Reader Ben P. writes with his horrible experiences with the Southern California ‘we sell your stuff on eBay’ chain, iSold.

I’ve sold items on eBay several times before, and while it’s a bit of a hassle, it never overwhelmed me. Late last year though, during a move, I had multiple items I thought would sell well on eBay that I couldn’t justify loading into the Uhaul, and having plenty on my plate with the move, thought I could just drop off at iSold it and wash my hands of the transaction. Their motto is after all: “The Easy Way to Sell on Ebay.”

Nothing has been easy. First off, you have to explain to the clerks what every item is and wait while they look up similar auctions to see if it fits into their price threshold. The time it took to walk through 8 items was approximate to how long it would have taken to list them myself. But at least I don’t have to box them, right? After about 45 minutes of explaining what a Snap server is, what an Atari was, and where I got my Xbox 360 E3 2005 faceplate…they said my items would be listed and I’d receive an email with tracking numbers to follow the progress of the auctions. This was 10/30/2005.

2 weeks later I’d received no emails, and decided to call in and check. Turns out they’d put in the wrong email address for me. They correct it in the db, and email me the numbers for auctions that are now about 2 days away from completion. Prices are nice, and I’m expecting a few hundred bucks after commissions (35% is a lot) are taken out. Auctions close and I’m told to expect a check in 30 days…which would be early December. 7 of 8 items sold, and I agreed to allow them to donate any of the unsold items to charity in advance

Cut to January 2006. I’ve heard nothing about my auctions. No check, nothing. I call. I’m told that the auctions are complete, but for some reason the “system shows that the items have not been paid for, even though they have been paid for.” That’s their quote, not mine. I’m told they’ll cut and send a check in a couple days. The next week, (1/8/06) I get a check for 3 of the 7 auctions. Nothing else.

Today, 1/30/06 I call to find out what happened to the rest of my money. I’m told a manager will “call back soon.” Joe does call back and explains that the auctions are listed as “unpaid” and they need to investigate (same story as in early January). I ask why they weren’t investigated when I called earlier. He had no idea about that or why I’d received half of the money on auctions supposedly unpaid for. Then he repeats that I agreed to give unsold items to charity. That would be 1 item; I told him that he should not give any of the items that may have sold and gone unpaid for to charity.

Long story short, here it is 3 months to the day after dropping 8 items off to sell things “the easy way on Ebay” and I’ve only been paid for 3 of 7 that sold with no end in sight. Unless you don’t own a computer or know what the internet is, you’re better off listing it yourself on eBay.

Selling stuff on eBay is a big enough hassle, as is. We don’t know why we’d ever want to put another layer of abstraction between us and the target of our eventual Paypal dispute.

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