eBay is Serious Business

[Seraph]

The link has been removed by eBay.

If there were disclaimers then I don't see how you should be held responsible. Though yeah, rather dumb letting someone you don't know use your rep.

Does not surprise me...

Well, you know how people get. They don't read the disclaimer thats in huge bold letters, and complain directly to Ebay, who doesn't pay attention to the seller.

Normally I catch on to these kind of scams pretty quickly....but we were getting desperate for money at the time...I was stupid.

That right there is about the number 1 fraud/money laundering scam attempt going for the last five years or so. I get more of that than Nigerian scams.

If you have any contact info for this guy at all, you need to go to your local DA, his local DA (if they're different), and maybe the FTC and USPS, too, for good measure. Seriously. Nail his ass to the wall, and maybe get some damages while you're at it.

Yeah, now I know better. And thankfully I do have a buttload of contact info on the guy. He was dumb enough to tell me a few other websites he owns, which I promptly did a WHOIS check on. I also got one of the people who he mailed a package to to mail me the empty box. With his shipping addy on it.

I've hired a collections agency to work on him...I could take him to small claims court...but I'm having a baby in less than 3 weeks. I can barely stand right now as it is, lol. So hopefully this will work out.

[draftermatt]

I myself have been royally screwed over by Ebay...mostly through my own stupidity though, I will admit...

The problem is Live Help, they are worthless.

A coworker of mine was selling his boat and asked me to list it on eBay for him, which I did. First listing got little to no action so I listed it again.

A few days after I listed it my wife gets a phone call for me asking if I'm selling anything. She tells them I am, and they ask if when I am available will I get onto Live Help.

I get home, get on Live Help, and they have no idea why I was contacted, and everything seems fine.

Next day, my account has been suspended. Apparently because I said in the listing "I'm selling for a friend, please contact him at..." it looked like a scam to them. (Which is why disclaimers don't work on eBay, they aren't valid).

So I go again to Live Help, and the person tells me the above is why I've been suspended. I tell him that they contacted me, and I them about the listing, that it's valid, so why did this happen?

Apparently, the guy I spoke to wasn't versed in the ways of listings, and he couldn't have known why I was being contacted.

What really pissed me off was the 2nd guy didn't understand why I was upset! Well let's see, you suspended my account because even though I followed your instructions it wasn't good enough. Even though the people you freaking told me to contact said it was okay, and you could see that in my account history it wasn't valid? What the hell.

I tried selling 1 item about 2 years later (a truck) and got two scammer buyers, and had to fight to get my fees refunded, and they acted like it was my fault that they bid. Said I could modify who was allowed to bid on my items. I looked into that, all I could block was people with less than 0 feedback, or people in other countries. Big help that would've been.

[MTNLaurelPoacher]

I had something similar happen to me, I ordered a DVD for Interior Desecrator's birthday, that someone was selling on eBay. The DVD never shipped, the seller never refunded my money and only replied to my questions after constant badgering. I opened a claim with PayPal and got my money back. The negative feedback was what ticked the seller off it went something like, "Don't sell an item you can't deliver and/or do not have in your possession". This pissed them off and they left some snarkey remark on my feedback with a big negative. I had to fight w/ eBay for a bit to get the negative removed because it was a) after the eBay/PayPal refund was over b) after i had left negative feedback and c) had more to do with me personally and not with the transaction.

Now 99% of my eBay transactions have gone off without a hitch and I have gotten some great deals and hard to find items, but that 1% does taint the experience.

[Andara Bledin]

The thing again was that eBay contacted me saying the acct. was compromised. Seems somehow someone in China got into the seller's acct. and used the acct. to sell the merchandise. Granted, when I pay with PayPal I can't see how the bootlegger got the money. At the time I figured the original seller and the bootlegger were working together, but why have eBay contact me not to pay? So I learned to pay by PayPal at least a day latter, just in case.

And would PayPal refund the shipping?

When they get into a compromised account, they change over a smidgen of the info over so they can get the money for maximum rip-off.

As for a PayPal refund, it is usually a full refund of the original payment with no adjustments, so you'd be out the return shipping fees.

The problem is Live Help, they are worthless.

Their nickname on the eBay Community Forums is "Live Helpless" and there's a whole lot of contempt for the lot of them, really. Unfortunately, eBay does a truly pathetic job of training them, and half of them don't even know their own rules.

I looked into that, all I could block was people with less than 0 feedback, or people in other countries. Big help that would've been.

You can also require that bidderes register with you prior to being able to bid. On high-ticket items such as vehicles, this is really the way to go. It really cuts down on the asshattery from people out to wreck auctions.

Also, treat every auction as if it's your own, even if you're selling for a friend. Get all of the relevant info so that you can answer questions, because, as well all know, sucky buyers don't read listings any better than they read signs.

I had to fight w/ eBay for a bit to get the negative removed because it was a) after the eBay/PayPal refund was over b) after i had left negative feedback and c) had more to do with me personally and not with the transaction.

People often place waaaay too much importance on good Feedback, especially buyers. Sure, having a perfect record is nice, but it's just ego-stroking if you're a buyer.

I have truly abysmal Feedback on my account from back in '98 when my home system died and there were no easy ways to get temp access. I had bid on/won about 20 auctions the week prior. All of the Negatives I got from people whose items I won have done jack to prevent me from bidding on and winning anything else I've wanted. It's honestly never come up, and I've bought several hundred items since then.

^-.-^

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Next day, my account has been suspended. Apparently because I said in the listing "I'm selling for a friend, please contact him at..." it looked like a scam to them. (Which is why disclaimers don't work on eBay, they aren't valid).

This is actually a common technique used by scamming ebay sellers, particularly those using hijacked accounts to sell non-existent items.

They will request e-mails to be sent to a personal, non-ebay address, and may offer a creative reason for this (Such as "my ebay my messages is full", but selling for a friend could work too).

The purpose of this is to prevent the rightful account holder from finding out that their account has been hijacked, because of all the e-mails in their ebay inbox from bidders about an item they did not list.

Somebody probably reported your account as hijacked, and ebay took it down as a precaution. While it does seem like ebay overreacted, there probably was a legitimate concern behind it.

And yes, ebay live help is a wonderful place to get politely stated but completely incorrect advice. Go to the community answer center or discussion boards for help instead.

[Binky]

CandelMyService have you tried the live chat? I JUST used it and it was great. You're talking to a person live (much like you would on msn or in a chat room) and you can voice all you're concerns properly.

It's a little less confrontational too so you have time to think, breath and then reply rather then get all confused when talking on a phone. You could also copy and paste all the emails this loony has been sending to you.

I think if you can talk to someone live/or on the phone yeah it would be much better. Well done for standing your ground. In the end you've done nothing wrong. So just hang in there and it'll be sorted.

Hope that info helps.

on and p.s.
http://contact.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayIS...al&_trksid=m37

it's called live help

Hope that helps