There appears to be an ongoing problem, Bruce, and all other sellers, that
remains to be fixed.
We have just received a (legit) eBay message indicating exactly what Bruce
describes in his post.
This was for one item, sold from our eBay store and paid for immediately via
PP just in the last few hours. The buyer is legit, the PP payment is legit.
But the item no longer exists because eBay has removed it. The buyer is
still there, and nothing in his feedback and buying patterns indicate
anything untoward at all.
Presumably one ships the item to the buyer and hopes that eBay manages to
fix what is clearly a serious problem.
Outside of Auctionbytes and online forums, is this being reported elsewhere?
Apparently eBay is curtailing much discussion on its own boards. Check the
Auctionbytes articles for regular updates on that.
Folks - if you haven't already, go get those passwords changed PDQ.
Something very, very strange is going on and it appears to be at an
international level, not just the US site.
While we are steadily phasing our movie paper dealings off the venue and
doing the majority of our real business through our website, such matters
are time consuming and tedious to deal with - especially when the messages
tell one DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE.
Go back and enjoy the rest of the holiday, Bruce.... eBay and it's attendant
issues will still be there when you return, unfortunately.
Regards,
Phil & Mila
www.cinemarts.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bruce Hershenson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2007 7:49 AM
Subject: Re: [MOPO] Strange doings in Bruce's auctions
Boy! I try to close down for two weeks and enjoy a very RARE vacation, and
eBay pulls yet another of its major blunders!
Here is the story: The auctions in question were all won by a single
buyer. That person is a very major collector of memorabilia of all kinds,
and literally buys hundreds of items many weeks. Someone who this person
bought from did not get any reply from that person, likely because their
e-mails were filtered out by a spam filter (anyone who sends lots of
e-mails knows this is a growing problem). So they panicked and requested
the buyer's phone number, and when they could not reach them that way,
they reported them to eBay.
Now, had this happened during the week, the person at eBay receiving the
report would have had the brains and the experience to know that this
meant nothing bad, and they would have made an effort to contact the major
collector themselves, and, at the very worst, they would have suspended
the account, to make sure the collector would notice it, and contact eBay
to get reinstated.
But because this happened on the weekend (coincidentally, the day after I
closed for two weeks), the report went to some weekend employee of eBay,
likely an ex-burger flipper. This person read what had happened, and put
two and two together and got 22, and decided this was a classic "hijack".
They cancelled ALL the major collector's current bids, and, for good
measure, cancelled ALL the major collector's bids from the past thirty
days, which meant EVERY auction that collector had bid in was now wiped
from the eBay system (55 of my recently closed auctions, and hundreds more
from other sellers)!
This triggers the e-mail EVERY single person bidding on any of those
auctions received (including many MoPo members). The e-mail states that
the auction was cancelled and gives the impression that the buyer or the
seller did something wrong, when actually the ONLY one who did anything
wrong was eBay itself!
Now one wonders what senior person at eBay made the decision to give a
person in this position THIS MUCH POWER! They did not have to consult
anyone, they did not have to verify anything, and, this is not at all out
of the ordinary, for, as senior eBay employees have told me in the past,
eBay's Trust & Safety Department likes to "shoot first and ask questions
later"!
What will happen now? Well, since the person IS a completely legitimate
buyer, and since all the auctions have been paid for, and the items sent,
there is nothing needs to be done there. But the only way for eBay to
reach those bidders is to reinstate the closed auctions, for they no
longer have a record of the bidders and can only get them back by
reinstating the auctions. So they will reinstate the auctions and send out
very carefully worded e-mails to those who got the first one that
basically say, "Sorry, move on, nothing to see here" without in any way
admitting they did anything wrong, and without in any way admitting that
the buyer and sellers did nothing wrong.
So I will have to waste a bunch of my time answering e-mails and letters,
telling this same story over and over, and likely there will be a few
wacky people who think there is a cover-up of some kind. All the more
reason I eagerly look forward to the day when I am no longer an eBay
seller.
Thanks, eBay, for allowing one of your employees to mes up my vacation!
Now I will return to the rest of my two week vacation. I will be adding
new items to eBay on the 29th and on October 1st (both as ten day
auctions) so that they end on the Tuesday and Thursday after I return (the
9th and the 11th). Currently, I have just ONE auction on each of my
accounts, telling people that I am on vacation, and the winners of those
auctions get a set of my 27 books. One ends in two days and is at $102.50,
and the other ends in four days and is at 80 cents! In case any of you
want to bid on that one, it is at
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=60315&item=130156642727
I shouldn't be posting to MoPo again until I list the first group of items
on the 29th. Hopefully I won't have my vacation interrupted again,
especially for such a silly reason!
Bruce
Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com
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