Doc’s eBay Motors Sucks Blog

Just like the good Old Days!

Ole H Luis is busy scamming this holiday season.. LOL!

Beware of shady deals that seem too good to be true. If the vehicle is listed on Craigs List and the seller want’s to have eBay handle the payment BEWARE It’s A Scam!

Review my previous scam archive dating back to late 2003 to see what to avoid when shopping for a car on eBay Motors. But also be advised there are a lot of very good deals on eBay Motors as long as you do your homework!

Have a Safe And Joyous Holiday Season..

I see eBay is offering sellers pay-per-click advertising through it’s partner network.

And i wonder if this has anything to do with eBay sellers listing and keywords not being visible through any normal off site search. In my previous post i did a series of tests on eBay Motors Vehicles VIN Searches. I have recently conducted more tests on EBM searching for sellers phone numbers, names, etc, in the listing body and didn’t come up with hardly anything.

I needed a right rear window regulator for an 2001 Cadillac Deville and did a Google search for the part, Several online stores came up first, one being partstrain.com that had it for 58.00 including shipping. Further down the page there was two eBay results, one store did not have it, and the other had it but complete with the motor (that i did not need) for 160.00! No Thanks!

So my question is, Is best match allowing the high price item to become visible because they make more off of it? I did find another seller on eBay selling just the regulator but for 74.00.

eBay just held this webanar for Diamond & Titanium Power Sellers. Naturally i was not invited. LOL!

But Ina Steiner Published This Article on what eBay sellers need to do to get the best placement.

“eBay said the key criterion for auction-style format was Time Ending Soonest (”we love auctions,” it said), while for Fixed Price format, the key criterion was Recent Sales. eBay said “price really matters” and devoted two slides to show how sellers need to actively manage their prices to compete. (See Thursday’s AuctionBytes Blog post for more information.)”

An associate of mine was selling 20-30 cars per month on EBM with Fixed Price and when eBay made Best Match the default his sales just stopped. It was like someone shut the key off!

I’m wondering if the lack of normal outside search on eBay sellers items is tied to best match blocking the crawlers out? I know for a fact that many buyers find vehicles on EBM through Google search, or at least did find them. Is this part of a plan for eBay to sell keyword advertising to desperate sellers who feel they have nowhere else to go?

I have set up a thread on our Discussion Board to further discuss this situation. I appreciate any eBay Vehicle Sellers comments, and welcome all eBay buyers and sellers to join in on the discussion.

Thank you..

I remember not too long ago when we could Google up a vehicles Id number (VIN).

It was an easy way to see where a scam car came from. Most of the scammers usually steal their vehicle info and photos from either a closed eBay listing, or from autotrader.com. Someone would come on the eBay Motors Discussion Board asking for advice because this car was priced so cheap.  A Google VIN search quickly determined who really owned the car. And many times the buyers had not already sent the payment by Western Union to the scammer, but many times they already had been scammed.

Which brings me to the point of this posting. It looks like Google is no longer indexing vehicle ID Numbers from eBay listings. I decided to sample random vehicles from eBay Motors to run this test.  I believe if Google is not indexing the VIN i doubt they are indexing anything else in the vehicle description.

Here is an example of an eBay Motors Listing that just ended.  And here is the Google Search Results on it’s VIN. Here is another example. And the Google Results. Note there is indexing from carad.com an eBay listing service, but nothing from eBay itself.  Next i searched for 2008 Cadillac Escalade EXT AWD and one eBay result did pop up on the 4th page. And there were no sponsored links to eBay sellers vehicles.

Ina Steiner wrote this article about eBay placement in Google Search on 09/25/2008.  So what is going on behind the corporate scenes? Is there a feud going on between Google & eBay? eBay refuses to let their sellers accept Google Checkout saying it is not safe. Has Google lowered eBay’s search results to get even for that Boston Tea Party fiasco?

One thing is a fact - SEARCH IS Everything! If Google has reduced eBay’s visibility in it’s search, and add eBay’s messed up Worst Match Search it’s a wonder anyone is selling on eBay period.

Several of my associates have told me eBay Vehicle Sales have just stopped, It’s like someone turned the switch off. No emails, no phone calls, and very little visits on the page counters. Even the Exporters have quit buying off of eBay Motors. But sites like autotrader.com and cars.com are working great with lots of calls and emails from buyers around the world.

Times are bad enough now - the last thing we need is a corporate feud to bring sales to a grinding halt. If you have any information to share please add your comments below.

Thank You..

Looks like eBay Live 2008 Was A Flop!

This eBay members post on eBay’s EBL Discussion Board Was Priceless.

My husband and I were so disillusioned with the conference that we went home on Friday morning. We purchased priority passes for the second year and we had even reserved our hotel room almost a year in advance. We were truly looking forward to it! Going in we knew that things would definitely be different than in years past - (this was our third Live)- especially after all the changes made earlier in the year “for the collective good of the company”.

When we arrived at the convention center and it was unusually empty. We thought that we would have to wait in line for our materials, but we walked right up. We got to the exhibition hall and it was practically empty. I kept saying to my husband, where’s the rest of the vendors, is there another area? There were plenty of eBay and Paypal employees on hand, but very few regular vendors.

Our first trip to eBay Live was in Las Vegas. We really weren’t sure what to expect and we didn’t realize all the conference had to offer. Boston was different. We really did our homework and attended many of the classes and seminars. There were roundtable discussions on many different selling categories in eBay and so many choices, it was hard to decide. Chicago was a completely different story. The class and seminar choices had really been pared down and there wasn’t anything new and unique. We saw Seth Godin and he lacked his usual enthusiasm and his “spontaneous jokes” were the same as last year.

When we talked to some of the eBay personnel, they seemed very hesitant to engage in a conversation about the recent changes - I wonder why. After we did talk to them, they were very friendly and helpful. It was much easier to access them this year — because nobody was there!

Everybody we spoke to had their talking points down perfectly and rarely did they stray from them. There was a true lack of enthusiasm that has been there in the past from both attendees, the vendors and the Bay crew.

One day was more than enough. We were lucky because we were able to drive to the conference… I pity those who had to fly in and stay for the duration.

We listened to the Town Hall meeting and the Keynote speech when we got home. They tried to appear sympathetic, but it seemed like they were really saying … I’m sorry that you feel that way.

Three nights at a Chicago hotel… $850
Two EBay registration with priority passes…$450
Parking….$130
Gas and Tolls… $60
Our eBay Live experience…..worthless!

Here is a link to the official eBay Live Discussion Board.

This post on Yahoo’s eBay Finance Discussion Board was really funny.

Mr. Donahoe, who officially succeeded Meg Whitman in March, said he was not fazed by the attention. “The good news is Meg prepared me well for this,” he said. “I will say at one point in the first quarter I got an e-mail from my mother that said, ‘John, eBay sellers may not love you, but your mother does.’

Meanwhile Back On eBay - Sleasy Buyers Are Negging Defenseless Sellers!

And The Romanians Are Still Hooking Suckers On EBM!

Management is continuing to run off their best sellers, and the sellers are the ones that pay their bills!

eBay was once the King of Ecommerce - Now it is nothing but a corporate garbage dump that has made it’s execs rich - and bankrupted sellers who believed in the principals that eBay was founded on!

Guess we can sit back and watch as eBay Implodes Into Itself!

Here is a video and a couple of shots of Vladuz in his apartment , and being led into a Romanian police station.

According to this tip: Hey Doc, Romanian media just reported that a 20 year old from Bucharest has been arrested under suspicion that he is eBay’s pain in the ass Vladuz.

Apparently they finally managed to trace an IP on him and busted his apartment at 6 a.m. this morning. He threw 3 laptops out the window from the 6th floor in an attempt to destroy evidence.

I don’t read Romanian: but here is the link to the story on antena3.ro.

If you have not heard about it yet - eBay is attempting to clean up their site by making changes to the feedback system. In a nutshell it boils down that sellers will not be allowed to leave Neutral or Negative Feedback to buyers!

Scamming and Extorting Buyers have been a serious problem for vehicle sellers for years. If a buyer had good feedback or was a seller - any threats of extortion was somewhat negotiable “you neg me - I will neg you back.” But with this new feedback policy the sellers will be at the mercy of a shady buyer looking to get money back after the deal. I feel it is a major train wreck for vehicle sellers!

I think back to when i had my own eBay selling id’s “docsqualitycars” and “docsplaceonline” and remember paying out around 3K in 2003 in extortion money. I traded a check for positive feedback! eBay was absolutely no help - they sure took my money but wouldn’t do anything to protect me!

This guy was the postal worker from hell! Trying everything possible to get $1000 back from me on this gorgeous 1973 Lincoln Mark VII. I did manage to turn him around by filing a complaint with the post office. Click here to read the posting from 2003 when this one happened.

eBay may have suspended my account’s but they have not silenced my opinion of how their site sucks!

I recently managed a friends eBay account and made him a Titanium Power Seller in a few months time. While the greatest majority of the sales went well - we had 3 extortionists in a row!

One was this Lexus buyer. He flew in and i picked him up at the airport. Really a nice guy in person - he had a typed out checklist and spent better than an hour looking the car over, checking all the equipment, looking for damage etc. After that he wanted to take it for a long interstate drive and was gone for close to an hour.

Long story short - he then whipped out a 2 party cashiers check which we wouldn’t accept. I had him go to a local bank and get it reissued in the dealerships name. We did the paperwork, took a couple of photos (I’m on the left) and he left for home.

Two days later i get an email from him that the CD player didn’t work, and a replacement unit from the dealer was $850 and he expected us to pay for it.

I ignored the email and a couple days later got another email saying refusing to answer his email was an indication we were not going to correct the CD problem, and it would be reflected in the feedback he left. I traced the email headers to a university where he worked and replied that what he was doing was Extortion and it was against the law - and that i don’t think the university would appreciate him using their network to extort money from us! He emailed back and said he would take care of the CD player himself. And we never heard anything from him again.

So the whole idea of this posting is - eBay is wanting to brown nose the buyers - while tossing the sellers to the wolves! I think this new feedback policy really sucks!

We are not talking about Beanie Babies or Gently Used Undergarments! The eBay vehicle seller is in a whole different world than eBay core. I fear that this new feedback policy will have dire consequences on eBay’s vehicle sellers! Sleazy buyers will flock to eBay Motors looking for a great deal - and then will hold the seller hostage for $$$ in lieu of negative feedback!

eBay Motors needs Car People experienced in the trade who can mediate situations that arise and help both parties come to an agreement. Automating this process with a bot will not solve the problem.

Also take a few minutes to watch this video from “crazeenydriver” eBay is actually suspending members for posting video’s on YouTube! He talks of an eBay Strike on Feb 18-25th. Don’t list or buy anything - stand up and tell eBay you don’t appreciate how they treat their members!

Oh well.. That’s my two cents worth on the subject. If you have comments please add them to this blog - I would love to hear from you..

Well lookie here.. The NEW eBay Motors - Complete with a Scam Listing!

Beware of listings like this with “too good to be true pricing” You will be scammed and loose all your money!

These scammers are really slick - they specialize in separating greedy American sheep from their wallets! The greatest majority of these scammers are operating out of Romania in internet cafe’s and using wireless broadband connections. The fake emails they send pretending to be from eBay are really convincing -  and once you send the money it’s gone!

- and never contact a member by direct email as suggested above!

There are a lot of good sellers on eBay and some really great deals too - so just be careful and do your homework before buying. Use Toolhaus.org to scan for negative and neutral feedback by any seller. And see our site archive of scams for other examples of eBay Motors Fraud!

eBay Has Finally Rolled Out The New And Improved eBay Motors!

I see there is a lot of grumbling going on in the eBay Motors Discussion Board about it. Apparently the search is hosed up - and someone said it is not compatible with the Opera web browser. Here is a big thread with eBay pinks and site members discussing all the problems!

Last night eBay put a big link on the new site’s home page to get back to the old site, that sure indicates the problems members are commenting on are true.

Here is the go back link - if eBay removes it from the new site - it still might take you back to the old site. If you go back and want to go to the new one - delete your eBay Cookies.

eBay has always released new features that we not fully tested - so this is nothing new for them. I welcome your comments about this new site.

No one, it turns out, does Internet auction fraud like the Romanians. Bulgarians specialize in intellectual property theft; Ukraine is a leader in online credit card crime; the Russians have a profitable niche in Internet dating fraud.

But when it comes to online auctions, particularly for big-ticket items such as cars that can yield $5,000 a scam, Romanians own the game. Romanian police estimate that cyber-crime is now a multimillion-dollar national industry, as important to organized criminals here as drug smuggling or human trafficking.

The Internet Crime Complaint Center, a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center, ranks Romania fifth in its table of naughty nations. But most experts agree that doesn’t give Romanian criminals their due. Much of the cash being made on auction fraud reported as originating in the U.S., Canada, Britain, Spain or Italy is actually being picked up in those countries by Romanian money mules. An EBay fraud ring busted last year in Chicago, for example, has been traced to Pitesti, Romania.

EBay, which doesn’t even operate a site in Romania, won’t talk dollar figures but acknowledges that the country is the No. 1 source of “professional fraud.” On a November 2006 visit to the Romanian capital, Bucharest, FBI Director Robert Mueller said the vast majority of Internet fraud committed on “one prominent U.S. online auction website is connected to Romania or Romanians.”

Click Here to read the rest of this story. And be sure to check out our scams archive to see how this fraud is being committed!