Alex Rodriguez wrote:

|
| Knowing you have only 30 days, anything past 2 weeks should
| raise a red flag. Also, even if you pay with paypal, get a
| real address and phone number, just in case.
| ------------
| Alex

eBay only reveals the seller's contact information after you've
won the auction. At that point, you, the buyer, are committed to
completing the transaction.

I discovered that my seller had listed with a free webmail
address, a Mailboxes Etc. postal address, a non-existant business
name, and an unlisted phone. Upon my repeated requests for her
bona-fides, she refused to divulge them. I reneged on my purchase
after eBay took the attitude that I was out-of-compliance. As far
as they were concerned, they were satisfied because they had her
credit card number to satisfy *their* needs.

On another occasion, a seller who had lied about the condition of
his product cause me to file via "safe harbor." eBay kept
throwing obstacles in my path: new unpublished rules such as that
they would not accept electronic photographs and that they would
accept second party verification only upon printed letterhead. I
quit in disgust. It wasn't worth persuing. I'd wanted to receive
half my money back. Although William and a couple of other people
here have been successful in at least getting some sort of refund
from eBay, my experience has been that the deck is stacked
against the buyer and there's little chance of recourse.

eBay's public mouthpiece is a former public radio host turned a
government mouthpiece, and now eBay's. He claims, in innocence,
that there are thousands of successful transactions every day,
and why, eBay "is only a venue."

And, illusions to the contrary, images of safe harbors in the
sunrise, what you're buying for your money is a temporary venue.
With luck you'll get the merchandise that you paid for, in the
condition it was advertised. I said "luck."

Richard