- This topic has 1 reply, 17 voices, and was last updated 15 years ago by
.
-
Posts
-
I think like in life this forum has many shades of grey. Certainly everyone wasn’t rude to him/her, sheesh if you can’t take a few saucy comments on an Internet forum how the heck you getting through life? Come on back the benefits one gets from WLCR far out weight a few comments from “The Bard”.lol.
EBAY SALES: In every area of ebay sales there are a great number of charlatans and crooks. Everything from phony (forged) antiques to pirated software and stolen automobiles are sold on ebay EVERY day. Ebay is like going into the worlds largest open air market (Imagine it located in Bombay or Africa) where there is no law enforcement and the operators of the market do EVERYTHING to protect the sellers but nothing to protect the buyer. So imagine your lily white hide in this den of thieves and cutthroats. . . will you get out alive WITH your wallet?
I have been reviewing ebay sales in a number of areas for as long as ebay has existed. I cannot use words strong enough to convince people just HOW bad it is. A very common scam is to make a bunch of bogus sales and when things get hot, move on. Ebay will protect the thief’s real identity forever unless YOU hire a lawyer and sue. And sometimes that doesn’t work and you have to convince your state’s attorney to take up the case. Meanwhile several months pass by since you realized you were scammed and decided to take action. Forget your money. . . it is GONE. Note that these scams are more likely on high dollar items like automobiles, antiques, musical instruments, and realestate. If you think ebay will help get your money back, forget it!
Most of these crooks do not just move on . . they change identities, get an new ebay ID to hide behind and start all over again. IF there is a flimflam it is being run on ebay. It is a LARGE part of the “ebay culture”.
ebay is a GREAT market IF you know what you are doing and put some effort into it. I’ve bought and sold on ebay. I’ve spent thousands on ebay over the years. My last purchase was a fork lift and I had to trust the seller to ship it. The only time I was “stung” was on a purchase made in order to write an expose’ of a dealer. He was selling items that were entirely misrepresented and making all the profit in “non-refundable” shipping. His response to my feedback about his nasty replies to my letter asking for a refund was that I was an “unexperienced ebayer and a low life. . ” Note that ebay no longer allows negative feedback mostly because of dealers like this. I reported this dealer to ebay and he continued to do business (as usual) for another two years. They have also supposedly cracked down on exorbitant nonrefundable shipping. But they let that scam run for over five years before they made a rule against it.
How do you get a lot of positive feedback when you are a crook? Remember, ebay no longer allows negative feedback. . so it will ALL be good. Including those that got scammed and don’t know it yet. .
How do you get a load of positive feedback on high dollar items? Its EASY when you have a boiler room full of employees working for you. Sham sales. Note that it has been common practice among the Costa Rica realestate crooks to have a laundry list of “satisfied customers”. They are always partners or employees. . .
Caveat emptor!
Edited on Jul 12, 2008 10:07
That’s a pretty good wrap-up of ebay. I’ve bought a few things on there over the years, but I’m not that into buying stuff I haven’t actually examined for authenticity. I almost bought a Vuitton bag once. Luckily I was outbidded because only a week or two later I read some story about how 90% of all Vuitton, Gucci, Hermes items were knock-offs and not worth a fraction of the price they are asking. I feel sorry for the person who bought a 30 year old Vuitton bag for $800 because it was most likely a fake! And if this Leu person has 300 positive comments, does that mean he sold 300 lots? How big is this development? Where is this development? And why would anyone buy property on ebay for God’s sake?
Hi ya all. I realize that Ebay has its ups and downs, no doubt. And I really couldn’t say if the positive feedbacks are real or not, there just isn’t any way to tell. But, if you want something bad enough, you do what you can to do it right, thinking the feedback was a good sign…There are some “refunds” in there, but still positive,and the guy was just asking for help. No bad feelings to anyone here…I just hope it turns out ok for him.
There are even “extortionists” for feedback, they may only get a refund after leaving positive feedback…could be that..just don’t know. Then I wonder if they would really get a refund. What a mess.
By the way, it is only the SELLERS that cannot leave negative feedback now. I sell on there, not Land in Costa Rica, by the way, haha, but Ebay is really getting stranger and stranger by the day with unfair seller rules and policy…can we just talk about how cool Costa Rica is now? 😀Here is a link to a site I found about how ebay scams work. It is MUCH worse than I thought. But then, I KNEW that the crooks knew a lot more than I do about how they operate. Multiple accounts and shilling is VERY common. To avoid high ebay fees the crooks post things for a VERY low price, say 99 cents. Then they use their shill accounts to bid the price up to where they really want the bidding to start. Those same shill accounts can be used to make successful “buys” and then give yourself great feedback.
http://www.companyexposed.com/
Just my opinion but you would have to be crazy to buy unseen land in CR without all the proper paperwork. Until you have the title and have inspected the land, don’t pay more than a small deposit that you can afford to throw away.
Hello, Scott, I am suprised to hear that Leu is still in business. A few years ago, back in ’03, I bought 2 lots from Leu, (after checking the national registry to ensure he was the owner) and began making monthly payments. About 4 or 5 months later I was able to get down there to look at the lots, one was just outside of Jaco, The other in a small village called Margarita, near the Sixaola river. Needless to say, the lot near Jaco had squatters and a drug lab on it, and the rest of the land was basically a cliff. The lot in Margarita was on a Kekoldi Indian reservation, and it was quite awkward when this gringo walked up with his bogus title from Leu and began asking the natives “Where is my land”. Even THEY knew it was a fraud(it has been going on over 20 yrs). After returning to the US, I hired an attorney and began legal proceedings against Leu. He paid my investment back, and 2 other people who had bought lots from him. This event shattered my confidence in the legal and title systems of Costa Rica. Ive been back several times since then, and with the knowledge Ive gained from others down there, I would rent in the area for about 6 months or so, before I would even consider purchasing land. Ive attempted to buy on several occasions, but the deals always fell through. What is shown in the pictures isnt always what you get. Im curious, do they have cold milk there yet, or is it still in a cardboard box, sitting on a shelf, next to the eggs?
Methinks you’re a bit fussy with your land ‘saltwater’:-)
You mean just because the land “had squatters and a drug lab on it” you had buyer’s remorse?
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comPS. Yes! Where I live in Santa Ana, I regularly buy fresh milk and only eat goat cheese. But seriously, I do not want for any foodstuffs here…
Hey! Saltwater! 😀 Are you the guy that left the rip off reports? Just wondering, I sure would like to know how that guys ordeal turned out, just thought it would be wild if it was you. !
You are all right about Ebay too. Since this started, I started watching also, and it seems there are teams that buy each other’s stuff back and forth for postive feedback and massive sale quotas. Wow. Open my Eyes!
Can’t wait to get to CR and have some hot milk and goat cheese tho…I may be weird, but that sounds good to me! 😀No, it wasnt me. I can recommend an attorney here in the Jacksonvile, Florida who helped me, if needed.
I was looking on Ebay today, and saw 2 lots leu sold on there. they are listed by other people, but it is probably him selling them, due to the verbage of the ads. If I every hit the lotto, Im going to fly as whole tribe of kekoldi’s to leu’s house in ohio, and give them bogus titles to his house, and have them all knock on the door and ask where their land is located at.
I bet the Kekoldi’s would enjoy a vacation in Ohio! If you ever do win the lotto, let me know, I have some better ideas on how to spend it for you! Haha
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
