putting a totally different picture of the item they want to sell and then they tell you to not trust the picture because the color might look different in real life.
The sellers rating actually does a pretty good job indicating whether or not your are dealing with a scam. Just look at the percentage of positive feedback and that should give you a general idea of that selling. Sellers with 95+ most likely will never scam you and the few negative ratings that they got they probably worked them out with the buyer. If you want to see the detailed feedback they get just click their profile and you can see why they are receiving positive or negative feedback. It's a great system IMO and I have yet to be scammed.
I have never had an issue with Ebay. It's more about common sense, ask questions and have your wits about you.
I know where the feedback is, I was saying that it would've been better if when you view the feedback you only see the feedback of the item you're interested in, not the feedback for the whole store, it's annoying because then you'll have to view many pages hoping you'll find a feedback for the item you want. As for the 95 ratings, almost all of the sellers has those ratings.
I agree, it would be great if you could see reviews specifically for the item you want to buy. My boyfriend bought a pair of pants on eBay a while ago and the colour was totally wrong when they showed up! I know it might display differently on the computer screen or the photo quality might not be great, but it's a huge inconvenience. If you pay by Paypal then usually you can file a dispute for the item being "Not as described" and get your money back, although you may have to send the item back too. I think the sellers of items like these are counting on the fact that if it's not an expensive item, most people just won't be bothered to do it.
I agree to a certain degree for sure. Honestly though it just depends on the product that you are looking to purchase. There are some cheaper things that I'll buy on Ebay from reputable sellers, but when it comes to more pricey items I definitely go over to Amazon. Amazon is a much better site where you can feel confident in buying virtually anything. If you've had quite a lot of trouble on Ebay then I would say just stick to Amazon for now.
I think we can be scammed in all online shopping site if we don't check well the description of the product that we are planning to buy. We must not rely merely on the rating that we see but we have to do further research about the product to avoid being fooled.
I understand what you're saying. But certain items on eBay are one of a kind, so they don't lend themselves to a page of reviews like Amazon has. I sell my artwork, so you won't find a page with 50 reviews of a certain painting because I only made one of that exact type. Some people on ebay are just attic sellers, not professionals. It's not a real store like Amazon, although it seems to be headed that way.
I agree. On the whole, I think the majority of people using Ebay are using it for the same reason I am. And I trust that they are generally doing things on the up and up. The one and only issue we've ever had with Ebay was with a car sale. We didn't actually have the winning bid, but apparently the person who did didn't end up paying, so the seller contacted us directly to say we could have the car at our price. It was great and turned out to be a great car. The transaction ended up happening OFF Ebay, in the end, but it worked out. It was a legitimate used car salesman, and he used Ebay to reach a wider audience. I've also found Ebay's complaint system to be pretty effective too. My biggest lesson for others is when you DO have a complaint, if you can take pictures as proof of what you are claiming, do it. I once bought a pair of pants that were advertised as a 33in inseam. They were a 30. I sent them back and told the guy the inseam measurement was wrong (which it decidedly was). He said he'd refund my return shipping. But then he got it and assured me the inseam was a 33. I thought, geeze, I apparently needed to take a picture of the actual measurement. The dude was obviously measuring wrong, or just lying. Either way, I was out $4 shipping and didn't get a great pair of pants because they were too short.
