What eBay Isn't Telling You

business 2.0 ^ | 27 aug 02 | David H. Freedman

[white trash redneck]

A very interesting article on the hazards of bidding on online auctions.

[discostu]

You don't think that maybe these guys have an axe to grind against E-Bay do you? They only have that "tell us your E-Bay horror story" link in there 6 times. Anybody that thinks there's any community (online or real world, including FR) that is immune to freaks, scum, scam artists, and other "undesirables" should never buy bridges.

[AppyPappy]

Never gamble more than you can afford to lose.

[sawsalimb]

Interesting article-thanks for posting it.

[TomB]

LOL. Yea, the "tell us how evil E-Bay is" links are a dead giveaway as to the slant of these guys. One would think that if fraud were so prevalent on E-Bay, they wouldn't have to troll for victims.

[rb22982]

Interesting article, but a lot of it is crap. Believe me, almost everyone reports frauds and everyone leaves negative feedback if they aren't happy. I've personally done over 300 auctions on ebay (for online games--which would be the theoretically easiest to scam) and only ONE person had ever been screwed and it was on like $10 bucks because I used to talk to everyone of them. Generally speaking, if someone leaves you a negative feedback after you give them negative for not sending you the item, Ebay will cancel the negative if the seller can't prove that he gave the item, or the buyer can't prove he paid for it. Also, Ebay will cancel your account, I've seen it happen it happen. I never had any problems but I always kept receipts of payment and also a screen shot in game of the transaction just in case. I know a few people who sell stuff on ebay for more or less a job, and they haven't had any problems with fraud either. I'm not saying it doesn't exists on ebay, but this article overplays it tremendously.

[goldstategop]

I've had positive experiences with Ebay since joining it a few years ago. I've been very happy with the prices I won merchandise at and after making payment everything was delivered as promised in the condition described by the seller. Its true there are con artists, hucksters, and cheats on Ebay, but that's true in any real-world marketplace. The age old principle still applies to shopping whether off or online: caveat emptor! Sure you can be ripped off no matter how careful you are but taking sufficient precautions can greatly reduce the risks. With this in mind people should have fun bidding on Ebay and getting the value for the money they spend there.

[FOMTY]

In late December, Richardson started to post on eBay an unusually large number of figurine auctions -- well over 100 within a few days. Most were highly sought-after pieces, and described as in excellent condition. They were all part of an estate sale for which Richardson was acting as agent, the postings explained. For that reason, payment from winning bidders had to be received within seven days after the auctions closed, on Jan. 4.

There is nothing at all unusual about a seller with 6,000+ positives listing 100 items in a day or "demanding" fast payment. When you bid, you agree to the terms of the auction. Yes, fraud on eBay is a problem, but I don't think there's going to be too many people with years worth of positive feedback scheming to risk everything for $300,000.

The only problems I've had are non-paying bidders and within the last year, a huge percentage of bidders who try to argue about the terms of the auction after they win.

[discostu]

Now I've seen some pretty far out stuff on E-Bay. But what makes them memorable was the fact that they weren't scams, they were just relying on people being stupid. My favorite right when the X-Box hit the stores, somebody auctioned a picture of an X-Box. They played with the fonts so it was easy to miss the word "picture", but down in the body it even got spelled out, said you were bidding on a picture not an actual X-Box. Last price I saw was $320 (slightly more than an actual X-Box).

Mean? Yes. Viscious? Definitely. Scam? Nope.

[Rad_J]

I won a modem auction and the guy eventually sent one email to about five people saying he would eventually send everybody their stuff. I contacted the other buyers after a week and none of them had gotten their stuff. Then, we get a sob story email from the seller about how he had been in jail and all this stuff. I had written off the auction and didn't think much more of it until a few weeks later when the modem showed up in the mail. I was amazed. I like ebay, but never send more money than you are willing to lose.

[poet]

They want us to spy for them so they can get commendations in their files for busting someone. "To protect and serve" is a joke. Didn't the gov't just ask for 1,000,000 spies?

[Valpal1]

Interesting how they portray Richardson as if he started his ebay business for the sole purpose of working up this scam.

Yet it appears he ran a legitimate business for several years before deciding to take a powder.

People clean out their accounts and disappear in all walks of life, but they try to imply massive fraud is the norm on ebay.

My experience is that ebay makes an serious effort to protect the shopping environment. I have seen both rotten buyers and sellers kicked off for failure to pay/deliver. And it is slanted in the consumer's benefit, not the sellers.

My only beef is that when they kick someone off, is that their name/transaction record disappears off my Feedback to leave page, before I can get my two bits in or before filing for a final value fee refund.

They don't make it easy for sellers to recoup their losses at all.

[TomB]

They want us to spy for them so they can get commendations in their files for busting someone. "To protect and serve" is a joke. Didn't the gov't just ask for 1,000,000 spies?

?

[poet]

Sorry, I didn't make myself clear. I was referring to your comment relative to them scrolloing for people to spy for them. As for the 1 million spy comment, I was referring to ashcroft's recent request for people to spy relative to "terrorism".

[bigjoesaddle]

One BIG thing to look out for is people who don't want to close out with e-bay at the end of an auction, or say, "Whoever has the highist bid an hour before the end of the auction wins, I don't use e-bay to close my auctions" They don't get negative feedback, obviously, because you cant leave feedback unless you close the auction on e-bay. (Why anyone would be stupid enough to trust someone like this is another story) A guy bought a first printing , autographed Atlas Shrugged and never got it. He got screwed by this method.

[Republican Babe]

ping ping

[cubreporter]

Exactly. Go for the fun smaller items...anything big I would buy from a retailer and not Ebay.

[jaime1959]

I've been an eBayer for about 5 years. Never had a problem.

[js1138]

My family is approaching 300 transactions -- total bought and sold. We've suffered one complete rip-off and one "as-is" scam. (An as-is is a company that sells used stuff "as-is", no guarantee. The usual implication is that most of the items work; the trouble is that none of them do.)

99 percent of the auctions have been OK -- both as a buyer and as a seller.

[CWRWinger]

the agency suspects that Richardson may be a heavy gambler, based on evidence that he had visited online gambling sites and that he made comments about wanting to play high-stakes poker.

Customers take a gamble, buying from a gambler.