OPEN LETTER TO EBAY REGARDING FRAUDULENT AUCTIONS, DISPUTE OF FINAL VALUE FEES, ETC.

All this came to a horrible end when in December 2005, my computer and hard drive crashed. This meant that ALL my information was lost. Notes about customer orders, tracking numbers for eBay customers, refunds that were given for any orders that were on backorder, etc. I lost it all and learned the hard way that one must have a hard drive backup system. Well, I learned this lesson after it cost me thousands of dollars in lost revenue, having to give refunds to customers who also received their merchandise but since I could not prove it to eBay and PayPal with tracking numbers, many customers received refunds they should not have.

Then on Christmas Eve, 2005 an angry customer decided to seek revenge on me by bidding on thousands of dollars worth of my auctions. Her user id is heelbabe. I reported her the same day to eBays Live Help and through their cs webhelp forms. I reported the user heelbabe and the many auctions she bid on so that I would not have to pay these final value fees for auctions I would never be paid for. Immediately heelbabe was suspended from eBay for making these fraudulent bids on all these auctions of mine. The next day suspended user id heelbabe makes up another userid which will remain nameless as it is an awful name that I will not put on my website. Heelbabe then bid on many more auctions via Buy It Now under her new made up user id.

This was also reported and disputed immediately. Then on December 30, eBay suspended my seller account for two reasons. My negative feedback (due to delays which were created by my computer crashing and losing all my records) and due to the dispute with them over the Final Value fees I was disputing due to the user id heelbabe bidding on thousands of dollars worth of my auctions.

I have contacted eBay in every form possible. I've emailed every email address I could find, including BILLING@EBAY.COM , CUSTOMERSERVICE@EBAY.COM CSWEBHELP@EBAY.COM, RSWEBHELP@EBAY.COM . I've also done as they requested and completed many of their online website forms. I've also called them on the telephone several times. What a fiasco this is.

I called eBay, got an operator and asked for the BILLING DEPARTMENT. I am then transferred to General Support. After waiting at least 30 minutes on hold, I get a representative in the General Support department. I once again go through this whole story, to then be told that they are not the billing department and cannot help me. I told the rep that I asked for the billing department and was transferred to the general support department. The rep advised that there is no phone number and it is not only impossible to talk to the eBay Billing Department, it is not ALLOWED and they do NOT EVEN HAVE A PHONE NUMBER! How on earth can a huge company such as eBay NOT have a phone number in their billing department?

The general support reps sound kind of depressed and they are only doing what they are told by management and unless they are paid a lot of money, I am sure the turnover in that department has to be huge as they have to listen to people complain all day long and are only allowed to read the following script ( I know it by heart as I've heard it numerous times), "I do apologize, however there is nothing we can do here, we are only general support and can only answer general questions. The billing department has no phone number and no way to transfer you to anyone in that department."

I then asked for a supervisor of the rep in the general support department since it was very clear that she could do nothing to help and was not allowed to even if she could. After requesting to speak to a supervisor or manager several times she reluctantly transferred me to one. I told my story again for now probably the 50th time in the past 7 months. I was told that eBays billing department has no phone number, and cannot talk to anyone on the phone. I'm told yet again to email them via the cswebhelp form (which I've already done many many times. I was also advised to talk to eBays Live Help reps in the billing department which I've done many many times as well. eBay also does not train their live help reps very well as you can go there and ask 5 different reps the same question and get 5 different answers. That has been my experience anyway.

Today, July 27, 2006, I called them again. I also contacted Live Help AGAIN, and this time talked to a representative named Shawn T. He assured me that he has taken the letter I wrote back in January 2006 with all the auction numbers in dispute and he is going to escalate it as he said it should have been done in the first place.

This remains to be seen and if Shawn T. the Live Help rep at eBay actually finally gets my case resolved and my money refunded, he will be the ONLY person of the many I've spoken to at eBay to help.

Shawn T., the live help rep said that my case is too old to be refunded directly from the billing department and has to go to eBays Trust and Safety department. Well, one wonders how my case got  to be so old? Hummmm, I reported the fraudulent auction bids the very same day it happened, I emailed them all the information, I reported it to Live Help the same day as well, and followed all instructions. All I've gotten in these past 7 months is a huge run around. The total amount eBay owes me is about $300.00 in Final Value fees. A tiny little drop in the bucket for them. This amount of money will not break me nor cause me to have to go digging in the dumpsters in order to eat and survive but it has become the principle involved here.

How dare eBay suspend ME for "poor customer service" and negative feedbacks when they themselves stole my money, and have provided the POOREST CUSTOMER SERVICE I have ever received from any company in my entire life.

Lets also talk about another irony. eBays Trust and Safety Department. What a joke that is!! THEY are the ones who were to have corrected this problem and they are acting fraudulently in my opinion, by not having the courtesy to reply to my request for help. They suspended me due to my supposed poor customer service, yet, they have the worst I've ever seen. Funny how they can steal my money via PayPal (which we all know is owned by eBay). Talk about a monopoly!!

In closing, for now, I have to say that eBay really needs to be looked into. Can anyone believe that a company of this magnitude does not have a phone number to their billing department? Can you believe that they do not respond to emails? Most of my emails have gone completely unanswered. They state on their website that they will reply to you within 72 hours. The couple of responsed I have received took almost a month. Most never received the courtesy of any reply whatsoever.

What is going on over there at eBay? It is surrounded by secrecy, shrouded in mystery, and all their phone reps are allowed to do is to repeat a canned script over and over again, and are only allowed to advise you there is nothing they can do, not one who they can let you talk to, and there are no phone numbers for either the billing department nor even for the Trust and Safety Department.

Am I the only one or are there others who have received the same treatment?

If you have had a similar problem with eBay and have or have not resolved it, please let me know and I'll be happy to post your problem here as well. Perhaps we can help each other and get eBay to stop the fraud and stop the horrible customer service.

You may EMAIL ME HERE FOR POSTS ABOUT EBAY FRAUD AND EBAY DISPUTES AND EBAY HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE.

Also, if anyone does indeed have a toll free or not phone number for the eBay Billing Department or the eBay Trust and Safety Department, please do let me know and I'll post it here to help others who have been treated horribly like this via eBay.