ZDNet UK


Skip to Main Content

ZDNet.co.uk - Winner of Best Business Website 2007
  1. Home
  2. News
  3. Blogs
  4. Reviews
  5. Jobs
  6. Resources
  7. Community
  8. My ZDNet

 

ZDNet UK RSS Feeds


Online business Toolkit

Story: Judge raps eBay over fraud

  • Previous comment

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

  • Reply

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.

  • Previous comment

  • Reply to this comment
  • Return to story
  • Report this as offensive


Full Talkback thread


Sentry Posts Blog

Nasa and the virus

Yesterday the BBC ran a story about a computer virus making it into orbit, which I read with incredulity. OK, it's a nice silly season story on the surface, but what really got me was... More

3 comments

Customer data found on eBay server hig...

The recent news about customer details being retrieved from a server sold on eBay is yet another story about the sorry state of information security in the electronic age (see: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/...m).... More

Post a comment

Does it matter if you are an aardvark...

In spam terms, apparently it does. According to Cambridge University security expert Richard Clayton, if your email address is aardvark at animal.net, you are more likely to receive... More

5 comments