Ebay Buyer Protection: Members BEWARE
Unfortunately, every once in a while, every antique bottle enthusiast will be cheated by a dishonest seller, auctioneer or dealer who fraudulently misrepresents his wares in order to deceive buyers.
When that happens on EBAY, purchases are presumably "covered" by EBAY Buyer Protection. This article describes my first and only experience with EBAY Buyer Protection, my complete dissatisfaction with the process, and a warning to buyers: don't presume to be "protected" by EBAY.
We all know that dishonest sellers flame out early in the hobby. They choose short-term profit and a marred reputation over a lifetime of honest dealing and respect. That's why there are so few--they eventually "weed themselves out".
EBAY on the other hand is a huge corporation. If EBAY not only fails to help eliminate dishonest sellers, but in fact rewards them, then EBAY will flame out as well. Is this what's beginning to happen with EBAYs antique bottle category?
Recently, a number of EBAY buyers were stung by hidden damage among dozens of pontiled soda auctions. Cracks and chips (undetectable in the photo images) were present on bottles described as having "no damage", including one described as "pontiled" which was not. In 12 years of buying on EBAY, this was the worst case of misrepresentation I've seen, and clearly dishonest. We're talking about 3/4 inch chips on a bottle described as perfect, and a 3-inch crack in a bottle described as "sound".
Needless to say, there was ample justification to inform EBAY of the misrepresentationm, but I contacted the seller first requesting a standard return / refund. After 48 hours and no response, I invoked "Buyer Protection". EBAY suggested we try to "work things out" first, if possible, and the seller promised a full refund (twice) but never fulfilled that promise.
If you examine the screencap provided for item one you can see the timeline of arbitration from the time this case was opened to the present date of this writing. Note that between September 9 and September 17 the seller dragged out the agreement with EBAY to refund the purchase amount, and I escalated the case thereafter.
EBAY then agreed to refund my money upon shipping the item back to the seller. You can see that the item was delivered on 9/27/10 and as of 10/04/10 there has been no update to the 9/26 notation which states that EBAY has the tracking number and will refund upon confirmation of receipt.
In the screencap for item two you can see where a similar sequence occurs, except that when I attempted to enter the tracking number, another tracking number was already in its place.
I assumed that EBAY had determined (from the seller, or PAYPAL) that both bottles were being returned together, just as they had been shipped to me, and had tied an internal tracking number from the second case (the Steel) to the postal tracking number of the first case (the Tholey). But I could not confirm this with EBAY, as the former "respond" link disappeared, just like it did when entering the real tracking number for the Tholey. At that point, apparently, responses are disabled until delivery is confirmed.
On 9/28/10, EBAY then responded that it could not confirm delivery, so was withdrawing it's refund offer and closing the case. "Sorry it didn't work out" says EBAY. Now the respond link reappears, so I can "appeal" the decision, which I did, providing even more detail (though by now, it's pretty obvious where this is headed).
From my EBAY inbox, I found the message regarding the 1st case, pending refund, and repeated all of the above for the case on appeal, also asking why the pending case is still not updated, and no refund sent, 5 days after delivery confirmation.
EBAY'S system confirmed my message was sent, but there is no copy of it in my sent items folder. As of 10/4/10 EBAY has done NOTHING regarding either case beyond removing my ability to communate with them by removing all respond links in their system.
In essence, EBAY advises buyers to ship back damaged items at their expense, for a full refund, then refuses to honor the refund. This is insurance fraud. Buyers are robbed of their original purchase price and shipping, as well as their return shipping expense, and end up with no merchandise, no compensation for their time, trouble or expense, and dishonest sellers receive their merchandise back, to misrepresent again on EBAY.
My assessment is that EBAY's Buyer Protection process is designed to fail. The process is tedious, cryptic and far from user-friendly. Obviously, if buyers can't figure it out, they'll give up and a certain percentage will simply go away. Others who persevere through the EBAY process encounter invalid tracking numbers, inconsistent communication options (Outlook isn't one of them) and a system designed to convey "user error" as an excuse for "Sorry it didn't work out".
Whether through attrition, technical flaws, or by intentional design, the process fails and EBAY retains its so called "buyer protection" refund revenue. And in so doing, EBAY becomes an accomplice to seller fraud, and an enabler of future misrepresentation. The buyer is ripped off by both the seller and EBAY.
I flamed EBAY in it's "follow up" customer service survey, which was sent to me before any of these issues were resolved, probably as confirmation that they won't be. EBAY's decision is final, and this survey allows for "closure".
This causes members to distrust EBAY, and it discourages me from bidding. even as I was already discouraged from selling. EBAY member problems have increased lately, and the quality of both buyers and sellers is declining, despite the occasional auctions of well known reputable dealers. This decline hurts sales for honest sellers. EBAY's failure to protect quality buyers erodes confidence.
Some people will pursue EBAY for months, spending many hours to reclaim a fraction of what their time is worth. But one month after purchasing misrepresented items, having done everything by the book and still having received no refund, my determination is that EBAY Buyer Protection is a fraud.
More than likely, a class action insurance fraud suit will be brought against EBAY. You'll see the impact on their stock value as EBAY continues to degenerate into a "low-end" venue for dishonest sellers, scamming disappointed buyers, backed by a false promise of "protection".
Members BEWARE.
Update - Action Links:
http://myfloridalegal.com
http://classactionworld.com
http://classactionlawsuitsinthenews.com
http://blog.auctionbytes.com
http://www.aboutpaypal.org/paypal_lawsuit (already contacted).
