back to article Online tat bazaar eBay collapses in UK

Online tat bazaar eBay has collapsed in the UK, with intermittent outages affecting people around the country. Users told The Reg that the community forums, messaging facility and the "My eBay page" were crippled. According to Down Detector, the problems started at about 9am this morning. An eBay spokesman told us: "Some …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Trollface

    Some people took to Twitter to grumble after noticing the auction site had been hammered.

    Giving us opportunity to pad out an otherwise short article.

    1. David 132 Silver badge
      Stop

      Re: Some people took to Twitter to grumble after noticing the auction site had been hammered.

      > Giving us opportunity to pad out an otherwise short article.

      This.

      What's the point of news sites embedding random twits into stories?

      I have zero interest in Twitter, and even less in knowing that whatever-the-happening has disrupted @somerandomnonentity's day.

      Grr. Going to get my morning coffee now. Sorry kids, I will not snapchat, instagram, tweet, or liveblog it.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    For sale

    Some servers I just nicked!

    Used.

    1. Jungleland

      Re: For sale

      I'd put in a bid but I can't find them on eBay.

      1. depeyre

        Re: For sale

        Oh damb wondered why my tat was not showing !

  3. Nigel Brown

    El Reg hacks need to actually *look* at the modern fleabay

    Most sellers now are businesses, the sellers of 'second hand crap' have faded into a minority, driven out by scamming buyers, the lack of ability to leave negative feedback about a bad buyer, and the decision to charge the seller a %age of the postal charges.

    1. JeffyPoooh
      Pint

      Re: El Reg hacks need to actually *look* at the modern fleabay

      "...charge the seller a %age of the postal charges."

      A natural reaction to the previous trend of offering an item worth about $20 for just $0.99 (thus avoiding eBay commission fees) plus $23.00 "shipping".

      The real macroeconomics mystery are the many vendors from China offering free S&H, even on $0.99 items, and when it arrives the printed postal-meter postage really is ¥00.000 (zero). This is a very intriguing mystery. The only solution implies a CPC 5-year plan decision.

      1. IanKRolfe

        Re: El Reg hacks need to actually *look* at the modern fleabay

        I am reliably informed by OneThatKnows that if a retailer in China can get his packages to the airport the carriers will not charge them, provided they are not too fussed when they go (hence unpredictable delivery times from china),

        This gives Chinese eBay retailes a huge advantage over everyone else!

    2. Dave Bell

      Re: El Reg hacks need to actually *look* at the modern fleabay

      Today a phablet arrived here from a pro retailer, sold through eBay, and delivered from Amazon.

      This is getting confusing. The ways ordinary folk can sell stuff are getting fewer and fewer. I know of five regular auctions locally which have stopped happening. The second-hand bookshops are vanishing too.

      Some of the charity shops will take "good" stuff. But what makes something "good" is a rather high standard. If they don't want you, disposal costs money.

      How much does an electrical safety certificate cost for an old washing machine? Or that computer?

      We're still in a depression, and we don't seem to be allowed to sell anything. It's for our own good, right?

  4. ukgnome

    Thank Goodness

    I was concerned that I my MLP purchases had been lasagned

  5. Puffin

    Bloody headlines

    When you wrote "collapses" I thought you meant they'd gone in to administration, not just had a network fart.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Bloody headlines

      Exactly, what an disappointing article this turned out to be.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Refund seller fees

    My used $25 million Lear Jet just sold for $0.99.

    Due to the outage.

    1. WraithCadmus
      Joke

      Re: Refund seller fees

      The cheek, they're only $21M new!

  7. Rob 5

    The US site had problems too.

    At around 4AM Central, which would be 10AM in the UK. Seems to be fixed now, though.

  8. Chris Evans

    "We apologise for ANY inconvenience caused."

    That should be:

    "We apologise for THE inconvenience caused."

    That should be in PR 101. Annoying your customers when you are trying to apologise really is shooting yourself in the foot.

    1. Dave Bell

      Re: "We apologise for ANY inconvenience caused."

      It's the same for the people working on telephone helplines. I have had a not-fun weekend dealing with that, and whether it's a telephone or live chat, I have sometimes wondered if they even bother with the question the customer asks. They are as bad as politicians. Has anyone on Question Time ever managed to answer the question asked or admitted they don't know?

  9. alpine

    Anyone who thinks Ebay is an 'online tat bazaar' is as thick as several very short planks. It is certainly true that some sellers offerings are below par, but really it's replaced local shops as the place you can find all those things you can't get locally any more.

    1. Irony Deficient

      local shops

      alpine, are you saying that before eBay, local shops used to be where you could find all of those things that you couldn’t get locally?

  10. DuncanL

    Seems to have eaten mails - just chased someone I was arranging to collect from and got a curt message that he had replied to my mail this morning - however nothing in eBay's messages or email notifications.

    Either that or he hadn't actually sent the earlier message I suppose!

  11. Arachnoid

    email missing

    If they are having server issues Im not surprised email are MIA

  12. FishBone5296

    Don't bad mouth eBay on social media!

    If you say anything bad about eBay on social media, be prepare to have your PayPal account banned and limited. Note: All your money maybe frozen indefinitely!

    1. razorfishsl

      Re: Don't bad mouth eBay on social media!

      Also if you are a seller and you report another seller for being a scammer

      I.E using edited material from YOUR web listing, then also be prepared to get a life ban.

  13. bex

    ebay is not only second hand tat but also the place to fence shoplifted goods.

  14. Richard Cranium

    Not exactly world shattering news. Below I list all the household name organisations that have never experienced an internet service outage:

    .

    .

    .

    That's it

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Some More of eBay's Operation Pump and Dump . . .

    eBay's management is preparing another major eBay stock buyback again . . .

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like