At some point everyone has heard an eBay horror story. Stories much like this one:

Alan Thomasson, a student at the University of Lincoln, was looking to buy a new guitar. So, like millions of others, he went to the UK's largest online marketplace' eBay. Like millions of others, he browsed the items up for sale before finally deciding on a nearly-new' Fender Stratocaster. He used PayPal, eBay's official online payment service, and coughed up the 300 needed for his new six-string. A week passed, and Alan hadn't heard a peep from the seller. Like any other self-respecting buyer he emailed the seller and asked where his guitar was. He was told it was on the way and not to worry. Another week passed. Then another. Alan emailed eBay asking them to help with his missing guitar, but all they told him was to email the seller and work it out between themselves. Eventually Alan took matters into his own hands. He managed to find the seller's address from one of the emails he'd received, and as it turned out the seller was a mere 30 miles away! Alan and a couple of friends (for moral support) drove to the seller's house, knocked on his door, and asked for the guitar or the money. The seller was reluctant, but not aggressive. He took on an it's a fair cop' attitude, and refunded Alan's money via PayPal right then and there.

It's safe to say that eBay is one website Alan won't be bookmarking!

Stories just like this one have been floating around the internet and general media since eBay was founded in California, USA way back in September 1995 then known as AuctionWeb'. The company's founder, computer programmer Pierre Omidyar, tried to rename the website EchoBay' however the name was taken so he resorted to his second choice the world renowned eBay'. The idea of a virtual marketplace' took the world by storm and in a matter of a few years eBay was world leader of the online auctions market, spawning countless clone sites' ever since.

According to eBay's official figures, they have a global customer base of 181 million users. That's a lot of auctions. 78 million auctions at any given moment to be precise. With that many users buying and selling that many items, there are bound to be some unhappy customers, right? That's exactly what this article is all about; how many people really do give eBay positive feedback'?

To get a general idea, I asked a cross-section of people whether their experience of eBay had been a generally positive or negative one. Out

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