Little things that irk you 2

[Decider-VT]

EBay needs to go die. It's not good for anyone anymore. I don't allow international bidders when I sell stuff. I don't answer any questions from international either. I just assume they are going to try to scam me. Zero tolerance!

Good policy. Usually I don't post overseas and get lots of begging messages from European buyers. Now that I've allowed international post, I get hassle and rude behaviour that eBay expects sellers to put up with because the threat of a buyer getting negative feedback for poor conduct has been removed. They don't seem to realise that I'm a private seller, not a business. As of right now, I've sold over ?400 of stuff on there in the last couple of weeks and only half of that has actually been paid for because buyers are sniping auctions and paying when they feel like it, because it's a zero risk situation for them.

[Brad]

I know someone who runs the majority of their business on eBay (car parts) and they end up with people ordering the wrong part and then leaving negative feedback when they can't fit it properly and there's absolutely nothing he can do about it. he can leave a text response telling them they're an idiot but his rating still takes a hit and on eBay there is only one rating that matters; that of your customers. No one goes to various review sites to see if someone is a good seller, they just check the feedback. eBay sucks. plus they force you to accept paypal for everything you sell. Surely the monopolies commission should be all over this?

[Colin]

Unusually for eBay I sold two games on there last week for ?800, both overseas and both paid instantly and left prompt feedback for me. Definitely not the norm these days though!

To regain the irk balance though, driving 450 miles home today is irking me.

[Mayhem]

I've had a number of potential buyers ask about my postage costs (which are what they are as Buster says), and when I explain why (the need to track, the need to insure, the need to protect against potential scamming buyers I can't leave negative feedback against), then most grudgingly accept my reasons and bid regardless, although you suspect maybe slightly lower to compensate.

If the item is like a fiver, then I don't mind so much shipping bog standard first class, as it's not much a risk. A fifty quid game? Somewhat different matter there...

[Deuteros]

EBay needs to go die. It's not good for anyone anymore. I don't allow international bidders when I sell stuff. I don't answer any questions from international either. I just assume they are going to try to scam me. Zero tolerance!

I've been using eBay.co.uk for close to nine years. Since I live in Portugal, everything I've bought has been sent from abroad. During that time, as a buyer, I've received 407 positive feedbacks and a single, retaliatory, negative one.

I've certainly noticed a change in most UK sellers' behaviour. People used to be perfectly fine with shipping overseas. Sometimes you had to ask them but the response was mostly favourable. Nowadays, I don't even bother asking as I'll probably be ignored. It's a shame, really, as no one benefits from this system. Sellers have less bids and sell their items for less money. Buyers have less choice.

International shipping has certainly increased a lot over those nine years. The final nail in the coffin of my importing was eBay.com's Global Shipping Program. Here's an example: if I buy this PS2 copy of Escape from Monkey Island for $11.99, shipping will cost me $20.03 and I have to pay a $4.37 deposit for customs fees (which could turn out to be more at checkout, depending on location). I'm so glad I did most of my collecting and importing before this moronic policy came into effect. There's no way I could afford to buy the big boxed, 'vintage' PC games I bought from the US over the years.

As I've said, no one benefits from this.

[danstan21]

Royal mail theiving scumbags holding my stuff

I jest - I've paid it enough times for it to no longer be a surprise or shock. I bought a J-CD recently for around ?22, which upon checkout I marked as a gift (cdjapan lets you do so - and it's not a complete lie, I plan to gift it to someone else once I get it ) hoping to avoid the royal mail handling charges as I believe gifts under ?40 don't incur fees. Alas, it seems they didn't believe the customs form as I got the dreaded leaflet through the post today saying they're holding it at the depot and I've got to go pay ?12.59 in exact change. My irk is that I was wrong in thinking I could be clever and weasel out of it I suppose

[briareos_kerensky]

3DS games and their lack of manuals. Hate hate hate hate hate hate. Shin Sekaijuu no Meikyuu doesn't even have a cover for its half-A4 "instruction booklet".
But I'm starting to wonder: is it something Nintendo is imposing on developers/publishers?

[J0e Musashi]

Shouldn't you be playing the game instead of reading the manual?

[QualityChimp]

He doesn't know how to play it, there's no manual.

[J0e Musashi]

If there was he wouldn't be able to read it anyway. Well maybe. I shouldn't make such sweeping generalisations about import gamers.

[Decider-VT]

Searching for The The on the Spotify app. Why did Matt Johnson have to be a smartarse?

[QualityChimp]

Searching for The The on the Spotify app. Why did Matt Johnson have to be a smartarse?

It's never been easy searching for the band "A".

[dataDave]

When people use 'game' as a verb.

Why would they want to sound American and wrong?

[charlesr]

For example?

[Brad]

Hey do you game?