Shopping on Ebay: Confessions of a Neurotic Shopper

The nature of neurosis is that it describes a propensity in many of us to continue to do things that don't work. It is, in a nutshell, the failure to learn and correct our behavior as a function of experience. I confess to being a recovering eBay neurotic.

Over a period of many years, I have purchased six or seven items from eBay. These have included small things, like a four dial watch that, when it arrived turned out to have the three small dials actually painted on the face. This one I kept as a reminder; A laptop computer that was not even the model that was advertised and paid for and had only half the installed memory as the one that I ordered. This one I obtained a refund (less shipping that I had to eat) only after threatening a law suit; A musical instrument that was scratched, damaged and unplayable before it was shipped (It had been advertised as being new) that I returned at a substantial loss; and, most recently, a Microsoft wireless keyboard and mouse set (the Model 6000) from an eBay retailed called Clutchauctions. It failed after about a week.

I had thrown the box away by then so have no recourse but to confess my sins and toss it in a closet as yet another reminder that I seem to have an arguably minor illness - a neurotic propensity to keep ordering things from what has to be the least reliable retail 'opportunity' on the internet, eBay. I have had a lot better luck with Craigslist where I, at least, get to meet the seller face-to-face and examine the product before purchasing it.

So while it is primarily my own doing, I can't help but believe that the retailers who knowingly advertise and sell shoddy, defective, inaccurately described or known-to-be flawed products have some share of responsibility, too. This would include the folks at my most recent eBay catastrophe, Clutchauctions. I suggest you look once, look twice and then look again before purchasing from them.