Having just "won" an auction at ebay, I'm now faced with the problem of completing the transaction. By bidding, I explicitly promised to pay for the item if I tendered the highest bid, and by offering the item, the owner explicitly promised to send it to the highest bidder in exchange for payment. Okay - that seems reasonable enough. Ebay has made these terms quite clear. The weak link here is that I must now send over a hundred dollars in a non-refundable form (a money order, in this case) to a complete stranger in another state and hope that he keeps his part of the bargain.

Ebay has instituted several measures to keep people honest in these deals, but none of them has any real backbone. Buyers and sellers are rated based on prior transactions; if one reneges on a deal, the other party can enter a "bad review" and the "bad guy" may have his or her future ebay transaction limited or terminated completely. Of course, re-registering with a different email address allows the person to circumvent this punishment and renders the action useless. And let me ask you this: suppose you sent $100 to someone and the item for which you paid never arrived at your door. Would having that person "banished" from ebay settle things for you? (I didn't think so...)

Ebay claims that in such cases, some states consider this a crime and you can institute criminal proceedings against the culprit. However, I called the Attorney General's office in this person's home state and they told me that "I wouldn't have an ice cube's chance in hell" (their words, verbatim) of recovering my money if this person didn't send the item. They recommended that the transaction be handled COD. This is obviously the easiest way to handle it, but because doing so requires the sender to lay out unrecoverable funds with no guarantee that I will accept the item, the onus simply reverses parties and the problem still exists.

Aside from advertising revenue, ebay makes most of its money by charging for the seller to list an item for auction. I think they should provide one more service that will make this entire issue go away. Require a valid credit card from both the buyer and seller before they can register to place an item for auction or bid on anything. Transactions can still be completed with money orders, checks or whatever medium of exchange the seller wants. However, if the seller fails to deliver and the sender can provide proof of payment, the seller's credit account will be debited by ebay and a check sent to the buyer. Similarly, if the buyer fails to buy, his or her account will be debited for the auction amount plus shipping and the item will be sent regardless.

Ebay claims that it believes "people are basically honest". I must agree with this since I'm just now about to seal the envelope containing my money order and send it off to a stranger and hope for the best. If the item for which I won the bidding never arrives, I'll be very disappointed and have to begin an online campaign to either recover my money or totally discredit the seller. I hope this won't be necessary. If the credit card requirement were in force, I'm sure it wouldn't be...

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