Some light reading for those that frequent eBay.

Get Jesse: Sued for 'OK' eBay feedback

11:31 PM PDT on Wednesday, April 23, 2008

By JESSE JONES / KING 5 News

Steve Shellhorn was sued for $10,000 by an eBay seller who sold him some coins.

Shellhorn bought some Morgan silver dollars from a man in North Carolina. The price was fair, but Shellhorn says the coins were packed poorly.

"The coins were hanging out of the envelope, loose, with no packing whatsoever around them," he said.

The seller wanted feedback. Shellhorn couldn't honestly say the deal was good or bad so he took the middle ground.

"This is neutral feedback, not even negative feedback, but neutral. He sued me for $10,000," he said.

We took the lawsuit to University of Washington law professor Jane Winn.

"I thought that seller was a few cards short of a deck," she said.

The judge in Buncome County, North Carolina might not agree with that assessment, but he recently tossed out the suit.

It cost Shellhorn $500 to hire an attorney.

"I'm very leery. I won't leave feedback for anyone anymore," he said.

Winn says there are options. eBay does have a company that handles third party disputes.

Since eBay rules prevented the seller from leaving Shellhorn negative feedback, he dropped the lawsuit against him.

"In the United States, when you buy something on eBay, that's a contract. There's always in theory with business transactions even if there a small dollar amount, there's always the treat of litigation," said Winn.

And no one knows that better Steve Shellhorn.
Edit by Moderator: Thank you for participating in the forums. However, this topic has been covered in a recent post Here.

interesting...

There is a void out there waiting to be filled: a good alternative to eBay, a company with customer support, less fees, and a fair atmosphere...

ucsdgaspasser said:interesting...

There is a void out there waiting to be filled: a good alternative to eBay, a company with customer support, less fees, and a fair atmosphere...
CRaigslist fill teh gap somewhat even though it is far cry from Fleabay. I stopped selling in fleabay since I feel the system is too much buyer-centric, let alone the hefty cost of fees.

gatzdon said:sensia said:ucsdgaspasser said:interesting...

There is a void out there waiting to be filled: a good alternative to eBay, a company with customer support, less fees, and a fair atmosphere...
CRaigslist fill teh gap somewhat even though it is far cry from Fleabay. I stopped selling in fleabay since I feel the system is too much buyer-centric, let alone the hefty cost of fees.

eBay is a partial owner of craigslist.

http://www.craigslist.org/about/press/eBay.stake.html

Don't know if craiglist managed to get out from under that yet, but I thought I read somewhere that they were trying.

I read somewhere recently that eBay was suing Craiglist for trying to dilute eBay's 20% stake in Craiglist.

Interesting story, but I don't think there's any conclusions we can draw about this incident regarding eBay. This is more a random stupid lawsuit, quickly tossed out of court.

The reporting by the local news station is less than stellar. eBay has a seperate company to handle disputes? Huh? Also why no follow up about the "sex offender" -- if he's wanted by the law, why haven't police arrested him?

oh you get taken for a ride on eBay and paypal's combined fee express!

first the listing fees, then the final value fees, then the paypal fees for accepting payments. oh and heres the kicker. if you accept a paypal payment of ~$200, then you can expect something like ~$18 in fees just from paypal.

the real way people make money off eBay is by hiking up the shipping cost to make up for the fees.

i plan on switching over to google checkout and ditching paypal's so called guarantees.
i heard google checkout processes creditcards for less? dunno but i hope im right.

Great article. I'm currently in an interesting situation as well and thought I'd share...

So, I bought my car on eBay. I like it, don't get me wrong. However, it was:

1. Hard to deal with the people. I dealt with like 5 different people and they kept screwing up. One was even let go during the process and he was the main contact.
2. It was delivered and the leather seats are dirty. I bought some stuff and have been cleaning it- but still, come on, detail the car.
3. Some minor scrapes on the front spoiler- nothing I'm sure I wouldn't do anyway, but it would be nice to have known.

Now...I don't want anything, so I just leave negative feedback. "Unorganized group. Car was Dirty. Damage to front spoiler not disclosed."

Now, I thought that was OK, but evidently on eBay motors however, if a seller receives negative feedback, they can pay $100 and have it go through a moderators website to remove it.

So now I'm being dragged into a dispute with a moderator who quickly sided with the seller (who paid this service $100). I had not even responded to the incident that was opened and when I logged in to check what was going on (2hrs after it was opened), the mediator said they were sending it off to remove the feedback. I've been able to slow this down now, but I doubt that I have a chance. If your business is funded by sellers paying $100 to remove feedback, why would you ever side with a buyer?

End result- I have a negative feedback on my eBay account, even though I paid $31k within 5 days of auction end, and the seller has no bad marks against them. So now, if someone else buys from these people, they will never know that they had a bad deal.

I for one will never use eBay again. As much as I love PayPal and Craigslist- I will have to reconsider these also as these tactics are very mafia-esq.

smason1978 said:

End result- I have a negative feedback on my eBay account, even though I paid $31k within 5 days of auction end, and the seller has no bad marks against them. So now, if someone else buys from these people, they will never know that they had a bad deal.


Personally, I wouldn't have neg'd a seller over those issues. I would have left a neutral with comments at the very worst.

Doesn't eBay prevent neg for paying bidders now?


In regard to car sales:
I *know* of at least one dealer with a horrible reputation on eBay - I bought a car from them, when paid in full and arrived to pick it up, it was in paint.. Even though they said "no paint work ever". I watched that sellers reputation drop until they got NARU'd.

This particular dealer had been on eBay under more than 7 names.
I still see them today - no history of negatives and they still operate. They must have a good attorney.

Now, if I bid / win a vehicle on eBay, I show up with cash in hand. If it doesn't match description, I walk... I'll take the negative.

gatzdon said:smason1978 said:.......End result- I have a negative feedback on my eBay account, even though I paid $31k within 5 days of auction end, and the seller has no bad marks against them. So now, if someone else buys from these people, they will never know that they had a bad deal.......

I believe the current solution that many buyers have for this right now is to mark the feedback positive, but leave a very detailed and clearly negative description of what was wrong.

Many sellers never read their positive feedback.

As a potential buyer, I never read the sellers positive feedback either. Well, maybe just a couple items near the top.