eBay and three former executives agreed to pay nearly $56 million in a settlement over a macabre campaign of cyberstalking and harassment that targeted two journalists in 2019.
As we’ve previously written, the case involved deliveries of live cockroaches, a funeral wreath, a book about surviving the loss of a spouse, and a bloody pig mask to the home of a couple who run a news website. There were also harassing messages sent via email and Twitter, and an attempt to install a GPS tracking device on the victims’ car. Criminal charges resulted in guilty pleas and prison terms for former eBay employees.
What the hell happened to eBay? As an internet startup they were pretty committed to doing the right thing even if it cost more. I get that was the silicon valley of the 90s, and probably before corporate pressure to maximize profits and share prices.
I think it’s just been easy to ignore how evil they are.
They’ve been tightly linked with Peter Thiel since they took over PayPal which has constantly stolen people’s money. It’s just harder for an auction house like eBay to be obviously evil.
Back in the early 2000s, I had a pretty good eBay biz started, but I had to quit it because between eBay and PayPal, I couldn’t get any traction. They were constantly suspending my account for a few days, or a week, or a month. I wasn’t doing anything wrong, and I could never get a straight answer on why, because EVERYTHING was automated, with canned email answers to every question, that didn’t explain anything.
Near as I could tell, a competitor must have been complaining that my listings were counterfeit or bootleg or something, which wasn’t the case. I could be wrong, I really have no idea why they were targeting me.
There is also a LOT of buyer fraud, and eBay offered NO protection for sellers. We lost EVERY dispute, so fraudsters were rampant. There were certain countries I refused to ship to, because every shipment was disputed, and their money would be refunded, and I was out the item, which were all unique, collectible, one-of-a-kind, expensive items.
I was also reading a lot of stuff about people having their money accounts confiscated by eBay, or locked up for months. I didn’t keep much money there, I always swept it out whenever possible, but I knew it was a matter of time before they stole my actual money, too.
On three different occasions they completely deleted my entire shop, with virtually no explanation, and I had to relist everything from scratch. The last time they did it, I just quit. I had already started another biz, because I couldn’t count on eBay, so I just concentrated on that, and I’m still doing it, 18 years later.
I won’t do biz with eBay or PayPal.