Is that a good price to have paid for the item? Reserve judgment until you read the description of the item:
I hope you scrolled all the way to the bottom, below the whitespace, to see the small font in a pale color...
I believe the lister is now eligible for a free ride on Geryon:
The last two circles of Hell punish sins that involve conscious fraud or treachery. These circles can be reached only by descending a vast cliff, which Dante and Virgil do on the back of Geryon, a winged monster traditionally represented as having three heads or three conjoined bodies. However, Dante describes Geryon as having three mixed natures: human, bestial, and reptilian. Dante's Geryon is an image of fraud, having the face of an honest man on the body of a beautifully colored wyvern, with the furry paws of a lion and a poisonous sting in the pointy scorpion-like tail (Canto XVII). The fraudulent – those guilty of deliberate, knowing evil – are located in a circle named Malebolge ("Evil Pockets").
Did you report them? As far as I'm aware, this is still a scam, even if they include the so-called "fine print", as it mis-represents the item. A quick google search for "ebay photo scam" shows some rulings against these scammers, as far back as 2004 (link dead, but still appears in search indexes, otherwise I'd post the URL), so there is plenty of precedent. Not sure what ebay's actual policy is, but I'd suspect they'd do the right thing.
ReplyDeleteUgh, this one is new to me (although as pointed out above, not new). When buying, I usually at least glance at the seller's rating, and this one would have got me. I didn't realize that the seller's rating is composed of their rating as a seller and as a buyer. If you go to victoriashay2010's rating, you see that her last 3 sales (including this one) are all negative, and 2 of them include the "photo only" text at the bottom of the description. But because most of her transactions are purchases and those are all positive, she has a good rating.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous: I reported this listing and the other one by the same seller on Tuesday. This is done by hitting the "report item" button on the listing (you can't report a seller to eBay unless you were the buyer of the item). I reported them as fraudulent listings, which hopefully will get something going. I am presuming that the negative feedback left by the buyer for both transactions doesn't trigger action on eBay's part like reporting a series of fraudulent listings might. :-/
It's also a common thing to see "just the box" for an item for sale, at a price that is WAY TOO HIGH for a cardboard box, but lower than the brand new, complete item. I found several in video game systems and cameras and lenses. It's unbelievable that people get hits for these things, much less sucker people into buying them.
ReplyDeleteI think the lister is now eligible for a free trip into a dark alley with some rather thuggish gentlemen intent on teaching him some manners. Scumbag.
ReplyDeleteThe buyer got their money back, you can view the feedback from the seller as the buyer gave a negative feedback. The item was still viewable and I clicked on the report item link and marked it as fraudulent as everyone should. I buy a lot of items from Eprey I mean Ebay when I find these sellers I report it immediately.
ReplyDeleteSeveral years ago, I saw one of these cases (involving a couple of cell phones) on the Judge Judy Show. She tore the two scammers to pieces.
ReplyDelete@caf21 - That is helpful information. I had previously assumed that a good seller rating would provide you with some protection. It appears that a deeper investigation would be prudent before purchasing.
I believe this is the episode you are referring to:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOzVls6spI8
Ha @ "Anonymous January 4, 2013 10:26 PM" I have always used the term 'ePray' due to the faith one must have in an unseen entity to deliver what they say they are going to - but now I like ePrey just as much. What a bonus that in conversation they are phonetically identical.
ReplyDelete