I've lost 2 - 3 hours of my life trying to use eBay to sell some unused item.


I had an account since many years but I never sold anything through eBay. When I created the listing, the domestic location was US. Anyway I have chosen any shipping method for domestic location, then for international one, and the listing went live. However I realized that it is very misleading as viewing the listing from Switzerland shows the international shipping costs and timing, whilst viewing the listing from US shows domestic shipping costs and timing. I started to dig through the account to find the settings but I couldn't succeed. In the mean time I was logged-out several times. Then I started a chat with their customer support which was very rude, constantly switching subject, switching from person to person, asking my name, I got really annoyed! After the chat I have discovered that my listing was taken down! That was enough, I closed the browser. To my surprise I couldn't login again, eBay asked me who else uses the account??!


After a while, I decided to give it another try, start with ebay.ch, create account, hopping for the best. I struggled so much with German, but managed to setup the account and create the listing, yet it ended in the wrong country again, not Switzerland but Austria! Nonetheless a bit closer ;-) To my surprise a few hours later the listing was put down and my account suspended!


I cannot even properly close both accounts, eBay really sucks!


The message on the second account was:




Idiots

Anyway, if you are based in Switzerland, www.ricardo.ch may be the better choice for selling stuff. There may be a delay if they still insist on a verification of your address, though.

tutti.ch also works here.

Tom

I listed the item on FB marketplace but no success, a couple of views only. Which one of the local Swiss boards is the cheapest? Specifically I would like to pay nothing until I sell the item. Sites which charge upfront do not suit me as think I may not succeed to sell it in Switzerland, not so many people here tinker with their computers but replace them as a whole I guess.

I only use ebay (.de) to sell stuff to Germany or EU and send it from Weil (I live in Basel) The ebay.ch seems useless.



Ricardo has similar fees to ebay. Dunno about the others but you could look yourself if you're not going to get confused like it seems like you did with ebay.

Don't lose sleep over it. Like me.anon, Landers and Tom suggested, create an account where people actually buy: Ricardo.ch and Tutti.ch.

Look at it from their viewpoint - you never sold anything, and then the first thing you try to sell you list incorrectly in the wrong country.

You asked them to fix your mistake and it sounds like some misunderstandings happened, resulting in you "hanging up" on them and them deleting the listing.

Then you create a new account and a new listing, with a mistake in the same data! Surely you can't be surprised that their spam/fraud engine picked this up and cancelled it?

One of the big differences with eBay is the significantly better level of customer protection than with Ricardo, but as a seller that has some consequences.

For the French side try anibis.ch. Free, and gets lots of traffic.



Ebay isn't really much of a thing in CH.

Beware with the free sites that you are also likely to get a lot of people saying they're interested and not showing up.

I tried Anibis and Tutti a couple of times as a seller and simply gave up there was so much spam and empty promises.

If you live in Switzerland, ricardo.ch is both a joy to buy and sell, though a bit different how you get paid or pay, unless picking up and paying cash.
As a newbie without reputation, people might be reluctant to pay a higher price.



eBay problems as a Seller, I believe these are the issues


1) you need a paypal account set up in Switzerland, you will need to go through the verification process, i.e. they pay a few cents into your bank account I believe you have to give dates and exactly how many cents. I cannot remember if a code involved.
1b) you cannot change paypal account from one country to another. You either keep the paypal account in the other country or you close it and later open it again in new country, but you still have to go through the verification.


2) I do not know how to change an eBay account from one country to another, but perhaps easier to open a new eBay account in new country.
As far as I am aware there are no charges for keeping an eBay account dormant.


I read somewhere recently that paypal will be making a charge for accounts not used for 12 months, either one can buy or sell an item, then ok. Not sure if paypal account is at zero what happens then. No idea maybe they just want to shut dormant accounts that have not been used for year.

I never had a paypal account, so I just opened one giving my Swiss address.


I see, perhaps they closed the second, fresh ebay account because I linked it to the same paypal account


As for the ebay account, I updated the addresses, that was the instruction from their help. Note however that my prior address was also not from US. I have no idea why they assigned the account to US, of course I was using English language but again according to their help the address should matter.


OK, despite the annoyance with the pinning to country, I also really don't like services which don't let you choose the interface language but force you to something bizarre like German


So long ebay

Anyone I believe can open an eBay account. As a buyer, it is not necessary to have a paypal account. As a SELLER, one must have a paypal account. well that is my understanding.

A Swiss Post article says this about C2C online market platforms in CH (translated):

"The most popular marketplace in Switzerland is ricardo.ch (80 percent of consumers mention it). Together with tutti.ch (52 percent), ebay.ch (49 percent) and anibis.ch (40 percent), these are platforms that primarily serve commerce between private individuals (C2C). Although they are popular, they only have a limited market share in B2C e-commerce in Switzerland (estimate < 5 percent). However, in some product categories, such as cars (auto.ricardo.ch and autoscout24.ch), they are a must. The publication of advertisements is free of charge, but advertising activities are subject to a fee. While tutti.ch and anibis.ch do not charge a commission, Ricardo takes 9 percent of the sales amount and ebay.ch between 5 and 9 percent."

https://digital-commerce.post.ch/de/...in-der-schweiz

Hi


in relation to response by Mullhollander


Being a few years since sold a car via Ricardo or eBay or other site.



As far as I recall we paid a set fee to advertise a used car at set price. There was no commission on the sale price and we did not accept Paypal as payment.


Not sure if you sell it via the auction option if there might be a fee, but to say if you advertise at set price, then of course buyer can try to negotiate a lower price if seller willing to accept.


If someone chooses to sell a car via any site, suggest they check it for themselves, it might have changed.