J.C.:
I saw my software sales on eBay cut by 75 percent almost overnight when they started issuing that warning.
I e-mailed eBay 3 weeks ago, to see whether they could do anything about this in the case where the MANUFACTURER is the seller.
Still, no response.
eBay has a $20B stock market capitalization, and there is, in my opinion, a responsibility that goes along with that.
Amazon has a similar stock market capitalization, and on the last occasion I had to e-mail them, at 4:00 in the morning, I had a personal response within 10 minutes.
On another occasion, Amazon went so far as to phone a deadbeat bidder whose e-mail address was incorrect.
Now, if Amazon can provide that kind of customer service, then why can't eBay provide it?
Your point about a buyer being much more likely to get hurt than the seller: Let's assume you are correct.
So, why has eBay chosen to take this warning approach with software, but not with Roseville pottery or any kind of collectible? I see sellers trying to pass fake Roseville off as real Roseville all the time on eBay. While it is easy to detect a fake if you know your Roseville pottery, it is not easy if your are new to collecting it.
It would seem only fair, therefor, that eBay would issue a warning that "This piece of pottery may not be authentic, or in the condition described."
The really perverse thing about all this is that the warning probably does nothing at whom it was intended most: buyers of illegal copies of Microsoft Office.
When the best price you can find online at PC Connection, or CompUSA or Cyberian outpost is about $200 for an UPGRADE to Office 97, and you find tons of eBay sellers offering the full version for $25, you KNOW that you are getting illegal merchandise.
Most people don't care, because they know they are getting the real software and the difference between $25 and $200 is so great. They figure there is no way they will get caught, and figure if they did get caught that they would just say "Hey, I paid for it. Here is who sold it to me. They said it was legitimate. How was I to know?"
--Doug
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