Bargainland Bids Adieu to eBay

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AuctionBytes Blog
News and insight focusing on
ecommerce and the online auction industry
by Ina Steiner, Editor of AuctionBytes.com

December 01, 2007

Bargainland Bids Adieu to eBay

By: Ina Steiner

Sat Dec 1 2007 12:48:38

Another high-volume seller has left the eBay marketplace. This time, it's liquidator Bargainland. AuctionBytes sat down with Paul St. James to find out why he decided to stop selling on eBay and what Bargainland is up to now. The article will appear in the December 2, 2007 issue of AuctionBytes-Update. (We'll provide a direct link to the story here on Sunday.)

Here's the link to the article (12/3/07).

What do you think this means for eBay? Is it a positive sign that eBay is cleaning up the site and getting rid of low-feedback sellers? Or is it a sign that high-volume sellers can't succeed on eBay? Share your thoughts here.

Comments (52) | Leave Comment | Permalink

Readers Comments

Bargainland Bids Adieu to eBay

by: Wholesalemotorcyclegear

Sat Dec 22 23:53:12 2007

eBay has driven more than a few sellers away with their autocratic take it or leave it attitude. My experience as a seller has been very similar to Bargainland's. I originally had three profitable stores on eBay two of them were shut down at one time or another without warning. Due to no fault of mine. I have moved my wholesale store to Yahoo and set up a mirror retail store on Yahoo also. I not longer spend any advertising dollars on the eBay stores and I am concentrating my efforts on building the non eBay business. I hope to bid ebay Adieu in the next year.

Bargainland Bids Adieu to eBay

by: jagswim

Wed Dec 26 23:44:01 2007

I have bought from Bargainland on ebay and on their own site. I am about to bid adieu to Bargainland. They've sent me empty boxes filled with school papers, not the item listed on the box. Sheet sets that have a sheet missing. VCRs that don't work. I've bought beautiful statues that have arrived smashed because of horrible packaging. I picked up a bike carrier that turned out to be a snowboard/ski carrier. The items are not rated properly. They are not checked before they are shipped. They are poorly packaged. And the servers are so jammed at certain times that it is impossible to place a bid for sometimes an hour. Add that to the time invested filing out a service ticket and taking photographs, and then repackaging and going to UPS and having to re-seal packages once you have put all the UPS info INSIDE the box that Bargainland requires, well as the UPS lady pointed out, they should be paying me by the hour.

While it's true they have neat returns from overstock and other companies, the lack of respect of bargainland for their customers is so profound that from now on if I find something interesting on Bargainland I'll just search overstock or ebay or do a general google and pay the extra money. I've been sniping all my auctions on ebay for years and I am no longer willing to plan my day so that I am back at the computer in time to bid on an item only to find that I can't get through to bid. Or after putting out so much effort to bid on an item only to have bargainland post it in such a shabby fashion that I am now amazed when anything arrives not broken and as described. This company truly deserves a 90% rating. In fact I kinda wonder why it as so high!

Bargainland Bids Adieu to eBay

by: hello

Wed Jan 2 17:36:40 2008

Bargainland gets no sympathy from me; in fact, I'm pleased to learn they have been thwacked by eBay. I believe that a large percentage of the items they sold were damaged beyond use (containing no salvageable parts) and typically were cleverly misrepresented within the text of Bargainland's item descriptions -- often with the copout ''unable to test'' or ''untested'' disclaimer and FREQUENTLY using the innocuous-seeming ''open box'' descriptor. Well, ''open box'' does not equate with ''visibly smashed'' ~~ which acccurately describes the condition of several items I concurrently purchased from them. REPEAT buyers? No, I suspect many other people placed bids on multiple concurrent Bargainland auctions... wound up burned and feeling like a chump... and utilized their only (and seemingly futile) recourse, across several years, by placing their cumulative scathing (and accurate) feedback.

Bargainland Bids Adieu to eBay

by: Roy Smith

Sun Jan 6 21:02:45 2008

I saluate ebay from kicking them out.
At first, I thought ebay owns Bargainland. Since they are kick out, now they change my mind. It is about time!
Bargainland not own rip off buyers, but they also do harm to other ebay sellers. They had the courage to stole
my pictures from my web site and used the pictures for their ebay auction. It take alot of time to finally made them stop.

Bargainland Bids Adieu to eBay

by: Lisa

Fri Jan 11 21:03:13 2008

After doing a bit of research to find out what happened to Bargainland, I was surprised at all the horrific comments and website postings about them. I bought a few items from them. Granted, customer service was non-existent and shipping was high, but I guess I was luckier than most. I bought a brand new HP color laser printer for a fraction of retail, and it's worked perfectly for a year now. I saved hundreds. What confuses me most about the negativity though is the recurring theme that unhappy customers CONTINUED TO PURCHASE from them. Because of that, I have to wonder about the validity of their claims. I have to applaud the man for leaving Ebay to start his own site, which apparently has been successful. I wish I had the following to do the same.

Somewhat off topic: I agree with many of the comments made here about Ebay in general. I am a platinum powerseller with over 14,000 feedbacks and a 99.8% rating. I am frustrated over Ebay's constant position to favor buyers over sellers. While I realize buyers are absolutely necessary to the process, it is the sellers who pay the Ebay fees.

Non-subtle systems put in place by Ebay that snub the seller in favor of the buyer are astounding. For example, the ability of a buyer to leave anonymous ratings for sellers, while sellers cannot do the same for buyers, seems absurd. This may come as a shock to Ebay: THERE IS MORE TO BEING A GOOD BUYER THAN PAYING IN A TIMELY MANNER. I can't tell you the absurd and unfounded complaints I've received. I once even had a buyer threaten to send her burly husband to my house to beat up me and my family because she didn't like the smell of the rug she had purchased. She paid promptly. Do buyers like her deserve positive feedback? Of course not. And if Ebay is seriously considering making automated positive feedback for all buyers who pay immediately through Paypal, that will be the end of my Ebay association. It's absurd.

Thanks for letting me rant, even though most of it was off topic.

Bargainland Bids Adieu to eBay

by: bobfixitall

Wed Jan 30 20:32:04 2008

I Think what it comes down to is people are getting tired of ebay, i know i am, there fees are rediculous, i can only imagine how much money was being sent to ebay every month from ebay, everyone knows what kind of merchendise they were selling ebays new feedback is ridiculous and is going to hurt them in sales more then they know.

you take away big sellers on ebay and your left with punk kids and petty thieves.

as a seller on ebay I am glad to see this its going to take some hard financial hits for ebay to start reconizing us, and giving us the respect we deserve.

we started the company we can shut it dow just as fast as it was created.

Bargainland Bids Adieu to eBay

by: Angge

Tue Apr 15 20:15:21 2008

Barginland auctioned off an MMO as "This
Subscription Card... provides a 60-day subscription". I am familiar with MMOs, so I read and reread the description and asked if it came with 60 days of play time, but what I got was a CD for a game already activated and with no subscription time. They refused to refund my money under the old "it said open box in the description" line.

Bargainland Bids Adieu to eBay

by: bill

Tue Jul 8 11:08:34 2008

I ordered something which never came and when I called the customer service rep she acturally laughed at me and hung up and gave me bad rating.
I am so glad they are gone

Bargainland Bids Adieu to eBay

by: jennifer

Fri Aug 22 01:10:06 2008

I never had any problem's with Barginland! I believe EBAY'S FEEDBACK POLICY is very screwed up and totally unfair! I just got suspended and have to STRONGLY AGREE with what was said earlier:

''Scammer buyer looks for newer seller, low feedback count, orders item then complains...either not as described..or better yet, never received, demands full refund.

Newer sellers who sent the item and have USPS confirmation think they're covered, but WRONG....can still get fraudulent feedback and have NO recourse against the buyer unless it fits within the narrow ebay confines for feeback withdrawl. So the seller either loses $$ giving the buyer something for nothing OR they pay for it by getting a really LOW feedback percentage and then low to no future sales.''
Does anyone know of any sites like Ebay? I am a mother of 4 and this WAS my income.. If anyone knows of any sites plz email me at carmoletta@att.net

Bargainland Bids Adieu to eBay

by: DeMars

Wed Oct 22 14:45:53 2008

When Bargainland first started on Ebay I like everyone else was intrigued by this new seller. They had lots of stuff for cheap. Their ads were deceptive because they stated that the items were AS-IS but that they worked... so of course you bought into it thinking maybe they are just a little scratched up or something. Out of 8 purchases with them, 7 were defective and DOA (dead on arrival). Trying to get resolution with them is impossible because they just go back to the ''AS-IS'' clause.
The other big complaint people have is that they either loose the merchandise or send the wrong item. Since I'm in AZ, I just drove down to their warehouse to pick up my items and even there was told ''We can't find it'' or ''Sorry, it's been shipped/sold to another customer.'' They wouldn't do any dispute resolution through the mail and just asked me to come back to speak to the warehouse manager. Needless to say they gave me the run-around. SO LESSON LEARNED... if it seems too good to be true in the case of Bargainland, it's crap and that's all your are going to get.

For all of you haters out there that say ''Well, what did you expect from an AS-IS?'' Look, I'm legally competent.. I know what AS-IS means however in those original auctions (and maybe later on as well) they described ALL the items I bid on to be in WORKING order and TESTED yet fell back on the AS-IS to cover themselves. That would be like me Selling you a Fendi bag as AUTHENTIC and later when you came back to me saying ''OH, but it SAID AS-IS.'' That's just deceptive adverstising plain and simple.

As far as the feedback system... it royally sucks for both Sellers AND Buyers. It really comes down to who knows eBay's stupid rules and how to play them. Early on I bought a kitchen aid mixer ($200) from a Seller and when it didn't arrive after 3 weeks and no response to my emails I gave her negative feedback. She came back was able to get my neg fdbk removed and my account suspended b/c my PHONE # was incorrect...look when I joined eBay (when it originally started) filling out your personal info was voluntary so I never gave them my #. Needless to say this B**ch used that to her advantage and gave ME negative feedback saying that my office refused the shipment. When I finally got ahold of the tracking number I saw that SHE mailed it to a completely different address than what was on Paypal or Ebay. When I sent this to eBay.. they didn't care. They are BY FAR one of the WORST customer service oriented companies EVER! I had proof that she completely lied and they didn't care. I watched her feedback for months and saw how other ppl left neg feedback and it was later removed. Eventually her account was suspended for too many neg feedbacks and they were complaining for the same reasons I did.. not receiving the merchandise and no return of emails. She later changed her store name and continued selling and getting neg fdbck... that store was closed down but I'm sure she is probably still out there doing the same thing under a different name. So you see it's not just Sellers that get screwed.

Internet User Beware & good luck!

D.

p.s. If you are wondering about the mixer.. yes I did receive it FINALLY 2 months after I ordered it. Originally I wanted a refund because I didn't want her to make any $$ from me but I'm guessing eBay forced her to ship it since I proved through UPS tracking that I never received it. I ordered it in late Nov for a Xmas present...got it in time for Valentine's.

Bargainland Bids Adieu to eBay

by: Pat

Wed Dec 31 10:33:17 2008

Even tho it's been a while since any comments made, i feel the need to tell my story. I had bid on a ''new- in the box'' serger, and won the bid. The price was around $125.00. Sent my payment with Pay Pal and a week later recieved a blindhemmer that was in need of repair. Called and was told to mail it back, which cost me approx. $30 thru UPS. They told me i would be refunded the shipping. They lied. I actually lost money on the deal. The serger that I supposedly won was not available anymore. What? Part of my shipping was not refunded. In hindsight, I should have kept the blindhemmer and had it repaired. Then sold it.......would have been more profitable for me. Guess we sometimes have to learn the hard way.

Bargainland Bids Adieu to eBay

by: David

Wed Mar 18 16:05:49 2009

I bought 4 pieces of furniture. 1 arrived with no problems. In short, the other 3 did not. 1 of the remaining 3 was not even close to the item I won. They insisted I was lying and I had to take photographs of the shipping labels and contents as proof.
The two remaining items never came. It took 2 months of phone calls to very rude folks before I got a refund. You won't believe how long it took and to what extent it took to get a working number to the business. They were not happy about me calling.
Email correspondence was a joke. Once a problem was addressed, a different ''customer service rep'' on every returned email would give their take on it and indicate that I was obviously lying.
One last thing is that they demanded immediate payment but took 2 months to refund the selling price and I still had to argue after that to get the shipping charges.
All the fancy ''feedback'' verbage you want to use will not explain why they treated me with such contempt.
To the folks that bought items and had good luck....I'm proud for you.
I was not as lucky as you.
I paid immediately and spoke politely and professionally in all my conversations and emails. I did not receive the same treatment.
Eventually, they will get what they deserve.
dc

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