<VV> More on the eBay bum

[Jim Houston]

Well, I've had an eBay account since 2000 but I am closing it because of 
things like what happened to Alan, their new rule that you HAVE to use 
PayPal (which does nothing more than increase their profit, while 
decreasing mine), the fact that there are very few small sellers with 
real bargains, and just general dissatisfaction with the changes that 
have occurred...  eBay used to be a good deal, but no longer..

Jim Houston
'65 Monza coupe

Alan and Clare Wesson wrote:
> I was staggered recently when someone bought something from me, paid by 
> PayPal, I sent them the item and forgot all about it, and then three weeks 
> later I received an email from PayPal saying that because they suspected the 
> transaction had been paid for fraudulently they had returned the guy's money 
> to his account (so I was $50 down). I emailed and asked them what I should 
> do, as I had lost out on the transaction through no fault of my own, and 
> they replied (I am not making this up) that I should contact the guy and ask 
> if he would return the goods to me.
>
> Now, what kind of planet has someone got to be living on if they think that 
> someone who has paid for goods by fraud is likely to roll over and give them 
> back to the seller? Predictably, all my efforts to contact the guy have met 
> with no response, and as the transaction took place before 1st Oct 2008 I am 
> not covered by PayPal's seller insurance. So I can just go hang.
>
> But the worst bit of all is that we had already exchanged feedback (and 
> sellers can no longer give negative feedback either), so there is no trace 
> of the fraud having happened and I can't warn other vendors about the guy. 
> And he is still continuing to trade on eBay and still has a 100% positive 
> feedback record (but what's that worth, if he can get away with doing what 
> he did to me? He could have done it 50 times for all I know). After a 
> protracted exchange of emails with PayPal customer service I have finally 
> resigned myself to the fact that I am not going to get my money back, but I 
> am unhappy that they won't do anything to penalise the guy - after all, it 
> was PayPal who told me that the transaction was fraudulent!!! The reason 
> they can't or won't act appears to be that the organisation that uncovered 
> the fraud is PayPal, and they are technically separate from eBay.
>
> So he can continue to trade with impunity, and I have been defrauded out of 
> $50, and there is nothing I can do about it. O.K., so $50 isn't the end of 
> the world, but the amount wasn't the crucial factor - as far as I can tell 
> the effect would have been the same with any transaction up to 1000 GBP 
> (which used to be $2000 but is now down to $1480, and sliding...).
>
> So I hate to contradict JR, but I don't think the dispute resolution methods 
> offered by eBay and PayPal are worth a row of beans. Caveat emptor (and even 
> more so, caveat venditor). I have been doing eBay since 1999, and every year 
> that passes the deal for sellers becomes worse and the deal for buyers 
> improves.
>
> I can understand that this is a) because there are a lot of crooks out 
> there; and b) eBay needs to protect its buyers because that's what sets it 
> apart from other auction sites (according to The Economist magazine, what 
> sets it apart is that most sale sites have lots of vendors and few buyers, 
> whereas eBay has both). However, I feel that if eBay continues to worsen the 
> deal for the small seller much more, they will destroy the business model 
> they started with (because they are also, according to The Economist, moving 
> towards an Amazon.com style model, where they want to attract high-volume, 
> business, retail sellers, rather than the 'flea market' style of vendor that 
> they started with).
>
> Corvair content here is that the item  had sold the guy was a set of NOS 
> 1960s 'E-Z Eye' 5-inch headlight eyebrows, which fit a Corvair well 
> (although I think he had bought them for a Brit car). And as an aside, I 
> spent years wondering why someone would call their product 'Ee-Zed Eye', 
> until someone pointed out to me that it wasn't pronounced like that in the 
> USA...
>
> Cheers
>
> Alan
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "J R Read_HML" <hmlinc at sbcglobal.net>
> To: "Charles Lee" <Chaz at ProperProPer.com>; "'Grant Young'" 
> <gyoungwolf at earthlink.net>; <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
> Sent: Monday, December 22, 2008 11:51 PM
> Subject: Re: <VV> More on the eBay bum
>
>
>   
>> Well, that told me that he's (she) has had the same ID since July, 2001.
>> Looks as if the boys need to work it out between themselves using the
>> appropriate dispute resolution methods provided by eBay and PayPal.
>>
>> Later, JR
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Charles Lee" <Chaz at ProperProPer.com>
>> To: "'Grant Young'" <gyoungwolf at earthlink.net>; <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
>> Sent: Monday, December 22, 2008 5:23 PM
>> Subject: Re: <VV> More on the eBay bum
>>
>>
>>     
>>> What did this guy do ?
>>>
>>> I only see him selling an old Mustang GT, and some Corvair prts that no
>>> one
>>> bought, with a rating of 528.
>>>
>>> http://myworld.ebay.com/teenapa
>>>
>>> Is there something else there that I don't see ?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org
>>> [mailto:virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org] On Behalf Of Grant Young
>>> Sent: Monday, December 22, 2008 9:51 AM
>>> To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
>>> Subject: <VV> More on the ebay bum
>>>
>>> <<Being as how the world is so small how about you post here his address,
>>> any
>>> other information.>>
>>> The guy (crook) is in Struthers, OH, so beware of anything you buy from
>>> there. It looks like he might change his ebay id regularly, so the 
>>> address
>>> is more important.
>>> Grant
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> This message was sent by the VirtualVairs mailing list, all copyrights 
>>> are
>>> the property
>>> of the writer, please attribute properly. For help,
>>> mailto:vv-help at corvair.org
>>> This list sponsored by the Corvair Society of America,
>>> http://www.corvair.org/
>>> Post messages to: VirtualVairs at corvair.org
>>> Change your options:
>>> http://www.vv.corvair.org/mailman/options/virtualvairs
>>> _______________________________________________
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> This message was sent by the VirtualVairs mailing list, all copyrights 
>>> are
>>> the property
>>> of the writer, please attribute properly. For help,
>>> mailto:vv-help at corvair.org
>>> This list sponsored by the Corvair Society of America,
>>> http://www.corvair.org/
>>> Post messages to: VirtualVairs at corvair.org
>>> Change your options:
>>> http://www.vv.corvair.org/mailman/options/virtualvairs
>>> _______________________________________________
>>>       
>> _______________________________________________
>> This message was sent by the VirtualVairs mailing list, all copyrights are 
>> the property
>> of the writer, please attribute properly. For help, 
>> mailto:vv-help at corvair.org
>> This list sponsored by the Corvair Society of America, 
>> http://www.corvair.org/
>> Post messages to: VirtualVairs at corvair.org
>> Change your options: 
>> http://www.vv.corvair.org/mailman/options/virtualvairs
>> _______________________________________________ 
>>     
>
>  _______________________________________________
> This message was sent by the VirtualVairs mailing list, all copyrights are the property
> of the writer, please attribute properly. For help, mailto:vv-help at corvair.org
> This list sponsored by the Corvair Society of America, http://www.corvair.org/
> Post messages to: VirtualVairs at corvair.org
> Change your options: http://www.vv.corvair.org/mailman/options/virtualvairs 
>  _______________________________________________
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com 
> Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.10.0/1861 - Release Date: 12/22/2008 11:23 AM
>
>