I've had an eBay account for nearly 20 years. Mostly I use it once or twice a year for small, random purchases, but every once in a while I have some items to sell. And while money is a secondary concern - I do aim to recoup about 20% of the original purchase price - my primary motivation is reuse: I'd like to send this stuff to people who want to use it. I have a rating of about +120 with a 100% positive rating to date.
Recently, I listed a few items I had laying around the house. My experience this time has been so jarringly awful that I am never selling anything on eBay again.
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It's loaded with bots. I get realtime notifications of bids, and I've been surprised to see a bidder put in 20 bids in a row, all incremented by $0.05 or $0.10. It has happened on maybe 50% of the items I'm selling.
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I'm receiving a lot of bids from zero-reputation users. Several of them have been "administratively canceled" without explanation. Also several "oops didn't mean to, cancel my bid" demands.
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About 20% of my auctions so far have ended with nonpayment by the winners. One of them sent me several messages through two accounts, and posted to several of my auctions - first claiming "my toddler bumped the keyboard and put in a bid of $50 at the last minute," then badgering me to cancel the auction in exchange for paying whatever fees I incurred via PayPal (yeah, no thanks). The other was just a straight-up no-show.
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The kicker happened tonight: I sold a piece of computer equipment and shipped it off about twelve hours later. The winner now claims it doesn't work and is demanding a refund. eBay's rules require not only that I give them a refund - but that I choose between (a) abandoning the item (letting them keep a $280 piece of equipment for free) or (b) paying to have the item shipped back to me. What are the odds that the item will still be working when the winner - who has no incentive to pack it well - ships it back at my expense? I'm going to be out about $50 (fees + shipping both ways) and will probably get a damaged piece of equipment back.
I have no idea what happened to eBay, but it is no longer a place for people to sell things casually in a reasonable atmosphere. I'm done. All of my purchasing will occur through Amazon from now on.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/ebaysucks/comments/aghrqh/my_final_ebay_experience/
I can’t count the number of times I have been denied Seller Protection despite following the exact letter of the PayPal law for it.
The latest incident is typical -PayPal decides they will not cover a game subscription card after a buyer filed an unauthorized transaction report because it is an “intangible good”, despite it is a physical card and I they have covered me numerous times for others. I called last week to inform them of this, they said a ticket would be opened with a supervisor and he/she would need to sign off. No email/phone call/follow-up and 10 days later, I call again and it’s like that interaction never happened. On top of that, they now say that it was a chargeback for “item not received as described” which doesn’t make sense since I have an email from them saying it was a chargeback for an unauthorized purchase. They told me today they would open a ticket and I asked for an email confirmation -none received.
Source: http://www.paypalwarning.com/denied-seller-protection/
It was horrible. I installed the app for fun and just to f*ck around with when I'm bored, ended up matching with a girl and talked to her for like 2 weeks and exchanged numbers & FB info. She was pretty, seemed really cool, and we shared a lot in common. Eventually she said we should hang out, and I said sure. We met up at a mall and just walked around and talked for about an hour, and I left. After I left, I knew I wasn't going to pursue her. Over text she seemed pretty cool, but in person she was just...off, idk I can't really explain it. Anyway, within 2min of me getting back in the car, she texted me wanting to know my real opinion on her now. Kinda weird, but whatever she seems weird so I just replied saying yeah she's cool and whatever. Big mistake.
Over the course of the next 2 hours, I received over 80 texts, about 10 calls and a couple VMs, all of her crying and saying I need to move in with her and her Dad... I needed to take care of her. I was blunt with her in saying no and this can't go on anymore and to stop contacting me, but nothing changed. I had to delete my FB profile, block her number, etc. I deleted the app after that.
From Redditor /u/Joskilatrix:
I worked at an EB Games in 2005. The important thing to note us that EB didn't use the term "used" for games, but instead used "pre-played." I had a woman come in to buy Sniper Elite for her husband, but I didn't have any more sealed copies, just the gutted display boxes. She doesn't mind this and purchased it at the new game price.
A few hours later, I get an angry phone call from a man who says I sold his wife a used game and charged her for a new copy. He explains who she was and I tell him what happened. He freaks out and says that the game was opened, which makes it used. I let him know that we don't sell used games, we sell pre-played games and assure him that the disc was removed from the case, sleeved, and filed, which means it has never been played and is therefore a new copy. He gets loud, asks me how old I was (18), and goes off about how he is older than me and is a lawyer. He demands that he be refunded the difference between the prices, so I tell him that my store manager would be in the next morning and he could take it up with her. To my knowledge, he never called her, so I think he just gave up.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/bicr5z/gamestop_employees_of_reddit_what_are_some_of/elzvk9w/
I work for a huge company that helps bring down bad websites on the web. I cannot reveal the name here, but I have been doing this for many years now. A few years ago I discovered group of red rooms called "The 5 True Red Rooms" on the deep web.
Now, don't go lurking around trying to find them because you won't. A true red room cannot be accessed through Tor. If you try, you will just set yourself up for getting a shitty virus on your computer. I have been told that they are scams, but rest assure you, a few of them are not.
It is very hard for an individual who doesn't understand the concept of The 5 True Red Rooms to try and break in, lets just say you have to know someone that runs one them. It cannot be accessed through Tor. You have to know someone or be lucky enough to get a pass code to get into them. You have to be proven trustworthy. In this case I gained the trust of someone who helped moderate one.
The True Red Rooms are a series of 5 Rooms, sort of like doors. If you can gain access to the First Red Room you pay bitcoin and show that your serious than you may get permission to access the Second Red Room and so on.
What's in these evil live streams? I'll tell you...Here is the first "True Red Room
I clicked on the first screen. A black box appeared asking for my pass code. I had typed it in. It was 4 numbers a dash and my user name given to access that site. Permission Granted it said. I was in! I thought it was too easy.
On the first page was a bunch of black video boxes with titles. Some of them were videos titled "Watch me scare Kara" or "Tiffany gets spooked" I clicked on the "Watch me scare Kara first.
A man with what seemed to be a cell phone camera is pointing it towards the front door. He is inside a home. It looks like he is hiding behind a door and I can see the living room furniture. A nice leather love seat and bookshelves are in the room. He is whispering in a foreign language that I cannot understand. He never shows his face. Suddenly the doorknob is turning and I hear keys rattling. A girl in a green nurse's uniform with blond hair and a tan comes in. She is petite looking. She is probably in her 20's.
Suddenly I hear a man's voice scream "Don't move!" She freezes like a deer in headlights and then screams, drops her keys. A man in all black and a black ski mask is running towards her with a giant hammer. Her arms go up, she screams to block him and he smacks her in head twice with the hammer. She falls to the ground and red blood pools up on the white carpet. She is completely knocked out.
The man points to the man who is hiding behind the door and says what sounds like the words "Done" Both cameras are shut off. If this was real, it was the most disturbing thing I have ever seen. It did not look fake at all. I didn't want to know what happened next. I could only imagine.
I didn't even want to click on the second video, but I did. The next video "Tiffany Get's Spooked" was even worse. This time the camera is zoomed in on what looks to be a park. A women with brown hair and a blue jogging suit is running laps around a track. The foreign sounding guy is sitting in what appears to be his car. I can see the cracked windshield.
He is wearing black gloves, but never shows his face. He is laughing and talking a little and the girl is still jogging. I wanted to yell to the poor girl "Run away!" "Get out of that park, your being stalked!" I realized there was nothing I could do, she wouldn't be able to hear me anyway.
Suddenly the camera shuts off. I think the video is over. I was wrong, very wrong.
The video comes back on in what looks like night vision. It is green and a little choppy. I can see what looks like a bunch of pine trees around. Then I see what the camera is focusing on. A girl is in what looks like a trunk and she is trying to scream. Her legs and arms are tied and bound and her mouth has a gag in it. It looks like the same girl from earlier in the blue jogging suit. She is barefoot.
I can only see black gloves and a hairy looking arm. It looks like the same guy from the earlier video. He is in all black and is smoothing her hair back and the man holding the camera is telling her to calm down in English. She is crying. Then he begins to pull her body out of the trunk. "Thunk", he bumps her head by accident on the trunk lid. I feel relieved thinking it's all a joke and she will be okay.
Suddenly I feel very sickened. I can't believe what they were going to do. The man in black with the black ski mask lays her on the ground and she gives up crying and screaming at this point. The camera zooms in on her face. The lights go out in her eyes and all I can see is darkness. This poor girl has lost all hope. I want to cry. I fight back the tears.
They began to tie her wrists to the bumper of the car. The camera man is still there holding the camera. The other man gets in the car. I hear the engine roar. They were going to drag her behind it. The video then cuts off.
Source: https://old.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/9prmcq/the_5_true_red_rooms_on_the_dark_web/
Hi there, I just wanted to share my story to see if anyone has any advice for me. I started building my Etsy store in late 2016 / early 2017 and spent so much time and money cultivating a presence on the platform. I sell high-end furniture / antiques and fine art. It was extremely slow at first, and mostly smaller sales, but by the summer months, I was regularly making 4 digit and even 5 digit sales. My feedback was 100 percent.
In November, someone from Austin purchased a chandelier from my store for around 1800 bucks. She purchased the item and in the days that followed asked a variety of questions about the light fixture. I thought this was a bit strange, questions after the purchase. In any case, I was happy to answer her questions about the provenance of the fixture, whether it had been used before, etc. etc.
Once she received the fixture, she began sending emails complaining about a variety of things. From "deformed" arms of the chandelier to "black spots" on front portion of the piece to lightbulbs that burned out to quickly to a cord that was shorter than advertised. Literally she would send me long emails with numbered lists of all of the major issues this fixture had. I examined and photographed the fixture prior to shipment. I don't send garbage out to anyone. I told her that she can either return the fixture or I will try to fix the issues that she described. She said she would keep it but only on the condition that I buy her some accessories and extra parts for the chandelier and have it sent to her directly from Italy (or she will file a dispute and leave a bad review.) I complied.
She then said I need to pay for the electrician to install the chandelier. I agreed to this as well.
Once she had the tracking number for the items coming from Italy, she changed her mind and said she wanted to return the light. I told her that this was not possible anymore. The items were on their way to her, non-refundable and we had agreed on a solution to the problem. She said, ok, then buy 2 whole sets of light bulbs for me and have them sent from Italy. The chandelier in question takes 30 bulb at a time at almost 10 dollars each. I had already sent her 3 extra bulbs as a courtesy. Bulbs are never guaranteed by the seller and are considered to be the responsibility of the buyer. She admitted that she installed the fixture, used it and then a few bulbs burned out (by this point it had been 4-6 weeks since this drama began). I said that I couldn't afford to buy her 2 whole sets of bulbs. She doubled down on the bulbs and said she would file a dispute.
She opened her bag of lies and sent a long list of complaints about the chandelier once the dispute process was under way. She sent a photo of the cord after she had installed it. Meaning she had installed it (remember how a few bulbs had burned out?) , taken it back down and took photos. By this point she had cut the cord to about 12" in length. On her list of lies, she said that I misrepresented the cord length and that she had received an item with a 12" cord.
Etsy dispute resolution decided in her favor despite the fact that she had bowed out of our prior alternate resolution and a photo of the fixture with a cord that was about 6 times the length of what she pictured, on the table, getting packed up and ready to be sent out. Etsy wouldn't even acknowledge this photo.
Dispute resolution, by the way, if you've never experienced it, is just a message board that you can go back and forth with the disputer, and then once a week a member of the Dispute Resolution team comes in and makes a completely superfluous statement that shows s/he has no idea what's going on.
Get this -- I was told that not only would I have to refund this scamming heap of shite, but I would have to refund the initial shipping cost and then pay her to have it shipped back to me. We're talking hundreds of dollars each way. I tried everything. I called, emailed, told anyone that could listen, that I had photographic evidence that this person was a scammer. I begged them to review the info and look at the evidence.
Nothing worked. She was refunded, etsy told her to keep the chandelier and they put all of the expense on my account. So now they want me to pay them about 2500 bucks. They said if I don't pay, my account would be suspended and suspended it has been for the last few months.
When I've tried to get in touch with Etsy, they send me a message that until I pay 2500 bucks, they have nothing to say to me.
What would you guys do or recommend? It pains me so much to have lost the chandelier and to have to pay another 2500 bucks just to start my store again, and begin paying 100's of dollars of promotional fees, etc.... seems ridiculous.
Couldn't this happen to me again, anyway? What's to stop another scammer from doing this? The nature of my particular business dictates that I can't take one too many random losses like this. I don't sell oven mits or key chains or earrings. A few scammers like this in the span of a few weeks or months will literally put me out of business or at least hurt me in a very bad way.
Does Etsy have that many stores that make 5-digit transactions that they can just afford to make them as disposable as I was? Is there any hope of every getting anyone to hear me out at Etsy and do the right thing, which is reversing the wrong decision made by the dispute person "ASHLEY?" if so, is it just a matter of time until Etsy does this to me again? Is it just not an amenable platform for higher-end items? Your thoughts and wisdom and assistance are very much appreciated.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Etsy/comments/8wwhpx/scammed_by_a_customer_and_suspended_by_etsy/