Author Topic: Second chance offers from E-bay (Read 475 times)

tubeperson · « **on:** June 13, 2005, 05:05:50 PM »

It never ceases to amaze me how often the low lifes that attempt to thrive by exploiting unsuspecting customers on E-bay. I inquired about an Alembic bass recently sold on E-bay, and I receved no less than 10 second chance e-mails soliciting me to respond and purchase this item. The obvious question one should ask is why would so many different people attempt to sell the same bass at the same time? They even kidnapped the E-Bay logo, and fraud protection language. I felt so strongly about this I though a separate thread on this issue is necesary, to protect the members, and the public who may be unaware of such tactics. The irony is that my first Alembic was purchased through E-Bay (via a well-known member). I have to believe E-bay has at lease a moral responsibility to get its head out of the sand and better address the fraud that goes on via their site. At least the informatino posted via the Aelmbic Club gives some food for thought. Now it needs to centralize this issue to make it easier to exchange information about the perps, Hopefully, I can get back to creating my fanatasy Alembic creation, something we'd all rather invest out time in.

keith_h · « **Reply #1 on:** June 14, 2005, 04:38:25 AM »

You are bringing up the exact reason I will not use e-bay anymore. My first exposure was bidding on two Alembic basses. Before the auctions even ended I was getting second chance and unsolicted offers from all sorts of people to purchase the same instruments. I brought up my concerns to e-bay who at first denied that it was their system sending me the notes. After awhile they admitted it was from their system but said all they could do is cancel the abusers id's.

It does bother me that this happens so easily on e-bay. I am not easily fooled but someone like my folks or in-laws could easily be duped. They are of an age where they assume a certain level of interigty provided by the web site (much like walking into a brick and mortor establishment).
This is why I just tell them not to even use certain sites or functions (e-bay being one to avoid). Between this and hardening their systems as best I can, nothing bad has happened so far.

Keith

bassplayer2106 · « **Reply #2 on:** June 14, 2005, 09:06:32 AM »

I recently (4 weeks ago) bid on a Status Kingbass I'm still getting emails offering me the bass from all over the place.The bass went for about ?1400 so do they really think that I would bid on an item of that value without contacting the seller beforehand to verify what he was selling.I had one email before the listing ended which seemed very genuine , but I already had the sellers email address and therefore knew that it was a con.Ebay aren't interested I won't do business with them now either.Kevin.

ctjim · « **Reply #3 on:** June 14, 2005, 10:10:28 AM »

Folks, has it come to this... that we lock are selves away from the world in fear of the lurking evil ones? If you keep tabs on this site, you will have noticed quite a few successful transactions have occurred w/o any problems. Does this mean it's a safe environment? Hell no. But, this is our internet. With a little caution, and fortitude (or is that blind faith?), we'll survive. Call me the ole optimist.

keith_h · « **Reply #4 on:** June 14, 2005, 10:56:31 AM »

Kevin,
If you cancel your e-bay account and then contact e-bay to request that they delete your account id the bogus offers should stop (at least it did for me).

James,
It is not the successfull transactions or bidding on items that bothers me. It was the inundation of
bogus second chance offers and direct marketting attempts that came via the e-bay site and tools.I was also quite surprised by the bogus offers as I feel Steve and Kevin were. At the point I cancelled I was getting around 50-60 of these things in a day. Add that to the SPAM sent everyday and you end up with a lot of junk.

Yes I do SPAM filtering at several levels. However none of this is 100% so I still need to scan for legitimate mail prior to deleting. By deciding not to use e-bay I significantly reduced the junk mail load. Others may decide that the additional junk is tolerable and live with it. It's an individual choice.

The last item is there are number of internet users that have no idea what they are doing. This is particularly true of people in my folks generation. They don't have the skepticism or knowledge to recognize scams very well. They think a place like e-bay is the same as the auction down the street where their only concern is the condition of the item. In otherwords they understand the buyer beware adage. The problem is they don't understand or recongnize the con-man masquerading as a legitimate seller. Similarly they don't recognize things like the bogus cashiers check scams that are floating around. This is not something they had to worry about in their learned rules of an auction where you deal with a physical person in a known location. So to reduce their chances of getting into trouble I just tell them it's best to stay away.

Keith

ctjim · « **Reply #5 on:** June 14, 2005, 02:14:59 PM »

Keith,
I guess that i've been lucky, given the fact that after a few, (22) transactions, I have'nt been swamped with spam, or 2nd chance offers. I will agree with you though regarding our parents generation, and their susceptability online. Now let me recheck my filter settings, while i chug another shot of courage. Alright, now it's time to play those ebay blues...

James

keith_h · « **Reply #6 on:** June 14, 2005, 03:14:43 PM »

James,
Good Luck and enjoy your Courage. :-)

Keith

57basstra · « **Reply #7 on:** June 15, 2005, 08:29:10 AM »

I HAVE had same bogus second chance offers....but, I did buy my Alembic on ebay...along with a 1977 Ric 4001....the buying at initial offerings has gone well for me...the second chance ones are problems..

lbpesq · « **Reply #8 on:** June 15, 2005, 09:58:06 AM »

I've bought several guitars on e-bay, most recently an almost new Ricky 360/12, without any problems. Actually I've had one problem, but it didn't cost me any money and it wound up turning me on to this forum.

Last year I was the winning bidder for about $2000 on a guitar that turned out to be a fraudulent listing of the October 2002 COTM Dragon Magic. The whole auction smelled. I was ready to demand further proof of ownership before I sent any $. I never had to because, within 5 minutes of the auction closing, I received an email from Mica warning me that it was fraudulent.

Obviously one has to use common sense. Check out the seller's history, not only whether they have positive feedback, but also what type of items they have previously sold. I sometimes even check out the history of the people leaving the positive feedback. A couple of times I found what appeared to be fixed auctions and feedback between the same buyers and sellers.

A great place to learn about the way that people scam others on ebay is in the rants section of Ed Roman's site. But, if one is cautious and uses common sense, ebay can be an incredible source of instuments. It certainly has a far more interesting inventory, (at least to me) than my local Guitar-in-the-box-Center.

Second chance offers on guitars? BEWARE (And certainly email the original buyer to ask if and why they backed out).

Bill, tgo

alanbass1 · « **Reply #9 on:** June 15, 2005, 12:22:17 PM »

I have made many successful transactions on e-bay without any issues. I have to say that the second chance offers are a pain but, if I have some spare time, I sometimes string them along; after all, the only way you can get at them is to make them think they have caught a sucker and waste their time for a little. Caution and common sense is the key. Unfortunately, there are too many all so ready to be taken in by these scum, but that's the world we live in....unfortunately.

drjenney · « **Reply #10 on:** June 15, 2005, 12:49:27 PM »

I've had over 100 successful transactions on eBay. Generally, I've been satisfied, though I have also been careful to check out a seller's rep and a be a little cautious. I always pay with PayPal and require a seller to inform me when the item is shipped and include tracking information. Sticking to 1) proven sellers 2) in the US 3) who identify their location clearly 4) consistently use the same e-mail address and 5) use PayPal has worked well for me. I generally ignore 2nd chance offers.

If you really want an eBay bass in the $2500 and up range, arrange in advance to fly out and pick it up. The difference between airfare and decent shipping is only about $150 in the US--and you'll have peace that some UPS guy isn't going to drop it off the truck.

tubeperson · « **Reply #11 on:** June 15, 2005, 01:05:47 PM »

Regarding AlanBass1's response, remember if your wasting the perpetrators's time you are also wasting your time. I prefer not to let those bastards take anything else away from me, nor do I have time to waste. I still feel that E-Bay has ducked the issue and should be more accountable, perhaps even ban second chance offers. If this was the auto industry, there would be a large price to pay. The whole dot com industry i.e. buggy software etc. has gotten away with crime, that the average small business owner, or other industries have to be very carefull of. Why should the geeks and techies be exempt from prosecution.

By the way, I started this thread by stating that I had a successful E-Bay purchase, and it was for more than $2,500. We still need to clean up the crap that abounds. Why should E-Bay be allowed to stick their head in the sand when convenient? They certainly don't object to taking the money. Therefore they should have some accountability.

David Houck · « **Reply #12 on:** June 15, 2005, 01:36:29 PM »

I'm not sure that Ebay is sticking their head in the sand. Recently, there was a case, followed with a thread in our group, where a less than charitable person apparently stole an Ebay identity and listed a bass he did not own or possess. Ebay very quickly removed the listing. The perpetrator relisted it several times in succession; and each time Ebay quickly removed it. Thus, it does seem that Ebay does make an effort. If this particular case, an Ebay employee had to take action repeatedly; and presumably this type of thing is going on all the time. Thus it would appear that Ebay is, rather than ignoring scam artists, incurring substantial labor expenses making some efforts to address these issues (if they did not, the fraud would quickly rise to the point where people would stop buying and the company would subsequently fail). In several instances (probably numerous instances), Ebay has acted on messages from members of our group to remove fraudulent listings. Here is a recent example. It does seem to make a significant difference that members of our group do email those who have listings with misleading information. And it seems to make a difference when we report fraudulent listings to Ebay.

alembic76407 · « **Reply #13 on:** June 15, 2005, 02:17:56 PM »

someone here in Oklahoma has put the stadium light from the university of Oklahoma football stadium up for bid on e-bay, and they were not his to sell. he did it as a protest to early morning games.