Although a seller may maintain a high positive feedback percentage and sell only high quality products there seems an ethical problem when for example they offer a $100 retail price item at a ‘buy it now’ price of $.01 with shipping and handling set at $99.99. Not only is it in violation of the auction site terms, it can be a real rip off if you are foolish enough to be the buyer. The worst part is unscrupulous sellers list items that way all the time and the auction site does precious little about it.

Let’s just say you become the buyer, pay your money and the item arrives exactly as represented. For two weeks all is well but then some manufacturing imperfection makes it no longer functional. No problem, you have a 30 day return policy from the seller and after exchange of emails you send the item back. In a few days an email from the seller informs you they do not have a replacement item and they will refund your money. So you login to your Pay Friend (a fictitious business name) account and see a payment of $.01 into your account. “What? There must be something wrong, I spent $100 for that” you think and send off another email. The seller reply explains you paid $.01 for the item and it was clearly written there is no refund for shipping charges. Yep, the seller just pocketed nearly $100 and there ain’t much you can do. Of course as already stated, I question if anyone buying from those sellers has any common sense.

The auction site claims that although they cannot monitor and prevent all such types of auctions and direct sales there seems a disproportionate number of sellers engaging in this type of sales practice. In my view if the auction site management is incapable of stopping this practice they are likewise incapable of properly operating their business and should halt business until such time as they have effective methods of dealing with it. If they can’t fix it then they should not be in business. The lack of ethics they allow while operating the site speaks volumes about their own ethics. That is precisely why I have become both less active dealing with their sellers and far more cautious about which sellers I do business with.