'Why Amazon Should Buy eBay' reminds me of the fabulous service I've had from Amazon.....from product research to teapots to cameras, even books, especially used books, my 1-click account just works. My single problem in hundreds of purchases, a faulty hard drive, was solved with zero angst. I've had no fraud, no junk mail from affiliates, just satisfaction. Amazon has the business model to become Walmart to the planet. Ebay by contrast I've given up on....it's sticky affiliate, Paypal, generates persistent unwanted mail and solves no problem I need solved. Ebay generates fraud, hijacked accounts and zero customer service. Typical comment:
For sellers, eBay is a nightmarish quagmire. I’ve been selling for eight years and I truly dread posting new ads. Recently, my username was stolen and my account was deactivated, just before my need to post items for Christmas sales. After endless attempts to contact a human being, I never succeeded and I never got any explanations. I changed my passwords and I haven’t posted yet. The fraudulent emails are never-ending. eBay customer service has always been awful. No wonder they’re struggling with growth. Reasonable sellers will only tolerate so much abuse and then they leave.Amazon need not buy eBay for $quillions., Amazon is uniquely positioned to compete with eBay at a development cost a long way south of 1 $quillion.
Posted by Mark Adams on December 14, 2007 11:10 PM
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Comments (1)
While I concur wholeheartedly about Amazon, which with Costco, may be the two best retail businesses in terms of customer satisfaction in the country (of their size), my experience with eBay hasn't been nearly as bad.
Perhaps because I don't treat eBay like its Amazon, but rather like a flea market in Mexico city, a rewarding experience if you know the rules and exercise a modicum of caution.
I've been on eBay for eight years, and never had a problem, well one problem, but it was more of a problem for my buyer than for me: he simply wouldn't receive the goods he had won and paid for and simply disappeared, leaving me with the money AND the goods.
I think if you want a pleasant, safe way to buy things, Amazon really is the way to go, but eBay is a wonderful training ground for the rough-and-tumble business world where the reality is that you don't always get what you paid for or don't get paid for what you deliver.
To be fair, they do the best they can to root out the creeps and weirdos, but in an open market, creeps and weirdos are always going to be a fact of life.
Posted by Mick Stockinger | December 15, 2007 12:48 PM
Posted on December 15, 2007 12:48