posted on March 24, 2002 12:38:49 AM
first off, I've been on eBay since 1998. I'll make this as short as I can. Summer 2000 I had a bidder win 3 auctions within a couple days. He also had a bid on one that didn't end for another week, so I asked him if he wanted to wait and I'd send it all at once. We did this and he won the other item. He then promptly forgot to pay me for about 10 days. Then, he uses a PayPal account (remember when PayPal was free and worthwhile?) with a different e-mail address. So it's been over 3 weeks by the time it's all sorted out and it goes in the pile to mail. By this time there is a whole new set of items running, so I figured next trip to the post office it goes out. Besdies, he was in no hurry to pay me. I let him know it would go out next trip. On the day that I mailed it, I get back to find an e-mail, a neg FB and one of these fraud complaints filed. I probably should have shipped it sooner, but the guy saw that it had been almost 30 days from the end of the first auction and went into panic mode.
Anyways, that complaint is still on my record as "pending" - I cannot add any more information to it. Does anyone know if eBay actually looks at these things? It is beginning to look like a worthless process unless a bidder is out enough money to warrant a claim from eBay insurance, and I can see where a bidder who was less than honest could use it to make a profit even after a refund. And because nothing has ever happened to my account, except the complaint being filed and left, I would think a seller could get away with a lot of these so long as they were small enough to escape an insurance payment to the bidder. Is there any way to get rid of something like this? The way the thing is worded it appears that a bidder is the only one who can go in and take it down, and after 18 months I'm sure this turkey won't be back. What happens if the bidder's account is closed?
I actually ended up with a second one, from the bidder from hell - the guy who went to BidPay.com and managed to pay them $6 to send me the money order, instead of me to send him his item. Apparently he didn't see where it says that the shipping fee on their page is for the postage on the money order. In any case, he did get a refund finally, but the complaint is still there. In his case I am not sure he could figure out how to go back and remove it, if he can miss bold red type right there next to something Lord help us depending on him to find something you need to look for.
I am just wondering if these are part of the price of doing business on eBay, along with negative feedback? (mine sucks, frankly, it's high but there are too many negatives.. and I can't win, I change the way I handle things to avoid them and still get one).
