Almost two months ago, I wrote the following blog entry http://emuelle1.blogspot.com/2005/06/i-hate-ebay.html. I figured it was time to produce a quick update. I'm hardly a professional journalist; just a guy with a free blog, but if you're going to do me the favor of reading it I'd like to return it with the favor of mostly complete information.
Around the time I wrote that blog entry, a discussion took place on Pocket PC Thoughts about fraud on Ebay. I linked my blog in that discussion thread.
In my entry, I mentioned a service called Bidpay and said that it seemed to exist for no other reason than to rip people off. I investigated their website. What they do is take your payment electronically and send a money order. Though this sounds good on the surface, I have heard of it going bad. Say that you purchase a $500 Pocket PC. The seller only uses Bidpay. You log on, make payment, and they send the money order. Then the seller does not send you the product. What happens then? The money order has been sent, and can't be retrieved. The FAQ
at Bidpay does not address this issue at all, and in fact at the bottom it tells you that if you suspect that you have been a victim of fraud to contact two agencies that it lists and links.
I'm sure it's a great service in principle, but I would be wary of using it myself. I would much rather use PayPal which has an established reputation of consumer protection and fraud resolution.
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