Despite the enormous popularity and many advantages of auctioning online, the concept also comes with its fair share of disadvantages.
One of the most common disadvantages with auctioning online is that many bidders seem to be so caught up with “winning� an auction and the thrill of beating another person to the last bid that they are spending more than they can afford, and possibly more than the retail price they would pay for the same item.
Fraud is another large and seemingly unavoidable disadvantage of online auctioning. Unlike “real life� auctions, it is much easier for sellers to “sell� bogus items they do not possess and collect money from the bidders without ever sending them their items. There have been many reported cases where people have been charged with fraud after placing non existant items on online auctioning websites, but for everyone of these reported cases, there are many more that go unreported. This situation also happens in reverse, where buyers bid for an item, the seller sends them the item believing their money is in the mail, and it is never received. It is much harder to trace a person in the virtual world and as opposed to the “real world�. For more detailed information about the issue of fraud within online shopping, please see Online Auctioning Sites - Security and Fraudulency
Unfair negative feedback for sellers is also another disadvantage of online auctioning. Some sellers will make extra effort to please all their customers, however one unreasonable customer that is impossible to please can affect their reputation foever by placing negative feedback on the website. This is why becoming a regular seller on online auctioning sites can be extremely time consuming, as sellers must go out of their way to meet all their customers demands and requests (such as emails requesting more details of the product and shipping, postage and handling costs) so that they can avoid being labelled as “unreliable� or “dishonest� by their customers.
Another growing concern is the sale of illegal items over online auctioning sites, including sellers auctioning off rare animals, unborn babies, their virginity and drugs. On websites as large as Ebay, it is becoming increasingly hard to monitor and police illegal activity.
REFERENCES
Stone, B. 2000 Online Auctions. Retrieved from http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~bstone/researh.htm (Accessed 20th October 2004)
Emily Fraser 09:27, 28 Oct 2004 (EST)
