More eBay woes ...

[Louis]

Just had a run-in with eBay's "account protection" software, and it wasn't much fun.

Background: I grew up reading and speaking French and English, and when I was a kid used to read (among other things) some adventure/pulp -fiction stuff in French. I recently discovered some guys up in Canada who've been selling that stuff on eBay and have been buying a few for old time's sake. Plus they're fun to read for a few minutes before I go to bed. They typically go for $4-$5 plus shipping

So one guy lists about 50 titles and feeling rich I bid on about 18 of them. (I wish they would do them in multiple lots, but this guy does not do that.) They're usually worth more to me than to the other folks out there, and I usually win the auction. All the auctions ended about 5 PM today, and the e-mails start to roll in that I'm winning most. Then all of a sudden I start getting messages about having to contact eBay because they've shut my account down. Apparently all the activity triggered a red flag somewhere in the software. For $5 books! I ended up loosing one auction and being prevented from bidding on two others.

It then took about an hour of on-line chat to get it all straightened out, and they still refused to tell me how to prevent this from happening again. Presumably because that would reveal the inner workings of their cr@ppy fraud-prevention software. Several times in the past I've purchased single items that have been well over $100, (bike frames, etc.) so this was triggered by the number of items. The total money at stake was really pretty small.

Anyway. just to let you know about this so you may avoid it if you can. (Or tell me how to prevent it myself.)

Louis

[Sandy]

Had a similar situation occur, not with eBay, but with the bank we do most of our banking. I have gone to the pharmacy and picked up prescriptions on several occasions in which I could not use the credit card as the amount exceeded $1,000. Our credit limit is way beyond that and we have significant cash at the bank. The explanation was that the over $1,000 charge was not customary for us and hence the card could not be used. Interestingly, I have used the card elsewhere for purchases of morethan $1,000, but seldom. I guess they looked at a pharmacy and considered that amount quite high. What bothered me is that it had happened on several occasions even though we called the bank and told them to please not let it happen again, which they assured us.

Take a different perspective. It could be worse. I could have bought some bike items from you for say $500 and you might have sent them before you cashed my check......now then you would have had a real money problem.... ;) :D


:banana: Slick $$$$$$$$Sandy :banana:

[BumbleBeeDave]

. .. of shutting your account down because you're buying a lot of stuff. Are they maybe assuming that if you're suddenly buying a lot of stuff that someone has hijacked your account info? I can't think of any other explanation.

BBD

[Chris]

Sorry, you missed out on the other auctions, but I would be thankful that happened. Shows they are looking out for you. I don't use my credit card much and if I buy a bunch of stuff in one afternoon, I typically get a call making sure it is me. That makes feel more secure in their services. Look at it as a plus.

[alancw3]

Sorry, you missed out on the other auctions, but I would be thankful that happened. Shows they are looking out for you. I don't use my credit card much and if I buy a bunch of stuff in one afternoon, I typically get a call making sure it is me. That makes feel more secure in their services. Look at it as a plus.

i agree! i use to travel back and forth from wc to florida frequently. invaribly my first purchase in the other location would trigger a varification request of the vendor. i for one am glad that the credit card company is watching over me to some extent.

[1centaur]

Every year on vacation we get to have a conversation with the credit card company in a store that takes way too long. The "funniest" part is when they try to get me or my wife to verify specific purchase dollar amounts within the previous few days and because it's been a shopping trip it's hard to remember them to the penny, and we have to endure this memory test even though we're obviously in the store with our physical card in hand and have given all our identifying information already.

This year we called ahead of time to say where we'd be, and had no problem at all.

On eBay, I think their behavior reflects what some clever scamsters have done before - humans are inventive. Whether it's a hijacked account or creating a power seller with lots of feedback in a very short period, it's a system flag that can't be avoided. Actuarial types have decided that unusual activity is associated with fraud, so better to throw up a roadblock to a few auctions than let it undermine the bigger picture.

[Chad Engle]

It's a pita but I think it's worth it. When I was in Kuwait I purchased a prepaid cell phone. Each time I purchased minutes they would call my wife in the states to verify it was legit. I liked the fact that they did that.

Good advice on the call ahead thing. I'll be doing that before we head out on vacation in the next couple weeks.