[MOPO] The Big Con

[J R]

Bruce,   It is obvious that eBay could put into place an "alarm system" that alerted them if one user was suddenly using Buy It Now to buy even 100 items in a short period of time, much less 11,000 (!). The fact that they don't bother is damning evidence that you are correct in your opinion that their approach goes beyond not caring and into the realm of actual participation in the crime. They are the *only* ones who benefit from allowing this kind of activity to continue.   I just did a quick calculation -- to do 11,000 buys in 1 day would require clicking the Buy It Now button on a new auction once every 8 seconds continuously for 24 hours straight! Obviously, this fraudulent buying spree went on for quite a few days before eBay stopped it.   The policy of not refunding ALL fees charged on clearly bogus transactions such as this is unbelievable -- and would not be tolerated if it were practiced by any brick-and-mortar business (or very many e-businesses for that matter). I believe their refusal to refund fees on clearly fraudulent purchases leaves them open to a massive lawsuit -- I am amazed that with all the lawyers out there that no one has dragged them into court over this.   The only solution is for the sellers to take coordinated action and BOYCOTT the use of Buy It Now (and the use of Reserve Pricing) until eBay changes their policy on refunds on fraudulent and non-paying bidders. If a handful of the power sellers who use buy it now and reserves were to get together and do this -- and simply place their usual "buy it now" or reserve price as the minimum starting bid -- eBay would snap out of their criminal negligence pretty quickly I bet.   -- JR ----- Original Message ----- From: Bruce Hershenson To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, September 20, 2004 11:08 Subject: [MOPO] eBay doesn't care about buyers OR sellers, just themselves! And Anonymous wrote: "bruce, of course, has the best descriptions.  yet, someone can hurt his rating by buying a 99cents poster and leaving him bad feedback.  isn't it more importnat to rely on the person buying a poster for $1,000 and being satisfed?  under the present, stupid ebay feednack system, that 99cents buyer has an equal impact." Thanks for the kind words.  But I think you are thinking that eBay wants their feedback system to work well, when actually they just want it to make their bigger sellers look good, even if it causes lots of buyers to get cheated! It was revealed today that a crazy bidder bought 11,000 Buy It Now items yesterday (including a $800,000 airplane) before he was finally shut down! The pathetic thing is, eBay made LOTS of money off of him.  They keep all the listing fees and featured fees!  HOW SICK IS THAT! Bruce Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.