eBay eBay Bucks Program eBay Bucks DEBIT ripoff, loophole, bug as a result of refund Internet

This has the potential to become a Class Action Suit against eBay.

Synopsis: If you buy enough merchandise on eBay to max out your eBay Bucks during a given earn period, eBay can unethically deduct some, and hypothetically all, of your accumulated eBay Bucks during the earn period by taking unfair advantage of an unaddressed loophole.  More importanly, this situation is much more likely to occur if you entered into an eBay Buck promotion agreement during the earn period.  This breach of ethical business conduct is implemented in the eBay application software and also appears to be corporate policy.  When we talked to eBay customer service, we were hung up on.  When we called back, we were placed on hold for 90 minutes.  When eBay finally got back to us we were told that our eBay Bucks were lawfully deducted.  Details are below.

One.  Other eBay users may be currently, or perhaps have in the past, also gotten cheated out of their maximum lawful earn during a given earn period without even knowing about it.  The following describes direct observations of eBay policy regarding an undocumented detail of the eBay Bucks Program.

Two.  This happened during the recent IE9 promotion, so the normal 2% eBay Bucks earn rate was stepped up to 10% during the promotion.  Although this unethical deduction revealed itself during the IE9 promotion, it is probably enforced 100% of the time by the eBay application software - but the specific conditions of a promotion make it more visible.  Under non-promotional circumstances it probably goes unnoticed since few people will reach the maximum eBay Bucks earn limit during a given earn period, which is $500 total across all purchases and $200 maximum per individual item during a typical 3 month earn period.  You'd have to spend $25,000 during an ordinary (non-promotional) earn period to reach this limit.  BUT, when there is a promotion occurring, such as the recent IE9 promotion, it becomes much more evident.

Three.  We believe that many eBay buyers entered into the recent IE9 promotion agreement with the intent to spend $5000 during the earn period in order to receive the maximum $500 earn, or 10%, in eBay Bucks.  If this sounds like you, please keep reading.  Conversely, we've read that some buyers have had trouble getting credit for their promotional eBay Bucks to begin with.  The case documented herein is different and has to do with unethical eBay Buck DEDUCTIONS due to returns or refunds.

Four.  We reached the maximum earn of $500 eBay Bucks.  We were ecstatic about the promotion seeming to work well, and we spent more than the necessary $5000 on eBay purchases during the promotion earn period.  We knew about the rule limiting the most an eBay buyer could earn was $500, but it is difficult to spend exactly $5000 when shopping for major household wishlist items.  Regardless, it never occurred to us that eBay would find a way to nickle and dime us out of some of our $500 eBay Bucks promotional earnings.

Five.  Later on toward the end of the promotion period we returned some stuff for a refund.  The total purchase amount during the earn period was obviously reduced because of this - we understand.  It is duly explained in the eBay Bucks rules, policy, and guidelines that an ensuing refund on a purchase will result in an adjustment (eBAY Bucks deduction).  BUT, even after subtracting the total amount of the refunds, we still bought well over $5000 during the earn period.  Regardless, eBay took eBay Bucks out of our account based on the net amount of the refunds with no observance of the fact that we still easily exceeded the necessary purchases to qualify for the maximum $500 earn.

Six.  eBay has made a creative and selective interpretation of the eBay Bucks program rules.  This loophole situation is not appropriately documented, or documented at all, on the Ebay website.  Further, in the case of the IE9 promotion that we participated in - which is a legally binding agreement between two parties where eBay users are providing a service for eBay and Microsoft - this presents an illegal breach of ethical business conduct.

Seven.  If this undocumented eBay policy is logically extended, a buyer could spend huge amounts of money, for instance $1 million, on eBay purchases during an earn period, and still not earn a single eBay buck.  This will happen with uniform repeatability if a buyer returns 2.5 percent of the merchandise for a refund.  2.5% refunds on $1M in purchases will result in zero eBay bucks during non-promotional conditions even though a buyer has still spent $975,000.  The key point here is that eBay does not take total spend into account when deducting eBay Bucks due to refunds. 

Eight:  In the case of the recent IE9 promotion and other promotions, where the earn can be 5 times higher (at ten percent instead of the normal 2 percent), the numbers compound to be more impactful to users with lower spending levels.  For instance, if a buyer were to spend $10,000 during the IE9 promotion, they would get $500 out of a possible $1000 eBay Bucks.  But if half the merchandise got refunded, the buyer would get zero eBay Bucks even though they still had spent a net of $5000, which should still qualify for $500 eBay Bucks.  This is what happened to us - we bought more than $5000 worth of stuff, only to see our balance get impacted from having returned a few items - but still having spent more than $5000.  To summarize the theme of this case, buyers fulfill their obligations per the terms of the IE9 promotion, yet end up with unethical deductions against legally earned eBay Bucks.  Stated in different terms, buyers that entered into the IE9 promotional agreement with eBay and Microsoft have fulfilled their obligations; therefore, it is incumbent upon the promotion offerors to ethically fulfill their obligations.  This issue has been pointed out to eBay on at least two occasions and is not being addressed, so it formally qualifies as a class action legal matter.

Nine.  This is intended to be the first announcement in a series that will endeavour to bring a Class Action Suit against eBay in an effort to get them to CEASE AND DESIST from unlawfully deducting funds from users who have fulfilled their obligations under the terms of the promotion, explicit or implied.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.