On Sun, 24 Nov 2019 22:13:48 -0000, Rod Speed wrote:



"Commander Kinsey" wrote in message
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On Sun, 24 Nov 2019 20:44:55 -0000, Rod Speed
wrote:



"Commander Kinsey" wrote in message
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On Sun, 24 Nov 2019 20:00:09 -0000, Rod Speed
wrote:



"Commander Kinsey" wrote in message
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On Sun, 24 Nov 2019 17:55:37 -0000, NY wrote:

"Commander Kinsey" wrote in message
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I once bought an adapter to convert two molex power plugs to a 6 pin
graphics card power plug. When it arrived, it was wired up
incorrectly.
Both the 5V and 12V lines from the molex (PSU end) were connected
together
to feed the graphics card end's 12V pins. When I sent the seller a
message about it, informing them it would have shorted the 5V and
12V
lines, I was told "if it's a good power supply it can handle it". I
told
Ebay they were selling a product which could damage people's
expensive
equipment or possibly cause a fire. Ebay returned my money, I kept
the
adapter, rewired it properly, and it worked fine.

We needed some light bulb adaptors so bulbs with a SES (small Edison
screw)
could be used in LBC and SBC (large/small bayonet connector) socket.

We bought some and everyone one of them tripped the circuit breaker
in
the
consumer unit as soon as a bulb was screwed in. On closer
examination,
I
saw
that the metal contact that touched the tip of the screw fitting was
mounted
too high so as the bulb was screwed in, the contact distorted so part
of
it
touched the screw of the bulb as well as the tip - instant short
circuit.

Ouch. I imagine if you hadn't screwed it in as tightly, or some of
them
weren't quite as badly made as yours, you could have caused an arc
which
could overheat and melt the fitting.

I don't like things that could catch fire when I'm not around, burning
down my house, but I never bother objecting to other things like
electric
shocks. For example I have a 15W "corn on the cob" style LED bulb
still
in use that I bought a few years ago on Ebay. The LEDs are bare - you
can
touch them (and their live ends). They're in series - fed from a 150V
DC
rather simply made capacitive dropper. If you touch the right bits of
it,
you get that across your fingers - i.e. the mains, a capacitor, a
resistor, then you. Not sure how much current would flow, but it was
enough to make me jump, enough that if I was on a ladder I would have
jumped off it. I guess 15W at 150V would be about 100mA (which the
health
and softy folk claim is lethal - yeah maybe if you're 90 years old
with
a
dicky ticker).

I sent very clear feedback to Amazon that this product was dangerous
and
not
fit for purpose. I never heard anything back, but I saw that the item
was
no
longer for sale after that.

So Amazon didn't even bother refunding you? Ebay are a lot better,
you
get your money back the instant they believe something isn't what it's
advertised as.

Plenty have got a full refund from Amazon but its not clear how often
that happens with third party sellers on amazon as opposed to stuff
that amazon themselves are selling. That's the big difference with
ebay, ebay doesn't actually sell stuff itself.

One of the main reasons I don't use Amazon,

More fool you.

More expensive,

Wrong, as always.

less range,

Wrong, as always.

harder to use website,

Wrong, as always.

worse customer service,

Wrong, as always.

Funny how I have precisely the opposite experience. I've tried on several occasions to find a particular item on both for comparison - a power tool, a computer part, etc. Ebay always has more options at a cheaper price, and they're easier to find.

er.... the advantage is?

Much better prices with some stuff, particularly
the discounted stuff that Amazon sells themselves.

Much better specific reviews of the individual products.

Vastly better range of books, ebooks, video, movies, music etc.

Yeah well that's what Amazon was made for, it was originally just a book store. I don't buy books. If I wanted books I'd download them for free.

I tried to sell things on Amazon once (custom built PCs), I worked out they were going to charge me roughly TWICE what Ebay do in seller fees. No thanks.

Much better range of what they design and have made for them.

I never worked out how to tell who I was buying from.

They say that very explicitly indeed.

Where?

On the main page for that item. Rather radically the Sold by field in the
description.

No such problem in Ebay, I know it's from the seller.

It's the most unintuitive piece of **** I've ever used.

Then you need to get out more or get a brain transplant.

Mind you, I don't understand Apple devices either. I guess it's a
different way of thinking?

Nope, your ear to ear dog ****/being a blotto druggy.

Nope, most people don't like Apple interfaces. The only ONE SINGLE THING I've ever seen that makes sense on Apple is the dialog boxes. Say you get a dialog box that says "Are you sure, yes or no", or "ok or cancel", whatever. On Apple, the affirmative action is on the right, where you'd expect, like the accelerator in a car is on the right for more speed. In Windows it's on the left, and I've never got used to it, despite almost always using windows, because everything else in life is right for more, like the volume control on my stereo. I always press the wrong ****ing button in Windows.

Plus I just can't get the hang of their website, it looks too plain, I
feel like I'm back using the net in the 90s.

Mad reason not to use them..

It's a very good reason. Ease of use is very important.

You said plain, not easy to use.

Same thing, Ebay is more colourful and very quick for me to spot what to click.

I can find what I want on Ebay in a fraction of the time.

That's bull**** with common products like say an 8TB external hard drive.

Just tried that. On Ebay, I typed "8TB external hard disk", then just clicked "UK", "cheapest first", "buy it now" (as in no auctions), "new". 41 results. Quick scroll to the one that looks good. 30 seconds.

On Amazon, I typed "8TB external hard disk", then er.... where is the country of origin? Cheapest first worked. I guess they don't do auctions? I guess they don't do used? So that's 1 out of 4 options I found. 293 results, not very well refined. And only 16 results per page. Ebay shows 200. And most of Amazon's 293 results aren't even what I was looking for! Why am I getting 4TB drives showing up when I typed 8TB? I lost interest before finding a single drive that I needed. Fail. Utter fail.

Particularly when looking for the best price where so many
of the ebay items have more than one item available in the
actual page so the sort by price plus shipping isnt actually
the item you are buying so you have to select the item
itself to see the actual price you will pay.

Nope, that's quite simple. It might say "1TB to 8TB, £20 to £60" Pretty obvious the 8TB will be £60.

And the feedback for each seller is nowhere near as comprehensive.

But you do get the feedback on the specific item,
not everything that seller has sold with feedback
that you get with ebay.

I don't care about the item. I care about the seller.

More fool you. Most of us care how
well the item actually works as well.

A seller will sell **** and only ****, or good stuff. And if I want something specific I'll already know the make and model I'm after, or I'll look that up on a review site when I spot a good looking deal on ebay.

I was looking at sim reader writers yesterday
and it was important that most of them said
that the item doesn't come with the software
to do the reading and writing of the data.

Then you do what I do, either pick one in advance that you want, or scan through Ebay, look one up and decide it sux, then scroll down to more expensive ones and look them up on a review site or use the specs the seller lists.

Will it arrive on time, in one piece, and will he honour a warranty?

More important if it will do what you want to do.

And its much easier to see the delivery window on amazon.

********. Ebay says "next day delivery", or "3 day delivery" etc quite clearly on each item.

Anyway, if the item is ****, then no doubt everything he sells is ****
too.

Even sillier than you usually manage and that's
saying something, particularly with those that
sell lots of different stuff.

Sellers either pride themselves in selling good stuff to get a good reputation, or they sell cheap **** to rip you off.

That and things always cost more,

No they do not. There have never been the
same discounts on Philips Hue gear on ebay
and there has never been as good a price with
the last 8TB external hard drive either.

Every time I've gone to compare prices, Ebay is about 10% less.

You wont find that with the Philips Hue specials.

I've never tried those, but I've tried several times with computer parts and tools.

as their seller fees are higher than Ebay.

Not with the stuff amazon itself sells.

If I can find them.

They are more common than the third party stuff.

It doesn't tell you until you open each item if it's them or someone else. And I can't see any way to limit it to Amazon sales only in the search.

Main thing I don't like with amazon is that the
search terms arent strictly observed so you cant
be so selective about what shows up with a search.

that is a major drawback I forgot to mention.

But can turn up stuff you hadn't
considered which is worth buying too.

Get to ****. I buy what I want to buy, not what pops up in front of me. Which is why I detest supermarkets putting stuff on sale on seperate portable racks on the end of the aisles I'm not interested in. And often nowhere near the similar items, so I see offers for makeup when I'm trying to buy toilet rolls.

Very often on Ebay I will search for a widget, then narrow it own by
size/capacity/etc until there's a reasonable number to look through.

Yeah but it can be pain in the arse with so
many words used for the stuff you don't want.

I don't need words in most cases. For example I can select disk capacity in the column on the left. Or if I need words, let's say I want a drill bit, and a load of SDS drill bits come up. My drill ain't SDS, so I just add "-SDS" in the search bar and press enter. All SDS bits now vanish from the results.

And the description of the item being sold is much briefer on amazon..

Not always.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-Bac...xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

It was you that said it was briefer.

And the buggers will no longer ship here from the other amazons world
wide.

What's that to do with Amazon? Don't the sellers send you it themselves?

Nope that's the other big difference with amazon, they have immense
warehouses with the stuff in than ship by amaz9on from there. That's
what fulfilled by amazon means.

It really doesn't interest me where it comes from. I pay the money and it appears at my door.