Another eBay Winner - Not Game Related

[Griking]

I won a DVD from this joker called Sunny Yellow a few weeks ago. I knew he had bad feedback but the item was only a penny and shipping for only $4.95. I figured that I didn't have much to loose.

Well fast forward a few weeks now and of course I haven't received the item. I sent him an email and when I never got a response so I filed a charge back with PayPal.

Suddenly the guy decides to contact me. (What a coincidence) He said that he was sorry for the delay, his mom had a stroke. Now, I'm not totally uncaring but this sounded familiar for some reason. So I looked back at his feedback and I must say, his family has to be the most unlucky bunch I've ever heard of. According to the responses that he's made to all of his bad feedback here's a history of his family.

10/31/05 - Mom had a stroke (used in about a half dozen responses recently)

09/25/05 - Been out of town due to "family matters" (used a few times)

07/02/05 - Mother in Law is Very Ill (used about a half dozen times)

01/27/05 - Entire family came down with the flu (used in about a dozen transactions)

06/11/04 - His computer came down with a virus

12/27/03 - Entire family had the flu (again)

11/18/03 - Out of town due to suprise wedding anniversary vacation. (At least noone had the flu this time )

08/25/03 - Family came down with the flu (spoke too soon )

01/16/03 - Out of town because of a family problem

...and the excuses go on and on and on

Here's a listing of all of his neutral and negative feedback comments.

I'm really not too worried if I get the item or not, again, all I'm out is $4.95 but how do these kinds of people keep their accounts from being suspended?

[The Kron]

If its anything like the ones I've had in the past you'll soon have an email said to be from his mother saying he's been in a car accident and is in a coma and won't be able to send your item

Its amazing the way people will come out with anything in an effort to save some money.

[Mr.Faxanadu]

It's one of those guys who won't ship it unless he makes a profit on it. 3000+ feedback and a 96% positive is really bad!!! All the negatives are "seller did not send item..." etc. He's hoping the item won't end at a penny and if it does he won't send it

[peeingas]

I'm really not too worried if I get the item or not, again, all I'm out is $4.95 but how do these kinds of people keep their accounts from being suspended?

Because people just leave negs instead of actually reporting them to eBay. Feedback doesn't get people suspended. It really doesn't do a whole lot at all beacuse most bidders don't bother to heed the warning signs, much like you did.

[unwinddesign]

I'm really not too worried if I get the item or not, again, all I'm out is $4.95 but how do these kinds of people keep their accounts from being suspended?

Because people just leave negs instead of actually reporting them to eBay. Feedback doesn't get people suspended. It really doesn't do a whole lot at all beacuse most bidders don't bother to heed the warning signs, much like you did.

Because it costs time and money to go through reporting the seller to eBay. You have to fax them shit out the wazoo, and to boot I think it costs like $25 to file a claim (in an attempt to get your money back at least). eBay simply doesn't care.

[EdEdison]

Sounds almost as bad as bargainland-liquidations:
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAP...nd-liquidation

Members who left a positive: 128462
Members who left a negative: 16772
All positive feedback received: 491846

It sould be noted that there were tens of thousands more, they must've paid off ebay. Why does ebay let these people continue business? Oh yea, they're making money from it... of course

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[Spinal]

Griking, I just wanted to thank you for the link to toolhaus! (http://www.toolhaus.org/) I was actually thinking of making a script to do that, and you saved me alot of work. Now I can go start my thesis... (or work on that last gold crest in konga...)
Thanks!

[Griking]

Another problem as I see it is that eBay actually makes it difficult to report bad sellers. I tried to report this seller but when entered the auction number I got a page that said that because I paid with PayPal that I should file a claim with Paypal. It then forwarded me to the PayPal website. Well, that's all fine when it comes to possibly getting my money back but not if you want to actually file a complaint with eBay. I eventually found a link that allowed me to do just that but it took a lot more time and effort then most people would probably waste.

[Zing]

Because it costs time and money to go through reporting the seller to eBay. You have to fax them shit out the wazoo, and to boot I think it costs like $25 to file a claim (in an attempt to get your money back at least). eBay simply doesn't care.

It doesn't cost anything to file a claim. However, there is a $25 deductable and the value of the item has to be less than $200. If you pay with Paypal, the process is pretty easy. File a Paypal complaint, wait 30 days if you think a refund is possible, then file Ebay fraud complaint. I have went through this process and it was pretty painless except the part where I lost $25.