eBay hilarity

[Barbara S.]

Fellas, don't be too jealous, but I found a fully restored 1967 BB car on eBay-only $9500 delivered to my house! That's right! $9500!

Oh, I forgot to mention the catch. The only condition is, I have to agree to western union my $3000 "deposit" to the seller who is in Italy helping her poor, sick grandfather. Now, I'm assured that if I don't like the car when it arrives, that I'll get a full refund. Yep, a full refund all the way from Italy.

I wrote back and said that I'll do the deal, but with a slight twist. The seller has to bring the car all the way from Italy to my front door in Parkville, Missouri with a good title and I'll just pay her the $9500 upon delivery for that fully restored original '67 BB car.

I guess I better keep the porch light on for her...

[Tracy C.]

If you were asked to verify your contact info or

any eBay password verification information to correspond with this person, you better go into your eBay account and change your password NOW!!.

This scamster is using these auctions to hi-Jack ebay user names and passwords and collect the deposit money from idiots who believe in the "free lunch" theory.

tc

[Steve Antonucci]

Re: If you were asked to verify your contact info

Tracy,

I don't want to go off on a tangent discussion but enough has to be enough!

What exactly is eBay doing for the user community in this area? This crap
goes on endlessly! Too many "less informed" eBayers get taken by this stuff
and all eBay tells us is that they will never ask for personal account info.

Recently, I won a car auction on eBay. It came with a 30 day warranty. Well,
by the time I paid for the car, found a carrier, then actually took possession
of the car ( all the way from Washington State to North Carolina ), 28 days had
ellapsed. So much for the 30 day warranty right. Well, I tried & tried to
reason with eBay about the 30 day period starting from the day I take delivery,
not the auction end date. No luck. So, I contacted the insurance company eBay
uses and they informed me that eBay set the rules for the 30 day policy, not the
insurance company.

My point is that I am starting to have sincere reservations about the honesty
of eBay as a company. When you raise a question, eBay gets on their soap box
and blame the seller & bidder community for the problems. Can any of us
honestly point to a case where eBay came to someone's rescue in such a case?
I've been an eBay member for years and gotten burned several times. Each time,
eBay had some reason that they couldn't help.

If you ask me, it looks like eBay put together a great business model where they
make tons of money and because there is no human interaction, they plead the
fifth!

OK guys, I'll get of my siap box now!

Steve

[John H.]

Re: If you were asked to verify your contact info

Steve, thanks for your comments regarding e-bay.
I think feedback such as yours can always be helpful for all.
Big John

[Tracy C.]

Re: If you were asked to verify your contact info

I can't knock eBay, I've never really gotten burned, but only because I ask probing questions and don't bid when I see a "red flag".

When you think about the volume of auctions that close every second.... I can't believe the system even operates at all. To their credit, eBay usually gets this type of auction shut down after a couple of days.

Buyer beware... and don't forget the questions to the seller. Honest sellers invite and respond to them ASAP.

[Barbara S.]

Re: If you were asked to verify your contact info

Steve: the old legal axiom still holds true: caveat emptor-let the buyer beware. If the deal seems to good to be true, it usually is.

Ebay has received alot of criticism from collector circles other than vintage cars. If you think it's bad with cars, you should check out the remarks from the arrowhead collectors. There's an entire site devoted to just uncovering fake arrowheads on ebay.

There are good and bad offerings on ebay. A buyer just has to use his wits to figure which is which.

Best,
Tony