100s Lose Money While eBay and PayPal Do Nothing

One of the biggest sellers on eBay Australia has not delivered possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise to his buyers. Complaints were made to eBay weeks ago yet this seller's account remained active. Why didn't eBay shut it down? What was PayPal doing while this was going on?

From The Sydney Morning Herald:

"In the past three months ebusiness-supplies sold over $1 million worth of goods. It is the seventh biggest Australian eBay user in terms of the number of items sold.

eBay was made aware of complaints about the seller weeks ago but did not disable the user account.

Over 450 eBay users who bought items from the seller - often at a price seemingly below cost - have left the company negative feedback in the last 30 days."

PayPal Australia managing director, Andrew Pipolo claims that those who paid the seller using PayPal "will be entitled to refunds through a new fund set up specifically to deal with this incident."

A new fund? Where was all the PayPal buyer protection which eBay leads buyers to believe is already in place? If it exists, why the need for a new fund? And what about those who didn't use PayPal in their transaction with this seller? Many Australians do not like or trust PayPal and may be left hanging with little or no recourse.

If this is what eBay calls "safe trading," I want no part of it. Sadly, this is not an isolated incident.

Additional Note: For a glimpse into some of the reasons why eBay members in Australia dislike PayPal, read the article from apcmag.com titled "eBay boss: 'not offering PayPal is like buying heroin.'"

UPDATE: Andrew Pipolo explains why they initiated the "new fund" referenced above, "We're actually not liable for it but it's something that, because of the circumstances of this particular seller, the impact on such a large number of buyers, we've made the decision to make a fund available to cover the expense. "

Ah Ha! It certainly sounds like he is admitting that the Buyer Protection eBay and PayPal are so fond of bragging about isn't much good, doesn't it?

Additionally, the number of buyers affected appears to number in the thousands, according to the abc.net.au transcript linked directly above.