More trouble with eBay

I am cancelling my eBay membership because of the incompetence shown in taking action against dishonest sellers. Forget the so-called eBay fraud prevention and the conditions promised before joining. These are part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

I read about the problems encountered by Joe Grima (Trouble With eBay, February 2). I fully understand his frustrations. I am at the stage of considering what action, legal or otherwise to take against eBay.

Out of three transactions I had three problems. The first seller received the money and did not send the item. The eBay fraud prevention unit is looking into the matter after making my life difficult by demanding proof of receipt of the money, in spite of the fact that the seller had already acknowledged receipt of the money on two occasions. So that I would give eBay no excuses I obtained the cancelled cheque at additional expense since this is what they wanted. The matter is still pending after about eight months.

I also had a string of people sending me e-mails as if it was the first time they heard about the matter.

The second seller received my cheque and sent me an e-mail to tell me that he was waiting for the money and that he suggested that I send him cash. He wanted to be paid twice. Without waiting for the eBay fraud intervention I sent him the cancelled cheque and threatened him with legal action after which he sent me the item without the advertised manual, with a broken cable and charging me over double for the shipping by declaring to the postal authorities the hi-fi tuner was printed matter. When I protested he used abusive language and then I reported him to the fraud prevention after which I received about six e-mails from different persons asking me to use the e-mail on my registration which I had been doing all the time. After about six months the problem is still unsolved.

Finally a seller did not accept my offer because he did not ship to Europe and went ahead and reported to eBay that against the conditions I did not pay for an item that I had won. In spite of my explanations to eBay this bad mark still appears on my record.

I think that the moral of the story in my case is to avoid eBay like the plague.