Read 1,123 reviews Write a review at Epinions.com

Ebay is like life-it has good and bad. I have purchased things on Ebay that were GREAT deals and the sellers were fantastic. Everything from baby blankets to washing machine parts to video games. All of these things have been shipped timely, although sometimes at an inflated shipping rate but not outrageously high. However, I would advise to NEVER NEVER NEVER buy a magazine subscription from an Ebay seller regardless of the price and the sellers feedback rating. My experience tells me that the feedback ratings are inaccurate. If other buyers are like me, they try to give the seller the benefit of the doubt when in fact a negative rating should be given to the seller regardless of the emails they sent. You may have a battle on your hands if you don't receive the magazine, and still have nothing to show for it. That is not to say all sellers are dishonest but magazines are usually not delivered within a Ebay dispute time frame so challenging the purchase can be difficult and frustrating. From my experience, Ebay is unwilling to enforce their own policy of shipping in a reasonable time. I mistakenly ordered a magazine from an Ebay seller and after several emails telling me I needed to allow more time, my patience was no longer existent. I called the subscription department of the actual magazine only to find out "no order has been placed". Even with an undelivered but paid for the same day ordered magazine, it is a battle to get any resolution. I have tried to get answers from Ebay as to why they allow the selling of magazine subscriptions but only received lip service from customer service reps and an email with links on consumer safety. Of course, the buyer should always research the purchases but I also think the company has the responsibility of enforcing their own policies. I tried numerous times to send an email to Ebay after signing in to "myebay" but get an error message each time telling "Question Submission Failed"

The prices might be terrific on paper but be very cautious and do the research. If you don't receive the product the the price is never right.

As an update, after posting this review, I finally sent complaints to Ebay using different links than should have been used. The complaints were not sent to the correct addresses because those links did not work. My complaints finally were forwarded to the appropriate departments. Unfortunately, the responses I received were as I suspected, simply more links on consumer safety. I was advised to contact the seller, which gives me the feeling that my initial emails were not read. Had they actually read the emails, they would have seen that I was contacting the seller and also receiving emails from that seller telling me to "just give it a little more time". They would have seen that I already had most of the info they were giving me. I have finally received a refund of sorts from the seller-Because the refund was made thru Paypal and it was beyond the 60 day time limit for Paypal refunds, I had to PAY a portion of my refund to Paypal so that I could receive my money. Another lessen learned.

If Ebay should change the policy to be more fair to the buyer, things might be different. Extending the dispute time frame for magazine subscriptions seems to be a solution to some of the problems I encountered plus it would give buyers time to give legitimate feedback on the sellers. But for now I stand by my initial statements about EBAY and Magazine Subscriptions NEVER NEVER NEVER buy subscriptions from Ebay sellers regardless of the feedback. If you buy a subscription, allow 1 month and then contact the magazine subscription department of that magazine . Ask if an order has been placed for you. If you are told no, contact the seller. Then using the Ebay dispute console, file a dispute of non-receipt even though a seller tells you the subscription will start within xx number of days. You will be protecting yourself in order to get a refund if a problem does crop up. Also, if you've paid with Paypal, request a refund within 60 days so that you will get your entire refund. If you wait longer than 60 days, Paypal will deduct a percentage for fund transfer.

If you research the items, I would recommend shopping at Ebay for many products-but not Magazine Subscriptions.