No Doubt issues a counterfeit warning for guitars being sold on ebay as autographed by band members.

eBay sellers are filling lawsuits- A pair of eBay members have initiated a class-action suit against the online auctioneer over a problem with the company’s latest billing system.

Man Arrested in HUGE eBay Fraud- June 12, 2003 – Police in South Salt Lake, Utah, are working with eBay to determine just how many people were victimized by what authorities say was one of the biggest frauds in the auction site’s history. Police arrested 31-year-old Russell Dana Smith last weekend after hundreds of auction winners complained that they sent $1,000 or more to a company named Liquidation Universe for laptop computers they never received. Police say the firm appears to have raked in $1 million from about 1,000 victims in just a few weeks.

eBay Employee torpedoes Fraud trial-The trial of a UK man suspected of defrauding eBay users was scuttled after an employee for the online auction house abruptly left the island before offering key testimony.

Anatomy of an eBay Scam-Fraudulent listings on eBay continue to pile up, and the online auctioneer appears to be incapable of proactively putting an end to them.

Massive eBay Fraud exposed-A LONDON couple conned eBay customers around the world out of £300,000. Nicolae Cretanu, 30, and his wife Adriana, 23, swindled thousands of victims into paying for everything from non-existent cars to concert tickets.

Just Google eBay in the news, or eBay fraud and you will come up with thousands if not millions of hits! I could sit here all day listing them!

Meg Whitman says Google will not impact its PayPal business

Internet auction firm eBay is to start its first ever buyback scheme of up to $2bn shares over two years. Ebay shares, which rose 5% on the news, have shed 41% of their value this year amid stiff competition.

The firm is also planning on raising the fees retailers operating on its site pay, to counter slower growth.

The announcement came as the firm announced second quarter profits had fallen by 14% to $250m ($135m) from last year’s £291.6m.

‘Could be stronger’

The quarterly profits were however in line with expectations as was revenue, which rose by 30% to $1.41bn.

“We were stronger in Pay-Pal and Skype and Shopping.com and had slightly slower growth rates in our core [auction] business,” said Meg Whitman, chief executive of eBay.

But she added “we think it could be stronger”.

The latest earnings show the online payments business PayPal, saw customers increase by 44% compared to a year ago and generated $330.7m – a rise of 39% on last year’s second quarter.

However, eBay is facing growing competition from web search giant Google which recently launched its own online payments firm.

Ms Whitman said the firm was not concerned about Google impacting Paypal’s performance, adding “we are gong to innovate as we always have.”

While stocks were boosted by the news of the $2bn buy-back plan scheme the figure is tiny when seen in the light of the $40bn that has been wiped off the value of eBay’s shares in the past 18 months.

The decision to increase rates is another way to bolster the firm’s health.

The move to up rates for retailers operating online stores on eBay could affect 541,000 stores worldwide and will raise fees by an average 6%, the firm estimated.

“Whenever we do a fee increase our community does not like it but I think they will understand the reasons we are doing this,” said Ms Whitman.
]]> http://ebaynameandshame.wordpress.com/2008/01/26/ebay-shares-have-fallen-yea/feed/ 0 goddess34 Meg Whitman, eBay chief executive http://ebaynameandshame.wordpress.com/2008/01/26/google-checkout-fuck-paypal/ http://ebaynameandshame.wordpress.com/2008/01/26/google-checkout-fuck-paypal/#comments Sat, 26 Jan 2008 11:58:22 +0000 goddess34 http://ebaynameandshame.wordpress.com/?p=13 ]]> Want an alternative to Pay-pal? Sick of the B.S. fees, and increase? Then try the new Google Checkout.

Find it with Google.  Buy it with Google Checkout.

Why eBay Sucks

eBay Blames Users For Fraud

The online auctioneer eBay has admitted that personal accounts are being hijacked by fraudsters, but claims it is the responsibility of eBay users themselves to prevent this.

eBay is by far the world leader in online auctions

Criminals are obtaining the secret passwords of eBay subscribers and using their sites to conduct bogus auctions for non-existent goods.

In a growing number of cases, would-be buyers on the UK’s most used website are paying thousands of pounds to apparently reputable sellers after winning auctions on the site, only to find out they had been dealing with criminals.

In an interview with Radio Five Live, eBay would not reveal exactly how many accounts had been hijacked.

“It is just not a number we give out as a business. We consider it to be business sensitive for various reasons,” said Gareth Griffiths, head of trust and safety for eBay.

Sensitive issue

In one recent case up to 10 people are thought to have paid a total of £15,000 for non-existent hot tubs, while another would-be buyer thought he had purchased a £4,000 pound camper van which turned out not to exist.

It gets to the point where that is obstructive to our inquiry Ruth Taylor, North Yorkshire Trading Standards

In both cases eBay accounts had been hijacked to sell off the non existent goods.

The hijacking of sites is a particularly sensitive issue for the auction site, which relies to a large degree on the level of trust between the buyer and seller of goods for its success.

There are more than three million items for sale on the site at any one time.

Tools provided

EBay blames account holders for not installing proper security on their home computers and for replying to so called phishing e-mails.

The auction site says its users are often to blame for security breaches

These are fake e-mails made to look like official eBay messages and which demand the secret passwords to users’ accounts.

Viruses are also said to be infecting home computers by installing themselves inside hard drives where they monitor the keystrokes of eBay users.

The viruses then make a record of secret passwords before sending them on to the fraudsters.

Describing it as an “off eBay issue”, Mr Griffiths said “we have told people again and again”.

“It is nothing really to do with us. We provide you with tools to help yourself.”

When asked whether eBay’s own computer could have been compromised, Mr Griffiths insisted that eBay’s “systems are completely robust”.

In both cases examined by the BBC, the eBay users who had their accounts hijacked claimed to be computer literate and vehemently denied that they had replied to phishing e-mails.

“There is no way I would have done that,” said Dr Oliver Sutcliffe, a biochemist from Nottingham.

His site was hijacked over the space of one weekend to sell thousands of pounds’ worth of electrical goods.

Obstructive delays

EBay is also under fire from law enforcement officials and manufacturers over levels of crime on the site and the levels of cooperation they receive.

Many big brands are far from happy with eBay’s response

Trading standards officers who regularly investigate crimes perpetrated on the site have accused eBay of being “obstructive” in the way it responds to requests for information.

North Yorkshire Trading Standards says eBay can take up to two months to provide the names and addresses of suspects it is pursuing.

“If it takes up to two months then it is eating into a lot of time that we have to make prosecutions,” said Ruth Taylor who heads the authority’s special investigations unit.

“It gets to the point where that is obstructive to our inquiry.”

Satisfaction level

Concerns have also been raised about the large amount of counterfeit goods on sale on eBay.

Adidas told the BBC that it monitored up to 12,000 auctions involving its goods every day on the British site, yet it estimated that up to 40% of all Adidas products available were counterfeit.

EBay says it has a special relationship with brand owners who can notify the site of auctions involving counterfeit goods, which will then be taken down within hours.

However, the Ben Sherman clothing brand says it recently took eBay five days to take down an auction of counterfeit clothing by which time much of it had been sold.

“I think one must say that it’s highly unsatisfactory,” said Barry Ditchfield, Ben Sherman’s brand protection manager.

“With all the amount of profits that eBay makes, then there is ample scope for additional staff.

“Frankly, it is totally unsatisfactory, not just for Ben Sherman but for all brand holders.”

EBay rejected the accusations, saying that the company had a good relationship with law enforcement officials.

“The satisfaction level is generally very high,” said Mr Griffiths.

“Generally speaking, we provide a good service that people are pretty happy with.”

Five Live Report: Policing eBay can be heard on Radio Five Live at 1930GMT on Sunday 18 December or afterwards at the Five Live Report website.

Top 3 PayPal Questions

Can PayPal hold my money with no explanation?  The answer is YES.
Can PayPal freeze my account for no reason?  The answer is YES.
Can PayPal take money out of my account without my knowledge?
The answer is YES.

Should I use PayPal to Accept Credit Cards Online?

Let’s begin by first stating that PayPal is not a bank and does not provide its merchants with a Real Merchant Account. PayPal provides its merchants with a PayPal account.

There is a Very Big Difference.

With a Real Merchant Account, your funds are deposited into your personal or business bank account, which you control and which is also protected by Federal Banking Regulations. 

With PayPal, your money is deposited into a PayPal Account, which PayPal Fully Controls.

Since PayPal is NOT a bank, they do not need to follow federal banking regulations. These regulations are in place to help the “Average Joe” avoid issues like having their bank account frozen for 6 months with no explanation…(Imagine if your bank was permitted to do that!)

Because PayPal is not regulated in the same way as a Real Merchant Account, Paypal accounts are frozen for almost anything and without warning. The account can usually receive money while it is frozen, but it certainly cannot withdrawal money. Once an account is frozen, the funds are often held by PayPal for months on end with Absolutely No Recourse for the merchant.

Merchants finding themselves on the wrong end of a frozen Paypal account will still have to find some way to pay their obligations and fill orders for the weeks and months while the account is restricted. A domino effect occurs when a merchant’s account is frozen, leaving them with No Means To Fill Orders. Those orders are then disputed by customers, creating more chargebacks and the illusion of fraudulent activity on the part of the merchant. “Welcome to the PayPal Nightmare.” The Best Solution?: Get a Real Merchant Account.

How Does PayPal Make Money With My Money?

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, there are approx. 100,000 complaints outstanding at PayPal (Are any of these yours?). In many instances disputes can run on for months leaving people frustrated and out of pocket as they are unable to access their accounts. So what happens to the millions of dollars tied up in frozen accounts and disputes? Well, here is a clip from the San Francisco Chronicle that basically sums it up:

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel of San Jose refused to dismiss a lawsuit that seeks class-action status on behalf of thousands of PayPal customers nationwide. A common allegation is that the company brushes off or stalls customer grievances for months and meanwhile freezes the customer’s account and pockets the interest (So that’s how they make their money!). No wonder they freeze so many accounts!

The Lawsuit You Need To Know About

As you will come to discover while browsing through the many horror stories posted on this site by current and former PayPal users, PayPal has some tough allegations to deal with. Allegations of mishandling money, unnecessarily locking funds, not providing adequate customer support, freezing accounts with no explanation and disregarding customer complaints, just to name a few.

In early 2002, Plaintiffs Roberta Toher and Jeffrey Resnick filed separate lawsuits against PayPal, Inc. These two cases were later consolidated into one lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

The lawsuit alleges, among several other issues, that PayPal has placed inappropriate restrictions or other limits on customers’ accounts and engaged in several other improper practices. Based on these improper practices, the lawsuit sought damages for money unjustly held, negligence, and violations of consumer protection statutes.

Rather than dealing with a lengthy public trial and being forced to clean up their act, PayPal decided to settle out of court and pay $9.25 Million Dollars to Tens of Thousands of PayPal merchants who processed with PayPal between October 1, 1999 and January 31, 2004. (A mere slap on the hand for a company this size)

Instead of a Judge forcing PayPal to change their questionable business practices, PayPal agreed to pay the settlement and walk away from the entire allegation.

So what does this mean to current PayPal merchants? Unfortunately, this means that PayPal is free to continue operating in the exact same way it always has. Judging by the number of PayPal horror stories we receive every single day, it appears that the situation has only gotten worse since the settlement.

We highly suggest getting a Real Merchant Account to avoid becoming another PayPal horror story.

Click Here For Our PayPal Alternative

About PayPal

PayPal Warning

PayPal Sucks

I would love to hear your stories about your PayPal problems!

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I post these names not to be vicious, but as FREEDOM OF SPEECH!

If your not familar with this then I suggest you read up on it.

Here is a list of the sellers who have fucked me over.

1. belem_81 This seller sells FAKE DVD’s don’t buy from them. The DVD that I got was messed up big time! It had poor cover art, appeared copied. And the DVD did not have an end… it was missing a huge section! This seller also has a history of selling pirated DVD’s, just read their feedback!
2. stratosphere_777 This is the bottom of the barrel for Powersellers. This Seller has more negatives than positives now. I have never seen a powerseller who has such shit feedback in my life! My husband tried to pay, he could not their was some type of problem with the system. Told the seller what was going on, the seller basically said tough, which I can understand. He then reported me to eBay fair enough, I got a non-payment strike…fine; we deserved it I had my slap on the hands but wait there was more. I get an email from this slime ball asking me to pay his £3.50 in eBay fees (which by the way he got back from the NPS) and he would remove the negative feedback that he had left for me. Well, this was not going to happen. I reported this man to eBay immediately. eBay actually removed the NPS against my name, warned the seller and he had his hands slapped. About 2 months ago I got an email asking for a mutual feedback withdrawal like a fool. His numbers now break down like this on the:

Number of Negatives/Neutrals Received By this seller:

1. Negatives: 6
2. Neutrals: 2
3. Withdrawn: 7
4. All from a great site called Toolhaus

Number of Negatives/Neutrals Left By this Seller:

1. Negatives: 20
2. Neutrals: 3
3. Withdrawn: 6

This seller is nothing but trouble so if you want to maintain your reputation as a buyer/seller then think twice.

Next Seller:

Paul4914

This seller sells FAKE DVD’s again, another seller who is violating the law!

Onestopshopdvd

This seller sells FAKE DVD’s! However, one plus to this the seller is no longer a registered user!

So far these are the only bad sellers I have had to deal with. There are a few more lurking out there and if they come across me I will surely name and shame them!

If you want to name and shame a seller who has wronged d you please post it below! I would love to read your stories!

I was selling a pair of clogs, brand new in box. Never been worn, and were made from a company called Toffeln if you are at all familiar with these you will know that they are not cheap and they are quite heavy. I decided to charge $10.00/£10.00 for shipping and handling was fair since they were fairly heavy, and the box was large.  Mind you I ship all my items by 1st Class/ or a registered type of delivery service. I never send things out unless they are recorded in some way.

Now, the bidding ended and I am waiting for a email from the buyer to let me know that they have paid through PayPal – which by the way was the only accepted form of payment.

If your familar with eBay you will no that the  items are clearly marked, you can see by scrolling down the auction what payments the seller takes. It will clearly state at the bottom that they take Paypal, Checkes, etc., etc, Mine ONLY STATED Pay Pal, nothing more.

I get an email about 1 week later asking me why I had not provided my address to her as she wanted to send out a checks to me. I replied “sorry, I don’t take checks, I only take PayPal as stated in the auction.”

I then get another email back asking me why I never responded to her last 2-4 emails? Hua?? Am I missing something? This buyer never once sent me an email asking anything. Must be one of the stupid ones, I thought.

Now, buy this point I had filed a non payment strike against this buyer becuase they had not paid. The buyer responds with some  BS about me not being fair, and that I should have stated that I only took PayPal.  How much more FUCKING CLEAR do you have to be? Do I need to tattoo it on her fucking head so she understands what payment methods she should use?

The non-payment strike was filled, and I left her negative feedback. I then get this rubbish feedback.

“e mailed pre final bid no reply ,I bid ,refused cheque, wanted paypal, post£10″
Well fuck you! What more do you want?

I responded like this in her feedback-”BIDS BUT DOES NOT PAY, THEN BACK OUT OF SALE, WANTS TO MAKE OWN TERMS FOR SALE!!”

Her responce to my feedback was simple-”e mailed before final bid no reply wanted paypal not cheque and postage was £10″ 

What a wining baby….well don’t bid on stuff if you can’t read I say!

To make matters even better I get a reply to mutually remove feedback. I thought okay, what the hell now. I get an email asking me if I would consider removing the feedback and the reasons I get from her is she is buying things for her son and that she can’t afford to have a negative feedback on her record because it will prevent her from buying other items? HUA????

Does this person live in the land of make believe?  Obviously!

I will not mention this buyers User ID because it was a long time ago. But it was something that pissed me off!

Got a similar story to share? Reply below!