I need someone with some knowledge on this topic.......

Who are you and how is it that after almost two decades I've never seen you here?

If I don’t get what was advertised I write a scathing review and usually the seller is in a panic to get five stars. It works out.

I stopped selling on eBay a long time ago.

I reported a bad security breach that easily took me into all user accounts.

I reported it, trying to be helpful.
I had an excellent 3 yr long feedback.

They promptly shut my auctions down, they shuttered my user account plus banned my IP.

2 weeks later I get a threatening letter from one of their attorney goons telling me to never speak of the details under threat of being sued.

This was way back when that older lady was in charge of eBay, forget her name as it's been that long.

To date I have never told anyone the exact breach information because I can't afford to fight corp lawyers.

I assume the problem was fixed long ago but they did hurt me financially by closing a lot of my auctions and destroying my great feedback record and account that I had worked so hard for 3 years to build.

Yes, it's possible. More often, though, eBay/PayPal jacks with people and holds up their money. I figure they have a huge slush fund for interest/investment purposes.

The factor would be the lack of high interest accounts lol.

Ebay monitors their sellers for performance and if a significant percentage of a seller's customers are asking for refunds they will take action: either freezing the sellers funds if they think this might be an accident or a glitch OR booting the seller completely if they think it's a case of outright fraud.

As far as late shipments, Ebay marketplace is a mix of professional sellers and anyone who might have one or two items taking up space in their home that they wanna sell. So, some sellers may be lazy in shipping if this is not a full time business for them.

Generally, check the feedback. It is usually honest and accurate.

I have not had any significant problems on Ebay or any other auction site or trading marketplace.

Now, as a seller, I have had some scamming customers who I know for a fact received the merchandise I shipped them, but claim they never got it in order to get some free merchandise. As with all businesses, there is going to be some fraud, but almost all of it will the the customers trying to defraud the sellers. "They are a big business, they will not be hurt by a small theft." The mantra of shoplifters, grifters, and scammers everywhere.

The most egregious case I ever dealt with was a woman who ordered two paperback novels by the same author. I shipped her two brand new books in the trade size format. She tells me these books are awful, dirty, and obviously used. OK, I know she's lying so I demand her ship back the books. Guess what arrives: NOT the two books I shipped to her, but two of the same title, in a different format (mass market paperback) and yes they were written in, dirty and obviously hard used. I could not believe it. She used me to replace her two crappy books with two brand new books of the same title and expected me to take the loss!

My opinion is you are probably not the sharpest drawer in the knife, and you are probably use to being bamboozled, therefore becoming a little paranoid. Paranoia seems justified in your case.

Never happened to me.

They have been onto those scams for 20 years now. It's an easy scam, you bulk sell, don't ship or ship a placebo in an envelope, then just move on. People make millions. There are items with crazy prices on eb..y, but try to list something for over a grand. They want all sorts of vetting now, so who are these people selling a plastic cup set for 2 million dollars? Obviously it's an in your face M Laundering scheme.

Not happening..could be but it isn't. I've also never heard of people taking 5 business days to ship at item after payment. They want their 5 stars. They ship it ASAP

Why is this utter garbage pinned?

Have bought and sold on eBay.
Mostly good experiences.
A few times we had some trouble,
once we paid, and seller CLAIMED she
had already sold item.
She priced it way too low, and somebody
must have offered her a better price.
(outside of eBay)
We got a refund, but that really pissed
me off because a deal is supposed to be
a deal.

PAYPAL is THE WORST.

A royal pain in the ass.

eBay promised FOR YEARS that it was going to
UNPLUG from PAYPAL (WHICH THEY OWNED!!!)

If you have to deal with the idiot rat bastards
of PAYPAL, GOOD LUCK.

They are the MAJOR reason we quit dealing with
eBay unless we can pay with our credit cards.

Don't know how they are today,
but in the past, if things went well, fine.
If things went sideways, good luck.

i have certainly had stuff not as described but as far as disappearing stuff i would go talk to your post office

In my case, I ordered a pocket knife. It never reached me. The package it was supposedly shipped in was a very thin envelope with a torn perforation seal that looked like a seam roller with a single geared over-stitch tool, like the type used in sewing, had been used as a means to seal it.

There was no tape, glue or anything else used to show the package had ever been sealed.

After I opened a case for not receiving the item, the seller tried to give me directions on how to handle my claim, including attempting to have me close the case prior to resolution.

I told them, that if they had shipped the product properly, we wouldn't even be having the conversation. That it was due to their choice in choosing how to package my item that resulted in it never reaching my door.

That was after they asked me to pay for half the product price. I told them no. I am not paying for something I didn't receive. Also told them that if I was going to scam a seller it certainly wouldn't be for a 30.00 item. I mean......really.... I just ordered, had delivered, payed and left positive feedback for something that cost me over 700.00. If I was going to attempt to scam a seller to keep an item they shipped and claim I never received it I would have done it on something like that product, not a small ticket item.

eBay...closed the case and refunded me in full. They guy wanted me to ship the envelope back the knife was supposedly shipped in, so I attempted to do so, with return receipt. I ended up having that come back to me, because the return address was invalid. So, yeah the guy was definitely a scammer.

After all was said and done, I ended up reporting the seller for suspicion of fraud.

This was the first time this happened for me too. The packaging arrived but not the item.

When both the counter agents at the post office saw the envelope the knife was supposedly shipped in, they both said the same thing. The seller was trying to scam me. The knife should have been shipped in a cardboard box, with attached labels, not a flat envelope used for something like postage stamps.

It's highly likely that the seller never sent the item at all, just the cheap, unsealed envelope with tracking, claiming they had.

There also was another item I ordered that arrived, but it wasn't as described.

They listed it as new, in factory sealed package. When it arrived, it was in the factory package, but the seal had been broken and the item didn't power on and had the smell of burnt electronics.

I opened a case asking for a refund for that also.

The seller asked me to wait. Said they had more inventory on the way, but had to wait for the truck to unload to see if they had a replacement for me and that I should check their store too, to see if another similar item was in stock they could replace it with. So I looked and they had one, but it wasn't the item I wanted. It was similar, but lacked some of the key components the item I had ordered was supposed to have.

Turns out that item was from a reseller who deals in discount items in bulk, many of which are open package and customer returned items, they buy in bulk for discount resale from other businesses, but they didn't' have a supply of inventory of the item I ordered on hand and certainly not NEW factory packaged ones.

I believe the seller really thought this item was new. I even offered to cover the shipping charges for them in this instance.

After all was said and done, eBay refunded me for that item too, and I ordered from another seller who had multiple listing for the item I wanted and needed instead.

Also since the seller didn't accept returns, I had a defective product in my possession, which ended up in the trash.

what "high interest account"? aren't interest rates approximately zero?

The only reason I still use PayPal is that I get 6 month no interest if paid in full before then on purchases over 100.00. For large ticket items, that is a lot of interest saved if paid in full and I have never failed to pay it off before 6 months has ended.

I also have never had an issue with PayPal refunding me when issues like this happen, which isn't too often. eBay has always handled the refund to PayPal, before PayPal is ever involved on my end.

I got burned one time ordering jewelry from an over seas source. I blame my ex wife for that one.

It turns out it wasn't what she wanted. I ended up paying an additional 250.00 to return it after they tacked on duties and fees, etc....

With a few exceptions, I never order items from international sellers because of that.

We never understood the hospital city star neither at too much difficult things from abroad.

I don't know.

If someone were to sell numerous items and have the funds sit in the same account for all of those items long enough, then the interest gained from all of that money would accrue quite a bit of interest right?

So, even if they eventually do issue refunds on those items, if it is several weeks to a month later, they don't care. They still get to keep the interest accrued on the money right?

Like I said...I don't know how or if this is possible, but it seems plausible that this could be a thing. Accruing interest from sales on money that isn't yours, but remains in your account for a period of time long enough for it to happen.