Should EBay be 'at your own risk?'

barnabee

I am trying to sound out some opinions on selling and purchasing on EBay.

A massive amount of police time and money is spent recording and investigating allegations of scams, other fraud and disputes on EBay at a huge cost to the tax payer.

Should EBay be forced to place a 'buyer/seller beware' or 'all transactions are at your own risk' statement in their terms and conditions?

Any opinions for/against are welcome to assist with an idea I am hoping to put forward. I am not picking on EBay and appreciate there are similar problems with other online auction sites and shopping catalogues.

Thank you

goldspanners

ebay has always been at your own risk, but people don't understand how it works,buyers expect a level of service similar to that of an online retailer or better,they don't realise they are buying from individuals like themselves,or potentially being scammed by an individual.
buyers think they are buying from a big warehouse called ebay.
but i do think if someone is conned be it online or in the street it should be treated the same as it amounts to the same.
i don't know what difference a disclaimer like that will make and how legal it would be.

Brooker_Dave

barnabee wrote: »

I am trying to sound out some opinions on selling and purchasing on EBay.

A massive amount of police time and money is spent recording and investigating allegations of scams, other fraud and disputes on EBay at a huge cost to the tax payer.

Should EBay be forced to place a 'buyer/seller beware' or 'all transactions are at your own risk' statement in their terms and conditions?

Any opinions for/against are welcome to assist with an idea I am hoping to put forward. I am not picking on EBay and appreciate there are similar problems with other online auction sites and shopping catalogues.

Thank you

Ebay seem to have moved from an almost lack of site policing to an overly harsh site policing policy.

If they put 'all transactions are at your own risk' it would become an even bigger mecca for scammers...

RFW

barnabee wrote: »

A massive amount of police time and money is spent recording and investigating allegations of scams, other fraud and disputes on EBay at a huge cost to the tax payer.

It would be interesting to know how much, as a lot of the people on here who claim to have been scammed and contacted the police often say that the police told them they weren't interested and it was a civil matter.

Although as I thought (most (never seen one that doesn't!) auction houses have them in conditions of sale, and here they are from Ebay

Ebay_User_Agreement wrote:

We have no control over, do not guarantee, and you will not hold us responsible for:

• the quality, safety or legality of items advertised;
• the truth or accuracy of listings;
• the truth or accuracy of feedback or other content posted by users on the Site;
• the ability of sellers to sell items;
• the ability of buyers to pay for items; or
• whether a buyer or seller will actually complete a transaction.

Please do not assume that the offer, sale, purchase, export or import of any item is valid and legal simply because it is listed on the Site.

soolin

The problem is that for many of us we don't see ebay as a problem as we understand how it works. The more naive users who maybe don't understand how to protect themselves don't usually read the terms and conditions and quite often compound that by not understanding how the Royal mail works or even cheques and postal orders. It is those vulnerable users who will suffer even more if ebay changed their policies.

I do not support a nanny state, but I do believe there have to be basic settings in place to protect people who maybe can't protect themselves.