My money got swindled by the seller

[sandhya_ahuja]

A seller ( now he is no more listed) sold a laptop ( total payments above Rs50,000/-) to me .The payment option was bank to bank transfer or bank draft. No option for payment through paypal was given. The seller has vanished with money without delivering the item.Lots of mails have been exchanged between ebay and me and now the legal advisers of ebay and me are in touch with each other to resolve the matter.
Since I don't want any one else to get swindled, I am putting this in discussion board and I want , everyone whoever read this to give their openion.
My points are:-
1. There are no proper checks and balances for allowing any seller to sell their items on ebay;
2. There are certainly some loopholes in the system of which the fraud seller is aware of and making best use of it to swindle money using ebay as platform;
and thirdly;
Since , if the payment is not made through paypal, then the coverage is only Rs10000/-. I feel that if the coverage is only of Rs 10,000/- then, any seller should not be allowed to sell any item of higher value without giving option to pay through paypal
Does anyone agree to my these points?

[nvid@ebay.com]

Hello sandhya_ahuja

We are disappointed to hear your unpleasant experience on eBay.in. I wish to reiterate the fact that eBay strives to takes all the necessary steps possible to protect its buyers from unpleasant experiences.

eBay is a venue where the community transacts and hence eBay recommends its Buyers to be prudent before any transaction and evaluate the item and the seller. As a buyer ensure you have gone through Buying Tipsbefore you make your purchase.

On every listing eBay advises its buyers to
1. Buy safely
2. Check the seller's reputation (Positive feedback; date of registration; past history of sales)
3. Learn how you are protected
4. Use Safe payments methods e.g. PaisaPay

As acknowledged by you, in the event of an unpleasant experience on eBay , we have a comprehensive Protection for Buyers. eBay is committed to protect its buyers under Buyer Protection and ensure buyers are protected to the maximum, as demonstrated in your case.

To sell on eBay you need to verify your Seller’s Account post verification you can start selling. eBay has a robust fraud detection tools that flag and suspend suspect users(as in your case). Apart from the tools & systems, eBay has the community reporting system, there by any suspicious activity can be reported for action using
href="http://pages.ebay.in/help/contact_us/_base/index.html">Contact Us

In our endeavor to make eBay a safe and secure online marketplace we have a Security & Resolution Centre that helps buyers and sellers to prevent / resolve any disputes thus making it a safe and secure market place

More over we closely work with Law Enforcement to resolve complaints by providing all the relevant information required for their investigations (The information shall be released to any Law Enforcement request only)

Here are few Safe Buying tips for online transaction

1. Learn as much as possible about the product
2. Review sellers feedback and past transaction details
3. Understand sellers refund policies
4. Use a safe and secure payment process that offers protection e.g. PaisaPay
5. If you have made payment outside PaisaPay – Retain copies of payment receipt
6. If an offer sounds highly suspicious or too good to be true, it probably is
7. Read and understand safe trading guidelines of eBay
8. Retain copies of all correspondence and communication made outside eBay platform with the seller, as this may help solve most disputes Regards,
Nvid

[sandhya_ahuja]

I quite agree that ebay has provided a number of tips for the buyers to check the sellers' credentials but may I ask what checks do you do of the sellers before allowing him to sell on the platform provided by you. If ebay had done their homework properly then it would have protected the buyers from being cheated. It is well known fact that most of the buyers don't like to read so many details (It is human nature and ebay very well knows about it). Don't forget it is the goodwill of ebay that encourages any buyer to do shopping on ebay.The buyers trust ebay.
Any organisation always has a scope of improvements and it should take these complains as alerts and strengthen its system.

[superstores_tech]

Here you need to understand that ebay is an open platform. Its not necessary that only dealers, traders sell here. Even common users like you can use ebay to sell. You may end up selling any of your unwanted stuff at home or something else.

There are millions of users registered with ebay and its not possible to manually cross check all of them. Ebay has the worlds best fraud detection system and it does what it can.

Once you are making the purchase you need to do a little research on the seller. And if you follow the ebay guidelines and MARKET SAFETY TIPS you will be covered under the buyer protection always.

There is some basic Credit Card or SMS verification done before common members are allowed to sell.

Regards Superstores_Tech

Ankur Agarwal

[buying_reeloaded]

Dear Sandhyaji,
We have written to ebay so many times with adequate proof of some fraud sellers who come to sell laptops on ebay and are having intentions to cheat the buyer, but to no avail.
We are importers of almost all brands of Laptops and we know which model sells for how much.
However the buyers in India are always looking for the cheapest deal so if they are getting a laptop work 80K for 50K only they will not think twice before bidding.
Our only suggestion to such buyers is please ask for Pick up and pay facility in case the seller has less than 50 Positive ratings.Please do not buy from those who do not give Pick up facility and ask you to pay first. In the end, please make adequate enquiries if you see a very cheap deal before buying as 99% of the time its a fraud seller who is going to run away with your money.In the end ebay does not interfere much and its only the buyer who suffers.
Regards,
Sarosh R B
Buying_Reloaded

[sandhya_ahuja]

Dear Ankur ji,
Thanks for the tip but I don't think I had bid this item at a lower cost. It was quite expensive and I got interested in it for this brand ( Sony) with this configuration was not avilable in my town.
But now, since I have gone through so much of stress and strain and lost so much of money , I will never dare to do any internet shopping, not even in my dreams.