E-Bay scam method

[Brad hemingson]

Im an avid eBay user as are lots of us here. I thought I would pass along this warning. Last week I bid on a used generator for my boat. I stopped at $2800 and went on holiday. The generator ended up selling for $3800 and there were 3 bidders between me and the winner with bids higher than $2800 and lower than the winning bid. I had 3 different eBay sellers contact me after the close of the auction saying the winning bidder had been unable to pay and they would be willing to sell me the generator at $2800.eBay makes it nearly impossible to complain or warn them because their legal position is that they are merely a place for buyers and selllers to meet and whay happens is none of their business. Caveat Emptor!!

[Denise 20352]

  Ebay actually warns you about this, but since the sellers or scammers, whichever the case may be, arent going through Ebay, there isnt actually anything that they can do about it.  Youre right, buyer beware.

  Sometimes it works out for the best.  I needed a TENS unit, an eletrical medical device that relieves pain, and Ebay pulls them off of the market every day as the items are listed.  I couldnt really spend $500 on a new one.  Someone whose auction was canceled contacted me by email and offered one for $125, and I grabbed it.  I had to go around Ebay, because they were being jerks about it, and it worked out for me.

-densie

[Dave #17592]

Ebay tries to warn people not to do business with people in side deals because there is no protection.   But the truth is that Ebay cannot protect you.   Their only interest really is making money on the commission.  The "Legal binding contract" means nothing.   Ultimately if you get burned on Ebay your only recourse is to hire a lawyer.   Ebay wont do anything to help except slap a hand.  They wont even ban a seller until his/her feedback drops to negative three.  

   So get this, if a seller has 10,000 negative feedbacks, but 20,000 positive ones, his feedback is still considered to be 10,000 positive despite the fact he scr*ws half his buyers.

   They will not ban him until he/she scr*ws another 10,003 people!    Amazing eh?

David

[Andrew 10642]

David,

In your example, if 1 out of 3 feedbacks received are negative, would the positive rating be 67percent?  I get worried if its below 95 percent, and prefer not to bid from folks with under 10 feedbacks received.

Ebay is never the seller in any transaction.  Its like blaming the post office for receiving something you never ordered.  They are just the messenger.


Actually, sellers are more poorly treated than buyers, as they are frequently charged back by Ebay for marginal complaints.  Ebay is nothing more than an electronic auction or garage sale, and all the precautions apply.  As a buyer, I tend to pay with Mastercard in order to be able to reverse it if the item is grossly misrepresented or never sent, and the seller wont come though.

[Dave Smith #17592]

Andrew,    I am not blaming Ebay.   I just think that they over-state their "Protection" ability too much.   You are correct in that they are the venue, not the seller.  

     I love Ebay.  I get some of my best deals there.   I have been burned too.     Caveat Emptor.

Davis  

[Denise 20352]

  Beware of sellers with less than 100percent.  For instance, there was a guy who sold car covers, and most of the time, people put them on their cars, they fit reasonably well, and so they leave positive feedback.  The problem was, the 2-3percent of customers whose car covers did not fit were completely ignored by the seller.  If someone sells 10,000 items and has 97percent positive feedback, 300 people were screwed.  Best to read the negative feedback.

-denise

[Yann Saunders, 12588]

BEWARE of the vendor whose wares APPEAR to be cheap but who charges EXORBITANT or INFLATED shipping and handling fees to compensate for the low profit margin on the actual goods !

Ive just been taken by a bookseller who, despite a 97.1percent positive feedback rating ...still gets from 100 to 200 negatives A MONTH !!!

My own fault, really.  It was too good a deal to pass up. But I should have read the small print and the feedback pages.

[Paul]

Yay Yann!

As an Aussie buying on ebay USA....I have been dudded by US sellers who quote AIR MAIL (my request because surface mail from USA to Aus, is 3 months by surface-ship and if you are unhappy with the item you cannot leave neg. feedback as the feedback page expires) and then they charge me air mail...but send it surface mail. Air mail is also only 7 days so I prefer the air method. But many unscrupulous sellers charge air and send surface, profiteering on the difference. This has JUST happened on a pair of 1961 Cadillac dealer door guards. The sellers attitude was "So what, youll eventually get them...even if it is months later".

The other ebay scam is the seller who sells the item cheap and profits on each items freight. I recently bid on 2 cheap NEW tank tops (singlets). They were just $5 each - which is why I bought them. Then after I bid the seller wanted $15 EACH for mail. I asked him to combine, He said he would but would SRILL charge me $15 per singlet ($30 mail!!!). He said that the mail cost was $15 for each item, and I argued that it does NOT cost $15 in extra postage and asked him to combine the postage which he refused to do. Needless to say he never got his money and he will have to wear the commission on the item he sold, I risk negative feedback as a failed seller...but the so will he and I will warn others of his neat little scam if he goes down that route.

[Andrew 10642]

Dave,

Sorry about my interpretation.  I agree Ebay is horrible at protecting buyers from sellers who are out to screw people, as those sellers know how to game the system.  Thats why I use charge cards, as there is an additional level of protection for the buyer.    I pay more attention to the negative feedback, and as others below mentioned, shipping is a major area of potential screwing.  Of course, as a seller, I will not accept charge cards, but I am not a business.  I dont want to give up another 3percent to the vultures in the banking industry, what can I say!!  Also recognize that I lose bidders that way.  What really irks me is that the 3 percent loss on the sale is for every future sale, not just the "charge card" sales.  Now, you can only accept a monthly maximum of $500, I believe, through Paypal without upgrading your account to a business account, which forces the 3 percent gouge.

Fortunately, Im running out of garbage to sell!!

[Yann Saunders, 12588]

Things have come to a head now that the seller filed an "Unpaid Item Strike."  Heres my response to EBay (with a cc to the seller):

QUOTE

You assert: the "Unpaid Item" process provides an online forum through which the buyer and seller can COMMUNICATE [my emphasis] with each other to resolve an incomplete transaction or to resolve any misunderstandings about the transaction.
 
This seller - WHO HAS GOT MORE THAN 1400 NEGATIVE FEEDBACKS IN ONE YEAR - has decided to go it alone and to close this on-going dispute UNILATERALLY by filing an "Unpaid Item Strike" DESPITE THE FACT THAT HE IS FULLY AWARE THAT I AGREED TO PAY FOR THE ITEM (copies of all related correspondence is available).
 
So be it !
 
Please, therefore, consider this as my official notification to both the SELLER and to EBay of my new decision, now, to DEFINITELY NOT pay for the item, irrspective of any resulting "Unpaid Item Strike".
 
As I pointed out in my EMail yesterday (that I duly copied to the seller - and that is included below), the fact that I had agreed to make this payment did NOT change my extremely poor opinion of the seller, NOR constitute any admission of blame on my part.  This SELLER himself is to blame 100percent for the delays in completing (AND NOW PREVENTING) this transaction by deliberately NOT addressing in good time and with the HONESTY one would expect from an EBay "Power Seller,"  the issues I raised with him, including his DISHONEST seller policies such as (a) advertising a low item selling price in order to PAY LOWER EBay FEES and to SNARE unsuspecting buyers, (b) INFLATING S&H charges to compensate for the lower item prices, (c) INFLATING the weight of an item then, when caught red-handed, asserting it was all an "unfortunate mistake".
 
I repeat: this seller has got more than 1400 negative feedbacks in one year. Thats an average rate of ALMOST 120 PER MONTH or 4 EVERY DAY !!!.  How can he possibly still be allowed to trade on EBay ?  Am I to assume that EBay CONDONES this kind of dishonest behavior ?
 
The fact that, overall, a seller may have MORE positives than negatives does not ERASE the pattern of BLATANT DISHONESTY. It means that only a small percentage of his "victims" take the time to EXPOSE him !
 
Upon receipt of your reply and irrespective of any measures EBay decides to take (or not take) against me or against this  blatantly dishonest seller, I shall be filing a formal complaint against him.
 
In closing I would refer you to your bold statement that you [EBay] are committed to making my eBay experiences pleasant and fulfilling. THIS ONE has left a bitter taste.  
 
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT ?  Are you going to favor a seller who gets about FOUR negative feedbacks EVERY DAY to one who has had a SINGLE negative in EIGHT YEARS (and THAT was a deliberate "ACT OF REVENGE" by a seller who refused to admit he had NOT sent me the item that was pictured in his ad).
 
Good day.

(Please pass on CC to: Ballard, PowerSeller Team, eBay Trust & Safety)

UNQUOTE
 
So, guys and gals, beware of the EBay sellers "BookMarz", "BookMarz2", "MovieMars" and "inflatablemadness", all apparently operating out of or near Charlotte, North Carolina. They advertise "Movies, Music and  Madness" at http://www.moviemars.com TARGET=_blank>www.MovieMars.com (different departments for books, CDs, DVDs, other stuff ?)

Their combined NEGATIVE feedbacks over the last 12 months total almost 5600 - thats around 460 per month or FIFTEEN EVERY DAY !

I wish I had done my homework BEFORE buying the book !

[JIM CLC # 15000]

08-25-05
YANN, agree with you 100percent.
Seems the selles has not heard that when going thru.life you pick-up "atta-boys" for every good deed done. but, when a wrong deed is done, the doer receives an "ahh-shucks". Little do they relise that it takes only one "ahh-shucks" to wipe-out ALL "atta-boys".
Nuf said!.
Good Luck, Jim

[wayne #17075]

Yann, I had the same problem with a seller of manuals. I also didnt check out the negative feedback. I sent the Postal Money Order but never recieved the manual. I argued with the seller by email then phone. They finally started hanging up on me. Ebay was NO help what so ever. I then got an email from someone who had gotten screwed and he sent me to a web sight that was about this bad seller. They were recieving 20 complaints a week about this seller. The web sight requested that people with complaints contact the chamber of commerce, the police dept and the District Att.s office of in the sellers local as well as the US Post office fraud dept, which I did. After two months, the seller no longer sold anything on ebay and I mysteriously recieved a check for the full amount including shipping. Dont know who got to the seller first but it wasnt ebay! They just want thier percent and will help power sellers no matter what thier feedback shows.
 Wayne

[Bruce Reynolds # 18992]

What I have found the best way to do is contact the seller, find out his, or her address, then find someone nearby that can either go and see the part, and if successfully bidding, then have the part collected, and then sent to me via the mate, friend or acquaintance who helped me out.

It is surprising what can happen when being a part of a large Cadillac family.

One way to really make sure you get the part, it to have a friend in the Police Force, and have the part sent to the Police Station where he works from.   This suddenly makes them very honest.

I have been caught once, but the guy can wait till 2008 so I can get my BMW wheels in person, if he is still alive.   He lives in Florida, and hopefully he will be alive.

Bruce,
The Tassie Devil(le),
60 CDV

[Mark Hewitt]

Something I learnt a long time ago is
IF IT SEEMS TO GOOD TO BE TRUE,, WELL IT PROBABLY IS.!!!

[Yann Saunders, 12588]

Sorry, I posted this in the wrong thread last night!

Excerpt from my latest communication with EBay:

QUOTE

ATTENTION: Colton, Investigations Team, eBay Trust & Safety:
-------------------------------------------------------------
Enough with the pre-printed responses. Get me Pierre Omidyar on the line! [note: Omidyar is EBays founder]

Enough with EBays seller-biased Feedback scores. The only reason this seller (APPARENTLY) has a high feedback score is because EBay includes his OWN positive feedback to his buyers.

OPEN YOUR EYES. Here are the TRUE scores at August 27, 2005 :

MovieMarz
Total positive in 15 months = 305763, minus self-allotted positives (297736) = 8027

BookMarz
Total positive in 10 months = 53039, minus self-allotted positives (52568) = 471

Overall total = 358802, minus self-allotted (350304) = 8498

In just the last 12 months, these sellers got a total of 4419 negatives. By my calculation, therefore, their combined feedback score is 52percent, NOT 97percent+

UNQUOTE

EBays "biased" calculation of feedback score obviously is intended to help keep such dishonest sellers "on the books", because their combined sales totalling more than 350,000 items generates a comfortable level of revenue for EBay in commissions).

[Bruce Reynolds # 18992]

Thats okay Yann,

I realise that you were probably getting washed downstream with all those floods in Switzerland and had to get the message posted before you lost power.

Bruce,
The Tassie Devil(le),
60 CDV