DANGER: Ebay is a SCAMMER’S PARADISE – STOP SELLING ON EBAY.
[DAMIEN LeGALLIENNE] — Ebay used to be a nice place where people could sell stuff they didn’t want but somebody else did.
The old saying: “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure,” was never more true than when the world of the internet, via Ebay, turned our entire planet into one big yard sale.
When it started out, Ebay was great. There was something for everybody. If you had an item that was no longer of use to you, odds were that someone else in the USA or any nation, might want it.
Ebay was actually good for the environment too. Items that usually ended up in a landfill, were bought by people who need them. If you had a set of four slightly used tires of a specific size, you could sell them. There are a billion cars out there and someone who could not afford new TIRES was out looking for that exact size tire.
Yes – Ebay used to be nice, but now, on top of the fact that Ebay is itself a scummy and sneaky company, they have enabled the people who BUY from you, to rob you — and they do NOTHING about it. In fact, Ebay almost always (99%) sides with the buyer. Add to this nefarious shake-down the fact that Ebay is now working hand in glove with PayPal, another scammer’s paradise. Essentially, you cannot conduct any buying or selling on Ebay unless you sell your soul to Ebay’s evil twin PayPal. They try to pretend that this is done to EXPEDITE the process and to ENSURE THE INTEGRITY and to PROTECT the buyers and sellers — but it’s a lie.
The sole purpose of the Ebay-PayPal alliance is to lock up your money and control what goes in and out of your account.
Let me give you an example of how buyers scam and how Ebay sides with the scammers:
Mary decides to sell a bottle of expensive perfume on Ebay. She takes photos of it and describes the product properly. After she lists the perfume on Ebay as an item up for bids. Depending on the popularity of the item, Mary starts to get bids, and in seven days, Sally makes the highest bid and gets the perfume for $300.
Sally clicks on some links and in seconds Mary has $300 wired into her PayPal. Mary sold her perfume, Sally has paid for it, and everyone is happy.
Immediately, because she is a good Ebay seller — Mary carefully packages the perfume in a break proof box. Then, because Ebay also works hand in glove with the United States Post Office, Mary prints out a USPS shipping label right in her own home — again — because she is a good Ebay seller.
Mary slaps the printing label on her neatly wrapped box of perfume and sends it off to the buyer, Sally. In the meantime, Mary cannot access the $300 Sally wired her because PayPal – and Ebay – put a 14 day to 21 day hold on it. This is to ensure that Sally receives her item. Via tracking, it is shown that 3 days later – amazing how fast the post office works for Ebay — Sally got her perfume in the mail. Transaction complete, right? Uh…no !!!
Sally opens up her mail and sees her bottle of perfume, but after she tears open the plastic wrapper and pulls aprt the perfume’s factory box, she’s sorry she bought it. She thinks to herself, “Gee, I wish I hadn’t spent so much money.” or she thinks, “Now that I have this perfume, I am going to pour half of it into my own bottle and then complain to Ebay that the item arrived half-empty. I will say that it was “NOT AS DESCRIBED.”
Okay, so now you will see how Sally can get some perfume without paying a cent.
Sally opens a dispute with Mary and Mary has only a few options — all of them favor the buyer (Sally). Mary can accept a return and refund the $300, or the two of them can spend 7 days messaging back and forth and try to resolve the dispute mutually. If they don’t come to an agreement, Ebay steps up and solves the problem for them. Ebay makes the final decision.
Here is an example of how a message thing can go back and forth:
SALLY — I want my money back because your ad showed a photo of a full bottle and I only got one half full.
MARY — That’s not possible. I sent you a full bottle still in the store wrapping. The box was clear plastic so you could see through it to know that the bottle was full.
SALLY — You are a liar. You took a picture of one thing and sent me another. I want my money back and you have to pay the postage if you want this half bottle back.
MARY — I sent you a full bottle. I know that.
SALLY — You are trying to scam me.
MARY — No I did not. I sent you a full bottle. Even the weight of the shipping label shows that it was full because the package I paid for weighed 6 ounces.
SALLY — You are right, I lied. I am a thief and a liar and I opened your perfume and put half of the contents in my own bottle. I feel bad that I did this, but I could not afford the $300 like I thought I could and now I am trying to con you.
Okay — so you think this is the end, right. Sally admitted that she is a thief and a liar, and since all of these messages back and forth can be seen by the EBay officials who make the final rulings on these disputes, Sally will have to honor her $300 payment and accept the bottle she paid for.
By reading the messages, would you say that Mary should not have to refund the money because Sally admitted she lied? You would, right?
YOU’RE WRONG. After the 7 day messaging period is up – Ebay decides that SALLY is entitled to a full refund for receiving an item that was NOT AS DESCRIBED. Uh…but didn’t they read the part where Sally admits to lying and cheating? Who knows? It doesn’t matter. Ebay will side with Osama Bin Laden if he says you sold his wife a defective Burka. That is the new Ebay. They’re part of a giant scam game — but they pretend they’re trying to make things fair and square.
Now that BUYERS are hip to the fact that Ebay ALWAYS sides with them, they are concocting all kinds of schemes to get your stuff and not pay for it.
EBAY used to be fun, but now it’s a business for suckers. There are a lot of other ways to sell your stuff — and they don’t grab your credit card or bank account information either.
STOP SELLING OR BUYING EBAY — it has now become a giant scammer’s paradise.
