I’m not sure if the disfellowship means that eBay users can no longer read mcgees.org
eBay has always had an odd culture: eBay treats its sellers like crap, but the same sellers hang out on discussion boards and flame any newcomers who try to bring up complaints. Serious, horrible flames.
This has struck me as rather a cult arrangement: infinite power vested in the authority structure, progressive limiting of freedom, cutting members off from their assets, and, all the while, the people most hurt by this behavior are supporting the power in a fashion that would make Joe the Plumber recoil.
But this is not a rant against eBay. There are plenty of those. I’m not even bitter that no one is answering any of my emails trying to clarify the situation, namely, that I owe them about $100, that I consider paying this back a moral obligation as well as a legal one (like I feel with my personal loans), and the only thing that has kept me from paying so far is I don’t have the money. Concisely: when I’z gots the money, theyz gots it.
I’m not bitter. Bemused is better — by the progressively more Jonestown tone eBay is taking with me in automated emails. So this was a really long wind-up for this, received today:
Because you are delinquent in paying your fees, we have suspended your eBay account. Your current listings have been ended and you are no longer a member of the eBay Community. [emphasis added]
But … but but but … why couldn’t you just end my listings and suspend me, but [sniffle] not excommunicate me? I want to go hide under a blanket and cry. I’m not a part of the eBay Community any more [sob]!!1! Can’t I just do some penance? Like, make me pay $0.30 to use their profoundly ugly templates ten times, and twenty Hail Donahoes? Readers: any suggestion how to handle this without self-flagellating? I’ve asked eBay but … but but but … they seem to have better things to do. 
More important than the survival of my very soul?!
Do you know the true irony? The best way I have to generate $100 on short notice is to sell shit on eBay.
Subscribe by email
August 23rd, 2009 at 03h53
Don’t feel bad – I received an email from eBay a few years ago where they advised me that I’d been excommunicated
because of something to do with incorrect contact info – not surprising since I’d only used eBay *one* time right after eBay first started up a zillion years ago (I’d *bought* an item from another seller – incidentally the purchase was perfect, no problems of any kind with the purchase or the seller).
But in the many years since that lone purchase, I had moved across town. I updated my driver’s license info, and advised all other important agencies etc that need to know stuff about me. But I hadn’t used eBay in years and I had no reason to even remember that eBay existed.
I’m not sure which is more worrisome, the fact that eBay somehow figured out I’d moved (even though I still had the exact same PO Box and email addy that I’d always had there) *or* that eBay must be like the government (driver’s licenses, IRS, etc) where they get ‘concerned’ if you move and don’t tell them – EVEN IF you haven’t bought anything from eBay in many years!
Anyway I like your eBay/cult comparison. Certainly seems like that, alright.
August 23rd, 2009 at 11h16
Anyway I like your eBay/cult comparison. Certainly seems like that, alright.
Thanks for stopping by, and for the nice words about the post. Yeah, your story about eBay’s ‘concern’ is something else — the billing address on the cc you had registered didn’t change? Weird.
August 24th, 2009 at 02h21
Hi,
> the billing address on the cc you had registered didn’t change?
All my contact info was still accurate – I’ve had the same USPS Post Office box for many years and I use it for almost everything that’s important (such as bank statements, bills, all purchases, other financial things, etc). The reason I do that, is because at least in this town, the PO Box is safer and more secure than delivery to the street address. I usually only use the street address when absolutely necessary such as for FedEx or UPS.
As I recall, the item I bought on eBay back in the 1990s, was shipped by postal mail to my PO Box – it was just a small old used memory-card which fit nicely in a padded envelope.
Some time later, I began to have some doubts about eBay when eBay first started using PayPal, after reading of PayPal horror stories.
And then a few years later when I got that notice from eBay I figured, well, it’s probably just as well because that way I won’t be tempted to buy anything from eBay again, because – given some of the problems that other people have had with eBay – it’s probably a blessing in disguise.
I got lucky with my first purchase – great seller, product arrived in good condition and worked fine (still using it, in fact) and was exactly what I’d ordered, etc. – but *now* I would not want to use eBay even if they hadn’t excommunicated me. No point in pushing my luck