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:

George of Islip NY (02/06/08)
No one from ebay from customer service has e mailed me on my problem, and it's been over a week of emailing them everyday. I can't sign in to my account, and I can't buy any items from their auctions, that I buy from. I have been a customer for 5 years or longer and know that I am only a little guy who buys small quantities from their company.

Tammi of Clearwater, MN February 5, 2008

Tammi of Clearwater MN (02/05/08)
I was recently suspended from Ebay without any explanation as to why. The suspension notice said I was Abusing Ebay. I have been doing business for over 4 years with them and have an excellent rating with no issues. I emailed them 3 times since January 24 with no responses whatsoever. Why does a company of this size seem to think they can bully people around and make them feel like criminals? Because they are a corporation that doesn't have to worry about the satisfaction of their customers? Their only concern is that they get their money. It's ridiculous that there is no phone number posted, and they can do whatever they want whenever they want. I will start doing my business elsewhere. Maybe Yahoo or Google would appreciate my business.

I have been made to feel like some kind of criminal without knowing what it is I have done wrong. I think Ebay assumes that you know what you did because you are automatically guilty of something in their eyes.

Tom of Myrtle Beach, SC February 4, 2008

Tom of Myrtle Beach SC (02/04/08)
I went and tried to sell my first item on E-Bay. I did a 7 day listing. I had a reserve price on it. The item was 2 platinum proof coins that are graded perfect. The final bid came in at 1,600 more than my reserve price. Once I sent an email invoice to the winning bidder it was 3 minutes later that I get an email from e-bay stating my listing had been removed due to a bidder (not the winning bidder) had not authorized the bid and it was done through a third party. They stated in the email that they were trying to attempt to restore that bidders account access. It also stated that I would have to start from scratch and re-list my item. This is very suspicious since first it was not the winning bidder that the so called unauthorized bid came from. Second the so called bidder in question had put something up for sale of his own just one hour prior to the close of my listing and was still listed 12 hours after the incident. Third the response time from my sending an invoice through the E-Bay system to the final bidder and the actually removal of the listing due to a bidder not authorizing his bids is too fast under any circumstances. The other problem I had was when I tried to email someone my concern as to how this happened all I got back was how to change my password, retrieve my password, or report unauthorized use of my account. This makes me believe that E-Bay did me wrong and I do not even know why.

I lost 7 days worth of time put into the listing and waiting for the final results plus 3,000 loss in profit that would have happened from the sale.

Michael of Santa Cruz, CA February 4, 2008

Michael of Santa Cruz CA (02/04/08)
I have a 531 seller credit that I have been trying for months to get back from Ebay. Due to Ebay's frustrating refund policies, they will only send a refund to the original checking account on file. I closed my original checking account last year and opened a new one, so ebay now insists that they can now only send me my refund by issuing a check. I have asked them to send me this check for almost half a year now, and every time I check to see if it has been sent, they give me the same cookie cutter answers: Your request for check has been declined or Your request has been escalated to a supervisor etc, etc. Again, they have been playing this bureaucratic game with me for months and this is now past a reasonable limit.

I have had problems paying for my student fees and credit card bills because I have expected this money back for months.

Cory of Levittown, NY February 4, 2008

Cory of Levittown NY (02/04/08)
Ebay overcharged me with fees. The total fees I should be paying is 47.31. Ebay charged me 184.43. I listed an item twice. It did not sell the first time, but it did sell the second time. According to ebay, they will waive the fee of the first auction if the item sells the second time. I filled out all the necessary forms online and I never got a credit. This is in their policy statement!! Then I have a charge for fees that I don't even know where they came from. It is a wrongful charge. The wrongful charge is 89.80 (I do not even know where is charge came from).

I am getting numerous harassing phone calls from their collections dept that just want money and won't help to solve the problem. I am more then willing to make the full payment of what I really owe after they make the necessary adjustments.

Jason of Prescott, AZ February 4, 2008

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