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

From: Jose Campos <josecamposcomet_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:27:52 2004
Message-ID: <002801c3b1ee$b993cd70$4ec216d5_at_computername>

Hi Sterling,
I was astounded at the contents of your email and I found them to be a real
"eye-opener"!
Many thanks for sharing your personnal experience. It appears that eBay
should take a more professional approach regarding situations such as the
one you have just described.
If I may, I would like to ask Steve Schoner for his comment?
Regards to you both
José


----- Original Message -----
From: "Sterling K. Webb" <kelly_at_bhil.com>
To: <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Cc: "Adam Hupe" <adamhupe_at_comcast.net>
Sent: Sunday, November 23, 2003 8:09 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Seven New Galaxy Class Meteorites on eBay


> 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 01:22:14 PM PST