All Bets Are Off - 2/25/2002

Are Internet Auctions Really Safe?
By Jon, Conval High School

One of the most popular things to do on the Internet today is shopping, which is many times done through auctions. There are many web sites that you can go to and bid on items such as Ebay and Auction.com. People love these sites because they allow them to buy stuff cheap without going to the store. Many times the only place you can find a rare item is online at an auction site. Thousands of people use these sites, but how safe are they? What kind of protection does a buyer have that the seller will send their item and not just keep the money? These are questions that I will hopefully answer in this article. 

The bigger auction sites like Ebay have developed more advanced ways to ensure customer safety, but things can still go wrong. Advancements like allowing people to write feedback on other members helps inform buyers about whether the seller has a good reputation, but it is also easy for people to write feedback that doesn't apply to that person. There are always a few people who write bogus feedback because they think it is funny, so it is hard to tell whether to trust it or not. Usually if a seller has a lot of feedback, you can tell how honest they are because it is unlikely that everyone who gave them feedback was lying. If a seller only has one piece of feedback, there is no way to tell what kind of seller they are. Internet auctions have always been risky, so they are trying to find new ways to make it safer for buyers. The big web sites have done other things besides allowing feedback to be written. 

Many online auction sites have a system of resolving buyer/seller disputes. If a buyer never sends money, the seller can bring it to the attention of the web site managers who will help them solve the problem. The same thing can be done if the seller never sends an item or sends the wrong item. Systems like these help many people solve any problems they might have, but they do not make online auctions perfectly safe. Sometimes the auction web sites don't follow through with complaints. I had a friend who had a problem and he sent it to the webmaster of the site. They never responded or did anything about it. Just because an Internet auction site has a big name, does not mean honest people run it either. Recently there was a big scandal concerning probably the biggest Internet auction site, which involved them posting peoples credit card numbers. I also have had a bad experience with Internet auction sites. I once won an item for much less than the person wanted to sell it for, so they never sent it. They said that the item belonged to their brother and that is why they couldn't do anything about it. Ebay could not do anything either because they did not know who to blame. Since that incident I haven't again bid on anything online. 

It is true that many people bid on things online and never have any problems. One of my neighbors makes a living by buying and selling things on Ebay. I guess it depends on what kind of things you are buying, but Internet auctions are not the safest way of buying things. They are good for buying rare items, but people just have to understand that they are taking a chance when they bid on items online. Yes, it is convenient, but for a price. There are so many dishonest people in this world that you never know when you are dealing with one of them, especially on a big site like Ebay or Auction.com. Internet Auctions make life easier for a lot of people, but they are not perfect. You always have to watch out for who you are buying items from because you never know when you will be taken advantage of. Ninety percent of the time Internet auctions are a great way to shop on the Internet, but it's that ten percent you have to watch out for. 

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