The Post about Ebay March 3rd

If you ask me - and since you didn't, I'll just pretend someone did - Ebay is heading for disaster faster than a Rob Lowe TV series heads for hiatus.

I speak from experience here, with the love and insight only a true devotee can bring to the table. I've been an Ebay member for seven years, long enough that I can boast of saying 'I bought it on Ebay' and then having to explain what that meant.

I've bought hundreds of items, and I've sold hundreds too. Clothes, books, electronics, you name it, I've bought or sold it, and with nary a problem to report.

Heck, there was a time not so long ago when if I saw a listing for a time machine made out of tin foil and Jell-O, I'd bet my life that I'd be having dinner with Abe Lincoln the day the auction ended.

Sigh. Memories.

Six of my last eight transactions have ended, if not in disaster, then with disillusionment.

There was the video camera that was dead on arrival.

On the selling end, there was the one buyer that just never paid, and another who dragged the process out with endless (contradictory) claims that her mother had fallen ill.

There was seller who charged $3.00 for shipping, then sent the item in a standard envelope for $.83. A handling charge you say? That'd be the stock answer, but how hard was it to drop that in the mail? What, they don't have mailboxes in Baltimore?

There was another seller who sent only half of the decorations we purchased.

And last, but certainly most infamous, there was the $40 lamp that took a month to arrive. When it showed up at our door it wasn't the item pictured in the auction, but gosh golly in the fine print the seller reserved the right to substitute at whim.

More than a month later we're still waiting for a refund.

Ebay used to resemble a universal rummage sale, with a casual, one-on-one atmosphere. Now sellers feel compelled to toss caveats and vague threats on every listing, and buyers have the art of bidding so down pat that a beginner has almost no chance to win unless they're willing to mortgage their house.

As near as I can tell, the villain seems to be the 'power sellers', the mass quantity sellers who dominate the new marketplace. The vast fees they pay may help Ebay's bottom line now, but they'll be the downfall of the company in the long run.

Don't believe me? The guy that sold us the lamp had a feedback rating of around 99%, enough to give us unwarranted confidence. After the fiasco, a closer look showed he averaged fifty dissatisfied customers a month.

True, a thousand people were happy with the service in the same thirty days.

But over the course of a year, there are now 600 people who'll hesitate to use Ebay because of that lone seller.

Even an old hand like me gets a case of the willies. I just bought a camera at Best Buy for $50 more than I saw it listed for on Ebay. A year ago I'd have stuck with the ebay model, but forgetaboutit: I didn't have the time or the energy to deal with the hassles.

Tell me that's the kind of thing a company wants to hear from its customers.

Oh, I'll still use the darn thing. Where else can I buy an 11x14 sepia print of Babe Ruth or sell a battered old textbook?

Only now I'll do it with my fingers crossed.