EBay’s tough talk on fraud doesn’t withstand scrutiny...

[bargainbloodhound]

...MSNBC investigation from 2002 disputes eBay's claims that it is tough on fraud.  Hmmm, the article is 4 years old but it could have been written yesterday because little has changed (including eBay's claim that fraud only accounts for 0.01% of transactions).

The comments by "Ron" a former eBay Safe Harbor employee on eBay's tendency to overlook "problems" if the wrongdoer is one of its largest sellers are enlightening.  Yep, nothing has changed.

“Ron,” a former eBay Safe Harbor employee, who said that the fraud reports often are subjected to only a cursory check. He said the odds that a report will be ignored are especially high if the culprits are power sellers,

“Power sellers get their hands slapped, other users get suspended,”

Part of the problem is that members of the Safe Harbor team are overwhelmed by the volume of complaints, he said.

But he also said that the company makes it clear that power sellers are not to be trifled with.

“I suspended (a power seller) who had over 1,200 auctions going on … after I found over 47 emails the guy was using to shill his auctions,” he said. “To put it bluntly, the s—- hit the fan. I got a call … saying I wasn’t allowed to do that anymore.”

full article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3078736/

p.s. maybe for my next blast from the past I'll dredge up a 4 year old article on eBay's glitches or customer service...the complaints and problems in 2002 articles sound amazingly like 2006...nothing's changed.

[landofsmiles]

p.s. maybe for my next blast from the past I'll dredge up a 4 year old article on eBay's glitches or customer service...the complaints and problems in 2002 articles sound amazingly like 2006...nothing's changed.

But things have changed. They've gotten a lot worse. And they will continue to get even worse still as the percentage of international transactions increases.