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May 8, 2008
eBay still doesn't get it
Every now and then, but as infrequently as possible, perhaps once a year, I buy something on eBay that I can't find anywhere else.
Like the transparent Post-Its featured in yesterday's 1:01 p.m. post.
And every time I do, I'm reminded of why I repeat this behavior as infrequently as possible.
eBay's "Buy It Now" feature is the Bizarro World equivalent of Amazon's One-Click.
It involves innumerable screens, clicks and pages, confusing instructions, a terrible interface and, worst of all, the need to invoke PayPal as part of the process.
It is no surprise to me that eBay is fading.
While it may be heaven to frequent users, to the TechnoDolts™ among us — comprising, I would guess, about 98% of the population — eBay is unusable.
See ya next year.
May 8, 2008 at 12:01 PM | Permalink
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Comments
You can only say buy-it-now is a poorer version of one-click because it came first. "Buy-it-now" is not just an instruction to a giant eBay computer to send out a package, it's a definition of the end of an auction and an invitation to the normal activity that takes place AFTER the auction, such as paying for the item and having it shipped.
"eBay" still doesn't get it?
Posted by: Daniel J | Jun 1, 2008 3:43:59 PM
*claps* I totally agree with Daniel R
But please don't mention the "e" word... oh my how much money have I thrown away in that direction...
Posted by: IB | May 9, 2008 11:20:42 AM
It could be a BIT simpler, I suppose, but not a lot.
I mean, unless I'm forgetting something, it's
1: Click "Buy It Now"
2: Log in (unless you already logged into eBay for some other reason)
3: Click the yes-I-really-want-to-buy-this-thing button
4: Click the default pay-with-PayPal thing
5: Type in PayPal password (and username if you don't have username set to the default autocomplete), press enter
6: Click the "make payment" button. And you're done. That's all it takes for me to buy something, and I'm in AUSTRALIA; how much harder can it be for someone in the States?
One-click ordering is all very well, but personally I quite LIKE having a payment system with a separate login from the shopping system.
(And Amazon's one-click doesn't work for people outside the USA like me, anyway. That doesn't stop them from OFFERING it uselessly to me every darn time I visit the site, of course. They also enjoy telling me that I only need to order X more items to qualify for free shipping... which I of course cannot possibly actually qualify for, ever, because I'm on the other side of the world. It's only been TEN YEARS, I can see how they might not have gotten around to fixing it yet.)
Posted by: Daniel Rutter | May 9, 2008 6:08:35 AM
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