EBay for Dummies (65 page)

Spamming:
The user sends unsolicited e-mail to eBay users. Just because you are in a transaction with someone doesn’t give you the right to e-mail the person after the auction is over to solicit future business. If you send a newsletter or solicitations, your recipients must have opted in to your list. No one has the right to send you e-mail unrelated to your transaction without your permission.

Miscellaneous abuses

The following are additional problems that you should alert eBay about:

A user is threatening physical harm to another eBay member.

A person uses racist, obscene, or harassing language in a public area of eBay.

For a complete list of trading offenses and how eBay runs each investigation, go to the following address:
pages.ebay.com/help/buy/report-trading.html
.

Reporting Abuses to Trust & Safety

If you suspect a seller of abusing eBay’s rules and regulations, you can report him or her directly on the item page. Look to the Seller Info box of the page of the item in question and click the Report Item link, as shown in Figure 16-2.

When you click that link you’ll come to the only area on eBay where you can report listing violations. Select the reason for your report and further information from the drop-down menus. Once you’ve made your selections, click Continue.

If your issue is connected to a transaction that you’re currently involved in with another eBay member, click the Resolve a Problem link on the Security Center page discussed earlier. You’re presented with a page that suggests answers to the various questions you may have. To actually reach eBay, click Contact Us. You’ll land on the Contact Us page, which presents you with some of the most basic questions about eBay as well as clickable links to find answers. To
really
(this time I promise) contact eBay, type a short version of your question, find the Get in Touch with Us area, and click the Email Us link on the right of the page, as shown in Figure 16-3.

When you become a PowerSeller or have an eBay store, you see a different page than non-PowerSellers and have considerably more contact options. (More reason to finish this book and get started selling!)

If you encounter any of the abuses outlined in this chapter, be sure to report the problem. Community policing is what makes eBay work.

The Security Center offers a wealth of good general information that can help you prevent something from going wrong in a future transaction. Be sure to use these pages regularly as a resource to help prevent problems.

If you’re involved in a troubled transaction and need to launch a report, follow these steps:

1. Read all the information on the Investigations page (
pages.ebay.com/help/buy/report-trading.html
) before filing a new complaint.

2. Click any of the many informational links.

No matter which link you click, you’re taken to an area that instructs you further and provides answers about what offenses eBay can and cannot investigate.

3. If you’ve found out that you have a legitimate case that should be investigated, you are supplied a link to the proper reporting area.

Alternatively, you can click the Report Item link in the Seller Info box on your transaction page.

If you file a report, make your message clear and concise by including everything that happened — but don’t editorialize. (Calling someone a “lowdown mud-sucking cretin” may make you
feel
better, but it doesn’t provide any useful info to anyone who can help you; it doesn’t make you seem very un-cretin-like, either.) Keep it businesslike — just the facts, ma’am. Do include all pertinent documentation, such as e-mails, receipts, and canceled checks — and don’t forget the transaction number.

Here’s a checklist of what you should include in your report to Trust & Safety:

Write only the facts as you know them.

Attach any pertinent e-mails with complete headers if required. (
Headers
contain all the information that precedes an e-mail message.) Trust & Safety uses the headers to verify how the e-mails were sent and to follow the trail back to the originator of the messages. See the sidebar, “Finding the hidden headers in an e-mail message” to decipher this information.

Be sure that the subject line of your report precisely names the violation.

After eBay receives your report via the Customer Service form, you usually get an automatic response that your e-mail was received — although in practice, several days may go crawling by before eBay investigates your allegations. (The Customer Service Department must look at a
lot
of transactions.)

Depending on the outcome of the probe, eBay may contact you with the results. If your problem becomes a legal matter, eBay may not let you know what’s going on. The only indication you may get that some action was taken is that the eBay member you reported is suspended — or NARU
(Not A Registered User).

If your complaint doesn’t warrant an investigation by the folks at Trust & Safety, they pass it along to someone at the overworked Customer Support staff, who then contacts you. (Don’t bawl out the person if the attention you get is tardy.)

Unfortunately, NARU members can show up again on the eBay site. Typically nefarious sorts as these just use a different name and credit card to register back on the site. In fact, this practice is common, so beware! If you suspect that someone who broke the rules once is back under another user ID, alert Trust & Safety. If you’re a seller, you can refuse to accept bids from that person. If the person persists, alert Customer Support with e-mail.