Recently I sold a vehicle on eBay. In the listing I stated CASH ON PICKUP ONLY and 48 hours to pay.
Someone buys it then sends me an e-mail stating that they are an oceanographer out at sea and they wish to make a PayPal payment (dispite the listing saying CASH ONLY) and a representative will be out to collect the vehicle the moment payment has been made.
I laughed my ass off, then told the guy to read the listing as we dont take PayPal payments for vehicles. Meanwhile eBay treats the transaction as valid, and sends me a bill for $140 (Final value fee for selling the vehicle) saying they are going to be deducting the money from my checking account within the next 5-7 days.
Now, realize that its already been over a week, the guy has not paid and all the responces I get are duplicate templates of his spewl about being a sea, much like the Nigerian e-mails I get saying a long lost family member has died and left me a billion dollars, all they need is my bank account information to transfer the money.
So being pissed off I go down to my bank and demand that they stop any payments to eBay as they are trying to bill me for a service not rendered. The bank proceeds to tell me that they can not block pre-autorized debits before they hit, and that the new Obama legislation while not yet in effect DOES NOT APPLY ANYWAY.
They suggest that I just allow eBay to screw me out of the money, then file a claim after the charge hits. Only problem is that eBay will release the funds, however it wont be untill AFTER they take CASH from my account and when they do reverse the transaction the $140 will be in the form of a CREDIT on my eBay account, not CASH in my account!
I basiclly told them to get fucked, ran down to the bank, pulled my money out and I will be filing papers when the charge comes thru.
See this is just the kind of thing that proves these new laws being put into action by the Obama Administration are absolute BULLSHIT. The new laws regarding overdraft protection should you decide to "Opt-In or Opt-Out" will have no bearing on any charges where you place a card on file for the purpose of billing. What this means is that even if you KNOW you are being billed incorrectly, there is no way to stop them from pulling money if the card has been placed on file.
People who think they are protected by the new Overdraft law will soon learn that they will still be paying overdraft fee's for the charges that come thru whereas they have their card on file with the only diffrence being that they can no longer make charges on their accounts when the money isnt there. Sure that will help in some ways if you are the kind of person who like to overdraw your account but to me it is pretty simple... Dont have the money? Dont make the charge.
Same goes for people that you place your credit card with... The bill aint right? Stop payment! Unfortunatly thats not how it works, and without doubt there will be several days WASTED preventing an unathorized charge. Seems to me this new overdraft law does NOTHING to ensure customers are in control and everything to do with rewarding people that try to spend more than they have, rather than protecting the people who try to be responsible.
I am not impressed, and I am pissed off that eBay is wasting my precious time with their pathetic scam. Can you imagine how many 1000's of dollars eBay collects each day for final value fee's that are not valid? It's an outrage!
The only thing worse is going to your bank to stop payment and being told that you have to wait until "After" the charge has been made before you can act. I told my banker he sounded a lot like Pelosi and her Healthcare plan. I also asked him why and the hell I needed a bank if I wasnt going to be in control of my money.
Dispite my clean history with the bank I got the feeling the representative was trying to take the tone that I didnt have the money because I had been busting his chops and getting loud for about 20 minutes so I then pulled out my wallet and made a cash deposit for double the amount due, and all of a sudden he started acting like everything was going to be okay, and he would monitor the account each day. The best part was when he said "We are on your side". In a last stich effort I asked him to cancel the debit card, however he claimed that the charge would still post. Knowing that he knew I was going to get fucked and he thought I was going to take it lying down I told him thankyou, then as I was walking out of the bank I used the debit card he refused to cancel to pull out the cash I had just deposited making sure he seen me. As I exited I said "I'm not worried, You guys are on my side".
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What is to give light must endure burning -- Viktor Frankl
I have more than 100 ebay transactions and a 100% positive feedback score. I've never had a problem with Paypal, and I've sold some big ticket items like a T-Bird and a snowmobile on ebay.
You will all have to excuse PowerStroker, he never has ANY problems and knows what to do in any given circumstance.
As an aside, I have well over 100 positive feedbacks too. Has to be somewhere in the 500 range by now. Unlike yours, 99% of mine are sales. Numerous vehicles.
I have found that eBay and PayPal create more of the problems than they fix by getting involved others business.
I know you are used to taking it in the can PowerStroker, you work for a dealer and are everything we have come to expect from higher education. You would have just paid the $140 overcharge and took it like a good boy.
eBay did credit back the seller's fee today. Now I am anxiously waiting to see what the amount billed to my account will be.
You can thank the people like me who fight this shit to ensure a better marketplace for the sellers. You may not have been burnt yet with your little 100 feedback hobby account, but dont worry now that you have bragged about it your soon to regret it.
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What is to give light must endure burning -- Viktor Frankl
