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5 replies

Venting! Is this eBay legal?

B bjones9942Member
Occasionally I actually bid on those auctions offering software for 'free' or at a really low price. The first one I bid on gave me a link (and the auction said the bid was for a link) to Microsoft where you could get a copy of XP Pro for $35. Yep, it worked (and I was eligible - didn't have to fudge any of the sign up info) and even gave me the added benefit of receiving other offers/products from Microsoft ... in fact they just sent me Win2003 Small Business Server with Outlook 2003 and Frontpage 2003! Another bid got me Office Developer for 1/3 the normal price (not academic version).

Anyway .... I was looking for a particular piece of software the other day and found an auction that listed it. I bid, won and received a nice little email from the seller pointing me to her website for the 'list of free programs'. When I went there it was a page full of warez and cracks! The program I wanted wasn't even listed (not that I would have use a warez version)!

After two unreplied to emails to the seller asking for either a link to a free LEGAL copy of the software I wanted, or my money back, I sent off complaints to both Paypal and eBay. Paypal got me my $$ back, but eBay has never responded and the seller STILL has an auction going for this!

Does eBay really allow people to auction links to pages offering illegal ways to obtain things? I understand that there's nothing illegal going on until you actually USE the warez or crack (or keygen), but come on ...!

Ok, I'm going to stop venting ... and yes, I really should have known better when the auction price was $8.95, but prior experience .... Smile

Mother Mary Says, 'HONESTLY! you're just ruint!'
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bartelbybartelbyMember
quote:
This sort of came up before with fake brand names. I think eBay needs a complaint by the author or manufacturer of the goods before they will pull an auction


Kina true Puppy. Ebay WILL pull an auction if you supply the complaint to the correct department, but if they dont do what you think is fair you can contact the VeRo holder for that item.

It took me days of complaints to get the *thorn in my side* pulled, this seller was in Germany and I actually sent the complaint to German section of ebay and next thing I know is that she has been booted right outta ebay Big Grin

What section did you send it through BJ?

The two ways I complained was.....Help>eBay Policies>Prohibited and Restricted Items>"then whatever it may fall under"

The other way was ...Help>Safe Trading>Protection Programs>Fraud Protection>Trust and Safety Webform...then the appropiate details.

Lexie
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B bjones9942Member
quote:
The two ways I complained was.....Help>eBay Policies>Prohibited and Restricted Items>"then whatever it may fall under"


That was the way I did it. When I emailed her, I did it to the address she used to notify me of the win - which wasn't the one she has registered on eBay. Her response when Paypal asked her to give me my money back was,

"[...]when claiming to have sent email make sure you get a receipt that the email has actually been viewed. I never recieved one message from you regarding this issue!"

Perhaps she should check her mail in all her accounts Wink I for one don't use the receipt option because so few people turn it on.

I've been thinking of giving Microsoft a shout - one of her web pages provides activation keys for their products - while links to other places might allow her a little latitude, I doubt that having these accessible on her site would be smiled upon by Big Billy.

Here's the auction id for her second listing: 3657187601

Mother Mary Says, 'HONESTLY! you're just ruint!'
Last edited {1}

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