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Some thoughts on shill bidding
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blackwatch
路I like ebay a LOT MORE before they went anonymous. The world as a whole is going toward a reputation based economy, but reputation doesn't mean anything when it goes long with enforced anonymity.
(And by anonymous, I mean a******2, obviously.)
(And by anonymous, I mean a******2, obviously.)
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Dablitzer
路It's hard to tell what point you're making, exactly. eBay is a US company, and many of the problems you describe are typical of eBay, regardless of where the buyers/sellers are. It's anonymous, the structure of eBay has serious faults in it, lots of opportunities for fraud and dishonesty. But my own experience of buying from all over the world has been overwhelmingly positive. The consumer rights you describe are regulated in the case of eBay, by eBay, and in respect of local laws, US, UK or European. There are plenty of nutters everywhere, no monopoly in the UK or the US...
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citizenrich
路Too late!馃檮
Thats funny. When I wrote that beta male types like getting offended because it gives them abstract purpose, I had just you in mind! And, there you go right on cue. 馃檮
Just kidding! 馃榾
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Stewart H
路as of today, my watch guy will no longer deal with the UK. for shame. he's an honest bloke and that's a fact.
Actually, that's no great loss to the UK buyer.
It costs too much in taxes to import from the US. Vintage watches are much cheaper in the States but with 20% VAT to pay, it isn't worth it unless the piece is particularly rare or valuable - in which case I would probably fly over, collect it and wear it back.
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Habitant
路And, at the end of the day, you should be free to choose whom you do business with, correct?
meaning: no Italy / tough noogies
Italians should stop thinking it's ok to demand 30% after sale discounts on ebay purchases because they didn't approve of the way you "packaged" the watch. It's just a game for them and they like it. don't play it .
Next: no UK: tough titties. I'm Anglo and other shit and I'm embarrassed at how "soft" and protected my long lost cousins have become in matters of trade and commerce. What happened to you guys????
>snip
In the end, eBay's buyer bias is insane. No matter what the issue, eBay always believes that the buyer is right, even in the face of inarguable evidence to the contrary. This has nothing to do with any consumer protection laws, and is just their own business model. So rant against the UK all you want to, against Italy (although the most honest and reliable watchmaker I use is Italian!), but put the blame on eBay when eBay is the problem, not millions of reasonable inhabitants of various countries. And remember that the same mud could easily be slung back at the US, I'm afraid.
...And then's there's the previously-noted ability to offer 'private sales' with shielded identities, a shill bidder's charter, and which seemed to take an even weirder turn the other day, when I came across someone with a reasonable rating, but whose feedback reports were invisible. I don't see the point of offering feedback scores if you can't see what people said (not talking about old transactions, current ones...).
Anyway, here we are in the global, digital age, where we fantasise about a capitalist system, but do much of our business through de facto monopolies like eBay (is there really any competition to it?), Google (ditto) [and others] and seem powerless to create true competition/competitors. It seems to me that we went global to increase choice and ended up narrowing it instead.
