I was given quite a suprise on my ride home last night from work while listening to the local Westchester County NY radio station. During the evening news broadcast there was a report that both Conchita Link and Ed Hays have been arrested again. This time the charge is trafficking in stolen merchandise. It seems that they were attempting to sell 30 OWL Prints on Ebay to a party in Westchester. That is all the information that was given out in the report. I am curious however as to whether these prints were from some of the negatives which have disappeared.


Hal2415@aol.com

I don't think the creators of ebay could ever have imagined some of the problems that these "faceless" online auctions have caused. Maybe some of Link's missing work will turn up.


SJHussar@aol.com

> During the evening news broadcast there was
> a report that both Conchita Link and Ed Hays
> have been arrested again . . . I am
> curious however as to whether these prints
> were from some of the negatives which have
> disappeared.

If I remember correctly (and I may not), there were a number of prints stolen. The negatives that disappeared weren't N&W ones, I don't think. But that's a foggy memory.

JAC

> I don't think the creators of ebay could
> ever have imagined some of the problems that
> these "faceless" online auctions
> have caused.

Ebay may not have imagined the problems @ the onset, but there are persistant charges that they are fully aware of the problems now and do very little to curb it.

I made the mistake (once, never again) of not checking the content of the feedback file of a seller of a 10 dollar item in kentucky two years ago, and nearly got burned. I relied on the idea that was once ebay policy that 3 or more negatives and you were gone and that this guy had 100's of items in his file.

Numerous emails to the seller went unanswered. Reading the feedback file, I saw over 10% were negative and many had "FRAUD!!!" included in the comments.

Ebay told me that since the item was not over 25 bucks - they would do nothing-including removing the seller.

Fortunately the item met the c/c definition of a fraudulent transaction and refunded my money.

Ebay has become the web equivalent of the guy with the overcoat on the corner that says "hey buddy wanna buy a watch?".

Human nature never changes, therefore 'caveat emptor' remains useful advice today as it was hundreds of years ago.



superheater@rrmail.com

"Ebay may not have imagined the problems @ the onset, but there are persistant charges that they are fully aware of the problems now and do very little to curb it."

I think part of the problem is that the original fellow who designed eBay is long gone. The people running it now are just in it for the money.

"Safe Harbor" is a joke. The worst/only they can/will do is freeze an account. We had our account hi-jacked last year by some people in Cincinnati who impersonated eBay to get our password, and eBay did NOTHING except cancel the old account and give us a new account number. (If we wanted to drive 400 miles to press charges ourselves they would have "forwarded a copy of their file to the investigating officer".)

FWIW I also heard that the Kruse family bought their auction service BACK from eBay because of allegations feedback purging, poor service, and worse were causing damage to their name.

Meanwhile, I'm not particularly enamored of the CC companies' "customer protection" chargeback program either. They are entirely too quick to rob an HONEST merchant with a fraudulent claim - especially with mailorder. (You have to try to PROVE yourself innocent of wrongdoing, and often you STILL have to go through the courts for resolution.) Right now we have a $600 dispute. Guy admits he has HALF the merchandise, and alleges the PO lost the other half, so the CC company refunded him the ENTIRE amount. Meanwhile I'm out ALL the merchandise, ALL the money, 90 day aggrevation and $250 besides trying to resolve it(I even shipped replacements for the "missing" items, they were refused). He is not being particularly co-operative with things the postal authorities need for their investigation either(Fraud or just a jerk?).

No Message

> If I remember correctly (and I may not),
> there were a number of prints stolen. The
> negatives that disappeared weren't N&W
> ones, I don't think.

This is the first mention of stolen negatives. Unfortunately they don't specify the subject.


http://www.gettysburgtimes.com/headlines/news/053103/prints.htm
SJHussar@aol.com