Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ebay will match Amazon’s, Walmart’s and others’ prices on over 50K items

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 87 posts

Re: Ebay will match Amazon’s, Walmart’s and others’ prices on over 50K items

#71

Post by dclaw »

notyourwork wrote: post #65
Hamcha wrote: post #55

Nice, I finally get to do work by having to find similar items and write an email to be able to save exactly.. well, nothing. Are they seriously expecting anyone to put effort and wait just to buy something from their place? Granted, I hate how Amazon doesn't support Paypal, but last I recall ebay doesn't do 1-day shipping, let alone 1-day replacement when opening an RMA. Besides, they don't even actually lower the p…

> I hate how Amazon doesn't support Paypal This might be the first time someone has been upset that paypal support is lacking. I am surprised by this considering the general distaste for paypal typically. What makes you wish paypal was supported if you don't mind me asking?

Some people still have to do business with paypal... and getting paid via paypal is still a thing with a lot of businesses. It is easier to use paypal directly to pay for things in a lot of cases. Then again, if you're serious about paypal, you'll have their debit card... so that point becomes moot.

Re: Ebay will match Amazon’s, Walmart’s and others’ prices on over 50K items

#73

Post by fav_collector »

Hamcha wrote: post #55

Nice, I finally get to do work by having to find similar items and write an email to be able to save exactly.. well, nothing. Are they seriously expecting anyone to put effort and wait just to buy something from their place? Granted, I hate how Amazon doesn't support Paypal, but last I recall ebay doesn't do 1-day shipping, let alone 1-day replacement when opening an RMA. Besides, they don't even actually lower the p…

Isn't quality control at B&M stores better?

Fulfilled and shipped by Amazon.com items can still be intermingled with rando sellers from China whereas Walmart will source directly from a manufacturer or a large, billion dollar wholesaler who cares about reputation (I think)

I've been spooked by intermingling and default to BestBuy for big ticket electronics

Re: Ebay will match Amazon’s, Walmart’s and others’ prices on over 50K items

#74

Post by awa »

Reasons I use ebay for: 1. Discounted gift cards, 2. Cheap imports from China.

As a buyer I have been happy with ebay, things take a while to come but are generally well before the estimated time and a lot of stuff is much cheaper than Amazon.

As per returns/bad goods, Sellers are generally willing to send a replacement item if the original has an issue

Re: Ebay will match Amazon’s, Walmart’s and others’ prices on over 50K items

#75

Post by DanBC »

awa wrote: post #74

Reasons I use ebay for: 1. Discounted gift cards, 2. Cheap imports from China. As a buyer I have been happy with ebay, things take a while to come but are generally well before the estimated time and a lot of stuff is much cheaper than Amazon. As per returns/bad goods, Sellers are generally willing to send a replacement item if the original has an issue

And on Ebay I don't have to spend time wondering if this is a prime exclusive, or an add-on item, or if postage is included or not.

Shopping on Amazon is just exhausting now. Even for books they're not my first choice anymore - wordery is.

Re: Ebay will match Amazon’s, Walmart’s and others’ prices on over 50K items

#76

Post by oh_sigh »

saralily wrote: post #45
Shivetya wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't agree. As a buyer I have never had a problem they did not settle to my satisfaction. I did make sure in each case to have my facts in order. I tend to buy mostly antiques, glass and china, and have had three bad purchases which were fraudulent in some manner. This out of nearly three hundred purchases. I also purchase consumer items like batteries, dog toys, beef jerky, a DJI drone, and whatnot off the site.…

As a buyer you're more than protected. As a seller, I'm exposed for 30 days, because you can, for any reason, choose to return the item with a full refund, and just say it doesn't work. Ebay does not take evidence from the seller that this patently untrue. I've been burned twice this way and lost hundreds trying to sell two laptops.

Yup...I sold an iPod on eBay years ago, and the person I sold it to claimed that I only sent him cables and a rock, so eBay gave him all of his money back and he got to keep my iPod. Never used eBay since.

Re: Ebay will match Amazon’s, Walmart’s and others’ prices on over 50K items

#77

Post by yourapostasy »

I wonder if heating up competition and shakeups in the retail sector means that margins have gotten so thin that the only way to survive going forward is through massively-scaled automation and innovative presentation and delivery that limits real-estate footprints as much as possible. Another factor I've been unsuccessfully trying to nail down is if disposable income and velocity of money has declined for a broad enough swath of the population that we're seeing a gradual collapse towards an increasing percentage of incomes going towards essentials over time.

All this excitement in online retailing reminds me of yield chasing investors; the excitement appears as growth- and margin-chasing, and in the meantime the "plodding" sectors (and their associated populations) are overlooked. For example, I don't see a shift to online with dollar stores.

Re: Ebay will match Amazon’s, Walmart’s and others’ prices on over 50K items

#79

Post by nickpsecurity »

notyourwork wrote: post #69
gtsteve wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand some people prefer Paypal because Paypal can assist with disputes, i.e. if something doesn't show up. At least that's why some of my friends prefer to use it. However Amazon has always resolved problems to my satisfaction. I don't imagine it would be necessary in this situation.

I thought credit cards provide the same protections that Paypal does. Any time I run into trouble I can call my credit card company, reverse the charge and move on with life. They are no questions asked easy and my credit card company cannot hold my money for 6 months for arbitrary reasons without providing proof. I see no benefit to Amazon using Paypal and only a less than good customer experience.

This is true. Lots of people don't know you can do stop payment. You also can do it 60 days on one rule or more than that if you tried to resolve it with vendor.

Re: Ebay will match Amazon’s, Walmart’s and others’ prices on over 50K items

#80

Post by [deleted] »

cletus wrote: post #37

What I don't get about eBay is they found initial success in being an auction site then they almost immediately decided they wanted to be an online retailer instead. Why not just be the best auction site you can be rather than be yet another Amazon wannabe? Interestingly Amazon has done the same thing except they want to be Google (Android) and Netflix (content bundling with Prime). I get the desire to grow but hones…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN