Sometimes, Ebay gets it right

By Jen Furer

Last month, I was devastated about a transaction I had on eBay.

An Ebay buyer used an unauthorized credit card to purchase a camera lens I sold for about $600, prompting me to mail the item to a different address. I was dumbfounded. I couldn’t fathom the kind of deceit people go through!

I made multiple calls to Ebay and PayPal and was going nowhere. (Ebay owns PayPal, a mechanism through which buyers pay for their merchandise.) There was a lot of anger, frustration and tears.

“I can’t believe there are bad and fraudulent people operating within Ebay, and that Ebay doesn’t protect their honest users from criminal behavior,” I told the representative who contacted me.

“There’s a lot of bad people everywhere, not just on Ebay!” the representative replied.

That realization left me even more devastated than the thought of losing my money. Six hundred dollars was a lot of money, and I was beating myself up for losing it in an online transaction.

My husband has always been the first person I vent to because he’s the logical one. He pointed out that I didn’t do anything wrong. He did his research and pointed out the Ebay page that would encourage me to fight for what I believe to be right and therefore, pointed the finger at Ebay corporate. And as always, my husband assured me, “Don’t blame yourself. You did nothing wrong. I love you, and your happiness is worth a lot more than $600.”

So that’s when I turned self-pity into a productive task.

I talked about my unfortunate Ebay story last month on this blog: “We were robbed of $1,400 and the criminals used Ebay to facilitate the crime and Ebay isn’t standing by their system or their customers.” My Ebay story was also published at TheFilAm.net “We were robbed of $1.4K, and Ebay appears to be aiding and abetting the scam.” Thank you, readers, for all your comments and feedback.

On December 12, 2014, I wrote a letter to Ebay Investor Relations. I included all documents pertaining to the transaction. I expressed in the letter that Ebay claims that they “provide safe and fair environment,” but what happened to me was neither safe nor fair.

I filed a complaint with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internal Crime Complaint Center (IC3), and the USPS Postal Inspector for Mail Fraud. And then I put the whole incident aside. I moved on.

A month later, on Jan. 31, 2015, Paypal’s Office of Executive Escalations contacted me.

“I want to personally thank you for contacting PayPal. Your concerns were recently forwarded to our office for review in the hope that we might be able to assist you further. I attempted to phone you earlier today but was only able to leave a message. I had hoped to discuss your letter dated December 12, 2014. I apologize for calling at an inconvenient time.

“…After further review of your payment reversal, we are happy to offer you a courtesy credit of $340.00 USD in order to share your losses in this matter.”

Yes! Sometimes after you’re done crying and letting out frustrations, fighting back for what’s right eventually works.

As my dad used to say, “Don’t give up. Fight for what you believe is right.”