Official eBay PinkSlapped Logo
It seems that eBay is hell bent on keeping it’s members thinking they are safe by controlling the discussions on there community forums.
Recently there have been reports of pulled current topics and posts, with the poster receiving the famous “eBay pink slap” and even permanent discussion posting banishment.
Rather than fix the fundamental problems with the website, eBay apparently prefers to hide (or attempts to hide) good information that would benefit both buyers and sellers, in the format of archived eBay forums discussion posts that were easily found by a search.
In my postings I not only criticize eBay Itself, but also BAD eBay Buyers and Sellers. The idea behind being a good critic is not to be one sided (as one long time eBay critic / news reporter has become lately.) Which brings me to the topic of today’s blog post. Pulled eBay Archived Discussions.
I often link to eBay Discussions when blogging about a bad seller, bad buyer, or some eBay screw up like this one! Yesterday i noticed a rather long discussion topic about a 1954 Jaguar Scam was recently removed from eBay’s Motors discussion board.
Upon further investigation i found another topic that had been removed about the pitfalls of using Escrow for a high dollar collector car transaction that went bad.
I wondered if it was just the blog posts i published that linked to eBay discussions that were removed after going back as far as February this year, and finding every one i had referenced had been removed from the discussion archives. Nope.. Running a Bing Search for eBay Motors Escrow Fraud Discussions revealed this cached forum topic that I didn’t blog about had also been removed!
Bing Search Results: Cached eBay Motors Discussion Topic About Escrow Fraud
You can also tell that this pulled eBay discussion topic from 2010 was recently pulled because the cached page was not overwritten by the default eBay topic not found notification.
Folks, with eBay pulling archived topics like the above example, it’s just one less available source of information for anyone that is considering buying a car on eBay Motors that could very well be a scam.
But just like it has been for many years, eBay want’s you to THINK Your Safe Shopping On Their Website. In their minds, by removing discussion topics that mention any kind of fraud, or a transaction turned bad, there are no bad deals on eBay, and everyone that’s buying and selling is happy with the service they provide.
eBay LiveWord
But also it is eBay’s Bed Partner LiveWorld that should take some of the credit regarding removed topics and posts mentioned in this article. LiveWorld hosts and manages the eBay discussion boards. If you have received a Pink Slap or Posting Suspension it’s this bunch of xxxxxx that does the Slapping and Suspending.
If you didn’t know it, LiveWorld AKA LieWorld also manages Facebook’s wall posts and site pages. Put up a negative eBay Page and it will never get indexed into search. I found that out after my site got hit hard with a DdoS Attack in July 2011. I had put up an eBayMotorsSucks Face Book page that after 3 months couldn’t be found in search! Yep.. LiveWorld.com The Censorship Folks!
If you are looking into buying a Car on the Internet. Be sure to read my page about Internet Car Buying Tips as a guide that will give you some real good advice how to proceed with a transaction without getting ripped off!
I am a retired Licensed Florida Auto Dealer with over 38 years of experience in the independent dealer sales business. With 13 of those years doing Internet Vehicle Sales as a specialty, and managing eBay Motors Transactions for clients. If you follow my advice I’m sure there is a great deal to be found on the Internet. Just don’t expect eBay to be helpful if a transaction on eBay Motors goes bad.
Also be advised that eBay VPP is as full of holes as a piece of Swiss Cheese and there are many exclusions that apply. Just because a listing page on eBay Motors says a vehicle is covered with up to $50k in purchase protection, don’t believe it. Read the eBay Motors VPP Fine Print Here.
Be safe and always remember BEWARE Scammers AND Raw Deals Are Everywhere!
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