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.
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.