I find most of these EBay threads interesting and funny. Everyone seems to react so strongly whenever EBay comes up during a discussion. So many people praise it as the best thing that’s ever come along. People slag traditional retailers and shops saying how crappy service is and how they rip people off and EBay is the saviour. Very few people seem to support the “bricks and morter” way of business. Then someone gets shafted on EBay and everyone crucifies the seller but no mention of any responsibility on the part of the buyer or EBay.
If I did business with a shop and felt I was treated badly, there are all kinds of ways I can try to get satisfaction. It’s pretty easy to apply pressure and get results. And if you don’t, it’s still pretty easy to get word out to others not to do business with the culprit. It seems if you get shafted on EBay it’s much harder to get things resolved.
I think GENERALLY, people get what they pay for. If you go to a good shop, you should get a good product and service at a fair price. If you go to a another shop where prices are substantially cheaper, it stands to reason you may get less of a product or less service. It should be obvious to everyone that the less you pay for the “same thing” the more risk you take that you’re going to get less. Usually it’s less service. So for something like EBay where the buyer is trying to get something for much less than market value, doesn’t it seem fair that the risk of getting screwed is a lot higher?
So why do so many people get bent out of shape when someone gets burned on EBay? Can’t people accept that you get what you pay for? It’s nothing new, it’s the risk/reward decision the way it’s always been.
I agree. But to be honest, I’ve been shafted more severely by an LBS than I ever have on Ebay (probably 200+ transactions). For example…
I wanted a pair of shoes from my LBS. They carried the model, but they were out of my size. They offered to order my size and I said yes (I tried on a different model made by the same manufacturer to attempt to determine my size). Shoes arrive after 3 weeks, and they don’t fit. I can’t wait another 3 weeks for the shoes so I find them somewhere else and I ask for a refund from the LBS. Their response? “No refunds on special orders.” Huh? Since when is ordering a size shoe in a model they have on the floor a special order? If anything, they should be doing it anyway so as to have a complete selection of sizes. This was an LBS 6 blocks from my house that I shopped in at least once per week. I no longer shop there.
That experience was worse than any I’ve had on Ebay. It must be said, however, that a little common sense goes a long way on Ebay.
OlTri
Your missing one very important detail or market that Ebay serves.
Used equipment. A large portion of bikes on ebay are used. Most LBS carry new product and a very limited if any assortment of used.
Ebay has been great for me to start up biking by providing a low cost used bike that I can purchase before laying down some serious cash on something new that I don’t know much about.
I’ve never used eBay for anything, but I’d say that for the most part ebay is successful because its threads like this that help to keep people honest.
If the thread about the set of Zipp wheels was never started the seller would have felt no pressure to live up to his end of the deal. However, once this person got wind that he had been exposed to a large group of people that know him, and do business with companies he was once associated with, it got results.
There is also the threat of having law enforcement come after the guy but in the end usually both people lose.
I try to support brick and mortar as much as it makes financial sense to do so. I went to the LBS to buy my bike that I could have gotten online for a few hundred cheaper. But I wanted to establish a relationship with the LBS and start a positive history with them. I recently got a new set of wheels off the Internet because the LBS couldn’t get me what I wanted at nearly the price. And I didn’t have the guts to ask him for a 250 dollar discount to match the price. I also felt more comfortable buying a set of wheels I’d actually never held vs. buying a bike I’d never ridden or scene other than in pictures.