Ebuster documented review of eBays complaints procedure

Complaints
General Police Trading Standards
Scams
Ebay does nothing Script injection Fake login page Shill bidding Shill bidding case history Fake china gold Selling Feedback eBays dirty tricks Cars not what they seem Birmingham car scam
Motors

Complaints to eBay are meet by a deaf ear and blind eye

No matter how persistent you are or even if a couple of disgruntled eBay members get together to report a fraudster or a serious security problem the chances are you will get nowhere and this all starts as soon as you try to navigate the maze of contact us pages and find none of selectable categories real apply to what you would like to report.

Once you have managed to file a complaint the usual pattern in the first instance is you get one of them

automated response from a machine usually referring you to a web page and then if your lucks in you may get a slightly more detailed response from a human saying thanks for reporting the problem they take such reports seriously blur.. blur blur.. and that�s about the last you will ever hear of the matter even if you continue to report the problem has not been dealt with or that the fraudster is still operation and is continuing to rip people off.

I can not begin to say how many reports I have filed reports with eBay ranging from fake login pages on www.eBay.About.com to script injection but lets take a look at a case I was asked to get involved in where machushu200288 is selling so called real gold worth $980 for the remarkable knock down price of $5 but the sting is Paypal may refund your money if the sellers still has funds in the account and the fraudster may even let you keep your cheap fake but he�s quite happy as he gets to keep the $19 postal costs and the negative feedback you leave will do you no good as he has dozens of accounts that you more than likely by now know about having have reported them to eBay but to only be meet with a wall of silence.

Dear Ebay

A gang from China is selling fake gold, I�m not the first to report this gang and yet eBay has done nothing to close any of the accounts down and I am in receipt of messages from other eBay members concerning this gang, Please do something.

Hello ebuster*,

Thank you for your report in relation to fake gold items.

Unfortunately, we can only accept reports of specific item numbers, not User IDs, search results or links. If you suspect a seller of listing items that breach our policies, please send us all of the questionable item numbers that you find. Read original message

Dear eBay

I have already told you it's not about a single item it's about a gang selling a ton of fake gold.

Subject: Bedankt dat je contact opneemt met eBay! (KMM17287379V12542L0KM) Received: 20-May-09
From: eBay Customer Support Expires: 19-Jun-09
Bedankt voor uw e-mail aan eBay.

Dat u deze automatische e-mail ontvangt betekent dat uw e-mail bij ons is aangekomen en dat u ons niet opnieuw hoeft te schrijven vanwege dit onderwerp. Read original message

We behandelen iedere e-mail die we van onze gebruikers ontvangen serieus en streven ernaar u snel een juist en volledig antwoord te geven.

Dear Ebay

I can not read a word of this and i keep telling you i am english and my registered address is in the UK so what is the problom.

Hello eBuster,

Thank you for contacting us. I understand your concern about a gang of fraudulent members and I appreciate the chance to assist you with this. I also would like to apologise for the delay of our response.

We're anxious to help you sort this out, but need a bit more information from you.

Please reply to this email to let us know:

- The item number of the item in question.
- Your eBay user ID and the user ID of the other member
- Any other information you think might help us resolve this.

As soon as we hear back from you we'll start looking into this. Read original message

Dear eBay

OK i give in here are just a couple of item numbers

220425383004
220424295119
Now will you please do something else i will do it myself.

Dear eBuster

Thank you for taking the time to report the Gold bangle listings that may be in breach of eBay policy. We'll investigate your report thoroughly.

Rest assured, we'll definitely have a look at the items reported by you and take the appropriate action if required. Blur.. blur.. click these links and i chopped the rest off Read original message

By now weeks have gone by and eBay still does nothing so i bid and win two of these fantastic bargains but i needed some luck as one of the items i only won as a second chance offer which is a common indication of a scammer at work

Hello eBuster,

Thank you for writing to us regarding the 2 items you have purchased from "machushu200288". understand the inconvenience this situation has caused you and I apologise for the delay of responding.

We're anxious to help you sort this out, but need a bit more information from you. Please reply to this email to let us know the item number for this item.

Here's how to find an item number: Blur.. Blur.. Blur... machine footer Read original message

Dear machushu200288 here is some nice feedback for your fakes and it's a shame i'm having to do this job and not eBay. (Note the negative feedback for now )

Message from machushu200288
Dear ebuster*,

in fact,we fused gold and Ti to make the 14K gold item,the gold is less than 14KT.but the item is composed of solid gold and Ti. And the ruby is created. we produce and market on our own,our profit is very poor. Like this 100% pure gold and ruby RRP is more than 3000$,but our item is less than 20$. If u do not want this items,pls return it back.and we charge the shipping fees.We will refund full money. Thks for your kind understanding this. Read original message

Mr machushu200288 Admits it is not certified gold or even 14k as per advert and apparantly they make it themselves from Tin but he seems to have forgot not only have I not received the item but I have not even paid for it yet and since he has only has about 20 points at this stage it would suggest he�s running quite a number of accounts. Oh look I found another one But as the notes show he�s not quite so keen to deal with me this time so lets get back to see what eBay is doing.

Hello,

Thank you for writing to eBay. My name is XXXXXX, and I appreciate the chance to assist you regarding your seller report.

Given the nature of the information that you have provided, I will need to further investigate this issue before appropriate action can be taken. While I cannot necessarily keep you fully advised of the actions being taken, I promise to thoroughly investigate the information you have provided.

I apologize for your inconvenience. Read original message

OK by now I�m getting a little tired but the next turn of events may surprise you as this cheeky little git put in an unpaid dispute against me so naturally I appeal the case and point out to eBay that I have been reporting this fraudster to them for the past two weeks but the next thing I know is I get two strikes against me which I object to and eventually get one strike removed.

Yes folks and not only that but eBay removes the feedback I left to warn other members against buying from machushu200288 and he gets to keep the point so I don�t think anyone can dispute that not only is eBay incompetent and should not be allowed to operate but they are clearly on the side of the criminals and this is just the tip of the iceburg when it comes to fake gold from china.

As you can see this is a full documented case of massive fraud on eBay and now I will once again ask eBay to do the job honest eBay members expect them to do.

News flash 15/06/2009 Yes credit to eBay they put the negative feedback on machushu200288 account like I asked them to do so lets now see if they close the account and follow up on the other members all selling fake gold from China. News flash 24/06/2009 Looks like eBay can not make their minds up and removed the feedback again so allowing a scammer to continue rippin people off.
News flash 12/07/2009 both machushu200288 and sincerezjt200588 both became no registered users today and shown below is a message from an eBay member that lost money after I had tried to warn everyone.

News flash 13/07/2009 I posted this on the eBay forum after the accounts got closed down but the moderator decided to delete it. I wonder why.

So as you can see not only does eBay fail to act when several members complain about fraud on eBay the members risk been given no payment strikes, don�t get refunded and negative feedback gets removed and if anyone tried to warn other members then they get censored.
A spokes person from eBay was not available for comment.

Comment (1) Posted on 8/12/2009 by Dave
Fed up talking to a machine!!

I thought I was the only one, am glad to see that someone has taken the time in building this site which shows that e-bay is far from perfect, if they were, you would have a phone number that you could contact them to discuss problems, I hate the automated responses and then waiting for a real person to contact you with a standard reply and which does not really address the problem that you have raised. Thanks for highlighting the problem, and I look forward to seeing what else is raised to make people aware.

Dave in Wales

Comment (2) Posted on 9/9/2009 by Laura
Are there real people at ebay

When you finally get through the mine field of info to work out how and where you complain, its all done by e-mail messages and you only have a certain numbers of characters that you can use to describe the problem, and then you get a automated message in response and never get a really response from anyone who has personally looked into your problem.

Can we not have a UK call centre even if it is in Mumbai, I would rather talk to a really person then a machine.

Laura

Comment (3) Posted on 3/22/2010 by Mick
Complaining about breaches of e-bay policy

I complained to ebay about a breach of Uk law and ebay policy by a seller. Initially I got a smooth brush off response from one of ebays real or otherwise respondents woffling on about helping me with this problem. She pointed out that ebay was a cross country organisation & therefore it was up to sellers to comply with national law. I responded that the seller was breaking UK & EU law and ebay operated in the UK and EU and so was subject to UK & EU law. I also quoted the precise legislation. I also said that if they considered themselves to be above the law could they please let me know. I then got a response saying they'd contacted the seller and enforced their policy. The final bit of the response was advising I had raised the matter through the wrong channel & I should have used the 'Report this item' link. The item wasn't breaching their policy or breaking the law it was the seller.

Mick

Comment (4) Posted on 4/6/2010 by CT

I listed some True Religion jeans from China. Not knowing they were knockoffs. After customers reported me to Ebay, had my account suspended, filed complaints and got their money back from PayPal. I tried to get PayPal to help get my money back from the seller. They refused saying it was a third party and only covered items sold on Ebay. Huh? Weren't they sold on Ebay? I contacted the original seller they would only refund the price of the jeans not shipping. I wound up with $15 on one pair, $10 on another. They kept $32 a pair for shipping. Just to inform all reading this there are 1000's of these peoples items being sold on Ebay and you are getting scammed! The sellers are on DHGate.com.