So I spent a long time last week perusing clothes on eBay trying to decide if I wanted to buy a dress for Fake Prom 2009 from it. (What’s that? Haven’t heard about Fake Prom? Oh, well, it’s nothing much: Only the BEST THING EVER.) I’ve actually recently purchased something on eBay with a brand spankin’ new account.

And it got me wondering… In 2005, I swore of eBay for ever and ever, never again! Never again was I going to use eBay or PayPal or any of those horrid, horrid sites because I had been screwed over one too many times. In fact, I believe I had a run of about 4 purchases in a row that ended up in consumer hell and me out of money. And with PayPal and eBay doing everything but helping me with those, I just gave up.

I declared a life-long personal ban on them. And yet, I’ve used PayPal about 5 or 6 times in the last 6 months to transfer money overseas. I recently bought something on eBay for my roommate. I am considering another purchase from eBay. What happened?

Did the great giants of online bidding and money transfers woo me back with more efficient, better services? Have I learned to forgive them?

The best answer to these questions seem to be: “Hahahahahahaha. Yeah. Right.”

Ask anyone who has used PayPal in the past: their opinions of these companies are pretty bad, to put it mildly. As for eBay, well, I can’t say I’ve really heard any fantastic stories. So clearly eBay and PayPal haven’t improved their services.

I know I’m not the only one who has returned to a vendor’s site after saying they’re never going to use it again. Many of my friends have slumped back to a hated vendor’s site and grudgingly given over their hard-earned money. So are we forgiving?

I don’t think so, personally.

It’s just that these companies offer a service no one else can really compete with, sadly. Can you think of an eBay alternative? I confess I can’t. Bank e-mail money transfers definitely took over any money transfers I would normally do, as they were easy, worked and I didn’t feel like my soul was dying a little bit every time I used it. But for the overseas money transfer, from an Australian bank account to a Canadian – I’m not aware, as a consumer, of a viable alternative to PayPal.

So we don’t forgive. We don’t forget. We just don’t have a choice. Thanks capitalism, for sucking when I needed you the most.

So what do you think? Are consumers forgiving? Can a company ever redeem themselves? Please let me know in the comments!