From tonysounds@yahoo.com Fri Dec 15 05:19:46 2006
Subject:Re: OT: I've been screwed on eBay/Nord88

The two episodes are probably unrelated. Always report such ebay messages first by forwarding them directly to spoof@ebay.com. You'll know within an hour whether it was a real ebay message or not.

As for the bidder, some people are complete assholes. And the whole internet auction/secondhand commerce thing is predicated on the principle that people are inherently good. (Unfortunately, that's an assinine assumption in some cases.)

Typical example: my NordStage 88 auction was set for US BIDDERS only, and as a no-reserve auction with a Buy It Now option. Simple, right? Wrong. The idiot buyer does buy it now, sends me his contact info with a bad phone number, and says "I am in Toronto Canada, please send me cost for shipping and total amount. It will make a nice Christmas gift for me, please give me a deal." !!!!!! I call UPS and find out to ship an item of that size and weight across US borders will cost $145, and I figure that into the total cost, and email him back, letting him know that as a Buy It Now, he needs to use my PayPal account, which is also set up for a 'no payment for 60 days' option, with a note letting him know that he just got a $4100 list price keyboard with a free Gator Case for $2700 and shipping, and that was a plenty good deal. Then I found out ToolTime is a newbie, and that the phone number is nonexistent and needless to say, he hasn't responded to any emails.

I can't file a non-paying bidder for another 7 days, it will take another 14 days to get a final value credit and free relist, and that of course puts me past Christmas. THANKS douchebag!

As for why I say "US Bidders Only"? 4 years ago, I had an ebay rating of stellar: over 150 items sold with no complaints, no unsatisfactory ratings, and a jerk from Italy buys my Studio Electronics SE1 rack minimoog for a great price of $800. He then tells me to ship it to him with no insurance. I say "no way." He begs and pleads saying the tarriffs are killer, and he does this all the time, ship it AirFreight USPS or some such nonsense, and don't insure it. He gives me exact instructions on how to do this transaction HIS way, I save every single email between us in a folder, he pays me, I capitulate. A month later he wants to know where his item is, I give him the tracking number. The long n short: because it was not insured, the USPS can only track this item to its departure from US territory: I have no idea what happened to it after that, he gets irate, even though he can see that I did indeed ship the item, but reports me to Ebay Germany (??!!!! Ebay Germany?
This was a Ebay US deal with an Ebay ITALY customer, but go figure), and they just CANCEL my priviliges. No dispute resolution, no FairPlay, or SQUARE TRADE, nothing. Zip, cancel, gone. I try to resucitate my privileges by providing proof of shipment, proof of his desire to scam his government out of their taxes/duties, to no avail.

I had to start all over again, and said at that point, no non-US bidders, no non-insurers. I guess now I have to say "no buy it nows" because I could have rejected this pinhead's bid since he was a no-rating foreign buyer had I not had Buy It Now as an option.

I'm not sure what kind of safety net Craigs List offers, but at least with Ebay, there is a semblance of 'patrol'....weak as it may be. Considering that 99.8 percent of my dealings on ebay have been problem free, it could be worse. The only other issue I had was when I purchased a used Roland JV3080 on ebay ($810) from a seller down in Atlanta with a decent rating. Long n short: he stiffed me. I reported him. He listed the item again, under a psuedonym, and I warned his bidders this was a fraudulent character (the wording in his auction was the giveaway to his identity), and sure enough, the winner disregarded my warning, and paid:he receiv'd no item, and emailed me back. I started searching 3080s and found this cretin relisting under at least 10 different names, but always giving himself away, and I kept reporting him to ebay. I did some detective work and got his phone number and actually spoke to him; he denied his identity. I reported him to the States
Attorney's office in Atlanta (he was in Marietta, just outside). Finally, about 2 years later, I get a call from the State's Attorney, wanting to know if I'll press charges. "HELL YES!" Will you come and testify? "HELL YES." This asshole actually defraud ebayers out of over $100,000 in a 6 month period. The case changes prosecutors 3times, but I get a call asking if I would accept a full refund plus interest for my troubles as part of his plea bargain. While it chapped my ass to do it, I took the money. I got a check in 90 days (almost 3 years after the fact) for the full amount.

My advice: list the item again, be vigilant about filing your complaint, and set your auctions up with wording that you reserve the right to cancel all bidders with a bad rating, or a bad review, and all foreign buyers at your discretion.

That said, anyone want to buy a Nord 88 for Christmas with a free case? I'll sell it cheaper than my auction so that I don't need to relist it....in 10 days.

T
Josh Lawrence wrote:
Guys, I'm just venting here. Totally OT, so if you don't want to read
about eBay woes, delete now.

I posted an item two weeks ago, and it sold for a good price. The
next day I received an email alert from eBay (verified it
independantly by logging on to eBay and finding the same exact
message, it had no links to click on, etc...in other words, not a
spoof) that eBay had changed my account pwd, and that my account had
been compromised. So I went to the eBay site (again, NOT a clicked
link, but actual www.ebay.com) and changed my pwd and checked all of
my personal information, pending bids, etc. Everything is cool. Now
the buyer won't respond to me or pay me for my item. I tried to
report him as a non-paying bidder, but dammit, the dispute console
gets two steps into the process ("What has been done so far"), dies,
and goes right back to the first step. WTF? I have no money, still
have the item I don't want, and my account has lost its credibility
with buyers and with me. I'm pissed.

There has GOT to be a better place to sell yer used musical gear that
isn't plagued with all of this crap. Is craiglist my only hope? That
doesn't work too well - I live in a town of 100,000, and exactly two
people MIGHT care about having my item.

I'm just pissed. Snakes on a plane pissed. You guys have this problem before?

Clonewheel content: The item was the E-mu module I recently bought.
The sound is NOT for me.

--
Josh Lawrence
http://www.hardbop200.com




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