More dodgy deals on Ebay

Quite a while back I outlined from personal experience one way dodgy sellers continue to scam buyers on Ebay. Well here’s another one, except even the Ebay support people can’t explain how this particular scam works.

Have a look at the first entry in the screenshot below (click the image for a larger view):

The OLPC laptop with a “buy it now” price of $51. Now that’s ridiculously cheap, assuming it works. But have a look at what happens when you click on the $51 laptop (click the image for a larger view):

No, it’s no longer $51. It actually sold for $439!

It’s my understanding that when an item is listed as “buy it now”, the “buy it now” price is the price you pay for that item. An extended chat with the Ebay support team certainly confirmed that for me.

But when I offered to send them the above two screenshots as evidence that something has indeed gone horribly wrong with their system, she cited something about “company policies” not allowing them to receive emails from customers. But she did offer to investigate the case and let me know what they find.

That was over three months ago.