This is not so much a How to Anything, but an idea for how we can stop people with ill-intent from becoming eBay members in the first place. So bear with us while we explain. We have been eBay members for only three months and selling for only two. We joined eBay to buy things we liked the look of for the bargain prices eBay's humorous ad's promised. And we weren't disappointed! This is the best place in the world for picking up stuff for a fraction of the price you would pay on the high street and you don't even have to get dressed to enjoy it!! Bonus!!

Over the last couple of months since we started selling we have sold over a hundred items to over a hundred honest, trustworthy and salt of the earth eBayers. People who pay instantly and with whom the communication has been a pleasure. But then there is the Dark Side, the nasty, insipid scum that bid on auctions untill they win and then ignore every email you send. Those bottom of the barrell, crap on the bottom of your shoe, pathetic non-human beings who take pleasure in wasting good people's time and money and effort, and are getting away with it too. Why???? EBay is aware of the amount of honest people everyday who are falling afoul of these *£$"^&"@ idiotic b*****s and are doing very little about it, only going so far as to suspend these people's account for a short while and then leaving them to re-register under different names, sometimes only changing their screen name. Well we think this isn't good enough.

Other auction sites require new members to provide a home address and will not allow people to bid untill they have received a personal pin number which they send thru the post. The rates of scammers on these sites are 0 because they have a stricter criteria for joining. If people do not have bad intentions then they won't mind waiting a few days for a letter to arrive with their activation code. This won't cost eBay any extra money either as the funds they put into dealing with the non-paid item processes, and refunding final value fees will drop dramatically, and the saved money will pay for this process instead. We're sure that if enough people contact eBay with this suggestion that they will have to implement it and help us to get back to doing what we love best in a safer more pleasant environment. If you still aren't sure consider this:

How many times have you been bidding on an item and had the price pushed thru the roof by a newbie?

Then seen the exact same item relisted due to timewasters?

Listed an item, thought it was sold, waited and waited and then had to go thru the whole unpaid item process, just to have to list it again?

Lets work together and make eBay the brilliant bargain bonanza it was meant to be and weed out the scum!