Ebay, in all its marketing, claims to be a safe place to trade. It claims that its Fraud Protection Program aims to protect its users against fraud and quite clearly specifies that those who have suffered fraud should get 75% of their loss reimbursed under this program if the amount is less than $100 (they charge $25 for processing costs).

This claim is completely not true. I have used Ebay for years, and although I have had a few transactions that left me worse off through no fault of my own, I never filed a claim until recently when I didnt receive the goods for which I paid $85. I had done everything "by the book" and according to the rules of Ebay - contacted the seller, checked his ratings were good from previous transactions, used Paypal to pay for the goods immediately, tried to gain recompense through Paypal, SquareTrade and the Fraud Protection Program.

However, despite the fact that the same seller defrauded at least three other Ebayers that I know of in exactly the same way, I got only $25 refunded. Ebay will offer me no explanation why they have kept approximately $40+ of the money they owe me, and despite numerous emails to Bill Cobb (CEO) about this, I have made no progress.

I have received email responses claiming that, basically, its really nice of Ebay to have paid me any refund at all, as they have no control over the seller's actions. When I argued that they claim that they will refund 75% of the transaction cost, this was countered by some argument about Ebay not being the same as Amazon (not sure how this was relevant). I argued that ZStores were very similar to Ebay, but again got counter arguments from Ebay and Bill Cobb.

I also stated that actually Ebay takes a huge chunk of every transaction - as Paypal is part of the same company now, in total Ebay took approx 25% of the transaction themselves, so they could at least have reimbursed me with that amount. Their counterclaim was that Ebay and Paypal are separate companies!!

All I keep seeing on the website is "Paypal - an Ebay company" so I hardly think that argument is fair.

I know for a fact that the others who were defrauded by the same guy as me got even less back than I did.

Is it really fair for Ebay to claim to be a Safe Trading Environment when I stand to lose $45 on every $85 I spend potentially? I dont think so!

I have collected a number of stories of other people having similar experiences at Ebay. I would be grateful if any others out there who have had similar experiences could write and let me know and I will publish a detailed article/ebook on the subject.

I look forward to hearing from you! Contact me at www.exceptiona.com or email me at mishj@yahoo.com

About the Author
Michelle Johnston Sollicito is an expert Ebusiness Consultant, having worked for Accenture, Yahoo! and Earthlink amongst others during her 15 years experience. She is certified in many technologies and owns a number of established websites including her main website www.exceptiona.com