A reason to boycott eBay.

[Dingo Jellybean]

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1105726595896_18?hub=SciTech

I received the email about the insane rate hikes eBay will implement on Feb. 15th. So either the small business owners will go elsewhere, or they'll pass those rate hikes onto you.

How insane are the fee hikes? The average percentage increase is about 60%. Some of the fees double as well, such as 10 day auctions and such. But this pretty much goes both ways though, as some sellers are notorious for insane shipping fees.

But I've had a few problems with eBay, like how they don't take responsibility for merchants while Amazon.com does. I lost $55 once because eBay charged a $25 processing fee as well as not paying for my $30 shipping fee I paid the seller(who high-tailed it after he got my money). Not only that Paypal did http://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gif about it(Paypal is an eBay company), saying they couldn't refund any of my money because the seller had no funds in his Paypal account(they can just take the money from his bank account, sheesh, I should use my credit card next time). This was a clear case of fraud, and eBay does nothing about it:

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20030322/ebay_fraud_030322/SciTech?s_name=&no_ads=

As a test, I create a fake account, maygray6. The account was used to purchase minor things(namely stuff in the $5 range so sellers lose no more than 40 cents if they don't file a non-paying bidder complaint), but never paid for, on eBay auctions. I got away with it on numerous occassions before eBay suspended my account...15 months later. So be warned folks.

Not only that, as a seller, I have to eat up about 9% of the end of auction price. So if someone sends me payment for $100, $9 is taken away. All for sending money. I'm so sick of eBay and their companies now, I keep preaching for people to switch to Overstock.com. Their fees are lower and their store charges at most $2.95 shipping for any order, regardless of size.

So there. I don't sell as much as some people do, but hearing this news and the outrageous rate hikes is enough to make anyone puke.

[Psychotic]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but basically you're admitting to fraud?

[Dingo Jellybean]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but basically you're admitting to fraud?

Yeah...but eh, if you were in my position you would do it. But eh, eBay doesn't know it's me, and that's all that matters. :-)

It's not like I purchased $5000 worth of merchandise and never paid for them, most of my fraud transactions were in the vicinity of $5 or less. Mostly on stuff like old Michael Jackson trading cards and Barbie stickers.

[Miriel]

As a test, I create a fake account, maygray6. The account was used to purchase minor things(namely stuff in the $5 range so sellers lose no more than 40 cents if they don't file a non-paying bidder complaint), but never paid for, on eBay auctions.



What the hell? That is so screwed up.

[Dingo Jellybean]

What the hell? That is so screwed up.

How is it screwed up? It's a test. Everyone of the sellers filed a non-paying complaint, so they got their listing fee back anyways. It's not like I bought 20 items, I just bought 4 or 5 items of minimal value to sellers wouldn't be hurt. No seller lost more than 40 cents as a result of my actions.

Anyways, I think people are missing the whole point of this topic. Yes, I admit to fraud...but it's not like I did it for no reason. Primarily boycotting eBay is because of their piss-poor Fraud Program and outrageous fee hikes.

[MecaKane]

I'm sure none of those sellers needed any of the money you promised, and didn't mind all the time of their's you wasted, either.

[Miriel]

Do you have any idea how friggen annoying it is when buyers don't pay for the stuff they've committed to pay for? It drives me absolutely insane, even when there's only 5 bucks at stake.

And the fact that you went into the auction with no intentions of paying is disgusting. Seriously.

[Dingo Jellybean]

Do you have any idea how friggen annoying it is when buyers don't pay for the stuff they've committed to pay for? It drives me absolutely insane, even when there's only 5 bucks at stake.

And the fact that you went into the auction with no intentions of paying is disgusting. Seriously.

I know how annoying it is, I'm a seller too. I don't see how it's "disgusting" as you put it. It might be annoying, but it's not like I committed murder by the way you're over-reacting. But it's a testament to eBay's fraud system that doesn't work. Does it make what I did right? No. It just made me prove a point that eBay cares nothing about fraud, just as long as it makes money...and that's the point I think you missed.

[theundeadhero]

After reading that I consider you a reason to boycott E-Bay.

[Zell's Fists of Fury]

Yeah, that's pretty dumb, Dingo.

[TheAbominatrix]

Rather than conduct a study, which can be done WITHOUT screwing people out of their money, you did this. Right.

If you wanted to prove a point, why not rip yourself off? Ya know, make two accounts, or have a friend help. Rather than doing that to folks. Seems really low, to me.

[Rye]

Go to Yahoo Auctions then. They're better. I found Evanescence's Origin EP for about 9 dollars there, meanwhile Ebay has it for MUCH higher prices.

Oh wait, I just read the thread. Yeah, that's not a real good thing to do. :/

[Citizen Bleys]

haha, backfire!

*boycotts Dingo*

[Awrini]

Interesting Dingo, very very interesting.

[Dingo Jellybean]

I <b>already admitted</b> that it was wrong for me to do that, long before any of you replied...so thanks for being redundant. Yes, 40 cents is money...but it's as if some of you treat it like I ripped off $40000. These people got their money back anyways.

It seems like the only reason some of you posted was to criticize me rather than actually consider the bigger picture of eBay running merchants out of business.

[Citizen Bleys]

and I only posted to point and laugh like Nelson Muntz.

But really, your mission's accomplished, since it's drawing attention to the subject. I always just went to eBay because it's a household name. I'll continue using eBay when they have what I want, but now I'll be checking out the competition first.

[edczxcvbnm]

I don't like e-bay either. I for one think what you did was awesome and http://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gif everyone who thinks otherwise :D E-bay is a crappy company that is very lazy and does not do much of anything.

You would think they would do something about auctions where the sell price is .01 and the shipping is $40. Nope. Might actually invovle maintaining the site.

[Dr.K]

Ebay, and moreso the minority (but a very existant ) bunch of users who make ridiculous auctions and evasions of payment/contact are annoying. I once read someones feedback, and they had about 7 negatives in a row where they hadn't paid someone for items costing around a pound each, and they replied to the feedback saying "OMG! HOW LOW CAN SUM1 GET? IT'S ONLY A POUND U SHUD B ASHAMED!". So that makes it justifiable to walk into a shop, take a chocolate bar and waltz out again? Is it selfishness or stupidity?

[escobert]

Glad I don't ever use Ebay :p

[fire_of_avalon]

People are annoyed/angry/out for your blood because the way you demonstrated eBays incompetence is in conflict with your overall message. You are pissed because eBay screws people out of money, and yet to prove that point you yourself screwed people out of money. It's the same thing but on a smaller scale.

Just to clarify.

Now let's all be nice and continue to use these silly auction things to buy extraneous times to entertain us in our meaningless lives until we die and become feed for the worm (oh the agony).

If you're angry with me for the above comments, please lighten up. I say what I says only in jest.

[Doomgaze]

So that makes it justifiable to walk into a shop, take a chocolate bar and waltz out again?
If it's under 40 cents, apparently so.

[theundeadhero]

I have a feeling most Moms would disagree.

[fire_of_avalon]

I have a feeling most Moms would disagree.
:<3:

[edczxcvbnm]

So that makes it justifiable to walk into a shop, take a chocolate bar and waltz out again? Is it selfishness or stupidity?

Your analogy make zero sense. On ebay you simply said "I will pay for the item then you ship it" If you never payed for the item then you shouldn't get it. The candy store would be the equivilent of writing a fake check and getting the item.

By not paying for the item you don't screw anyone out of money. Just a little time.

Dingo didn't screw anyone out of money. He never recieved any items. He was actually screwed out of money because he sent money and never recieved the item. I don't see how he is screwing people out of money here. No transaction is taking place.

[Doomgaze]

Ok, then, it's like waltzing into the shop and taking 40 cents out of the register.

[DMKA]

This doesn't make me feel any different about eBay.

Dingo however...

[edczxcvbnm]

No. Your analogy still makes no sense. Here is what you mean to say.

It is like telling a store to hold this for you and you will come pick it up later and never do.

That is what dingo did. He didn't steal any money at all.

[Doomgaze]

Ok, then. God. He took the 40 cents out of the register and mailed it to eBay. THERE.

[Dingo Jellybean]

I'm not angry at anyone here.

Because the starting value is 30 cents for each listing, then 5.25% of the end of value auction under $25, most of what I "didn't" buy was around $1...mainly auctions to help others build feedback and such.

I'm not saying what I did was right...I hope I don't have to repeat that again, but I just took my own initiative and just made a fake account. If anyone wants the full details of how eBay handled my fake account, then you can PM me.

What's more is that after these transactions, my dingo-jellybean account SHOULD BE BANNED. Because I used that fake account from the same computer. I don't care if my dingo-jellybean account is banned, since I'll just get a new one. But the point I was making was how poor this eBay Fraud Protection program is and how their rate hikes would put small businesses out of business.

BTW Doom, the people(AFAIK through emails) did get their money back by filing non-paying bidder alerts. Doesn't make what I did right, no. I never said I was some hero by doing this. I just hope you would have looked at the bigger picture of eBay's flawed system.



Rather than conduct a study, which can be done WITHOUT screwing people out of their money, you did this. Right.

If you wanted to prove a point, why not rip yourself off? Ya know, make two accounts, or have a friend help. Rather than doing that to folks. Seems really low, to me.

The reason why I couldn't do this to my own account was that I needed 2 different credit cards...which I don't have. Discover cannot give me 2 active accounts for one account holder, if they give me a 2nd card the 1st card is voided. You need a credit card or an ISP/School email address, and I wasn't about to give them my school email address. So yes, I did have a credit card linked to the fraud account, but I voided the card 1 month later and it took eBay 13 months to catch it. And I didn't want to use a friend's credit card. So instead of ripping me for not "ripping" myself off, you could've read eBay's updated terms of use. As far as "really low" is concerned, you should probably save that for the arsonists and rapists out there.



I maybe shouldn't have included what I did in this post, then the whole topic wouldn't change from why Boycott eBay to "OMG Dingo, you're a criminal of the worst kind." If you guys are so angry at me for ripping people off 40 cents(even though they got their money back), you should probably divert your anger to more serious offenders...like child molesters and burglars. I'm not defending what I did, I know what I did was wrong, but it does give me hard evidence of how poor eBay's Fraud system is. I was robbed of a lot of money myself, $55 on one transaction(over $100 on eBay overall)...which is far more than I "robbed" anyone on eBay combined by those meager transactions. I mean it's like some of you treat stealing a candy bar as equivalent of embezzlement.

I was hoping some of you would see the bigger picture, it's never my intention to just do all this for no reason. But if some of you were veteran eBay users who've dealt with hundreds of transactions like I have, you'd want to see how flawed this system is, and the best way to do that is to do it first hand. If any of you ever purcahse stuff from eBay in the future and have money ripped off because a seller didn't send you your item(and didn't reply to your contacts), you'd go to eBay...NOT the seller. The seller should have never been allowed to sell because of his/her history, yet you were gullible and tempted. So you wasted $300 on this new subwoofer. eBay refunds your money, but only $150. Because they do not reimburse certain items worth over $250, and they take a $25 fee and all the money you paid for shipping/gift/insurance was never recovered...you lost practically $150. eBay takes almost no credibility for their vendors, even though the vendors themselves pay eBay fees for using their service. eBay tells you that the seller would be banned...but only the account. The same seller can go back to eBay and do the same thing again...from the same computer, using the same credit card and billing information. Is this what you would want?

So again, for the 1000x time: Ripping people off 40 cents WAS WRONG, I don't get joyous over it. But they got their money back, that much I guarantee. I admit that. And yes, it's a bit hypocritical of me to be saying eBay is putting people out of business while I rip off 40 cents per auction. But for what eBay raises in fees, they have NO PLANS to improve their Fraud Protection program. Think about it, an average of 60% fee hike and no security improvement? Just wait till some of you decide to shop at eBay and have someone rip you off and watch eBay do nothing about it.

[ZeZipster]

Okay I've got you down Dingo... I'll switch to a Mac and boycott Ebay around thursday. Any other requests?

Actually, I've never used ebay.

[MecaKane]

Maybe Ebay's trying to prove a point, that their site is so popular people will pay whatever they charge to sell on it, and still come back if they get ripped off. And, as you said, since they're trying to prove an important point it doesn't matter how much or how little of people's time and money they waste.