I have been a regular eBay customer for some time. I'll explain what I can. First of all, I only buy things, so I have no experience to answer anything about starting fees for selling. As for customer service, it is very unreliable. Sometimes I get great service and immediate responses, and frequently I get no help at all for a while. I guess it depends on the people on duty or something. As for Paypal, it gets a little interesting. A lot of sellers on eBay will still accept check and other payment methods besides paypal. However, eBay strongly recommends that you only use paypal, because since eBay is associated with it, if you use paypal and have a valid reason, eBay can refund you because of the records on paypal that verifies your purchase. Other payments are personal ones that eBay are not held accountable for. eBay can't keep track of any other type of payment and has said that they cannot refund you if you pay another way because they don't have a record of it. If they didn't care if the customer was refunded for a problem, they wouldn't have bothered warning anyone to just use the method they can help you with. I like eBay, but responses shouldn't ever take about a week like it has happened to me.