A few years ago, I decided to build my “computer farm.” It was a group of computers connected to a special switch box that allowed me to use the same keyboard, mouse and monitor with each machine at the flip of a switch. I did this to experiment with different operating systems, such as Sun Solaris, OpenBSD, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Redhat Linux. To locate a copy of Windows NT, I turned to Internet auction powerhouse eBay.
I like eBay. Over the years, I’ve bought and sold many items there without any problems. This time around, though, I got stung by a con man seller. In my zeal to get a good deal, I committed the cardinal eBay sin of not paying close attention to the seller’s “feedback” rating.
In its own way, eBay works on the honor system. Buying and selling is, after all, taking place between complete strangers who never meet face to face. The holy grail of the eBay honor system is the feedback ratings system, where a record of individual transactions is kept. Buyers and sellers rate each other by leaving publicly viewable feedback comments that describe their transaction experiences, either positive or negative. The rule of thumb is that people with a large number of positive “feedbacks” are considered safe dealers. People with very few positives, or with negative feedback, can be viewed as too risky.
My seller had a feedback rating of “zero,” meaning that he had not even completed one eBay transaction, a fact that I, in my haste, did not notice until I had already become involved in the bidding process. As time passed, I realized that I had been ripped off, and I began the process of attempting to recover my money.
First, I did some investigation. I learned that my con man had held about 15 other auctions in the recent past, so I contacted the buyers listed for those auctions, and discovered that they, too, had been defrauded. At that point, we formed a “victims group,” and began filing complaints with eBay en masse, because, if you can provide the right information about a transaction gone bad, eBay will cover your loss. We made sure to mention each other’s losses in our complaints, demonstrating that there had been a pattern of abuse by our con man.
We also filed complaints with the U.S. Postal Service, the FBI, and the Attorneys General of our respective states and the state in which the con man was located. It was a long, drawn out process, but we eventually recovered our money. I have no idea what happened to the con man.
The moral of this story is that eBay can be wonderful, if you take the proper precautions. eBay has many suggestions for safe transactions, which you should study and follow. For a very revealing glimpse at the world of eBay sellers, look at www.news.iwantcollectibles.com.