[meteorite-list] Seven New Galaxy Class Meteorites on eBay

From: Deborah Martin <dak_mar_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:27:52 2004
Message-ID: <5.2.0.9.0.20031123124320.00b86c38_at_localhost>

I have a suggestion regarding the spate of meteowrongs on eBay. I too
encountered problems with eBay when a non-meteoritic transaction went
awry. I did get my money back but lost on the exchange rate and my time
being wasted. Throughout it all, eBay was useless, comparing itself to a
newspaper where people publish classified ads. Clearly, eBay's main
concern is to deflect its responsibility unto someone else.

So, how about if the knowledgeable members of this list contact USA Today
and CNN and regale them with a list of these incidents including Sterling
Webb's excellent statistical analysis reprinted below ? Perhaps the
negative publicity would shame eBay into doing the right and even listening
to experts in various fields when a questionable object is put up for
auction (I'm certain the concept of the weteowrong is present in many other
types of products offered on eBay). Also, someone from the American
Justice Department might become aware of the situation and get the point
across to eBay that even if you claim loud and often that you have no
responsibility, that does not necessarily make it so.

My 0.02 CAD

Andre Bordeleau


>Hi,
>
> The real topic here is feedback on eBay and its effect (or lack of it) on
>bad sellers.
> Negative feedback, even massive amounts of it, will not necessarily
> stop a
>seller of less than perfect honesty. Last spring, I made the mistake of
>impulsively buying an item I stumbled on to just before auction close --
>no time
>to check feedback -- but the seller had a positive feedback rating in the
>thousands; why worry?
> Ah, well, he also had negative feedbacks by the thousands, too. He
> had over
>26% negative feedbacks (about 1600!), all with the same complaint as mine
>turned
>out to be: took the money, never mailed the item. I wrote him lots of
>emails; I
>filed complaints with eBay; I filed a complaint with the Better Business
>Bureau
>in his state. Nothing.
> eBay was useless against this guy. I send them statistical summaries
> of his
>feedbacks, showing that this was a long-term pattern of behavior. I wanted
>them
>to get him off the site, shut him down, or at least suspend him for a while.
>They were not interested in moving against anybody who was generating that
>much
>income in eBay fees, clearly.
> About four months into trying to get my money back (or product
> delivered), I
>sent a fat email with documentation to the State's Attorney of his home state
>with an inquiry as to whether this was their jurisdiction or should I send
>this
>to the U.S. Justice Department's Internet Fraud office. The next day, I got a
>refund from the guy. Took 127 days. This seller (name withheld to protect the
>guilty) is still selling on eBay today. He has over 400 items up right now.
> Now that eBay shows the percentage of positive feedbacks, you might think
>someone like this would be in trouble with potential buyers. No, eBay
>calculates
>that percentage you see for each seller on the basis of ONLY the most recent
>negative feedbacks against the total positives for the entire history of the
>seller, yielding a meaninglessly high percentage. So, this seller shows a 96%+
>rating right now, even though for the past 1 month, his positive percentage is
>89%, for the last 6 months, 87%, and for the last 12 months, only 74%.
> This means that the positive feedback percentage you see on eBay item
>listings is, if not statistically fraudulent, at the very least misleading. A
>99.9% rating could mean a seller who has always been great, or it could mean a
>seller who has momentarily stopped cheating his customers. That eBay provides
>this statistical fraud as a cover for dishonest sellers is a little
>discouraging, although it may be encouraging them to clean up their act.
> And the last moral of this story is: I never posted negative feedback on
>this thief, because I could see that he invariably posted negative feedback
>right back on anybody who posted it on him! I wanted to hang onto my 100%
>a lot
>more than he cared about one more negative feedback added to his thousands. It
>made me wonder how many others did not post negative feedback on him, for this
>or whatever other reason.
> At any rate, there seems to be nothing to suggest that any amount of
>negative feedback would prevent any bad seller from continuing for as long as
>he/she wanted to. Certainly, eBay won't. After all, they just provide the
>venue... and the fraudulent statistics.
>
>
>Sterling K. Webb
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Adam Hupe wrote:
>
> > I think people were too embarrassed to leave negative
> > feedback which allowed him to continue for some time.
> >
> > Adam
>
>
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Received on Sun 23 Nov 2003 12:59:25 PM PST