posted on October 17, 2000 04:58:16 PM new
Am I the last to know these things? I was doing a search for a user ID's bidding history and got this message from eBay.
"German privacy laws do not allow us to pass on information involving bidders from Germany. If you want to find all auctions this user has bid on, please contact the user directly by email."
posted on October 17, 2000 05:07:27 PM new
Nice to see Ebay finally got the message about European privacy laws.
Europe has very stringent privacy laws(e.g. it is illegal for companies to sell customers' personal information). Germany's are tough but Austria and Switzerland's are tougher.
The upside is we don't get any telemarketing calls. I don't think there is a downside, to be honest.
I don't have any advice to offer you beyond you have to decide whether or not to trust your bidder.
posted on October 17, 2000 05:40:43 PM new
True. But someone must have trusted you when you were a 0 FB newbie or else you wouldn't be here now.
And frankly, if someone had been looking at my bidding history when I was a 0FB newbie, they wouldn't have seen much since I tend to bid on one item at a time. If no sellers had let me bid because of my lack of bidding history, I would have been SOL for buying on ebay.
Edited to fix a spacing error.
[ edited by Shadowcat on Oct 17, 2000 05:41 PM ]
posted on October 17, 2000 05:45:18 PM new"True. But someone must have trusted you when you were a 0 FB newbie or else you wouldn't be here now."
That is very true, but the seller also had the option of looking to see if I was bidding on 400 auctions in every catagory without rhyme or reason at ridiculous prices. I'm not afraid of a zero feedback bidder, I'm a little concerned over a zero feedback bidder bidding at everything in sight. I've always taken a peak at bidders history if they had a zero feedback for that reason.
posted on October 17, 2000 05:52:39 PM new
Again, true.
I don't know what to tell you but the odds of you running into the same situation again are very good, as ebay pushes for more and more of the global market. You have to decide if you're going to take the leap of faith that the newbie is on the level or arbitrarily decide all European newbies aren't worth the risk.
posted on October 17, 2000 06:07:19 PM new
I just got a big fat negative from a newbie with a 4 feedback record so I am down on those buyer's right now. I held her check for 8 business days to clear, after stating I would hold it 10, and she thinks it took her too long to get her $6 item. I honestly think there ought to be a guideline for newbies leaving feedback for those with no experience as to how e-bay works. Totally pissed and now e-bay is down to boot!
posted on October 17, 2000 06:16:22 PM new
When I first registered with ebay, I read through the FAQs, scoped out the boards, read the rules, all that stuff before I even contemplated bidding. I wanted to make sure I did things right and didn't give the seller any cause to leave negative FB for me.
From what I read here at AW, I get the feeling I was the exception, not the rule.
(If it's any consolation, when my adult kitten decided to start buying on ebay, I walked him through the steps and made sure he did things correctly, too[and for a change, he actually listened to me]. So there's one newbie out there who does know the score.)
I think there should be a probationary period for newbies, maybe a tutorial where they practice the entire bidding and paying process, before they're let loose on the world. The problem would be how ebay would monitor something like that.
posted on October 17, 2000 06:26:38 PM newShadowCat: There actually is a tutorial, I think, though only those people using MSIE can do it. It's not monitored to see if anybody uses it, though.
Most people seem to be perfectly "comfortable" just diving in without doing anything more than signing up. (It boggles my mind to see newbies bid on multi-thousand-dollar items and not even keep the auction number or email invoice they received, so when the item doesn't show up they have no clue what to do.)
I have a friend that I had to work on for several months before she'd even sign up to bid on anything on eBay (I finally bid and won something I knew she'd like, asked the seller to send it to her with a note saying, "See what you're missing on eBay?" - the seller was amused by the whole thing.) She bid on items for a few months, then one day decided to sell. As far as I know, my friend hasn't read a single page of "rules" yet. (She did ask me a couple of "explain this" questions early on.) She sells infrequently, and fortunately has had no problems at all.
posted on October 17, 2000 06:45:12 PM newGlenda: It must depend upon the person. I have a friend(who lives in another country) who emails me any time she has questions about ebay. It took her a while to work up the nerve to register, another while to bid, and even now she gets nervous every time she bids on something valuable(But she complains like an oldtimer when a seller doesn't leave her FB.)
posted on October 17, 2000 07:03:46 PM new
I also had a bidder from Australia that said they would send payment and then they stopped answering my emails. I waited 59 days before I finally left a negative, "Bidder said payment would be sent; 59 days no payment; stopped answering emails."
I get hit with a big fat neg from this person with 5 feedback that says, "BIG MISTAKE....Nasty Seller...Not Ebay's finest, big 0!"
I was shocked. Then this person gets a second negative. Also from a US seller. They now only bid on Australian auctions.
I have to remind myself that this is only one person. I don't want to judge a whole country based on one persons behavior, any more than I would want people to judge the US based on just working with me.
Uaru,
I also like to look up the bidding history of newbies. I have also sent out emails for bidders with zero feedback to make sure they will follow through with the transaction.
If I don't get a response, I have just reason to remove their bid.
