Community poll forum: 4/05/05 Do you use eBay? If so, how often?

After missing out on a much wanted item on eBay, I was contacted by someone proporting to be the vendor. He told me that the winner had dropped out and that I could have the item for the price I bid last. This was followed up by a message that looked very much like an eBay invoice. After paying $700 AUS to this person, I found that it was a fraud. I was probably foolish in what I did but eBay were less than helpful when I reported it. I had to retell my story to at least 4 different support operators. There seems to be no record kept of support tickets and no follow through by the support operators. I didn't expect any recompence for what was probably my error but I did expect better communication protocols from such a big company.

NEVER BUY "AS IS" unless you can live with a faulty product. NEVER BUY AT ALL if you must pay by check since there will be no recourse if the sale goes bad. I made the mistake of paying by cashier's check on three separate occasions and got badly burned on one of those and moderately burned on the other two. (I guess I'm a slow learner)

Brief descriptions of each occasion follow:

Bought an HT receiver that sporadically dies every now and then and would not work out of the box. Seller claimed it was UPS damage, but then the unit spontaneously powered up a week later. This has happened twice since. I'm SURE the seller knew of this problem and chose to dump the receiver on ebay. I was the unlucky winning bidder. Paid by check - out $295 dollars.

Spent $175 for a turntable in "excellent condition" that ended up needing over $100 in repairs and adjustments including a replacement for an RCA cord whose wires were cracked and almost blew out my speakers. Dust cover was so scratched as to reduce the overall value of the piece, but seller would accept no responsibility and ranked me out for writing her about these problems since the ad said "as is". At least in this case, the item is usable.

My third experience of this type was with a 98% rated seller. Also a turntable described to be working perfectly, the tonearm adjustment was broken and setting the proper pressure is very difficult. (Thanks to all the kind people who helped me learn how to get around the broken part, particulary Joel at the Turntable Factory). I demanded a partial refund and the seller complied so that his feedback would not be ruined. Fortunately, once the tonearm was pressure was set, the machine does a decent job.

These days I stick to purchasing books, LPs, CDs, collectibles and other durable items that don't have a high pricetag. (The LPS and CDs must be rated very highly by 99+% sellers). I NEVER buy from anyone with more than 2% negative ratings AND I try to pay by credit card at all times in case it is necessary to dispute the charges. (So far I have not had to do that, but the day that Paypal puts a hold on my account for disputing a sale with a seller will be the day that I tell Paypal to "kiss it." And then, Ebay will see me no more.)

It did not take me a month. Of course I was well aware of what ebay and paydo before I went to that site. I signed up, posted what I knew in each and every room I could, and left. Then I got that stupid letter they were going to close my account if I did that again. Hahaha. I told them to close it. IMMEDIATELY. Well you know they were not going to go for that right? So I went and posted some more stuff just to irritate them. Got another letter. LOL. This was getting to be fun. Told them this time, "I told you people to close it". Next letter I got, I reported them as spam. Guess what? I never got any more letters. LOLOLOL

Esk

Please send this information to your Attorney General and to the FTC. This type of abuse is what they are there to protect you from. Please do it for us all. What ever state you are in they will have a website for you to report this. Please do it!!!!!

I think as a Nigerian, this is truly an embarrassing story. I believe not all Nigerians are bad. We still have honest people here.



http://www.multidox.net

Just tried it a couple of times. One purchase of USB was great. Another of a DVD was not - the box was empty when it arrived.

Also noticed some obvious scams in the section selling laptops.

In general, I trust people but first impressions are important and my first impressions of eBay were not very positive.

Hello,
My son liked a laptop for so long.
We saw on Ebay that there was someone who sold 8 of them.
At the auction I got one.
After emailing for a while I decided to pay for it ; 649 Euros ! After they got my money, they didn't respond to any of my mails, the phone number they gave was also false.So I decided to check it with the postbank...the name, the address...even the city was somewhere else???
I then posted on the forum of Ebay, to warn the others ( they where selling 5 laptops again!)
I stopped that bidding...luckely for the others.
I was then threatened by the swindlers.
I tryed to mail to others who were swindled on Ebay( It was only possible to send 1 mail a day to another user!) I came in contact with 4 others and after 14 days of mailing ,we where with 10; 3 who received an old laptop, the rest got nothing.I then organised a meeting,together we went to the police to make a pv.We've even been on TV!(thanks to ISOC Belgium)
The police told us that in Belgium there where already more than 200 swindled people (all by means of Ebay)After I had a dispute opened,I filed a claim on Ebay and got a French (spoof) email from them.
I think that Ebay doesn't care about the sellers or buyers...
They only care about the MONEY they receive.
I've learned my lesson...but all the others who know to little of the internet and how Ebay works are often easy victims for those who are not honest.
Therefor there must come a law that takes care of those things...So that we can buy and sell in trust!
Greetings from Belgium.

Let other buyers know about your exerience post it on www.sellerid.com and similiar sites - I always check third party sites to see who I am buying from - never trust the ebay feedback system it is biased.

I really agree with your post! It's very important to me as a buyer that the seller have as close to 100% satisfaction level as possible--a feedback rating below 99.3% and I just move on, choosing not to participate in that particular auction. I think caution is the word of the day especially for us buyers on eBay! Save all emails, too!

I won an auction for a software package at about $150. I received a demo CD, which is available free. Although the ad was clearly misleading, and I was not the only one taken in by this scam, I found eBay and Paypal provided absolutely nothing in the way of recourse - in fact, it cost me additional $$ to clear up further damage. BUYER BEWARE, to say the least!

I've been selling on ebay (on and off) for a couple of years - I like to think that most users of ebay are honest trustworthy people, but if I think there is likely to be a problem I research the feedback - even the `positive` feedbacks can be revealing (eg. We got there in the end, finally came through - indicates slow payer or supplier)
But don't forget `buyers` try it on as well - I've received an email today - I've sent the cash where are the goods`. Well I've received no cash, paypal or cheque. Anyway I do state in my terms that I don't recommend people posting cash. But the biggest bugbear of the seller is the `bidder` who promptly disappears the moment they've won.

Charles Locke from Deluth and Nahid Mahdavi from New York posing as international art dealers sold a fake Picasso drawing for $145 000 after received the funds Charles Locke declared bankrupcy.
Mr. Locke is under investigation from the FBI and I am curently suing Mr. Locke and Mrs. Madahivi to try to retrive the $145 000.

CP

Chronology of an ebay fraud account

On July 15, 2004 I visited the ebay auction site and placed the winning bid. for an Ipod w/20 gig drive.

On July 19,2004, at 3:37 PM (PDST) I informed the seller, Mr. Charles Locke that a Western Union Money Order was mailed to Charles Locke in the amount of $277.30 On July 19, 2004, at 6:47 PM (EDST) I received an acknowledgement from Mr. Locke that he had been informed of the Money Order.

On July 20, 2004, I received verification from Western Union that the Money order had been sent by U,S, Mail.

On July 28, 2004, I sent an email inquiry to Mr. Locke asking what was the current status of this transaction. There was no response.

On July 29, 2004 I received an email from Mr. Locke that the Ipod would go to the shipper around the eighth of August, 2004.

On August 9, 2004 I sent an email to Mr. Locke asking for an exact shipping date for the Ipod.

On August 10, 2004, I received an email from Mr. Locke stating that the Ipod would go to the shipper this week and he would forward a tracking number as soon as he had it.

On August 21, 2004 I again queried Mr. Locke on where the Ipod was and asked for a firm shipping date.

On August 26, 2004, Mr. Locke informed me that due to circumstances beyond his control he was discontinuing his business and would be unable to fill my order. A refund in the full amount would be processed and sent to me.

On August 27, 2004, at 9:17 AM (PDST), I sent Mr. Locke an email asking for a firm, fixed date to receive the refund.

On August 27, 2004, at 8:32 PM (EDST) Mr. Locke responded by saying that his accountant was handling everything and the check would be sent the second week in September.

On August 27, 2004, I sent Mr. Locke one last email stating that if he had not responded with a date and check by August 3, 2004, I would file fraud charges against him.

Trying to contact ebay with evidence of fraud is the internet equivalent of getting an abortion at the local Baptist clinic. I filed a complaint with the FBI, Secret Service (Mail Fraud) and the Internet provider for ebay. The FBI complaint resulted in a Local investigation in Mr. Lockes town after being transferred through three different jurisdictions. As of this date, 4/6/05, I still am out my $277.00 and a total of 67 others that I am in email contact with are out a total of over $24,000.00 with no recourse. Locke is out on bail, ebay has collected their dollars so they do not care, and those who have been lucky enough to have recovered their money through their credit card or bank by using pay-pal and later requesting their bank/credit card to refund the money as a fraud, are being punished as having negative pay-pal balances.

I believe the current teen-age vernacular is ebay sucks!
If you want the responses from others in this case, let me know I have them.

ebay and PayPal can verify this.

Charles Locke has now declared fraudulent bankrupcy. He is under investigation by the FBI for selling fake works of art and othe matters, he has stolen money from many people thru pay pal and pay pal is now suing him .
Charles locke is a liar and a criminal,
If you can provide any more information regarding this individual pleas do so.

Thank You.
T and S