EBay UK used to be great but has turned into a nightmare 15 April 2025 Reviewer: Papso from UK
95 of 174 people found this review helpful
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EBay has become an incredibly manipulative platform. It used to be excellent, but something has changed. As a buyer it is almost impossible to find what you're searching for because you are bombarded by "sponsored adverts" which largely are nothing to do with what you're looking for. It has become a"pay to play" model where the sellers pay for visibility on the platform. So if what you're looking for is from a private seller who doesn't have as much money to promote their item, it will be lost in a sea of big business products. eBay have rigged it so that the big businesses get the majority of the business and the little seller has there items rendered virtually invisible. On top of this, eBay are making things virtually impossible for the little seller to make any sales because they have introduced a Buyer's Protection Fee which is added to the price of the private seller's listings. But, this is not seen by the seller. It is only visible to the buyer. It adds an extra 75p + 4% to the price. In addiction to this they have added "Simple Delivery" which is anything but simple. This is where eBay charge the buyer an inflated postage cost and then send a label to the seller for their item. This is mandatory. There is no opt out for the seller. This has just been introduced with almost no warning and only affects the private sellers again. The label could be for Royal Mail or Evri. There is no way of knowing until the label appears. So, it could be that you have to go to two separate offices to drop off any parcels. Some offices are not even accepting these labels, so the whole thing is a fiasco of epic proportions and has made the national press (The Sun and The Mirror among others). Buyers and sellers are boycotting the platform, so it is virtually a ghost town now. Most private sellers are reporting that their sales have dropped off a cliff since these changes were introduced. A lot of business sellers are finding the same thing happening. Even darker is that eBay are holding onto people's money. Some people are reporting that following a large sale their account is frozen and the money is not being released. The whole situation has become like the wild west. It's like a cowboy outfit and not fit for purpose. I would recommend not getting involved. eBay's own community forum is full of disgruntled buyers and sellers and other sites like Trustpilot and Reddit are similarly full of noghtmare reports. Avoid!
In summary, I would not recommend eBay UK to a friend.
