[time-nuts] another Ebay mixup

[David I. Emery]

On Fri, Jun 08, 2007 at 07:07:33PM -0700, Christopher Hoover wrote:
> (Some sellers re-use photographs when they have multiple items to sell.  I'm
> sure we all wish they wouldn't, but it does happen.)

	This bit me once badly when I waited to bid on a Scientific
Atlanta telemetry receiver because the guy had three and the first two
went fairly high and I bid on and won the third based on the photos and
found it had different plugins than the one in the photo - much less
useful to me.   Of course he used the same photo for all three even
though they weren't the same at all...

	I think of this as a kind of fraud that Ebay ought to regulate
unless the items are truly identical and indistinguishable and exactly
the same model and options.

	And it IS out and out fraud to show a visible serial number and
ship a different unit unless there is a clear statement the photo is
representative.   Serial numbers of course reflect revision levels and
when something was made (and where) and that often counts...

	The rule should be that if the item being auctioned  is not the
same as the one in the photo the seller MUST state that in the text...

-- 
  Dave Emery N1PRE/AE, die at dieconsulting.com  DIE Consulting, Weston, Mass 02493
"An empty zombie mind with a forlorn barely readable weatherbeaten
'For Rent' sign still vainly flapping outside on the weed encrusted pole - in 
celebration of what could have been, but wasn't and is not to be now either."