Although I had one bad experience, I continue to use eBay. Its interface and search options are fantastic. Judging by our feedback, eBay has lots of admirers among corporate managers. But not everything is rosy in Heywood Wakefield land. Many readers agreed with Mark Harris, noting that eBay must do more to protect against fraud and bid-rigging.
Some critics also charge that the company's network crashes too often.
Sure enough, a few weeks after our story came out, eBay's site went down for 11 hours. US-based companies ignore international business at their peril, especially now that their business models are visible to buyers, sellers, and competitors worldwide. Many of these sites are produced in other countries for customers in those countries. They represent a big market eBay could own if it had focused on them early on. Companies face problems when translating a site into several languages, however.