They are selling the one thing they never used....

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20021013

LOL :D

lol, that is good. Last year I remember seeing a copy of an Enron Ethics Training manual on EBay.

I nearly got burned on EBay something fierce and haven't used it again since. They cared nothing for my woes, though, nor those of a dozen other members who'd been fleeced by this fellow.

Kudos, and lol. :D

<font color="plum">I guess I've just been lucky...but I've NEVER had a problem with anything I bought off e-Bay.

Never got burned by a vendor and always got the product or item in the condition I expected it.

ALL of my Black Isle games came from there (with the one exception of ToB). I've bought several videos, and a few other miscellaneous items.

The only item I ever had ANY problem with was a dutch auction featuring the "Ultimate Games Collection CD" or something like that. The vendor was promising somewhere around 200 games on the CD. The only problem was that she had....er....sorta copied those games without asking Nintendo, Sega, or the other manufacturer if it was OK (which it was NOT!).

So e-Bay got sued and so did the vendor, but fortunately, they cancelled the auction before I sent my money in.
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Only problem I have had on Ebay have been those annoying people that pop into an auction in the last 30 mins and drive the price up too high :( Other then that I have had all good experiences there.

Had the same experience on Ebay.

A small percentage of people do get burned and contacting Ebay's customer service is next to useless. When you show them proof they still claim ignorance.

I would think that Ebay is making a killing on auction fee's, so they turn a blind eye when minor occurances happen.

Well, the "minor occurence" I was involved in involved a fella who sold about a half-dozen laptops at $1K a piece then cashed and immediately pocketed the cashier's check without ever sending a computer.

I was not part of the group that was technically the eBay Auction fraud group, as my problem occurred outside of eBay. The guy emailed me, the second-highest bidder, claiming the highest bidder had failed to pay. He offered the machine to me at my most recent bid. He would only accept certified check. Fishy. I sent him a credit card check instead, and asked he forward the machine upon my mailing of the check. He did not respond.

After talking to the first guy (who won the bid and balked), I found out he'd been fleecing folks. As well, I noticed that the computer he promised me had a minor flaw - a certain configuration he alleged it had was not available for that particular make/model. I cancelled the check at no cost before it got to my credit card company.

However, Mr. Fraud had made it to a check-cashing place, who was more than willing to send me a demand for payment on the check I'd written. I sent them a letter educating them on some of the finer points of the law surrounding Negotiable Instruments and never heard from them again.

Luckily, local PD in CA contacted me via email and took a statement - I never found out if they caught the guy.

The only real loser here was the unfortunate check-cashing place, which was left holding the bag. Poor them. :( Remember, as my problem occurred the way it did, eBay had absolutely no obligation to pursue it - and was quite happy to inform me of such.

Words to the unwary.

There was a link posted here to a story involving a guy that did confess to doing scams like this. What worried him was

a) Every other auction he saw fit the pattern for a scam exactly

b) Ebay took zero action against him until they absolutley had to

I personaly woudnt touch Ebay, just for those two reasons. But if someone knows where that link is the guy did give a guide on what to look out for.

i've so far never been screwed on e-bay. thats because i Always check what the person is like. make sure they don't just have the same person saying "hey this persons great" to bump up there seller count. also i don't think any con-artist would be dumb enough to con me becuase it would be a waist. i've never spent more than aboyut £30. [img]smile.gif[/img]

i did hear about one couple who tried buying a rolex for $5000 (i think it was dollars) thinking it was a great deal on a $25000 watch. they got conned and where only sent a picture of a watch. problem was the seller had unclearly marked (almost invisibly) put that it was a picture. i never found out if the couple got there money back or not. [img]tongue.gif[/img]