It’s fair to say that most people who use eBay have a love-hate relationship with the auction site. For every bargain buy or smooth transaction you’re forced to patiently wait weeks for items to arrive, or simply put up with people’s stupidity.
We’ve been using eBay since the days when sending a cheque through the post was an acceptable, and common, means of payment. As such, we’ve come across all kinds of bizarre messages, requests and complaints over the years.
Sit down and get ready to seethe as we rattle off thirty things that infuriate eBay users.
eBay Sellers
When you receive a ‘Question for Seller’ and the answer could have been discovered by simply reading the item description
When you receive a ‘Question for Seller’ and it’s in a foreign language
When you receive a ‘Question for Seller’ and it’s in English, but due to poor spelling and grammar it may as well be in a foreign language
When you’re selling a large item and state that only inland buyers can bid, only then to receive a message from a buyer another country asking if you’ll ship it to them…
…which you eventually agree to as long as they cover postage costs. And then they don’t bid
When you’re selling an item on a standard auction and somebody simply messages you with “Buy it now?†No rough price, pleasantries or anything of the sort
When you agree to add a ‘Buy It Now’ to your auction and the buyer who requested it mysteriously vanishes into thin air
When a buyer has the balls to ask “What’s the cheapest you can do this for?†even though other people have started bidding…
…or when somebody asks you to add a ‘Buy it Now’ even though the auction has bids
When somebody requests you cancel their bid on an auction that has mere minutes left
When somebody claims they bid “by mistake†or denies all knowledge of ever bidding
Sending an item and receiving a message two days later asking where it is
Sending an item and receiving a message two months later asking where it is
Months after sending, and receiving, an item somebody asks for a refund
When selling an item as spares and repairs and the buyer complains it’s faulty
Receiving negative feedback over something petty, like a fingerprint on an instruction manual
Receiving neutral feedback along with the words “Great seller!â€
When somebody 300 miles away wins your collection only auction
Sending a video game to another country only for the buyer to complain that it doesn’t work on their console
Selling a Japanese video game only for the buyer to complain that it’s in Japanese
Receiving dubious messages when selling a rare video game, asking if you’ll take a low sum for it because “It’s their son’s birthday in a few days and he’d love it†(This happened to us twice when selling Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on PSone)
Laughably low ‘Best Offer’ prices
eBay Buyers
Ridiculously high ‘Buy it Now’ prices
Auctions with no photos, stock photos or suspiciously blurry photos
Items that arrive looking like they’ve been packaged by a 2 year old
The old chestnut “Item worked last time I tested it†(which was probably five years ago)
When the seller’s location is “London, Hong Kongâ€
When something like FIFA 1996 on Mega Drive is listed as “Rare!â€
When a video game is listed as being in “Good condition†but when it arrives the disc appears to have been used to test sandpaper
Winning an auction at a super low price, only for the seller to claim that in the past five minutes the item has been water damaged/stolen/eaten by the dog