Jun
9
Huge List of PayPal and eBay Phone Numbers and eMail Addresses
Filed Under Miscellaneous, PayPal | Leave a Comment
The Consumerist Blog just published a massive list of internal eBay and PayPal phone numbers and email addresses (via Screw-PayPal.com). Internal eBay phone numbers are one of the most closely guarded business secrets in the industry. That’s why this compilation of contact information is such a huge deal.
From The Consumerist:
Here are over 450 pieces of internal email addresses and phone numbersto reach a real live human at Paypal/eBay. Anyone who has ever experienced Paypal unfairly freezing their funds, Paypal siding with someone who scammed them and losing money because of it, Paypal seizing funds from their bank account or credit card without permission, or just the simple impenetrable, rude, and useless customer service can surely appreciate this list. There’s contact info for executive relations, high executives, practically every department, and more, both US and international. The information comes courtesy of Screw-Paypal.com, a site started by a man who says Paypal wrongfully denied access to his funds for four years.
Here’s a link to the PayPal and eBay contact information on Consumerist.
Jun
6
Understanding Bid Increments and Proxy Bidding Part III
Filed Under Bidders' Tips, Miscellaneous | Leave a Comment
This is the third part in our series on Understanding Bid Increments and Proxy Bidding
Proxy Bidding Can Protect Against Snipers
In the previous post, I discussed a proxy bidding scenario in which I placed a bid on an item and declared my maximum bid to be $7.00. A competing bidder came along and placed a bid with a maximum price of $6.00. A round of proxy bidding ensued and, upon completion, I was the high bidder with the current bid standing at $6.50.
It’s worth reemphasizing it the fact that although I entered a maximum bid of $7.00, if the auction closed with no additional competing bids, I would only pay $6.50 for the ball cap. This is an important point. Always enter the maximum amount you are willing to pay for the item being auctioned - you won’t be forced to pay your maximum bid unless a competing bidder forces the price to that level.
How it Works
Your max bid is not necessarily the amount you will have to pay, but will protect you from eBay snipers swoop in at the last second and ad outbid you because you had no time to react with a manual counter bid.
I’ve received scores of comments from bidders who have lost auctions to snipers who ultimately paid less that the losing bidder was willing to pay for that item. That’s often because the losing bidder was confused about the concept of proxy bidding and thought they would end up paying their maximum bid at auction’s close if they won.
The original bid was just enough to make them the high bidder at the time they made the bid. Because sniping involves submitting a bid extremely late in the auction, the losing bidder did not have the opportunity to manually enter a counter bid and they can’t win. Proxy bidding is the simple solution to this dilemma. Even if you don’t win (because the sniper entered a higher maximum price than you), you can get some satisfaction in the knowledge that you forced the sniper to bid more than they had probably hoped for.
Practice Proxy Bidding
eBay actually has a page where you can practice with the proxy bidding system without actually logging in and placing a real bid. Here’s the link:
http://pages.ebay.com/education/tutorial/course1/bidding/index.html
The page details the current bid and asks you for your maximum bid. After clicking enter – the proxy bidding happens instantly and you learn if you’ve been able to outbid the current high bidder’s secret maximum bid. If not, your are provided the opportunity to bid again (try bidding significantly higher this time) and you can see how you will be become the high bidder without reaching your revised maximum bid.
So now that you understand the proxy bidding, don’t be afraid to enter the maximum you are willing to spend on that auction next time you make a bid on eBay
Apr
11
A Dear eBay Letter
Filed Under Miscellaneous | Leave a Comment
I saw this posted on SlashDot in response to eBay’s decision to require PayPal as a payment method on eBay Australia.
Hey eBay,
It was nice hanging with you when we were younger, but since then I can feel we’ve grown our separate ways. I still remember our first dot com bubble burst like it was yesterday.But, sadly it seems that you’re hanging out with a new crowd these days and you’ve changed, I can’t put my finger on it, but you’re somehow different. It seems like you don’t really care about me anymore, and you don’t seem to have coped very well with some of the new people in town.
I’m sorry to say it, after all of this time, but I’m seeing someone new they’re so much quicker and dealing with each individual companies policies still feels easier than dealing with your friend PayPal.
I’m sorry it couldn’t work out between us.Signed,
The Internet
Both funny and sad at the same time.
Dec
31
We’ve just completed cleaning up and posting our old online auction articles and newsletters in our new archive section. While the articles are a couple of years old, there’s still a bunch of good information that’s worth a look.
Click here to visit the auction article archives.