destiny and destination
Discovering - too late - that I had paid almost twice
as much as expected for an item on eBay
from a seller in the USA,
because of 'international delivery and customs charges',
I asked him instead to pop it in a jiffy-bag
and send to my friend in Colorado...
But two days later I got this:
and another
two days later my friend in Colorado
is surprised to receive a corkscrew in her mailbox.
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So
I decide to take up the matter with eBay,
Not-a-Zombie This
item was in fact sent to an address within the US Shirus [wow! this sounds hopeful] Shirus Shirus Shirus Not-a-Zombie [after
about 5 minutes' wait] Shirus Julie
Anne Not-a-Zombie Julie
Anne Julie
Anne Julie
Anne Julie
Anne Not-a-Zombie Julie
Anne Not-a-Zombie Julie
Anne Julie
Anne Julie
Anne You
have been connected with eBay customer support. Thank
you for your patience. Your position in queue is # 49 [after about 14 minutes' wait] Julie
Anne Keith Keith Not-a-Zombie Not-a-Zombie I
therefore request a refund from PayPal of the $24.39 Keith Not-a-Zombie Keith Not-a-Zombie Keith Not-a-Zombie Keith Not-a-Zombie
[feeling that he is turning into a zombie] Keith
Not-a-Zombie [after 3 minutes] Keith Not-a-Zombie Keith Chat Session Ended, Goodbye. (5010) [needless
to say, one cannot contact the faceless Pitney Bowes
Small items are of course generally not opened or examined by European customs, but go straight through to the addressee. I know two such addressees, who paid fees for non-existent services and received their item through ordinary mail, with no customs examination, no customs declaration even provided, and no address from which the packages were alleged to have been sent. There was in fact no evidence of anyone doing anything except popping the items in a post-bag and laughing all the way to the bank.
Pitney Bowes are thus committing massive fraud, aided and abetted by eBay, and based on the average American's total ignorance of the liberal world outside the USA, let alone the ease of posting something to the European Union. I
HAVE NOW APPLIED TO CLOSE MY E-BAY ACCOUNT. |
A note
on the enantiodromic perversion of the word
CHAT.
A
16th century abbreviation of the word chatter,
which could refer to the chattering, twittering and chittering of birds
(including stonechats) - or to gossip -
it is closely related to the Dutch koeteren
which means to jabber.
There is no etymological link to natter,
which is closely related in meaning.
The Online Etymological Dictionary asserts:
[The] meaning [of] "familiar conversation" is from 1570s.
Chat show, for what in U.S. is a talk show, [is] attested from 1969.
Chat room in the online sense is attested by 1994, from the days when
AOL ruled the Web.
Familiar conversation
and gossip are definitely not what I enjoyed online with the eBay zombies.
On the contrary, it was anti-chatter, stilted quasi-communication neither
fluid nor fluent,
neither familiar nor inconsequential,
and definitely not the verbal equivalent of primate mutual grooming.
DON'T BUY A USED CAR ON E-BAY -
IF YOU'RE SWINDLED, PAYPAL WILL NOT HELP.
PayPal's protection for buyers only applies to "payments
for certain tangible, physical goods.
Payments for: intangibles, services, vehicles
(including, without limitation, motor vehicles, motorcycles, caravans,
aircraft and boats),
custom-made items, airline flight tickets, eBay classified advertisements,
items prohibited under our Acceptable Use Policy
or licences and other access to digital content".
Please also note that "Significantly Not As Described"
claims which are associated with a purchase of an item outside of eBay
are not eligible for reimbursement under PayPal's protections
for buyers.
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