Ebay

Hello one and all,

That horrible freezing snow has now finally gone. With the weather turning warmer now, I've been spending a lot of my time in hopping around the garden and enjoying everything there is about it. I have an odd feeling that those lady frogs I spoke to you of once, will soon be searching for a suitable mate (me, in case you hadn't thought about it.). I tell you this, I'm fairly raring to get at it.... Ribbit!!

Bob's back and he's his usual cheerful self again, thank goodness! This week he's been telling me something about a human auction thingy called eBay, whatever in my little world that is? Anyway, he carefully explained to me that it's a very popular means for humans to sell or buy goods and so forth. Of course, if I want something, I'd just go out and take it. Apparently, Bob says that humans can't just go out and take what they want, though some do, but they should have to pay for it. I guess that he must be talking about money again, which as I've discovered over the months, is something you lot are prepared to do just about anything to get a hold of it, and I truly do mean anything...

Bob says, when he first discovered eBay, humans could achieve tremendously high prices for the items they sold, even the junk that was put on it! Now, all of this has completely changed. The bottom has finally dropped out of the market. He says it's okay if you want to sell your precious belongings for peanuts, because the way everything is now, that's just about all a seller can now expect to receive in return. He also says that many sellers are bumping up the final price of the items bidders are interested in, by putting exorbitant post and packing costs on them, just so they can maximize the amount they truly want for their items. That doesn't seem very fair to me, or is it just because I'm a simple frog, one who doesn't understand how much you humans like to cheat on each other all the time? Sounds like a bit of a rip-off if you were to ask me?

Another thing about eBay is their own pricing structure, something you pay to use their services. Bob suggests that they are now getting far too greedy, because eBay is taking more and more now for what it gives in return. I'm told that this has something to do with their success. I informed Bob that you humans should go and try another of these auction sites if you aren't happy. But he says, you humans always like to moan and groan a lot, and as usual, you aren't really prepared to do anything to make life better for yourselves, even if this could mean that you could make a lot more of your money by doing so. Now I damned well know you're a strange lot!!! Croak!! You lot lazy or what? Perhaps you enjoy a spot of self-denial?

Finally, I've come to a particularly nasty side of buying or selling through eBay. They have a payment system known as PayPal. Now, Bob explained that this system was put into place in order to make paying for items won on their site easy. Bob says that despite the number of complaints that have been made regarding PayPal, eBay have tended to ignore them, preferring to believe that they have a fool proof method to settle a deal. Bob says, Horse crap!!

Bob also says that if you lot were to go and take a look at the eBay Discussion Board (Community Q&A Board), you would see proof that PayPal doesn't always work. Not only this, but these messages would suggest that the PayPal system is there to help crooks flourish, since many eBayers have been robbed by those who cheat by making use of the Chargeback scheme offered under the consumer credit act. For those of you who don't understand what this means, please allow this simple frog to explain what happens.

Seller A places an item for auction. Buyer B makes a successful bid and offers to pay for the item through PayPal. Okay so far? Good! Let's say that the item in question is sold for one hundred of your pounds. The transaction goes ahead and a few days later, the Buyer B receives his/her auction item. Seller A considers that the transaction has gone very nicely and therefore thinks no more about it. However, Buyer B, without at first notifying the seller, demands a chargeback through PayPal by using some sort of fictional excuse that the goods weren't what they had expected, perhaps damaged (but not in reality.). This is something that the credit act allows by law. Do you see where this is going yet? No! You are a hard lot to understand. Well never mind eh!

A few days pass by and Seller A discovers that Buyer B has performed this chargeback. Buyer B explains that he/she has returned the item to the Seller A and why it was done, but he/she has no proof that it was ever posted. The result is, Seller A not only loses his/her goods but also the money he/she has shelled out for it. Buyer B is a winner all round by keeping the goods and the money too! And this is all legal! Well, almost anyhow. Of course, this isn't the only way to lose money through PayPal.

Some have been cheated from their money with so-called goods said to have been put onto eBay that simply do not exist, like something you call plasma tvs, photographic items and many other high priced goods. I'd hate to even consider how much money has been lost to honest people through using what is on the outside, an honest way to secure goods and services? Now, the scammers are having a good time at your expense and a whacking great loophole in eBay's way to do business. Croak!!

If you don't believe what I've just explained to you, then it's little wonder that you're all part of the gullible human society you live in...

All of this makes my own world sound like it is a paradise, which I'm damned sure it is! Ribbit!!

Well, once again, time has caught up with me, so...

Stay safe and take care, hope to see you all again soon...


Froggy