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Jim,
Your observations are right on. I've been on eBay since December 1997. The solutions that eBay has implemented to stop the scams are also motivated by self interest. eBay also intends to prevent member communication and the direct offer transactions to preserve lost revenues.

eBay is never going to hire a lot of people to monitor the auctions. Keep one thing in mind...eBay's philosophy is simply to bring buyer and seller together and let the members self police through the feedback system. I'm certain that eBay will only do the very minimum to keep the site functioning smoothly, in their view.

Case in point. Last month when Butch Greer's photos and someone's account were hijacked, Butch himself notified eBay. Others on this site notified eBay. With over a day left in the auction, I wrote to eBay recapping and detailing the entire sequence of events. eBay never bothered to respond and the auction ended with no eBay intervention. How much evidence do they need to show fraud? That's negligence in my mind. I just hope the high bidder didn't get taken on that one. But try as we may, we can't protect everybody, especially the clueless and naive bidders.

Paul

Paul,

You know the frustrations of seeing, knowing and TRYING to alert e-Bay that an auction is a FRAUD and NOTHING is done. I can say that I too have been in the same boat.

When comes to petroliana, I am as green as the Dino. I am however a seasoned veteran when it comes to model trains and 60's Chevys. You see the listing for a $100,000+ Corvette with the "BUY IT NOW 9800 US" in super big print across the front of the listing photograph. The listing is filled with stuff like "Do not contact me through the e-Bay system my mailbox is full and I can not receive your message." Then there is a hyper link to either a Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail account.

ANYONE WITH HALF A BRAIN CELL WOULD KNOW THAT WITH THE "BUY-IT-NOW" BULL PLASTERED ON THE PHOTO AND THE TEXT ABOUT THE E-MAIL THAT IT IS A SCAM.....RIGHT????Not if you are e-Bay!!!!! These scammers are running these auction on a one day basis (24 hours) because they know they may be able to reel in a sucker, before e-Bay gets around to canning the listing.

When I started using e-Bay in January of 2000, it was like a giant swap meet, only you didn't pay admission and didn't have to drive. Now, it feels like you are swimming in fish tank with a dozen great white sharks. You look at the seller with a jaded eye and the seller looks back at you with the same distrust.

E-Bay has gotten TOO BIG to for the members to "police the transactions through the feedback system." The feedback system has become, "The Ransom System" or "The Hostage System", for many buyers and sellers don't freely and TRUTHFULLY exhange feedback anymore. The seller doesn't post feedback for the buyer, so that if the buyer dings them with a negative, they smack the buyer with a negative. Feedback has turned into a battle zone.....not one of "self policing".....BULL FARTS on the members "policing" the site. The site is too BIG and TOO MUCH MONEY is flowing for the head of the monster, NOT to take control.

E-Bay better be careful, for without some strong intervention, to keep the site as safe as possible, people will find other ways to buy and sell.

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Jim

[This message has been edited by Jim_Becker68 (edited 01-15-2007).]

Jim,
I agree with all your observations...but you're preaching to the choir. eBay will quickly suspend a user for attempting to make an off-eBay offer for an item but can't stop a fraud situation clearly identified by several sources?? It certainly demonstrates their true priorities...to make money!!

In order to survive long term, eBay will have to find a way to prevent the scams. Some they won't be able to stop. However, it seems like a couple of the problems could be solved.

First of all, eBay should increase the staff (recall I said they wouldn't to keep costs down) and educate the staff on how to identify fraud and act promptly to stop it.

Secondly, they need to find software solutions to prevent the scam "second chance offers" and phishing attempts. After all, in order to hijack dormant accounts the scammers must use phishing to get the passwords. Apparently, the number coding for messages hasn't stopped the scammers at all.

My 2 cents.

Paul

Man they have really messed up their systems!

I just tried to contact a member that had a pump for sale that did not sell - and when I hit the "contact" button they let me type the email - and then had to put in the dumb numbers for ID and then they say I can not email this member because I am not "doing business" with them!!!!! This is a BIG OLD BUNCH of you know what!!!!!!!

The JERKS - take off the contact buttons if we can not email the sellers........

Leave it to the world - every time they get something that works some GEEK has to mess it all up..........

Travis E. Towle
Topeka, Kansas

785-357-1004

That is a brand new wrinkle Travis. That must have been ushered in with the new Bidder 1, 2, policy.

This means you TRULY can't contact another person that you are not involved in a transaction with at the present. This is DEFINATELY a cloked attempt by e-Bay to end the "off e-Bay" sales.

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Jim

Jim, not sure if this is new I recall running into this issue several months ago on an item that did not sell.

Travis, I did check to see if the seller had any other items up for auction and contacted them using that item. Didn't make a deal with the seller but I was able to contact them.

Yea, it just tweeks me... I missed this gas pump and it did not sell. I wanted to know if they still had it and were going to re-list it and what the min was.

No way to contact the seller at all - and they only sell something about once a year so they will just miss my sale...

Great,,


Travis E. Towle
Topeka, Kansas

785-357-1004

I'm not sure why you guys are having a problem contacting sellers. I haven't run into that problem yet. Matter of fact, just yesterday I contacted a seller directly through an auction that ended in November and the item sold for $1,200!

Paul

Ok Paul

Contact this seller for me, see if they still have the pump and what the min they need for it is...

EBAY WILL NOT LET ME!


http://cgi.ebay.com/gilbert-barker-visib...1QQcmdZViewItem

Travis E. Towle
Topeka, Kansas

785-357-1004

Travis go to there feadback page and on the rite side it says contact seller I clicked on it and it went to the page to post youre question.
Brandon

That is what I did last time, "3" times and it would not let me. This time it let me. THEN poped a network password entry for there ebay pic server on the screen.

At least my question went through. "this time"


Travis E. Towle
Topeka, Kansas


785-357-1004

Travis,
Glad to hear you finally got through to the seller with your questions.

Note that on this particular auction, now there is no "Ask Seller a Question" link. The auction states "The seller ended this listing early because the item is no longer available for sale." Possibly eBay eliminates that contact seller function once an item has been deleted? Who knows?

Paul

I can see e-Bay did some big re-tooling when you click on a members name. The "contact member" link is not as pronounced and easily seen as before. Another attempt by e-Bay to slow some of the ways for members to contact each other when an auction is not involved.

I would guess they are not done for security purposes with the contacting another member feature.

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Jim

"Note that on this particular auction, now there is no "Ask Seller a Question" link. The auction states "The seller ended this listing early because the item is no longer available for sale." Possibly eBay eliminates that contact seller function once an item has been deleted? Who knows?"

that is normally the code for the seller got a buy it now offer that sounded good to them and they ended the sale early ... and avoided ebay selling fees ...