Note that this review is more than 6 months old and the company's procedures may have changed considerably since this review was written.
Thus far Iv had no problems with ebay and have bought goods from all over Europe and the US.
Iv read the previous reviews and thought Id add my tuppence worth.

These are the rules I follow while shopping on the net.

I have a seperate bank A/C (solo/ switch)which I keep for internet transactions only and keep a minimum amount of money in it .
I only put money in just before I pay someone ,this way if someone does get access to my details and passwords they will get £10/20 this would still p*** me off but its better than them getting unlimited access to a credit card.
I know someone who had £2800. spent through paypal from his credit card so be warned they are not un hackable, he hasnt worked out wheather they hacked ebay or his computer yet so allways log off when finished dont just close the page.
Use a minimum of 10 digits for passwords and a combination of letters and numbers also dont use proper names as this will be far easier to break.
I dont impulse buy most items come round again and again just watch for a couple of weeks and youll get to know who sells what regularly.
Allways do a search on the item you want to bid on beleive me some people get carried away and end up paying more for a second hand item which can be found elswhere brand new for less.
Try to wait untill the last minute in my case 10 seconds and stick in your maximum bid this gives people less time to come back and out bid you, if you start bidding 5 days in advance all you are doing is pushing the price up and basically wasting your time.
I allways do research on sites Im interested in purchasing from, in ebays case look for power sellers and people with good long standing feedback where poss.
Allways get sellers full name , address & tel no so you can run a check that they all tally up (dont be afraid to call the tel no for conformation you are the one spending the money) before you pay.
last but not least take a close look at postage charged by seller this can vary from £3 up to £15. for the same item also some people charge for accepting payment by paypal again this varies between 3% and 7%
paypal forbids excess charges by sellers so a lot add it onto postage charges , I personally dont mind I just figure out what I think the item is worth to me and deduct paypal and/or postage charges and the figure Im left with is my maximum bid.
I have not looked into selling so far so cant comment on that.
Hope this info is of use.

Note that this review is more than 6 months old and the company's procedures may have changed considerably since this review was written.
In my opinion eBay is not a safe place to purchase. I made a considerable order which I did not receive only to be told by ebay that I had - due to my badluck -been caught up in a fraudulent auction. However, I had received an email from eBay encouraging me to close my transaction with the seller, that he was a legitimate seller and that I was covered by insurance with eBay. Needless to say this has not happened and eBay do not accept any responsibility for this fraud which took place therefore it is not a safe place to shop since they do not in my opinion "police" their site to stop this fraud taking place. Since I realised what happened to me I have been looking at the site everyday to see if this is the norm and everyday I have seen the same come-ons which caught me out. Please be very careful before you purchase. The guarantee from ebay was what encouraged me to buy and at the end of the day I had nothing.

Note that this review is more than 6 months old and the company's procedures may have changed considerably since this review was written.
Hello all ,
I really think it's about time you exposed the online internet auction site E bay for what it really is.

I won't go into mega detail now. This is just a first letter from me to see if your interested. I expect you have lots of others.

I have been a member for 2 years.
Nothing too terrible happened until about 2 months ago.
I started getting fake E mails that looked like they were from E bay saying I might be suspended for breaking the rules (even though I never have).
The letters asked me to confirm my password and name.

I was worried so forwarded them to E bay.
I recieved two replies. Both automated.
First one said it was a fake and keep my password secret etc.
Next one (day later) said it might be genuine and they would investigate.
Confused? I was as well.

Anyway, I won't go on at this stage.
To cut a long story short.
Somebody did hack my E bay account in the end without me giving any details.
One morning I looked at my account and there were Plasma TV's on there with a buy now facility.
I was worried sick and e mailed E bay straight away.
Then I started getting e mails from people who had obviously bought a TV from my site. Now I feel like the thief and not the victim.
Somebody else e mailed me asking why I had listed TV's on his account as well????
He had been suspended with no explaination so was worried to death what was going on.

I have NEVER had one e mail, letter or phone call from E bay telling me whats happening.
I've sent over 30 e mails over a week. Not even had the decency to say it's being looked at or anything.
I can't log on anymore as I get a suspended account notice. I sold some stuff and can't contact any of the buyers which has cost me a lot of money.
I'm worried sick as if they have hacked my account what about the credit cards I have registered with them?
I'm half expecting to find out they have been used by a thief as well.

E bay don't have any customer support. None.

They are wonderful at taking money but any problems and your on your own.
They have a serious security problem with their site.
These fake e mails are causing people nightmares and all they are doing is sweeping it under the counter and suspending the people involved. That way nobody can say anything bad on their customer message boards because you can't log on anymore.
By doing that it's only going to have new people on there saying how wonderful it is because they saved £1 on a second hand CD or something.

I'll leave it at that for now.
If your interested I know you'll contact me and we can do it properly.
I have the e mails from the other victims and I've found an online group of E bay victims if you need any more stories.
I know if you have one of your polls in the paper about 'Who's had trouble with E bay' you'll get thousands of replies.

Keep up the good work anyway.

Dave .

Note that this review is more than 6 months old and the company's procedures may have changed considerably since this review was written.
I have not sold anything yet, so I cannot comment on that.

I have had my share of problems - cheques gone missing in the post; items gone missing in the post, and the odd delay, but so far every problem has been resolved. A game of Scrabble which went missing was replaced by another the seller happened to be selling at the same time. He claimed from the Post Office. The replacement did not have nice wooden letter-holders, but it was OK. It is worthwhile paying for recorded delivery at least, so that the parcel is tracked.

Buying is pot luck - sometimes there are real bargains - items you thought there was no chance of ever finding turning up in good condition for a reasonable price. Sometimes, you get sold something which is not quite as good as first appears, and then you must swallow your pride and accept it - the odd mistake is not a disaster. There is little legal protection. The only thing to go on is goodwill and the desire to accumulate positive feedback - each transaction attracts a score from the buyer and the seller. On balance the risk is worthwhile, but never bid what you cannot afford to lose!

The actual process is not for the faint-hearted. During the last 30 seconds, bidding sometimes goes crazy, and you can be outbid in the last 5 seconds! When this happened to me, I e-mailed the winning bidder and congratulated him. He saw the same item advertised a few weeks later and told me. I got it for less than he did!