eBay have found a new spot on the view item page to wring a few more dollars from advertisers. Positioned below the Payments options, on some tech listings you’ll see an advert for Which.
The advert links to an page for a one month trial of Which for £1. Of course it’s the normal trick of taking your debit card details at the sign up and if your forget to cancel you’ll be billed at £9.75 per month for ever more.
Whilst Which isn’t a bad service, and definitely eBay’s angle that if you’re about to buy tech you might want to read their reviews to “Make sure it’s a Best Buy this Christmas” makes sense, there’s one thing I am surprised at. Why did eBay allow Which to “Partner” with them and not offer PayPal as a payment option?
The other thing I don’t like is that eBay generally clearly mark adverts as such, the Which logo and the text “Read our computing reviews” suggests I’ll be able to access a useful review on the product I’m about to buy. That’s certainly not the case unless I want to pay for access to Which. Sitting it in the Payments information section of the view Item Page is also strange, Which certainly isn’t an available option to fund an eBay purchase.
I guess eBay need to make money and if adverts help to keep fees down it’s hard to complain. I still don’t have to like it though.
Final point – why have eBay been trying for years to get if they’re then going to sell out to a third party?
Thanks to Lee of who spotted the ad
2 Responses
So you’ve bought an item on ebay, then as you are about to pay for it, you are invited to see a Which review that might rubbish the product?
Yes, that all makes perfect sense.