BACKGROUND: From March 2005 to January 2011, I was an eBay seller and buyer, moving over 4,000 items during this time. I had a lot of fun with most of my customers, and I earned a fair profit on my transactions. A few items stood out in particular, such as the pubic hair Barbie which went viral and reached eBay’s home page. I had less than a dozen problem customers (there always are a few bad customers), which is only a fraction of my experience in the retail store environment. No frustrations with customers. But definitely frustration with the eBay bureaucracy. eBay is an icon company for those huge conglomerates which do business according to that secular religion: the American Heresy. During my 6 years on eBay, I had a problem with or a complaint against the bureaucracy on 42 occasions. Not one of them was resolved to my satisfaction. So in the end, I left eBay, and am having greater peace of mind and success with eBid (Google’s competition to eBay). I spent thousands of dollars with eBay in fees and commissions, averaging 14% of every sale. To this was added another 3% on average charged by PayPal as a handling fee. (PayPal is an eBay subsidiary, and eBay is in violation of Canadian securities legislation every time they suggest you use PayPal without disclosing that eBay will profit from your use of PayPal. The disclosure must be in the immediate vicinity of the suggestion, not asterixed to the bottom of the page, and must be in a font greater than 8 pica Times New Roman – this was one of numerous criminal violations by eBay in my list of 42 complaints.) I would constantly estimate the commission which would be coming due before an item sold, and prepaying that amount, so when I did leave eBay in January 2011, I had a credit balance of $123.90. It is now (today is October 6, 2012) 21 months later, and I still do not have my refund. This thus becomes my 43rd complaint against the bureaucracy. Below is my 38th email in the string of emails trying to get my refund. [Sub-titles added]
Dear Daisy Afraid-to-use-a-surname-as-required-by-Canadian-business-standards:
eBay.ca does not speak Canadian English
Thank-you for your email, which appears to be written in American English. In Canadian English, your first paragraph contains three grammatical errors. The first sentence of your second paragraph makes no sense in Canadian English. I do not understand what you mean. The refusal of eBay.ca to speak in Canadian English is one of the 42 complaints I've repeatedly brought to your attention for the last seven years. But every communication I've ever received from eBay has meaningless promise to be helpful
nicely offered to be helpful -- in your case, that is the only substance to your third paragraph. But you don't mean it. If eBay truly wanted to be helpful, why have I never received a forthright reply? Why always evasion? Why never replying point-to-point? And not just once -- 42 times, no forthright reply. I still want to speak to a management person who has the power to make changes, not this continuous dealing with systemic problem with referring to higher authority
underlings who can't recognize situations which need to be kicked up the ladder.
Just to vent a little further on the Canadian culture issue:
lower-case-and-space surname spellings
1] thanks for using my surname. Over 20% of Canadian surnames consist of two words, the first of which begins lower case. Many of the forms on eBay.ca do not allow us to spell our own names correctly. You did get that right, but there should be a space between the 'n' and the 'H'.
check or a cheque
2]In Canadian English, a 'check' is a verification. In American English, it also does mean verification, but its primary use (and the sense in which you've used it in your second paragraph) refers to a type of financial instrument. In Canadian English, that financial instrument is known as 'a cheque'. Note that the article 'a' is always used; the grammatical rules for the use of articles differ in Canadian and
extent of the differences
American. There are 43,000 words in Canadian English which differ in spelling and/or pronunciation and/or denotation and/or usage from their American approximations.
example: differences in publishing terminology
3]not speaking Canadian English on a supposedly Canadian website (eBay.ca) creates many small annoyances on an everyday basis. An example: in American English, 'softcover' and 'paperback' mean the same thing, so a bookseller on eBay.com needs only two categories: 'paperback' and 'hardcover'. However, in Canada, 'paperback' refers to a specific-sized book, standardized in the publishing industry since 1919 (almost a century!), and a 'softcover' is larger than a 'paperback'. So on eBay.ca, where I was a bookseller, we needed three categories in order to list our books according to Canadian industry standards: 'paperback', 'softcover' and 'hardcover'. But we've never been able to work in our own language and our own culture on eBay.ca. You have accommodations made elsewhere
made accomodations to local culture on some of your other sites; for example, on eBay.uk the word 'shop' is used where eBay.com uses the word 'store' -- why has no accomodation of any kind been made to Canadian culture on eBay.ca?
no ombudsman
4]according to Canadian Business Magazine, 98 of our top 100 companies have an ombudsman, a person whose name and contact information are widely publicized, and who has authority to act when any person is unable to resolve a problem through the corporate bureaucracy. It is pretty well a big business standard practice to have an ombudsman. Why doesn't eBay.ca conform to this Canadian standard? Instead, it is impossible to reach anyone at eBay.ca who has authority to make decisions on policy or structure or systems. We cannot be heard at eBay.ca.
deliberate ignorance of cultural religious differences
5]Prior to 1966, foreign-held corporations operating in Canada were required to designate a member of their board of directors responsible for ensuring that the corporation upheld the Official Religion of Canada. Almost all of the corporations that did so, still do, although no longer a legal requirement, and many of the newer corporations do so as a courtesy towards Canadian culture. You have no such courtesy. A little background is necessary here. In 321ad, Constantine made
history of Official Religion of Canada
Christianity the Official Religion of the Roman Empire. Through the centuries, as the Roman Empire divided into successor countries, some of which acquired colonies which in turn became successor countries, the Edict of Constantine passed into the constitutional law of the successor countries. Today, there are 137 successor countries to the Roman Empire, and 135 of them have an official religion. The only successor countries which are officially Godless are the United States of America and the Republic of Cuba. It is in these 135 friendly Christian countries that American business practices based on the secular religion, the American Heresy, encounter greater hatred and hostility than in America's enemies, to the continuous bewilderment of American business people. You just will not understand that doing business based on dishonesty won't cut it here. Americans in general avoid philosophy and have no understanding of how it underpins every moment of our lives. [There are two examples of this dishonesty in the first sentence of your third paragraph, to which I'll return in a moment]. Most of the aforesaid 135 countries have a specific denomination as Official Religion [Germany, Liechtenstein, Denmark, Sweden are Lutheran; the United Kingdom and Australia are Anglican; the Netherlands is Christian Reform; the Irish Republic, France, Portugal, Italy are Catholic, etc], but in Canada, we are just broadly 'Christian'. The history of that goes back to the informal Charlottetown Conclave of 1862 where the only resolution passed unanimously was that Canada would go right back to the Edict of Constantine itself (which didn't specify any particular version of Christian), upheld by the Charlottetown Conference of 1864, passed by the British House of Commons in 1866 (although removed by the House of Lords when Lord Beaverbrook explained "of course Canada will be Christian; we don't need to put it in writing", so it didn't make it into the British North Amerca Act, 1867, but the Supreme Court has subsequently ruled it was "the clear intent"), confirmed by the Canadian Amendment to the Statute of Westminster in 1931. The Official Religion has become a part of many of our traditions; for example, our Supreme Court has 12 judges, but cases are heard by only 9 justices, the three empty chairs signifying the presence of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, Almighty Judge of All. Most offences against the Official Religion are covered by the Blasphemy section of the Criminal Code of Canada. In 1960, the Diefenbaker Bill of Rights first gave Canadians Freedom of Worship, and this was re-enacted in 1982 in the Trudeau Charter of Rights. However, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled on four occasions since 1960 that Freedom of Worship must be interpreted in accordance with the (British) Act of Toleration of 1702 (down-loaded to Canadian constitutional law by the Statute of Westminster) which ruled religions other than the Official Religion would be 'tolerated' -- they could transact business -- but the toleration is curtailed when they are in conflict with the Official Religion. Thus, four times (always on women's rights issues) the Court has 'curtailed' Freedom of Worship claimed by Muslim, Sikh, and Hindu religions when in conflict with Christian religion. In the summer of 1965 the Godless then-Minister of Justice, Pierre Trudeau, met with the ten provincial Attorneys-General and asked them to stop enforcing the Blasphemy section of the Criminal Code. Eight of them complied immediately, but Alberta did not comply until 1971 when the (Christian) Social Credit government was defeated, and Quebec did not comply until the atheist Parti Quebecois was elected. In the fall of 1968,Trudeau, now promoted to Prime Minister, met with the ten Ministers of Education and requested they no longer teach the Christian religion in public schools. The same eight Provinces complied immediately, the other two complied on the same schedule as Christianity the basis of our culture
on the religion issue. Up until then, the Christian religion had been taught not with a view to promote conversion, but to explain the philosophy behind the way we do things. This extends to every simple and ordinary fact of life, including the way we walk down a street. The Christian religion demands that its followers always try to turn chaos into order (because 'God is not the author of confusion'), therefore we example: how to walk
have rules so everyone knows how to behave. When you walk down the street and encounter somebody coming the other way, both of you move to your right. Good manners and courtesy are obedience to rules which demonstrate that we love oneanother -- we don't collide, and we help each other to know what to do next. The philosophy arising from our Official Religion covers eery minute of every aspect of our lives. Which example: how to answer a letter
brings us back to your email: Canadian business practices are fundamentally based on the Christian religion. The Christian religion finds form letters repugnant; they are an American Heresy idea. My previous email to you contained 13 sentences. Under Canadian business practices (based on the Christian religion), your response should contain 13+ sentences, one each of yours for each of mine. You show that you love me, as commanded by Official Religion, by respecting me, and you show respect to me by listening to every word I say. You demonstrate that you have listened, by responding point-by-point, sentence-by-sentence, in the same order as received. That is the Canadian business practice, ultimately based on our Official Religion. You have not responded at all to 11 of my 13 sentences. You do not respect me. You are not following Canadian standards of business correspondence. You are being dishonest; let's deal with the first hallmarks of American Heresy: misrepresentation
sentence of your third paragraph. You use the word 'community'. There is no such thing; it is lies and distractions. eBay is a business, not a social club. A Christian seller is commanded to set a fair price for his wares BEFORE he has a buyer, and to produce the wares to the first person that meets the price; no haggling, negotiation, enticements offerred, etc. A Christian neither offers nor seeks a bargain, because a bargain BARS the GAIN to which God entitles the seller. A bargain-seeker is a thief. In a fair deal, both parties are happy because they hallmarks of American Heresy: imposition
have gained without imposition upon each other. The American Heresy is based on imposition. You take somebody out to lunch, IMPOSING a moral obligation for him to buy your stuff. That is the satanic basis to all of eBay's 'community' endeavours: they are intended to create the environment of imposition and deceit which is the methodology of the American Heresy. Therein, goods and services are not sold for their hallmarks of American Heresy: manipulation
utility, quality or price; they are sold because the buyer has been manipulated (imposed upon) into buying the item, frequently against their own best interests. That is the American Way, and the Way only in those Christian countries [such as the UK] which have become Americanized (corrupted). Secondly, you state in that sentence that I hallmarks of American Heresy: outright lies [second example]
WANT to leave eBay. That is a lie. I HAVE LEFT eBay and I have been fighting for OVER A YEAR to get my refund. Pay attention to the precise meaning of your words. Stop being so careless. [Yes, it shows hallmarks of American Heresy: carelessness
you CARE LESS.] The first sentence of your email is also a lie. I never had any frustrations with any transactions on eBay. It was fun and it was profitable to be an eBay seller. My frustration is with you bureaucrats! Will you say so? Will you say to me: "I realize that you deserve to be frustrated with me [insert full name] and all of my co-workers whom I represent as well as myself every time I send an email." [End of rant.]
UNDERSTANDING AN INSTANT TRANSFER
To get back to the basic point: send me my money. eBay has a bank account; I have a bank account. You have my account number. eBay works 24/7; internet banking works 24/7. A bank-to-bank instant transfer is something very simple, very easy; it is done millions of times every day. There is no possible technical reason for you not to have the money in my account within five minutes. Since there is no possible technical reason, I can only presume that it is your criminal intent to continue to defraud me of my money PLUS INTEREST AND DAMAGES.
If you continue to refuse to instantly transfer the money into my account, the only alternative I can offer you is: send somebody in person with lawful Canadian CASH only to [residential information]. I will identify myself with three pieces of government identification, and sign a receipt.
Really getting angry;
Karl H. von Harten
FOR REFERENCE, HERE IS THE EMAIL FROM ‘DAISY’ (pseudonym of a bot) to which I was responding:
Dear Mr. Karl vonHarten,
Thanks for contacting eBay about your refund.
I understand your frustration about the transactions you had on eBay and you've decided to close your account. I definitely know that could be frustrating. I can understand how you feel. I'm glad you've approached this to us. I'm happy to help.
We don't have access to any financial transaction you have so we can't perform the bank-to-bank transfer you want your refund to be sent. Since you don't want to add an Automatic Payment Method on file to process your refund automatically, I would suggest that you send us your verified mailing address and filed on your eBay account so that we could process your refund through check.
We're sorry to hear that you want to leave the eBay Community. Is there anything I can do before you close your account to help you stay? If we can help you in any way, please reply to this email and let us know your concerns. We'll do our best to help you resolve them.
In this email, I’ve provided you the information that you need about verifying your mailing address so that we could process your refund.
Thank you for being with us since March 2005. Good luck on your future transactions.
Thank you very much for choosing and trusting eBay. Have a great day!
Sincerely,
Daisy C.
eBay Customer Support
[THREAD ID:1-25SOJ8W]
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