BUYERS BEWARE.  Ebay & Paypal act like they protect you, but they do nothing for custom built pieces that are outside of 45 days.  I bought a custom bed from Neverland Them beds, my Dad paid for it through PAYPAL, and neither entity has helped us pursue getting my little girl's bed.  They haven't even suspended his account to keep him from defrauding others, they just gave us a bunch of garbage about our claim being outside their time period.  WHAT A HORRIBLE COMPANY!!!!!!!  The poorest customer service I have seen in a long time.  They do not care at all about their customers.

Sophie and Dallas, you inspired me. Especially Sophie. With the cracked out cat ladies and total CRAZIES. I was once a gold powerseller and also bought hundreds of items a month. Nowadays, I sell 1 or 2 things TOPS a month, and only buy if I find something rare for my collection that I MUST own and cannot get any other way.

I think the buying and selling has gone to hell on eBay. I originally bought and sold to make a little money while I was in college. I have never been a fan of corporate America. But when I found a job, I found myself jumping at the opportunity.

Lately almost every single one of my selling transactions have been with total nuts (as in I sold NWT designer clothes that were returned for "not fitting" but all came back without tags, one with a random stain, and all with some serious, smelly pit stains!... also a nice watch, buyer claimed it didn't work, and returned just the band to me!... and another, I sold 2 college textbooks to a guy, who determined they were the "wrong edition" and I let him return them, only to get a priority flat rate box with tracking back with a bubble-wrapped brick in it! Try disputing that with PayPal... it was delivered to you, and they have proof... It may have been a brick, but it arrived!). That's just this year, too. They are seriously CRAZY.

Lately, my buying experiences have been the same. Items advertised as solid 14k gold that were gold plated silvertone metal. An "authentic" older Coach hadbag that was probably the worst fake I've ever seen in person. A "NWOT" Large Gucci Guccissima horsebit leather hobo in new condition that was somehow stuffed into the VHS priority mail mailer (it defied the laws of Physics), was scuffed, worn, and tattery... and when you try to return, they call you a scammer! Like I was holding on to all these items around my house just to swap for their treasures...? In recent times, I've only dealt with one or two sellers who had good service... items exactly as described, fair shipping prices, shipped quickly, nice. Buying is not worth the hassle to find the one or two honest people still left.

It seems like eBay, much like the neighborhoods which were once high-class but have slowly become total sh*thole slums, has become a place where only frauds can still effectively buy and sell. You can't make a buck by being honest any more.

Oh, and don't start me on the fees... or PayPal... or BillMeLater (all now under the eBay umbrella).... Now that they bought Skype last year, I hope they don't scr*w that up too.

So, eBay, I hate you as well. Just about any reasonably intelligent person in America has grown disenchanted with you. I hope CL puts you under! And Meg Whitman, thank god you lost the California Governor's race (and shame on you for employing an illegal immigrant domestic maid for nearly 10 years and then firing her right before the election and pretending to not know, despite proof you had been informed of her status!).

That's all I've got!
-Jessica

So my day was mostly spent untangling the mess that Pay Pal and Ebay did. It was lots of little messes and big messes connected to little messes. It took a solid hour just to find  live representative and to find the right numbers, and to get through the live chats...which were not helpful. Basically, Pay Pal deactivated my account without my permission because I was never on it and never used it, although it was still activated when a merchant was trying to refund money to my account, and Pay pal blocked that transaction and claimed it was due to my account being "deactivated." Funnier thing is, when I paid the merchant through Pay Pal WITH my personal bank account, the money was taken out from my bank account. However, when I finally received a refund, the money was not deposited back into my own account, but got stuck in the Pay Pal twilight zone of horrors. An even bigger sledgehammer over the head: using Pay Pal in conjunction with the ALMIGHTY EBAY and Bill Me Later sidekick option. Because Pay Pal deactivated my account so that I could not log in, I started using the Bill Me Later option on EBAY and found out shortly after that they charge a 19.99% interest rate for every purchase you make on EBAY. I decided henceforth to close all accounts connected to PAY PAL...never to use them again. And I will tell others too...:) Never use PAY PAL. Even though it's supposed to protect customers. It just creates more messes in our lives sometimes. In short, I had a hard time today because they also had an old discontinued credit card up on my account and I was not able to upload an updated card number because i couldn't even log in, and I could not find a way to log in because they make it virtually impossible for you to find a live person to talk to. This whole thing was a web of inconveniences and false play. I really hated these hoops I had to jump through. So I am warning you so you won't have to jump through them. Let's all abandon Pay Pal. Shall we?