8mm Forum: Contacting eBay?

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Posted by Terry Sills (Member # 3309) on November 14, 2016, 07:08 AM:

Has anyone tried contacting eBay recently? Well it appears impossible either by phone or email. How I wish there was a viable alternative. I would dump them in an instant.
Out of interest my Summary now lists everything in dollars instead of GBP. Has anyone else encountered this?

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on November 14, 2016, 07:15 AM:

Only if by default you are inadvertently logged into ebay.us

There is on the settings, a way to change this back to ebay UK.
It's deep rooted somewhere in the settings for this site, but it is a facility.

I find ebay a terrible site to get in contact with in an hour of need myself Terry.

Many is the time I've wasted more money on an actual phone call to them surrounding time wasting buyers, than the goods themselves sold for in the first instance.

If someone could only create an honest and viable alternative with the same captive audience and where crooks from both sides of fence were banned on first offense and you could contact them easily by telephone in your hour of need, they'd make a billion!

It's become all too familiar to hear people saying "oh just bang it on ebay" to some goods that aren t even fit for a car boot or jumble sale, it's untrue!

Posted by Terry Sills (Member # 3309) on November 14, 2016, 08:23 AM:

Absolutely agree Andrew.
eBay was great in the early years but it has just got too entangled with rules and regulations and protection for buyers and no redress for sellers. I am surprised that a competitor has not emerged to tap into an enormous market. As you say they would make billions.

Posted by Michael De Angelis (Member # 91) on November 16, 2016, 03:50 PM:

This is the number that I use, but I'm in the USA
1 (800) 322-9266

Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on November 16, 2016, 04:02 PM:

I think it would be hard to for a competitor to gain much traction. I prefer using craigslist but I know it's a smaller audience and I won't get as much money. It also has it's own hassles.

Something that I was recently introduced to was "shopgoodwill.com". In the states, "Goodwill" is a chain of thrift stores. Those places have suffered for years due to people selling their old stuff on eBay rather than donating them as they had in decades past. It's nice to see they've found a way to recoup some of those losses by hosting their own auction site.

That site has far less protection for the buyer, but prices are better. I've gotten a couple of nice lenses from them. I doubt you'd find any films of interest listed there, but it's another source for projectors.

There's an Elmo GS1200 listed and the current high bid is just above $200.00. Auction ends today I think but it's a "pickup only" item. If you're willing to go to Indiana, not a bad price.

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on November 16, 2016, 04:25 PM:

We have a small alternative here called "Gumtree", not an auction site but just allows nationwide sales and advertising of second hand goods on the web, filtered by area or anything else if you so wish.

A similar concept used to exist called "Loot" here in the UK.
Again advertising second hand goods for a fixed price.
It went online in the advent of the internet but prior to that was a bi weekly newspaper that used to sell well.

Auction sites are fine in principle but of course, wherever there is a buck to be had, there is corruption sadly.

Maybe fixed price sales sites are the way forward with genuine protection and rewards for time proven honest and genuine buyers and sellers of goods.

Posted by Terry Sills (Member # 3309) on November 17, 2016, 02:56 AM:

I don't know how recently anyone has tried to contact eBay but when I tried the telephone option was 'unavailable' and no email alternative was offered either.
As for my Summary page, it returned to GBP without any input from me.
How about this forum offering an auction page for members? or is that pie in the sky.
If it is a possibility then it would be a great source of revenue for the moderators and I would much sooner them have the financial benefit than eBay. I have absolutely no idea of the implications but surely an idea worthy of consideration and it could be dedicated to all things of interest to our community.

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on November 17, 2016, 04:03 AM:

It has been suggested before Terry but would need a full time administrator for it to work.

If anyone wants to pay me my current salery to open one, I will run one here! Ha ha ha.

Believe me it would run very very fairly!

Posted by Terry Sills (Member # 3309) on November 17, 2016, 05:30 AM:

Well just about every multinational and conglomerate started from small beginnings, so here's an opportunity for someone.
Anyone up for it? - Doug and Brad?
Would it really need a full time administrator for a relatively small operation dedicated to our Vintage equipment/film, in these days of computerisation?

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on November 17, 2016, 05:41 AM:

It would need a full time referee Terry, never mind administrator.

Too much hassle mate where films and projectors are concerned.
All far too subjective unfortunately.

If I was refereeing, one half of the goods currently being sold on ebay would never even make the auction!😂😂😂

People only sell on ebay at times because they know all too well the site is completely clueless regarding the acceptable minimum condition of the goods that sell there.
They accept literally anything.

Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on November 17, 2016, 08:58 AM:

Yes. Even when both buyers and sellers are been completely honest, condition is somewhat subjective. That is the fundamental problem or risk when buying something online. It won't matter who runs the auction.

If digital transfers and online storage were cheap enough, one way around it would be to post digitized versions of the films being sold. That way the buyers could literally see what they're getting. It could be a requirement of films being sold above a certain price.

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on November 17, 2016, 10:36 AM:

I'd make it one nowadays Tom for as you say, expensive items.
Say anything over £100 for example.

In this day and age there are no excuses whatsoever for not providing whatever evidence a potential purchaser requires for such items. [Wink]

There are plenty of free methods to send out large files these days so long as they are downloaded by the end user within 7 days.

No excuses at all if all is above board with the film.

Posted by Barry Fritz (Member # 1865) on November 17, 2016, 01:07 PM:

I called them last week and got through right away. I was annoyed because every time I wanted to sell something I would get that message that I was using an unregistered computer and they would have to email me a confirmation code to enter. The gal fixed it right away. I guess I got lucky.

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on November 17, 2016, 01:17 PM:

Your service may be far far superior to the one we receive here Barry.

It's typically extremely difficult to speak to anyone from ebay to get an immediate resolution.

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