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Story: Judge raps eBay over fraud

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Posted by: Bruce Florist (Friday 1 April 2005, 3:24 AM)

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In my opinion, Ebay routinely MAKES a LOT of MONEY on fraud. Here's how: When a seller lists an item for sale and the auction is won by a fraudulent (Non-paying) buyer, the seller has only 3 chioces: 1. send a second-chance offer to the next-lowest bidder, if there is one, thus.Ebay makes the full fee 2. Re-list the item in a new auction and Ebay makes the full fee PLUS certain non-refundable charges from the first, unsuccessful auction. In this case, Ebay makes the MOST money because they keep the funds for the first auction, refunding only a portion, and then they make FULL-FEE a second time on the second one 3. Give up and pay the listing fee and apply for a refund on the listing fee MINUS certain fees charged by Ebay- these charges can be significant and they keep the money they DO refund to the seller for over 2 weeks!
I just had a $200-plus auction won by a person with a negative 2 feedback rating that Ebay has permitted to stay registered for FIVE YEARS! The first time they won an auction athey never paid and the next time was 3 years later then now, 2 years after that. Ebay has no telephone support and weak-as-hell on-line live customer support, just sending cheesy form letters that never realy address the actual problem. I think some of these fake buyers are Power Sellers, using this to elliminate smaller individual sellers with whom they compete. I also would not be surprised if Ebay hasI emplyees maintaining multiple identities and doing this type of thing in order to maintian a strong cash-flow. They will demand their $50 fee for a my auction and then give a small refund 2 weeks later. Multiply that times a few thousand transactions ber day and you see how Ebay protects fraud, LIKES fraud, and, most importantly, MAKES MONEY with Fraud.

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