"The words cock-up and couldn't run a whelk stall come to mind."

So said one U.K. member about eBay after a major technical glitch caused sellers to be charged despite the promise of free listings on Thursday. It took 14 hours for eBay to resolve the problem.

Many sellers complained they delayed listing for up to 14 hours until they got reassurances that eBay would refund them for items listed. Sellers use free listing days to list items they might not ordinarily post on the site due to the fees, including items they are not certain will sell. So they are especially careful to be sure their listings will indeed be free to list.

Once UK sellers received word they would receive a credit in 5-10 days, many began listing, but were furious they had lost half the day waiting for a response from eBay. Many asked why eBay would not extend the free listing day, but got no answers.

eBay had cleared up the problem by 2pm local time, but sellers using the site's Turbo Lister listing tool continued to have problems. "It seems that books in particular are being affected by the random Turbo Lister issue," wrote an eBay moderator. He assured sellers that they would receive refunds for all items qualifying for the free listing day (see promo details) in 5-10 days.

http://digbig.com/3esj