The CPF Marketplace feels a helluvalot safer than Ebay, most of the stuff is sold and bought by true enthusiasts. Change whatever causes that and it will be a nightmare.
But thanks for giving this thread a jumpstart, ETC.
P
You welcome.
Okay, I will play:
I got into a fraud situation on Ebay, I paid via paypal $300 for an SSD (solid state drive) and the buyer never shipped. To be precisely, he shipped but never delivered. He gave me and Ebay a bogus tracking number. Eventually the USPS showed the item as delivered but my mailbox was empty. Come to find out, he underpaid the postage. You know what happens in that instance? The item goes back to the seller and the tracking shows "delivered". Ebay was confused for a while. They go - well, it says "Delivered". I asked the seller "what's up?"
The seller dropped off the face of the earth. He gave me a bogus text number I texted/called half a million times with null replies. No response via ebay either. $300 gone.
Well -- I got my funds back after 10 days, Ebay sent him a bunch of emails, please respond, etc. and after several phone calls the funds, held in escrow, were refunded. Because you see that is the way works.
Now let's explore the situation where hypothetically I buy a $300 item here on CPF and the seller drops off the face of the planet without ever delivering.
Maybe there is no light, maybe it is some kind of error, like it got lost in shipping, maybe he underpaid postage and it went who knows where.
Maybe he sent the wrong, much cheaper item by mistake.
bottom line is, you don't have it.
The seller is not responding. Or fails to take responsibility.
Don't tell me you never faced that reality. I think it's normal for about 1 percent of all transaction to fail. That is just a guestimate.
You know what the admins here will say? Well - of course you do. All you have to do is read the terms / rules of the for-sale forum and there is your answer. Don't mean to insult your intelligence.
You are not buying from CPF. You are buying from an individual seller. Think of all parties involved as independent contractors. CPF will not own it. You are an independent contractor interacting with another independent contractor and CPF just facilitates, much like a newspaper where you place your ads. You will own it. And to no avail. Especially as it sometimes happens if you send paypal gift. You have no recourse whatsoever. Or even if you don't gift it.
I mean, CPF has no more legal liability for a failed transaction than Washington Post classifieds section where you buy a car with a bad engine or missing title or stolen or any permutation of known fraud.
So, to spell it out - if you are never delivered a $10 or $300 or $1500 item you pay for here on CPF, you have absolutely no recourse via this forum. Just consider it a gift to them (the recipient) at that point. CPF will not own it -- nor can they -- nor should they.
So, no, CPF is not like Ebay at all. You have a **** of a lot more leverage on Ebay to get your funds back if a transaction goes South, quick.
Sellers also have a lot of pressure on them via the feedback system.
I am not cheering for Ebay here - I am just pointing out the obvious differences and addressing the argument about what is "safer".