A lot of the listings hover around the $48dollar range, zero feedback and what looks to be button mashing a bunch of keys to make a user name.

I had money to gamble in september so I bought a Ofmega groupo, after 2 months of no messages i was able to open a claim and got my money back.

So I'm guessing that the seller immediately closes the account once money is received and then eBay takes the hit. Then the costs get passed on to us. :eyeroll:

Yeah, i took a risk on a 0 feedback seller in mainland china and got stung.
Not a big deal since the initial cost was relatively low and i got the money back from paypal a day or so after i asked.

Took the chance since it listed for $35 instead of the usual $50. Thought there was a chance it was legit since it wasnt outrageously cheaper.


I have purchased a ton of random stuff from china, taiwan, and indonesia.
Spacers, cable ends, housing stops, cheap tape, jr mtb bars, and more. I just bought some microshift STIs from what i think is mainland china.
All of its been delivered in good time and is of the quality i expect for the prices i paid.

I dont see a reason to ban that entire part of the world just because some scam.

This is what I don't understand.
Ebay and Paypal are pretty tough these days on protecting Buyers.
Even if it is a scam, presumably I won't get the goods, I will open a claim and I will be reimbursed.
Where does that reimbursement money come from? From the seller if ebay can collect from them , and if not? from some fund that Ebay/Paypal operate?

so who is out of pocket here?

Peter

Not all keep track and go through the effort, consider time, if you forget long enough, the scam worked.

Ebay most likely has an account for dead beat sellers and buyers (a claims paid account if I had to guess.) You nailed it in that these costs are passed along in the fees charged by eBay, just like a loss to theft entry in retail. No free lunches.

Bill

If you are a 0 feedback seller and are using Paypal then you don't get the money until you get positive feedback or the claim period has passed, usually.

That right there is why I quit Ebay. Customer service? What customer service?

DD

What E-Bay could do is vet maybe a thousand long-term customers and give them the power to easily take down ads and cancel accounts with no further intervention from E-Bay. Allow some sort of appeal process... Say a seller could appeal a take-down for $20. If they win, the ad goes back up and the seller keeps the $20, and the person blocking the ad gets a reprimand. If they lose the appeal, E-Bay keeps the $20.

They could even add a monetary incentive, such as a 10% discount from seller fees, or a 1% discount off purchase prices for active "volunteers".

One could argue that spending money to improve the buying experience is good for everyone, Buyers, Legitimate Sellers, and E-Bay.

I realize E-Bay also likes to encourage new sellers, but perhaps require sellers from certain countries to do a $20 deposit, which gets refunded once they complete a certain number of transactions over time to unique buyers. Of course, like post minimums on forums, there are ways around rules like that, and it may just make the thieves smarter.

Public shaming? Twitter is probably good for this:

https://twitter.com/AskeBay
https://twitter.com/eBay

I suggest you tweet, not direct message, as your tweet will be public. I just asked about the Rally derailleur scam.

I have actually beem shocked at how effective eBay CS has become in the last
... 2 years. 10+ years ago it was IMPOSSIBLE to even contact someone on CS in order to complain. (They were like a 1970s McDonald's when they deliberately made the seating uncomfortable so customers would not hang around.)

Now a real person - I can't say how experienced or effective they always are - call me back within about.. 2 minutes. That's a mighty impressive change of CS tune.