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Wow, is eBay that stupid?

J

jp700p

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 28, 2010
252
40
***
3/7 update
eBay sent me an email a today telling me the buyers account was fraudulent and has been closed. Gees really eBay?? You mean some guy who no one has ever heard of and using the San Diego Convention Center address is fraud?

I got my final value fee back.

Thanks eBay for wasting my time! I appreciate it.

***

I picked up the new MBP, and I put my old 2010 MBP on eBay. Someone bought my MBP but suspiciously:

- The winning bidder has 0 feedback and the account was created 3 days ago.
- His mailing address points to the San Diego Convention Center.

I called up the San Diego Convention Center and asked to speak to the seller. They have never heard of that name before. That person does not work there. And they said whoever this person is, is not authorized to use there business address.

I contacted eBay by phone and they said I still have to wait until March 9th to file a "non-payment" claim.

WTF??? This is obviously fraud and eBay still does nothing about it and I still have to wait to file a "non-payment" claim?? What if they pay by pay pal using a fraudulent credit card?
 
Last edited:
well apparently you have never sold on ebay. Sorry, but there are selling restrictions you can put up there, such as people with less than a certain feedback or with non-paying strikes on them.

I sell quite a bit on eBay, and I PUT in big bold letters that if a person has less than say, 5 feedback and no activity on eBay in the last 2 months, to contact me prior to bidding. If people fail to do that, I cancel their bid and block them.

That is a risk you take with putting anything on eBay. You could just sell locally, the eBay fees are like 13% for electronics, and if you have less than a certain feedback, paypal/ebay will hold your funds until the buyer has left feedback or it has been like 30 days. Atleast that is what happened to me, but that was a few years ago. I can't see them easing up, as eBay seems to only protect the buyers. You cannot even leave negative feedback for buyers:(

Hope it all works out for you.
 
To be fair to eBay, they are just following policy. You should have saved yourself the bother by deleting the bid from the zero-feedback bidder. Not much you can do now though except wait unfortunately. :(
 
Why will not use ebay for anything to sell unless its odd like my old palm pre plus for example. Craigslist by far best way. You can control the where, the when, and no fees. People say that you can get robbed or ripped off but only if not on guard. I go to place that has a security guard and a friend. Usually people that want to try something funny will stay away from people like me that have these conditions and go after ones that say will meet in front of a house.

Ebay and paypal fees suck and at mercy of the rules that WAY favor the buyer these days. Just to easy for a buyer to send back a box with rocks to you and file a claim with paypal that you ripped them off.
 
you know, I have sold many things on CL. Just last night a few people stopped by the place to pick up the items. I know it probably isn't the best idea to have people stop by, but it is so much easier, lol.
 
ebay is great for buyers if they use ebay stores with 10 000+ feedback or if you look for odd items and cheap that nobody bothers to base a scam on.

Buying or selling high profile electronics or watches or sunglasses from individuals is just too much risk.

I bought a pair of special snowboard boots from a guy in canada. I actually mailed him and told him I pay by paypal outside ebay a high price if he cancels the auction and sells to me right away. The boots are not made anymore and very hard to find and he gets to save the ebay fee. We did the deal based on email and pure trust and it worked like a charm. That is because chances that people scam over "special binding out of manufacturing snowboard boots" is zero. I would never do this with an iPod.
 
I have bought thousands of $$ worth (and sold as well) of camera gear over at FM instead of eBay. Most of the people there are pros, and the community is excellent.
 
If I was going to buy something of value on eBay I'd want to go and check the item first then pay by cash and take the item away. Any genuine seller should have no problem with this, but a fake one will try and get out of meeting you, or showing you the product because either it's not what si advertised or doesn't exist.
 
HBOC said:
Only the BEST photography website!
Click to expand...

I agree. Especially love the alt. gear forum. Those waterfall pix of yours were wonderful.
I'm thankful for eBay this week. I sold my old black MacBook to give me some breathing room for a new MBP.
 
jp700p said:
I contacted eBay by phone and they said I still have to wait until March 9th to file a "non-payment" claim.
Click to expand...

if you must-

refund the payment in paypal
go on my ebay and then to the sold section, to the right of the item click 'unmark as payment received'
same section, click 'resolve a problem'
now you have the option to cancel the transaction

buyer likely wont confirm or deny, so after i think seven days you can end communication w/ buyer and close the transaction - and your final value fee will be refunded. if they deny to cancel you can call ebay and tell them the payment was refunded and item not shipped, and they can manually refund the fvf.
 
jp700p said:
I picked up the new MBP, and I put my old 2010 MBP on eBay. Someone bought my MBP but suspiciously:

- The winning bidder has 0 feedback and the account was created 3 days ago.
- His mailing address points to the San Diego Convention Center.

I called up the San Diego Convention Center and asked to speak to the seller. They have never heard of that name before. That person does not work there. And they said whoever this person is, is not authorized to use there business address.

I contacted eBay by phone and they said I still have to wait until March 9th to file a "non-payment" claim.

WTF??? This is obviously fraud and eBay still does nothing about it and I still have to wait to file a "non-payment" claim?? What if they pay by pay pal using a fraudulent credit card?
Click to expand...

I sell a lot on ebay ... unfortunately its one of my main sources of income ... they have a lot of stupid policies which strongly favor the buyer over the seller ... and they can be quite stupid at times ... if you can avoid it its best to avoid ebay because especially with things like electronics you get a lot of non paying bidders and scammers ...

anyway goodluck with that ..
 
HBOC said:
I have bought thousands of $$ worth (and sold as well) of camera gear over at FM instead of eBay. Most of the people there are pros, and the community is excellent.
Click to expand...

I'll second FM (fredmiranda.com). Great place to buy, sell, and learn about photography.
 
It seems anytime I list a high-priced electronic item, my listing is promptly hijacked by Nigerian scammers. So aggravating. How is eBay entitled to take such a healthy cut of my sale? A seller is never given the option to prevent unregistered or 0% percent feedback buyers from bidding! For every honest prospective first-time eBayer interested in your product, there are literally hundreds of transparent scammers. I'd make that trade any day.
 
AppleGoat said:
It seems anytime I list a high-priced electronic item, my listing is promptly hijacked by Nigerian scammers. So aggravating. How is eBay entitled to take such a healthy cut of my sale? A seller is never given the option to prevent unregistered or 0% percent feedback buyers from bidding! For every honest prospective first-time eBayer interested in your product, there are literally hundreds of transparent scammers. I'd make that trade any day.
Click to expand...

1. Use buyer restrictions, you are given the option to do this: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/buyer-requirements.html
2. Use buy it now
3. Require immediate payment
4. If over $250, ship with signature

If you do these things, you will not be scammed and will not have your listing hijacked.
 
huh? Yes they are following policy. Their policy which they could make alot more customer friendly.

ZilogZ80 said:
To be fair to eBay, they are just following policy. You should have saved yourself the bother by deleting the bid from the zero-feedback bidder. Not much you can do now though except wait unfortunately. :(
Click to expand...
 
All you needed to do was to require immediate payment. It won't let anyone buy unless they pay instantly through Paypal.

Ebay isn't bad if you know the rules and quirks.
 
Regardless of how much feedback or who they are, I don't ship out any items until I see the money they owe in my paypal account.

Just to make sure I don't get scammed.
 
don't be so quick to think payment = legitimate. I have an eBay business with electronics (cell phones, sometimes computers) and I couldn't tell you how many chargebacks we've had. stolen credit cards are all over the place, fraud is rampant. this week, for the first time, had somebody send me a package full of cardboard instead of the phone for a return. thank goodness paypal is actually great for seller protection, if you follow their policies (only ship to address specified in checkout, get signature if over $250.). also shipping insurance is always worth it.
 
Does anybody else think the "Buyer Requirements" wording is confusing? All I wish to do is prevent buyers with a feedback score of under 1 from bidding on my item. What is with "-1" "-2" & "-3" ? There's a block against buyers with a feedback score of "5 of lower" but it is like tethered to the "Have bid on or bought my items within the last 10 days and met my limit of" checkbox." Does that mean I would essentially be blocking buyers with whom I have done business in the past that have a feedback score of 5 or under?
 
eBay is terrible. Been selling on there for over six years, 700+ feedback. I have done a lot more transactions than that though over the years.

They always side with the buyer. Buyer has all the power in the eBay/PayPal world. There just is no real good substitute to eBay (save for Amazon) and most people don't think about Amazon as an eBay alternative quite yet. It's all eBay does!

EDIT: I forgot to mention I have dealt with the 0 feedback winner about 50+ times. Sucks because you never know if they are going to really buy it or not.
 
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