Posts from DakotaSurfer in thread „Ebay What Do You Think“

There are a lot of emails that come through that try to sucker you into something. Unless I know the sender, it gets deleted usually by my providers spam controller or by my email software. Anything that my provider or my software has label as suspicious I simply don't open. I still use the older Netscape v7 for my email so opening it doesn't activate anything in the email like Outlook does so I can look at the From, To, Date and Subject without executing any viruses. Typically I open my mail files in notepad and check them for flaws which can tell me if its fake or not. Just takes some extra steps but it's worth going the extra step. And there are more than just cards without a sender's name, they are trying many more things.

I also used to send all the emails to [email protected] or [email protected] since those are the departments that are suppose to take care of them. But I easily found out they simply send you two automated responses and delete the emails you sent them. They don't have the manpower or give a damn that their customers are getting hammered with fake emails. So they don't bother to take any action so I don't bother telling them anymore. I even reported a customer that sent me a pyramid scheme in a shipment and they didn't do a thing.

They keep track of that now... eBay tracks IP's and Use ID changes for the IP's.

There policies have changed since you bought that book. I've been through all the departments, dealt with some real shady users and definitely know what to look for except when one pops up from no where and is a jerk in hiding. I didn't start this thread for advice, I started it as what you might call a named & shamed thread. I've met my share of loose screws through the years on eBay.

I had to take one case as far as a small claims court, won and got my money and legal fees. Plus the guy was arrested for fraud so you can go as little as doing nothing to as far as getting the authorities involved. A couple down in Kentucky was running a scam with reproduce merchandise, another was running a scam with stolen merchandise.

When I said things have changed, they have a few different policies now that they bought PayPal and run both together to better help the buyers and sellers. I do agree it has gotten way too big. I pick and choose who I deal with but that doesn't always work. I can say being able to get the entire Franklin Mint collection thru eBay recently was a shock, especially when dealing with such delicate items. Also I've heard all the arguments for not using PayPal but by using it, I've been saved more than once on fraud sales by using it since PayPal is good at dealing with these cases and my credit card always protect me better than a money order.

All I know is it's been a long month. I'm just about out of things. I could get more but not sure if I want to keep selling. It seems like the interest is wearing off already. And the celebration was only a month ago today.

He was difficult also... just kept buying stuff... :teeth_smile:

I'm not talking about those kinds of warnings which are actually called phishing. I am talking about someone which whom I had an actual transaction with and was dishonest, rude and threatening to me. You you actually read my first post I said "My experience with a buyer..."

I know people have good and bad experiences on eBay. For the most part my last 7 years have been about 98% positive. But you do run into a bad apple now and again. I am suggesting something here that we do on most torrenting sites. We call it the named and shamed list. Any of you that have done business by selling or buying and have had a bad experience this would be an ideal place to post that experience so others can be warned about bad auctions or members. On torrenting sites we use the named and shamed section for exposing cheats and other less than credible users.

My recent experience with a buyer with the User ID of: dmkaraoke05 is one I won't forget. Without getting into details all I can say is sellers & buyers beware.

And if you ever need help with a problem over there let me know... like I said above, I've been active on there for about 7 years. I have gotten my entire Frankling Mint collection over there recently.

You can't always trust the high feedback members either. I just got ripped of by one and reported her, they kicked her off. Some people after time get to feel we owe them something for some reason and take advantage. I would add to that list, only people that accept PayPal. Others that don't use that excuse to make you wait sometimes 2 - 3 weeks to ship your item. And complaints to eBay for most things, is a waste. I get those spam emails all the time tell me my account was hacked and to verify my info. I wasn't born yesterday... those are all hoaxes trying to get your data.

Here's another place to be very, very careful of. Amazon auctions or third party sellers. I ordered 4 HP inkjet cartridges, for my Business Inkjet 2800dt, from the place Amazon was set up to send the order to. I received the cartridges is a smashed padded envelope. If you've ever ordered from Amazon, they pack their stuff really good. This place ANTOnline wouldn't even talk replacements or shipping insurance. They left me out to dry for $120. Fortunately, Amazon has a new A-Z guarantee and paid my claim. If you buy from Amazon, make sure the item says: Availability: In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. If it doesn't, you could get taken. And avoid ANTOnline all together.

That and worse goes on... I've been selling and buying on eBay for over 6 years now. I try to be very careful on what I bid on and I never set a bid price too high. I'm gotten ripped off three times now. The first one I reported to the authorities and he was arrested for selling fake merchandise. I've had about a half dozen people kicked off or suspended. The latest one I am looking into going to the authorities since eBay won't help me track the person down.

I've found one way to avoid paying to much and to avoid a bidding war. If I find something I want I simply set up a bid to go through about 5 seconds before the auction is over. It's called sniping, some members frown on it but I have gotten into a few fake bidding wars just because the seller wanted more money for the object and like the article mentioned they would have friends bid on it for them. Sniping prevents that... they don't see my bid coming until 5 seconds before the auction is over, then it's too late. They are stuck with my bid. If they try to withdraw the item then they get in trouble with eBay. I look at it as a protection from being taken by one of these shill auctions. I don't use eBay as much as I used to. Too many thieves and jerks.