Complaint Review: E-Bay

One the one hand, my incident is just one more report of a dishonest merchant on E-Bay. In this case, it happens to be a Florida seller calling itself "Hot Miami Styles". "Hot Miami Styles" operates an E-Bay Store on which they admit deceptively describing their merchandize. They also admitted to failing to ship items purchased, and owing money to the purchaser and refusing to return it. This would be a complaint about "Hot Miami Styles" except that they are obviously just one of thousands of dishonest merchants supported by E-Bay.

One is always likely to have a few bad apples in any large group. A respectable organization would take steps to weed them out. HOWEVER, in the case of E-Bay, dishonest merchants are shielded from complaint or action by defrauded customers.

E-Bay collects fees on every item listing and every sale. They discourage anything that inhibits more listings and more sales, no matter how deceptive or dishonest they may be. They do nothing to prevent fraud. They knowingly support and promote dishonest merchants as long as they place more listings and generate more sales. There is only mantra at E-Bay: PROFIT.

E-Bay provides its own "investigations" team who investigate complaints. No matter how blatant the lies and fraud, E-Bay will conclude that there is "insufficient evidence". Even the admissions of guilt in the case above were "insufficient evidence". You can escalate - to a PAY service E-Bay provides - but they rely on E-Bay's "investigation".

If you paid my PayPal, the "preferred" payment method, you will discover that PayPal is a subsidiary of E-Bay. PayPal also collects a fee on every transaction. PayPal never finds a merchant in default and refunds your money. When forced to respond to inquiries from the buyers bank, they supply the lies given by the dishonest merchant as fact. No wonder PayPal is "preferred" !!

Dishonest merchants who are "caught" are held harmless. They continue their fraud without hindrance, and often cited by E-Bay as "power sellers" and recommended merchants.

"Hot Miami Styles" wrote an email attempt to extort money from me. I sent a copy to E-Bay. E-Bay said this did not meet their definition of extortion, because they only consider use of negative feedback as extortion, not demands for money. Indeed, E-Bay discourages negative feedback, since it might detract from slaes and further listings.

Jim
Brookeville, Maryland
U.S.A.