I am assessing Ebay, the COMPANY and not the Ebay community or the technology that makes online auctions such a convenience for people who want or need to work from home.
Ebay has probably the worst customer service policy I have ever encountered. Buyer and seller beware. The company is as personal as a large machine---imagine if you will, HAL from Jules Verne's 2001 Space Odyssey. The machine has all the power and the desire and will of humans are completely obscured. Ebay has an "email only" customer service policy that can take up to 72 hours to address your concerns. From my experiences, their responses required so much back and forth effort that I'm starting to believe that their intended means of resolving issues is to wear down the customer until they give up in defeat. I innocently wandered into Ebay, supplied all my information and then decided to quit on that same journey because of the appalling customer service that I discovered during my set up. Ebay doesn't offer an option to cancel though. And when you email them your desire to do so, it's like stepping on Ebay chewing gum. Your first response is an automatic response that states that they care about your concerns, but it could take up to 72 hours to get back to you.
Then, a few days later, you get a response that informs you of the grave consequences of quitting and then, way down on the bottom, states that if you don't respond to that email and restate your request that your original request will be ignored. I responded several times because I got many emails such as this. Each time clearly stating that I really and truly wanted to quit. I'm still a member of Ebay today. So, in brief: one day of cyber weakness I joined Ebay. That same day I changed my mind. That one day has become a month and I'm starting to feel, it will be an eternity. So many other complaints shroud Ebay such as increased fees and unfair practices. So, to all buyers and sellers, it's our stuff--- marketing our goods on the Internet should be governed by us, not a machine. We shouldn't have to be treated like nothing more than pockets to pick. We should be entitled to the same customer service that we have come to expect of all other U.S. companies. So, yank the chord! I urge anyone that is reading this to take a leading role in swaying the internet buying/selling community towards new venues. A company only grows to this enormous size by us, the people that subscribe to their services. A few years ago, it was supply and demand. There weren't that many competitors out there. But today there are. Check out Ebay alternatives such as: www.ubid.com or www.ebid.tv (I think that one is put out by Google) or overstock.com or even auctions.yahoo.com?