eBay

Back in prehistoric times, bosses worried that workers were using the office Internet connection to look at pornography. After that it was Amazon.com. Now it's eBay and the other auction sites.

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Walk through any office around 8:30 a.m. and everyone's logged on and ready for another day. Only thing is, instead of reading the CEO's latest rantings, they're buying antique waffle irons on eBay and selling some left-over parts from that old Studebaker out in the back yard.

The whole thing works more or less on the honor system, which is pretty much how speed limits work. Our suspicion has been that if you held up a radar gun, you'd find a lot of people speeding -- and a lot of others (or maybe the same ones) not coming through with the merch.

Here are a few of the more recent complaints we've received:

Amy of Chesterfield, MO August 3, 2009

Terrible consumer protection for Sellers! Have made numerous attempts to resolve this when a Buyer used fraudulent information to "buy" my cell phone. It was an expensive item. Ebay is of NO help. I would like an email reply.

Luz of San Juan, Puerto Rico, United States July 29, 2009

I found a car in Ebay. I was interested, after two weeks, I contacted the seller and accepted to pay whas he asked for. He requested to send the money through Western Union. At the beginning he said to send half of the money and when I inspect the car then pay the other half. Then he requested the full amount to send the car, so I did.

After two days he said that he found another buyer who offer 8,000, and because he needed extra money to send the car, I should send him 2,000.00 which I refused because that was not the deal, and he said that I should tell Ebay to return the money. Now Ebay said that they are not resposible and that I have to contact the person, because they do not recognized him as part of ebay. I found the car when I entered to Ebay. I dont understant, and I want my hard earned money back. 6,000.00

Dan of Walla Walla, WA July 29, 2009

I cant cancel and have been charged 10.00 per month for last four years. My email provider went out of business and my computer, with my user name crashed, all within days. Since I left the job I where I used ebay I didnt need the service of EBAY or PAYPAL so I tried to cancel. The instructions said I needed my user name. I didnt have it. It said they would email it, they couldnt because of the company closing. EBAY provides NO customer service telephone number that I could find. I sent emails to the fraud division and never got an answer. As far as Im conserned they've been stealing from me every month. finally, I canceled the credit card, and today I get a call from a collection agency!!

Brandon of Saginaw, MI July 24, 2009

I recently sold a lot of broken video game systems. Stating they were sold 'AS IS' with 'MISSING PIECES'... Well I guess they were missing too many pieces for the buyer. And instead of communicating with me, he filled a complaint for a full refund... and then left negative feedback before we even got any where with the claim. I have been in contact with Ebay to remove this feedback as I feel it was not justified. I have yet to hear from them. This buyer has done this EXACT situation to other people as well.

Why has Ebay turned into this breading ground for bad people. I have been a seller on ebay since 2001, and it never used to be like this... Now sellers cannot leave negative feedback and the fees are getting outrageous not to mention all of the other problems. I am off to find an alternative. I am now done with Ebay. They are going to lose a member that was with them from the beginning, not that matters to any one there anymore....

Thomas of Clinton, MI June 16, 2009

Ordered a part for my motorcycle. 10 days and three ignored e-mails later, seller sends me an e-mail complaining about my negative feedback. No answer to my questions. Now here I am 22 days later still no communication. He had my payment on the first day (05/25/09) so he can now commit fraud while I sit here waiting for the inane PayPal process to proceed. This will be my last e-bay purchase.

E-bay and the responsible sellers out there will suffer for this. Stress, frustration, can't buy part somewhere else till the paypal process concludes 5 days from now.

Elizabeth of Tacoma, WA June 16, 2009

I purchased a piece of furniture from Germany through Ebay. I asked for tracking information, and German seller eventually sent me a DHL tracking number that only showed that the package left Germany. After nearly 2 months, I asked about the whereabouts of the package. German seller reported that DHL delivered the package to the wrong continent (instead of the United States)!

German seller ceased communication, but DHL investigation reports that the package was lost. DHL said that they are awaiting a response from seller, but the seller has failed to respond to DHL. EBAY WAS NO HELP. I reported this a day or two after the 60 days time limit, so Ebay ignored me. I wasn't even allowed to leave feedback because of the random time limit. I never received the item, and I lost money.

Douglas of Beaverton, OR June 15, 2009

eBay refuses to take down auctions when presented with evidence that they themselves agree proves an item is being sold under false pretenses. By way of example, item 200350514865 is NOT an RTSlll let alone a Rare Gold Model. It's an RTS l with a poor gold paint job - it even has Yashica on the baseplate! eBay when shown an RTSlll agreed this as not one, and when shown a genuine gold model RTSl agreed this was not one of those either - yet let the sale stand. many many members of a specialist user group wrote them - still they let the auction continue. When asked if they were aware that if proof were given as to the falsity of provenance they were equally liable, they just hung up -0 they do this the moment the law is mentioned!

The item sold to some poor buyer for over 800 dollars - value? Nothing! The seller has past negatives for - guess what? Selling fakes! Motto: eBay wants you money and cares not what the sellers get up to. Their anonomizing of bidders just means you can't even mail a bidder to warn them.. that way ebay picks up a hefty fee, the seller defrauds you and you have no comeback! WONDERFUL!

Kali of Baltimore, MD June 10, 2009

I sold an item on Ebay and the buyer promptly paid me for it via paypal. I shipped the item, and ebay/paypal put a hold on the money for 21 days. They have given me no reason for imposing this hold in the first place, but insist that 24 hours after the buyer leaves positive feedback they will release the money to me. They also said I had a second option of showing the delivery status of the package.

After waiting an exceptional amount of time and having to call a second time and speak to a supervisor, I provided the Paypal customer service line with the dates of the end of auction, payment to me, and shipping again. I have all of the appropriate paperwork, and gave them the insurance tracking number from the US Postal Service to which they responded that the USPS website wasn't showing any information, but the buyer could still leave the feedback. So I have sent a product to a buyer who fulfilled their payment, which is really all they are obligated to do, and ebay is imposing the leisure of others on my account, and am now told to wait potentially 2 more weeks for my money.

Craig of Walnut Creek, CA June 10, 2009

I have had another fraudulent EBay charge on my credit card even though I closed my EBay account (which I didn't even Know I had). Ebay deliberately makes it impossible to contact them about fraud. There is no phone number and you can't even email them. Their website is designed to frustrate you. It's amazing that a big company can treat people so badly.

Dennis of Macon, GA June 10, 2009

I will never order anything again thru Ebay nor pay thru PayPal ever again. From now on, I will only order COD. I will pay for the product when I get it. Both Ebay and PayPal are part of the problem, not a solution to the problem. They allow crooks to operate under a ridiculous timeline. Crooks know this. I ordered a fuel pump kit from Global Automotive of Miami on April 1, 2009, paid 47 thru PayPal, and never received it. I've filed complaints with FTC, BBB. ic3.gov, consumer ripoff reports on the internet, all to no avail. Nobody seems to care about consumer rights. No one can be trusted nowadays with money.

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