Damage amounting to millions
No Ebay-buyer protection in the Topseconds case – Customers are left with the damages!
Buying is a thing of trust – especially in the Internet auction house Ebay. But time and again, fraudsters with attractive offers creep in and subsequently accept the transferred money from the customers, but do not deliver the goods. The newest case: Topseconds. Topseconds GmbH has been selling watches of trend brands as Powerseller under the name "topseconds" on Ebay for years. 43.000 ratings make a serious impression. But the beginning of December 2008, the Internet auction house suddenly blocked the account. As is common in such cases but with significant delay and much too late for those damaged.
Damage amounting to millions in the Topseconds case
On December 17th, 2008, the Country Court Bonn then initiated the insolvency proceedings against Topseconds GmbH. Thus, it can be assumed that a large part of the advance payment receipts of 1.4 million Euros including the shipping costs is no longer there. According to the Kölner Express magazine, house searches at Topseconds GmbH have been conducted. The police and public prosecutors´ office confiscated files and computers.
Ebay no longer offers standard buyer protection
Especially bitter: The PayPal buyer protection advertised by Ebay is not applicable in this case, because the Powerseller "topseconds" did not offer PayPal. »We generally believe in the good in men« - says the first principle of the frequently quoted „Ebay-community“. In former times, Ebay had taken precaution in case that this belief was misused by fraudsters with the buyer protection program. Customers that were scammed received partial compensation for the damage. This created trust among the users and significantly contributed to the success of Ebay. However, Ebay abolished the standard buyer protection that would have been effective in this concrete case, months ago. The Ebay buyers are now left with the damage!
And as always, Ebay keeps quiet about such cases and waits until it passes. The damaged customers apparently do not mean anything to Ebay. As they say: „Your security on Ebay is of greatest importance to us.“ Surely Ebay customers deem real security to be something else and exactly this contradiction makes the core business on Ebay decrease for the first time in years. Who likes buying things on a marketplace where you do not get any goods in return for your money?