Claude,
I’m under no illusions about ebay being a money-making corporation, but it
is a money-making corporation that continually tries to shake off its
image as a flea market that buyers can’t quite trust. Unsafe transactions
affect its revenue in terms of lost customers and confidence in its share
price.
Yes there are millions of auctions, but the vast majority of auctions are
trouble-free, and most people probably can’t be bothered to report those
that aren’t. Once you start filtering it down to only those with more than a
certain number of fraudulent listing reports against them, the totals come
down. If filtered on sale price as well, isn’t $600 quite a high amount
compared to the average ebay sale?
Ebay invested in a mechanism to notify violations. It could well be this
is just a palliative and that everything just disappears into a big black
cyber-hole. Or maybe ebay staff only look at a random sample. Or maybe it
shows up in their ‘unhappy customer’ stats. That’s why I asked a couple of
days ago whether anybody had had any results with this mechanism. I think it
was obvious my question was sceptical, but I’m still optimistic enough to
think it’s worth giving a try.
I’m not advocating that the MOPO Police constantly scan through all the
poster listings for violations, but I don’t like injustice, so if I see
something when I’m browsing, I often feel inclined to do something about it,
however small. It's not going to eradicate the problem, but it might help
somebody for very little effort. From the somewhat enthusiastic response to
Michael’s mention of the CasabIanca, others on the list seem to think likewise
– is that a bad thing?
Now I’ll go and dream some more. Literally. It’s 12:45 am here and time
for some sleep!
All The Best
Paul
In a message dated 13/09/2009 15:27:10 GMT Daylight Time, Twonine5 writes:
Paul
You are tilting at windmills. Phil is right on target. Just go to ebay
at any moment of the day or night and go to "search" in "all categories" in
title only, as it will not accept it in title and description. Type in the
letter "a" there are over 1 million listings with the letter a in the
title so you can imagine how many listings per day exist on ebay.
If you believe they will pay attention to a few complainers about a single
listing that sold for over $600 with 11 bids and 8 different bidders you
are a dreamer.
Ebay has proven itself time and time again that they are only interested
in increasing income and making it more difficult by the day to contact
other users.
Potential lawsuits (Vero) by well capitalized large public companies are a
far cry from the laments of a few poster sellers and/or buyers where ebay
is concerned.
Your dreams about the future improving are exactly as you
described--------hopelessly romantic. I suggest you face reality and take
ebay for what it
has proven itself to be and I don't have to repeat what it is.
Claude
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