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Want to Understand What Ails the Modern Internet? Look at eBay

nytimes.com

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Re: Want to Understand What Ails the Modern Internet? Look at eBay

#111

Post by moepstar »

JansjoFromIkea wrote: post #79

eBay really should allow you to filter out items with multiple price points. So many sellers abuse that system so heavily (e.g. the standard 99c memory card listings that have some crappy little microsd adapter included in the listings to drag the price range down). Basically everything else that's bad about ebay I can deal with, but that's the one thing that sends me racing to other sites.

You can see the same on Amazon - just search for some 3D printing filament, you'll get listings that vary from 10 to 40€ all in one entry...

Re: Want to Understand What Ails the Modern Internet? Look at eBay

#112

Post by H1Supreme »

robocat wrote: post #58
steven2012 wrote: post #21

I use eBay frequently. I have only bought things, but I want to sell things, however I'm terrified of getting scammed. And eBay does nothing to ameliorate those fears. I got as close as taking pictures, writing a description, and stopped at the last step before putting my item for sale. Everything I've read suggests that it's simply not worth it to try to sell things because you have no protection from scammers. As a…

> Nothing about their site has changed in 20 years, and they're waiting to die, like Yahoo. I'm from NZ and I suspect our local equivalent (TradeMe) has the same systemic problems: * Horrific UI flaws. * Adverts. Everywhere. It's like they don't want me to use the site. * A new version of the UI for mobile browsers (a replacement for the broken mobile browser version), that breaks all their links within emails * Auto…

> Automated emails sent at 4 o'clock in the morning

Turn off your e-mail notifications during sleeping hours? Pretty certain we all get e-mails at all hours of the day.

Re: Want to Understand What Ails the Modern Internet? Look at eBay

#113

Post by j-c-hewitt »

eBay is still one of the largest ecommerce marketplaces. It is actually bigger than Walmart.com. It's second only to Amazon. This article is just a goofy op-ed that does nothing to inform people and everything to stroke the egos of lefties and take some potshots at former executives who haven't worked at eBay for a decade or more.

Why go to the trouble of going to www.nytimes.com to read this? Why did this guy get paid to write it? Why not just have a woke 8 year old write it instead?

Re: Want to Understand What Ails the Modern Internet? Look at eBay

#114

Post by oldcynic »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #106
oldcynic wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of their UI changes have been user hostile or added dark patterns. For instance where once you got local items and sellers by default, now it defaults to international and you have to change a setting to exclude overseas sellers. Almost everyone will want to shop nationally first. It's the same arrogant "knowing better" seen in Facebook's show recent posts constantly resetting. Picking out one feature that they…

> Almost everyone will want to shop nationally first. It's the same arrogant "knowing better" seen in Facebook's show recent posts constantly resetting. A lot of people want to shop price first then see how much cost would increase by buying from someone already on the same continent. Including shipping when sorting by price is the opposite of user-hostile and they've done this since forever, most online retailers do…

Including shipping is indeed useful, but I was calling out changes, and as you say they've done that forever. Just about every change they've made in the last half decade that I can think of makes it less friendly.

I would be surprised if it's a lot that prefer default inclusion of international. They made the change right about the same time they made customs fees for international automatic and unavoidable. Makes me suspect that fee is including a hidden profit element in this dark pattern.

Re: Want to Understand What Ails the Modern Internet? Look at eBay

#115

Post by mlrtime »

SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #72
boxcardavin wrote: post #26

I tried to Buy It Now an item off Ebay just now and Ebay responded, "Sorry, this seller is on vacation, so this item is unavailable." Sinking ship.

It's usually listed very prominently on the listing page when this is the case. That said, I have no idea why sellers would choose to use this instead of just scheduling things around their vacations.

Ebay tracks shipping statistics, if you deliver late they ding you.

Re: Want to Understand What Ails the Modern Internet? Look at eBay

#116

Post by vxNsr »

DrScump wrote: post #45
Jaruzel wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good point, forgot about that. tbh, nothing changed after the spin off. eBay still seem to have direct control over how your paypal account gets/loses funds.

Adyen will be replacing PayPal as eBay's official payments affiliate.

If true that's a huge coup! I'd guess that over 3/4 of paypal revenue comes from ebay.

Re: Want to Understand What Ails the Modern Internet? Look at eBay

#117

Post by orbitingpluto »

ballenf wrote: post #96
orbitingpluto wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the last two years, I've found that about 1 in 4 of my purchases from China will never arrive. Obtaining refunds is an easy process but frustrating. Many of the sellers will have rankings that make them seem trustworthy only to disappear completely. And we can also lay blame on the western hemisphere. Canada and USA postal systems bear the brunt of the costs of "free" delivery. They will give these packages low pr…

I wonder if there's anything unique about your situation or just a lot of bad luck. Are you buying generally higher-end items? What does the tracking reveal in terms of where in the process the item disappeared? In the US or China? Or was it just never tendered for delivery? I've bought a lot of stuff from China on ali and ebay, but no single item over $30 in value. So far I'm at 100% in terms of delivered items. A l…

I have had good experiences with items that cost over $50. They tend to arrive quickly. For instance, a tray of CPUs was shipped to me in less than 36 hours for $10 total shipping.

For me, it is the inexpensive items with free shipping that seem to be the most risky. I also probably bid on auctions rather than fixed prices items more than the average person.

Re: Want to Understand What Ails the Modern Internet? Look at eBay

#118

Post by hnal943 »

thomasfedb wrote: post #76
FearNotDaniel wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, look in any book printed 18th/early 19th century and you'll see that the rules were quite different then: all nouns were capitalised, as in modern German, and the 'long s' was frequently used in the middle of words. Mass literacy, almost-universal schooling along with physical punishments for children not doing exactly what the textbook said have given us moderns the idea that the 'proper' English of our gr…

I don't think of myself as a total sheep - case in point I put the comma outside of the quotation mark because otherwise it parses weird.

You are fighting the good fight.

Re: Want to Understand What Ails the Modern Internet? Look at eBay

#119

Post by orbitingpluto »

nimblegorilla wrote: post #102
pravda wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>about 1 in 4 of my purchases from China will never arrive. What country you in? For me (in USA), the non-arrival rate is well under 1%. >Canada and USA postal systems bear the brunt of the costs of "free" delivery. That makes no sense. You have either been infected by propaganda, or are a propagandist yourself.

The US postal system does bear much of the cost: https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2017/11/05/how-the-...

And for Canada:

https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/canada-post-reveals-it-is-the-rea...

As for the propaganda comment, isn't it a bit on the nose for someone to make that comment with a username Правда? Please let me now if you are having problem with colloquialism, comrade. да?

Re: Want to Understand What Ails the Modern Internet? Look at eBay

#120

Post by pravda »

nimblegorilla wrote: post #102
pravda wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>about 1 in 4 of my purchases from China will never arrive. What country you in? For me (in USA), the non-arrival rate is well under 1%. >Canada and USA postal systems bear the brunt of the costs of "free" delivery. That makes no sense. You have either been infected by propaganda, or are a propagandist yourself.

The US postal system does bear much of the cost: https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2017/11/05/how-the-...

Well, you've found some propaganda!

Here's a great quote: “It just adds insult to injury to watch our postal rates continue to climb while China is being given a free ride to siphon all this money out of our economy,”

Lemme get this straight, China is siphoning money out of our economy by selling us products at a fraction of the cost of local retail monopolies?

China is keeping money in my pocket! Money that I can invest and create jobs with. China creates jobs.

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