Greed and Avarice in the eBay World
My brother dropped me an e-mail earlier this week about his growing disappointment with people on eBay who appear to offer reasonable prices - only to discover they are charging outrageous shipping and mailing fees. It's those people selling software, for example, who claim it costs US$20 to deliver - more if you happen to live in Canada. It is these people who break what has made the eBay buying and seling community work so well: trust and honesty. Sure, there's an element of caveat emptor but it's a sneaky way to make money. Maybe this is just another lcrack in eBay's e-commerce armor - along with the company's insistence on raising its user fees to meet the expectations of Wall St. (What about the expectations of your users, eBay?). Often, it's not major strategic errors that initiate a company's fall from grace but a series of little ones. This is something eBay would be wise to remember.
April 25th, 2005 at 7:04 am
I think eBay is great, but a bit expensive. I'll add two comments. First, re shipping fees, the buyer must simply tack that onto his/her total “mental bid” so he/she does not pay more than willing. If somebody wants to charge a crazy shipping fee their product should sell for less (would be an interesting statistical analysis - I'm sure there is plenty of data inside of eBay)
Second - regarding cost, I recently sold two items for a grand total of about $200. I had a bill for almost $15 on my Visa for the charges associated with my listing. That's about 7%. Would I worry about this next time and not sell my item? Probably not. I just wanted the items gone.