I appreciate your allowing me to take your statistical survey about the ebay company auction site.

HOWEVER.....

What I would really like to see in an ebay survey is the true facts and statistics come out about how many people have been swindled and defrauded over the few years that the ebay auction corporation has been operating and when is ebay going to take any type of responsibility for helping enforce public rules,safety ,laws, common sense and all logical regulations followed by the rest of fair trade society. 

 I for one know the numbers to be in the tens of thousands of victims in  individual auction deals where some one bid and got burned, [locally,nationally or internationally] and this does not include those who just gave up because the loss of money was not worth the complaint process and /or time involved to get justice for the fraud that was perpetrated,

There are most likely millions, of angry cheated buyers in good faith trying to interact through the  ebay auction site on the Internet with little means of legally doing anything about it once cheated by sellers because of ebays policy to suppress what I consider public information on factual crimes being committed against any/all consumers.

Anyone can attempt to sell anything on eBay no matter what the site's regulations say. Unless bidders notify eBay authorities in time, these sales can end on their own automatically and  no one will ever know. If a  seller/violator gets caught, punishments are slight,nothing more severe than being permanently banned from the site. In a world where changing your identity or credit card or getting a friend or relative to take over for you is an easy possibility,this is a nobrainier for any criminals worldwide!

Ebay employees explain constantly about being unable to make strict serious enforcement policies toward protecting consumers at all except ending auctions and suspending blatantly obvious criminal behavior of sellers,when after all they are really a "venue" with little or no responsibility toward any consumer protections or enforcement of facts,except to make money from services rendered with out fault or blame for allowing  almost anything  to be posted for sale on ebay's auction website 24/7 with very little verification of fact.

As the warning posted on ebay pages says it all; "buyer beware"!

Along with the amount of pirated and bootleg items being sold daily on ebay without any fear of  legal repercussion or criminal and civil prosecution,unless hours of voluntary time are spent by bidders/consumers trying to bring these matters to the attention of ebay staff who send repetitivee emails directing you to copyrights owners in a Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) Program set up to take any blame away from ebay or its employees having any knowledge  what so ever,about factually identifying anything and ebay is usually loathe to end an auction with out irrefutable proof and testimony ,lest a nickle of profit be deleted out of the ebay cash machine over any unproven auction practice(s).

I doubt ebay will ever have mandatory serious protection policies for bidders who buy 10 or more items at a time,be it an hour,a day ,a week,or a month and are swindled or lose money through the misrepresentation of items and fraud by people only looking to defraud the public for self gain.[ and there are thousands out there everyday scheming to do so on ebay.com.]

How  long the federal government can allow this practice to go on and on with in its federal borders and jurisdiction, as well as on the Internet in the public view is a travesty of justice, the fair trade act,freedom of speech rights and all consumer laws around the world and a terrible reflection on Americans as a  free and fair trade society.

All because some lawyers got together to protect an  '' internet auction company''established in the united states of america, who incorporated with the word "VENUE" making it impervious to liability  for transgressions done to innocently interacting /  participating consumers, on ebays web site.

I might as well be gambling in Las Vegas for the protection offered me! The ebay house always wins and does little when I lose!

Ebay self protection policies while humoring   cheated consumers from doing little if anything in a  timely manner or any legal recourse in these matters with  the exception of being able to claim a few item losses a year through  minor insurance coverage claims ebay conviently supplies to cover any  legal liability.

[laughable at best ]

When  I was personallyy being defrauded for over $2300.00 on one sellers video auctions[thebarry( 17429) ], 

# 03 CR500-1 USA vs. Barry Reiger 2002-2003

 I had dealt with the seller several times before and had trusted that ebay's safety controls and rules and safety controls were enough to protect me .

# 03 CR500-1 USA vs. Barry Reiger  2002-2003

Being the seller  BARRY j.REIGER had over 17,000 positive feedbacks [ before he went private shortly after I sent my money and ebay never warned any buyers of this sellers actions or suspicious auctions through emails or other wise that something was going down and that negative feedbacks were pouring in at an alarming rate or I could have canceled my payments immediately.

[''  thebarry( 17429)A.K.A.- BARRY J. REIGER Not a registered user''] ,# 03 CR500-1 USA vs. Barry Reiger

 Having bid on hundreds of individual auctions, done over a month or more, in good faith only to find that I could only claim the highest 3 items in a six month period and then not claim any more items for a one year period.not a good deal when you have bid for over 550 items in such a short period.

Rather than acknowledge the almost totally self protecting policies of ebay corporation against more than a slight liability issue toward protecting all consumers on their part, 

I took the entire loss feeling rather used by an auction web site that I thought a innocently promoted fun "venue"  to participate on!

 The other issues were the overcharging postage or postal skimming as it is called which many ebay sellers think is perfectly justified and can vary from 50 cents to $10.00 in extra charges because they wish to sell items and get paid to pack and ship them as well without giving fixed shipping prices till after auctions end and you  the "buyer" have agreed  to purchase an item too late realizing your overpaying by many extra dollars in shipping!

I find that if this type of behavior continues, we as a society will destroy free trade as we know it ,through our own actions in allowing these kind of behaviors,by not making a stand against ebay policies of looking the other way and not showing  future generations what fair trade is all about and keep reliving the same deceptive scandalous lessons of the past with each newly cheated generation of consumers. 

 I believed enough protections were in place for all consumers unfortunately I was deceived too!

Law Enforcement Officials have painted me a totally different and shocking picture of the realities and priorities of what kind of Internet crimes in per portion to the quantity and seriousness that they will immediately act on ,once reported in the system and within the law enforcement budgets and manpower allowed them through government .

# 03 CR500-1 USA vs. Barry Reiger

I sadly end this letter no further along ,feeling no safer than when I started and more paranoid about my fellow man at the other end of the keyboard.

I am hoping encourage those of you who realize something must be done and wish to change this  corrupt almost one sided  ebay system of not so free trade where a few corporations and sellers profit at the expense of many innocent consumers who really have no consumer voice or protection without proper representation and organization.

Ebay buries all possible crime transaction records,reports and statistical information on individualswho are defrauded. 

[unless the individuals like us spread the word ourselves after being burned.] from any/all public eyes with the exception of law enforcement and only when  you the victim  have finally reported to them,usually to little to late by the time its reported and looked into most smart criminals are long gone.

Which means you and I could only obtain the  individual facts of each individual crime(s) and transaction(s) with a Lawyer and get subpoena(s) of each and every  transaction record(s) and then only if I were involved in those auction(s) in some way or the victim made a report other than on ebay.com.

This is a new way to make money and look respectable and hiding behind a mask of friendly respectability by using right to privacy laws to keep information from the people who need to know the most how to make a reasonable consumer decision to feel safe to interact on either ebay,com or the Internet.

So much for the public trust. [in private hands.]

Lets see John Ashcroft handle this one!

# 03 CR500-1 USA vs. Barry Reiger

YOU CAN CALL THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT AND TALK ABOUT THIS CASE IF YOU WERE A VICTIM ON EBAY.COM

# 03 CR500-1 USA vs. Barry Reiger

Hoping justice for all will prevail,

Richard Silva,

WWW.SELLHOLLYWOOD.COM