A great pity.

My relationship with eBay has come to an end.

I’ve been unhappy with the altered format of the site for some time, but the catalyst took the shape of a garment – a rather cheap garment – I returned to its vendor because its material tore after I had worn it only four times.   The vendor claimed the garment had ‘obviously been cut’.  It hadn’t, but some device was clearly used to persuade eBay to the contrary, and my ‘case’ was dismissed; summarily, high-handedly, and without allowing me any right of response without ‘additional evidence’.

It isn’t the money.  No, really, it isn’t.  The £20 I paid is neither here nor there – certainly not worth going to the barricades to reclaim.  Nor is it the hassle of re-wrapping a garment, of explaining the obvious, or the arrogance of being told imperiously my ‘case’ was being considered and the verdict handed down within 48 hours.

It’s the trust.

I don’t expect anyone to know I spent twenty years of my life in the garment trade and I know the difference between a cut and a tear: I even respect the argument that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys.  I do expect a reasonable right to redress and to be heard.  A facilitator of trade is not a court of law and it should not behave like one.

eBay, you’ve gone badly wrong, and that is sad, because I enjoyed my former relationship with you – in the days before, as it seems to me, you degenerated into a cheap bazaar for ‘sellers’ whose merchandise would be judged sub-standard in any other context.

I can’t trust you anymore.  I cannot, and I do not, urge anyone else to follow my chosen course by closing their eBay account.  I do, however, urge you to beware:  do not return any defective merchandise without first documenting (photographing or any other means) the defect and its cause.  Keep copies.

So – sorry, eBay, this is goodbye.  It’s been fun.