Theft, fraud and persecution… we’ve all faced at least one of those in our lifetime. There is 2 corporations in this great country that allows, facilitates and partakes in all three and they are eBay and Paypal. Those three things I mentioned above, I’ve dealt with all three as well as many other ebay sellers. This is not about me even though I am having my own battle with eBay right now. This petition is about forcing a policy change that benefits the eBay seller small and large because the unfair business practices got to go.



Problem Number 1: eBay’s 30 Day Money Back Guarantee is abused by scammers which leads to rampant theft and fraud.



Under eBay’s 30 Day Money Back Guarantee, a buyer can ask eBay to intervene if their purchase doesn’t arrive or isn’t as “described”, and the seller doesn’t offer a resolution within 3 days. However, fraud buyers can ignore any contact and raise a dispute with eBay’s resolution service, which sometimes authorizes a refund without any evidence from the seller being considered. The seller has no recourse under PayPal’s seller protection scheme (which is non-existent) since this is invalidated when a buyer claims directly through eBay. Although eBay’s own rules require buyers to send disputed items back, refunds are in many cases released before this happens – or after damaged or substitute goods have been returned. Every single time eBay has forced me to accept a return from a buyer. The item I sent out is not the item I got back. I have gotten back a box of old books, some household item the buyer didn’t want anymore and I’ve even gotten back an empty box before. Sellers can take all safety measures possible like taking pictures and videos of the item and the packaging and shipping process. It doesn’t matter because eBay doesn’t accept proof out keyword proof outside of eBay which leaves the seller out the money and the item. I have had to deal with this situation many times and I was forced to contact eBay about it through the San Jose BBB this was the response I got.



Hello Andrew,



Thank you for the opportunity to address your BBB complaint today.



We appreciate you taking the time to bring this situation to our attention. We're always looking for ways to improve the member experience; which includes our return policy.



eBay is committed to providing a fair and safe marketplace for all buyers and sellers. We want to ensure a trusted marketplace for our customers, where they can buy and sell with confidence, knowing that eBay has the people, policies and processes in place to protect them. On the seller side, we have a variety of ways to protect sellers - you can learn about them on our eBay Seller Protection Page. And for buyers, our eBay Money Back Guarantee

policy applies to virtually all transactions in the US. If a customer does not receive an item or it was not properly described, eBay has their back.



In looking over the case notes, you accepted the return the same day. Per the eBay Money Back Guarantee, buyers are given 30 days from the date of receipt to notify us if there is a problem with the transaction. If the buyer states there are problems, they are able to return the product for a full refund of what was paid upon checkout. At that time, the buyer will open a return request, and you as the seller are given 3 business days to come to a resolution. Specific to your situation, I noted you accepted the return.



When a buyer requests to return a product due to it not arriving as described in the listing, we request that sellers accept the return and provide a shipping label to their buyer. Once the product has been returned, we ask sellers to then issue the refund. Our goal is to get both parties back to square one - sellers with the item and buyer with their funds. We recognize the efforts you made to upload the documents through the Better Business Bureau site, however, we don't accept proof outside of the eBay system.

I understand this isn't the resolution you were seeking, however, we must ensure eBay remains a safe to buy and sell.



Sincerely,



eBay



These are things I would like to point out from eBay’s response.



1: They "appreciate" me uploading my side of things to the BBB but don't accept I quote from their response "proof outside of ebay" key word "proof". If eBay truly appreciated me uploading my side of things they would have taken it into account which would put me



2: eBay said I accepted the buyers return. I did not accept the buyers return, They forced me to. Every single time eBay has forced me to accept a return from a buyer the item I sent out is not the item I get back. Every time this has happened to me and I contact eBay to see if I can appeal the outcome of the case and get a reimbursement, they give me the same response every time and that is



“ There are a large amount of seller protections available. There are certain criteria and standards that must be met before these protections take effect. This is available to all sellers on the platform and can help avoid future situations similar in nature. Such features would allow you to resolve issues like the ones you mentioned. At this time, your appeal has been denied and we are unable to overturn the case nor provide any compensation. I'm sorry to hear this situation has affected you but hope that your future transactions run smoothly. If you have any additional concerns or questions, please reach out to Customer Support. Wishing you the best in your future eBay endeavors. Respectfully, eBay”



That entire statement is the biggest oxymoron I have ever heard. So let me get this straight.. There is a large amount of seller protections available and they are available to all sellers but sellers have to meet a certain unknown criteria for those “seller protections” to take effect and these “Seller Protections” are supposed to prevent situations like this but they dont because “At this time, your appeal has been denied and we are unable to overturn the case nor provide any compensation.”.



Solution to the problem:



I have been speaking with a plethora of eBay sellers on this specific issue that has been ongoing for years. This is what needs to be done. Before we the sellers are forced to accept a return request, eBay needs to allow sellers to submit their side of things to eBays resolution center. A lot of good sellers like myself document everything like the packaging and shipping process all the way to taking it to the post office and If eBay saw that they would not be so quick to rule a return request/ Case in the buyers favor. eBay allowing this simple measure would help cut down the amount of theft and fraud that takes place on the platform daily. The eBay resolution center must be run like a court room especially since there is other people’s money involved. In a courtroom both sides are allowed to bring forth what evidence they have and that is to ensure the right decision is made. eBay can not say “we have seller protections' ' when they set unknown requirements to get them especially when a buyer can open a case against a seller with no questions asked. That is a bias, double standard and unfair business practice. If eBay is really trying to make their platform a safe place to buy and sell for everyone. There needs to be fairness for both sellers and buyers, currently that is not the case. eBay does have to take responsibility because they are the middleman between the Seller and Buyer.

eBay Problem number 2: Persecution of sellers because seller political beliefs don’t go hand in hand with high eBay officials political beliefs.



Ebay is a very Anti Republican company and I personally can not get into specific details about my current battle with eBay because my legal counsel has advised me not to. I will tell you this though, my situation with eBay is not a one in a million thing. I have spoken with other sellers who were selling items similar to mine and they had the same thing happen to them. If you sell anything on eBay that can be or is considered “right wing”, “ Republican”, “ Pro-2A '' even if it is not on their list of "not allowed" items. Your eBay account will be suspended without warning, whatever money is in your paypal account will be frozen and eventually stolen from you and they will start to charge you through Paypal for anything they can think of. For me they were charging me so much, it got to the point where I had to close the bank account linked to my PayPal.

Solution to this problem: Realize Persecuting people for their beliefs is no different than racism. It’s virtually the same premise. I understand eBay is a private company but this is a free country and we are all equal regardless of our beliefs and you have to treat everyone equally whether you agree with their beliefs or not. Stop persecuting people for their beliefs it is just that simple.

eBay problem number 3: eBay and the San Jose BBB are most likely heavily connected which is a conflict of interest.



I tagged the FBI in this petition for this specific problem because something just doesn’t seem right and speaking with other eBay sellers and them feeling the same on the matter. I have decided to include this problem in this petition. I feel the FBI might be interested in investigating this matter. I have opened 2 complaint’s against eBay with the San Jose BBB regarding (eBay problem number one) and recently (eBay problem number 2) and to no surprise both complaints were closed with no resolution. My legal counsel advised me to file complaints with the FTC, Consumer Affairs and my State’s Attorney General which I have done already. They also advised me to continue opening complaints with the BBB. The problem is that all additional complaints I have opened with the San Jose BBB have been blocked. I know they have been blocked because when you file a complaint with the BBB you get a link to your complaint emailed to you as soon as you click the “submit” button on the BBB complaint form page. I have submitted 4 additional complaints to the San Jose BBB against eBay and I have not received one link to those additional complaints. I have called the San Jose BBB multiple times in regard to these complaints I have filed and most of the time they have n't answered their phone and I end up leaving a message and I have yet to get a call back. The one time I did get someone at the San Jose BBB to answer the phone, as soon as I said my name I was hung up on. The BBB is supposed to mediate issues between the consumer/client of businesses and take all complaints seriously and that is not happening. I am not the only person this happened to either I have spoken with a large group of eBay sellers about this exact issue and we all feel there is something corrupt and dirty going on between eBay and the San Jose BBB. If you go to eBays BBB page you will see they have had 5,699 complaints opened against them and they

have only been able to close 2,099 of them. Yet eBays BBB rating stays A+. If you do the math their actual letter grade should be an “F” with a percentage score of 36.83% because they have had 5,699 complaints, they have handled 2,099 complaints to where the cosumer/client was happy with the outcome but they still have 3,600 open complaints. It just screams corruption and somethings up.

The solution to this problem: I feel as do many other eBay sellers that both eBay and the San Jose BBB need to be investigated for a possible conflict of interest.

PayPal



Paypal problem Number 1: Holding of People’s Funds for 180 Days



I have a verified sellers Paypal Account (meaning I have done enough transactions with no chargebacks or issues ) where my funds were no longer supposed to be held when I made a sale on eBay. Even after I was awarded the Verified Seller title, my funds for eBay sales were still on hold every single time. I feel that is because eBay did not like me for a specific reason (see eBay problem number two) and I have always been trying to put them in their place and call them out on their ways of doing business. On August 31st of 2019 a friend, I am very close with needed some help financially. I offered to help her because she's a real one and a day one and she said she would pay me back. I sent her some money on paypal as “family and friends”. She never got the money, Paypal would not let her accept the funds for “security reasons”. The money I sent her sat there in her pending balance for 152 days. On January 30th of 2020 she refunded me the money because PayPal would not let her accept the funds. I spoke with a very rude PayPal supervisor about it because I tried to transfer that money that legally belonged to me to my bank account and was having no success. The PayPal supervisor told me that “They can hold people's money for up to 180 days in case of a chargeback” I have an audio recording of the entire call. The funny thing is VISA, BOA have a 30 day chargeback time limit, Chase Bank has a 60 day chargeback time limit and Wells Fargo has a 45 day chargeback time limit. 180 days is an excessive time frame to be able to file a chargeback that it is down right suspicious. Most people if not all people when seeing a transaction they did not make, file a chargeback as soon as they see it or at most wait 7 days if it is in regards to a purchase. The situation I just described is not one in a million either stuff like this happens all the time with PayPal and it has to stop.

Solution to the problem: With eBay transactions the longest you should be allowed to hold a sellers money is 1 day after the item is delivered. Not 3, not 21, not 30, not 180. The longer the buyer has the item the more likely they are to have buyers remorse or decided to commit fraud and take a good and honest eBay seller for a ride. With “Family and Friends” there should be no money hold’s at all. You have no right to hold someone’s money for an excessive 152 days or even 1 hour when it is a personal payment. I have heard from people I have known and been friends with that worked at your own company that the funds you place on hold you collect interest on it and the longer you hold it the more interest you collect. You as company need to come out and be transparent about what you do with people’s funds you place on hold because your trust in the marketplace is non existent.

I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to read this petition and sign it. Your Support is greatly appreciated. If you have been wronged by eBay and or PayPal please leave a comment below about how they wronged you.