Today I almost got scammed on eBay. Fortunately I caught the scam in process and got my money back. The really bad news is that there’s no repercussion for the would-be scammer because there is no way to file a complaint with eBay because I “successfully” dealt with the issue directly with the Seller.

By making the first line of defense the interaction between the buyer and seller, eBay intentionally deflects any responsibility for actions like the one that happened to me. Let me tell you about it.

Last night I made “an offer” that was $12 below the $32 asking price for an item which is discontinued and will soon be obsolete. My offer was accepted and I was asked by eBay to pay the bill. I did so using my PayPal account, one of the options they offered me. In the morning I awoke to find that my payment had “not processed successfully” and I was asked to submit another form of payment. Without paying enough attention, I did just that, using the convenient Apple Pay option which was now available but hadn’t been the prior evening. It was only after I submitted the payment that I realized the amount had been revised from $20 to $32.

Now, I’m assuming that the “not processed” and “submit new payment” parts of this are all under the Seller’s control. I reached out to complain (only to the Seller, that was the only option I had at this stage for service) and had my transaction immediately canceled.

Because I now do not have an actual transaction, I am unable to complain further about the attempted scam.

Clearly I’m assuming that the Seller was responsible for this, first accepting an offer below asking (an “Make Offer” button was available, which shows some intent to accept lower offers!), and then by rejecting the first payment attempt and submitting a revised, higher payment request. I’m also assuming that this type of bait and switch actually works some of the time which is why the Seller feels so emboldened to do it.

What we lose, of course, is any sense of consumer protection from anyone, starting first and foremost with eBay. But doesn’t this continue nearly everywhere? Customer Service is funneled at best through AI and remote service desks — my own experience with these varies greatly very much dependent upon the amount and quality of resources companies put towards these activities.

It has become increasingly difficult to get solid customer service as we abandon brick and mortar. I recently spent a couple of hours on two separate customer service chats with a major home improvement store, only to achieve only about 85% of what I truly was due legally based on stated pricing policy. The AI in that instance was of zero assistance and the path from AI to human was ponderous.

I tried to send a compliment to Amazon the other day (yes, I know, shocking and most unnecessary); I wanted them to hear that I supported a decision they made (and then they unmade – the policy age in which we exist, sadly). Do you know it is virtually impossible to email the company? I could have chatted with customer service, but that felt to ethereal — I wanted a digital footprint!

Much of this is just designed to wear us down, right? To cause us to “give up,” throw our digital hands in the air and just accept a) the loss of funds, b) the soft scam, c) the minor intrusion, d) the ever so slight force of will pushed upon us as the end user and consumer rather than as the vendor or supplier or seller.

How is it that we protest, to whom do we turn for support and, ultimately, for protection to the reduction in importance of our own voice? My local supermarket has closed, my favorite restaurant, the local Starbucks is gone. This all feels like one day we’ll awake to find we are wholly subject to the whims of others and have lost all ability to vociferously object.

Hoping someone will comment. Hello. Is anyone really out there?

Lonely and frustrated in a digital world.