eBay Scandal

[Andrew]

eBay fraud probe could take months

It could be months before police can unravel the spectacular collapse of one of the biggest Australian sellers on eBay, which left hundreds of users out of pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Despite setting up a special PayPal fund to help some of the burned buyers with refunds, eBay has been criticised for not acting to remove the company's account earlier.

eBay users say they warned the auction site of problems with EBS International as early as 2006.

A group of disgruntled sellers say the auction site set up the special fund only to avoid being sued for negligence for allowing the company to continue selling on the site despite complaints.

EBS International, which sold items including exercise equipment, furniture and bikes on eBay under the name ebusiness-supplies, went into administration on Friday.

All I can say is it's very low, hopefully those people can get their money back though anyone who didn't pay through PayPal will need to chase it up on their own through their banks. Fortunately, I've never had a bad experience buying or selling on eBay to date but I can't help but wonder if it's just a matter of time, no matter how careful I try to be. Despite the outcry, the company has a lot of positive feedback too so it's easy to see why people trusted them.

[Laxation]

Serves the people right...

Who the fuck buys something from someone with so much negative feedback?

[Andrew]

But that's the point, they've got a 91% positive feedback rating and 86% of the negative feedback they've received in the past 12 months has come in the last month, when the company has apparently gone belly-up. It's not like they had a rating of 25%, a lot of people seemed to be happy with the service before the latest development. I don't think it serves anyone right to be cheated in this manner.

[Laxation]

Well its hardly ebay fraud if the company went belly-up then is it...

[Andrew]

Then what do you call taking people's money and not delivering on the advertised products that they've purchased? That's certainly not on the level. The collapse of the company has also been called into question. From the article:

But a large eBay seller who competed with ebusiness-supplies believes the collapse is suspect. The seller, who did not want to be named, said EBS International changed its product mix before its demise to favour large value items and sold them at prices below cost.

He said he purchased from the same Chinese factories as EBS International and did not accept the agent excuse because EBS International dealt only with factories directly.