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Posted: |
Mar 30, 2003 - 7:34 PM
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By: |
betenoir
(Member)
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Actually, it is quite reliable. eBay only allows feedback to be posted by the buyer (or seller) of an item, with a response to the other party involved. So, the only way a person could inflate his own rating would be to have two eBay accounts and buy his own item. That will only work once, because the net feedback rating does not include multiple feedbacks from the same person. In other words, you can leave multiple comments for multiple itmes, but the net feedback rating number that is posted only includes one of them.
That said, one could get burned if a con artist builds up a favorable rating by buying or selling a series of low-priced items, then sells something for a high price and fails to deliver. That happened to me once where the seller's feedback rating was about 10, all positives, and I bid on some rare scores advertised as original CDs. The guy sent CDRs instead. Luckily, I paid by credit card, and my credit card company reimbursed me. The same week, he did it to several other people, and was thrown out by eBay as soon as they had reports of fraud. FYI, his name was Bill Moran, from Massachusetts, so don't trust him if you ever come across him trying to sell or trade CDs.
On balance, though, eBay feedback is a very valuable tool. I've only had 2 buys go bad in 3 years, out of many hundreds of transactions, and they were far outweighed by lots of good deals. I've also had 3 or 4 bidders renege and not pay for something, but that wasn't a big deal because I simply never sent them the merchandise.
Sometimes an item description is vague, for example saying nothing about the condition of a CD. In that case, you can ask the seller a question through eBay and get details.
I have bought from and sold to people in Europe, Asia, Australia, North and South America, and made some nice email acquaintances in the process. You need to use a little caution, of course, but most of the time eBay is wonderful. But remember to use common sense in bidding. Some people don't, and end up paying more on eBay than they would at Amazon for things that are still readily available.
Good luck!
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That just happened, Betenoir: a couple in Arizona started sellimg cheap CD's on eBay, just to drive up their favorable feedback, then switched to high-end stereo equipment which, once sold and paid for, was never delivered, leaving the buyers with a big bill and no goods.
This has been happening a lot, lately.
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I've been buying, but mostly selling at eBay for years. Check out my eBay feedback. My User Name is ckinsinger@earthlink.net. Every one of the feedback comments in my file are genuine.
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The point, Batmusicfan, is that the scam-artists were leaving behind plenty of satified, genuine customers who bought the cheap stuff, for the sole purpose of establishing a sterling feedback record, but then switched to a non-existent inventory of high-end merchandise which they had no ability to deliver, or intention of, delivering.
The switch was, and can be, made so fast, that it's probably beyond the ability of eBays fraud software to detect in time to warn potential victims, so you have to do your homework.
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