/"Just sell it on Ebay!"

It used to be easy.

[ScottM]

5 years ago I used to say:

"Just sell it on Ebay!"

I can no longer say that with a straight face.

I haven't sold anything on Ebay for around five years. I just didn't have any need to.

Today I tried to get an ad/auction going, and after 3 HOURS of trying to get 'current' with their system, I still haven't BEGUN to list the item!

Back and forth with confusing instructions, delayed emails, 'updating' my information. Updating 'credit cards'...debit cards...removing old cards...updating email addresses...confirming email addresses...going to Paypal...then back to Ebay...logging out...then back in...not seeing updates.

Step 2 includes a full page of global 'preferences' including 'who do you want to block as a potential buyer' and shipping instructions...shipping exclusions...billing preferences...preferred billing options...

I'm still not entirely positive that I've made all the correct changes.

I hope I won't get 'burned' by someone who ends up complaining that I didn't check the "packaging will be Earth/Green friendly' check-box or something?

I don't want an email from PayPal saying, your item is being returned because it was shipped on a Friday and the buyer insisted it only be shipped on days that have more than 6 letters in their name.

Yuck!

My taxes are sometimes easier than this!

Why can't they have some sort of a 'wizard':

Hi ScottM! We noticed you haven't used our service in a few years and many things have changed.

If you have a single item to sell, we can make it easy...let's walk through these simple steps...

C'mon Ebay...it used to be SIMPLE!

[engine]

Oh, wow, that seems complicated.

I set my ebay up a long, long time ago so have not gone through the hoops you've mentioned. The wife recently got hooked on it and is selling her stuff reasonably effectively.

[onepointone]

I haven't had many problems, but have done eBay pretty regularly for at least a decade.

I've tried some of the competitors, trust me they aren't very easy either. Plus haven't even made a sale on most of them.

Even tried amazon's 3rd party selling. Never made a sale despite having the lowest price on several new products. Guess people don't want to risk buying from a no feedback guy.

[lucy24]

Heh. I recently had the equally unnerving opposite experience. Someone wanted to send me money-- this is not something that happens every day, so one does not wish to create obstacles-- and nudged me toward PayPal. Now, I could vaguely remember that once upon a time, possibly in the previous millennium, I had a paypal account. Can't remember why. I think they took three cents from my bank account and that was the only interaction we ever had. So I drift over there, ready to go through the whole round of "You don't exist, but you can't use this name because it's in our database" or at best "We have sent a temporary password to {e-mail address I have not used since 2003}" ... and instead everything just leapt to the fore and there I was.

Weird.

[tbear]

LOL, don't get me started about PayPal....

Living in Spain, I signed up to PayPal.com who automatically registered me with PayPal.es in English language...

When the going got complicated I went to the help pages which were all in Spanish! I speak Spanish, quite well actually, but due to the complexity I needed to get an explanation in English. I have to sign out to get English help.
I just couldn't believe that. On asking, I was told they were working on linking English help to the Spanish site.
I thought PayPal started in English! I really can't see what their problem is.

[J_RaD]

you can all thank the scammers for this.

:-(