[Mercantile]

For those saying eBay leans towards buyers, that is simply not true. In fact, based on the experiences shared on this forum, eBay doesn't lean towards anyone who isn't a shareholder or have some sort of ties with them.

We are Bay buyers; we never sold a thing on eBay. Recently, eBay seller Inner Beauty Revealed sold us quite a lot of items (all 16lbs worth of cosmetics). Inner Beauty Revealed is owned by Julie Bowles McClellan, who is supposed to be a lawyer. Yet she is the one who has broken the law.

She was informed beforehand that we are located halfway across the world from her. Returns would be very costly and almost impossible. So we asked her to double-check that everything was in order.

When we received the parcel, it was full of illegal replicas. Inner Beauty / Julie McClellan claims she got her stocks from Macy's and such department stores. We have emails and photos to prove that her claims, just like her products, are all false. Macy's and MAC online have clearly stated that Inner Beauty is NOT an authorized reseller. We took photos of the items and showed them to various makeup artists and even the MAC counter. They all said it was fake. We even got escorted out of the mall for having those replicas with us!

Her MAC pigments had logos of varying positions, heights, widths and thicknesses. The bottoms had nothing but numbers with varying letter sizes. The boxes all had skewed printing. Her MAC powders had no labels whatsoever, but the MAC people have made it clear that even tester have labels. Inner Beauty Revealed's Lancome powders have no logo whatsoever. The powders have black instead of the silver lids. Her Juicy Couture Items have Chinese writing at the back, smudgy logos, etc.

Two days after we paid, Inner Beauty Revealed sent photos of items she claimed are authentic. Yup, all the items in her photos have been identified as fakes. She then posted a large number of cosmetics in her eBay store. If one clicks on the enlarge option, one will see discrepancies in her items from authentic ones. Her MAC pigments have logos in various parts of the jar, stickers that have obviously been moved, etc.

This is not slander, as we have the photos and the emails to prove it. Photos may be found at :
http://www.flickr.co...57622006037865/
http://www.flickr.co...57622006352201/
http://www.flickr.co...57622130855826/
http://www.flickr.co...57622006052135/
http://www.flickr.co...57622006322553/

**For those needing help or just wanting to see add'l testimonies, we will be glad to email you whatever we've got."

It turns out, we weren't the only complainants. Many others who bought around the same time we did also complained of rusty cans, expired makeup, not receiving their entire order(but were given bogus tracking numbers),and yes, fakes. Many of her items have Chinese writing on them.

Instead of resolving any issue, it turns out that we, and everyone else who complained, got one rude email full of insults, in all caps, from Julie McClellan. In the insulting email, she accused everyone of just trying to get items for free. Her defense in each case was : if you have been using Lancome (or MAC or whatever brand the order happened to be) you would know.

Duh, we do use them, that is why we knew upon opening the package that they are fakes!

And she ended her email with : "No one else has complained. I am a Power Seller" yada yada yada.

We complained to eBay, and many reported her. eBay's response : "We take policy violations very seriously. However, we do not know the seller's intent."

Geez, after all the complaints, eBay still does not know the "seller's intent"???

Lots of good sellers out there get suspended for some unexplained stupid reason. And this seller, who has violated so many policies and violated even more unsuspecting victims, goes on and on in eBay.

eBay still refuses to act on this fraudulent seller. And Inner Beauty victimizes more and more people everyday.

And this criminal seller proudly shoves this fact in the faces of her victims. One can see in Inner Beauty's front page a statement from this seller : "... We are taking this time to...reorganize & add new PRODUCT LINES like MAC(authentic only) & some other surprise brands(as usual only top brands)... WE WILL ALSO BE USING THE TIME TO PURSUE SOME FALSE CLAIMS & NEGATIVE FEEDBACK THAT HAS BEEN UNFOUNDED & VERY UNFAIR! THIS HAS LOWERED OUR RATINGS! AS THE OWNER & AN ATTORNEY I FIND IT VERY DISCONCERTING THAT BUYERS CAN LEAVE FEEDBACK WHICH IS UNFOUNDED/UNTRUE & EBAY REFUSES TO REMOVE IT (ESPECIALLY IF THE BUYER SAYS THEY DID NOT RECEIVE AN ITEM & I HAVE TRACKING TO PROVE IT. STAR ratings are also completely out of control! Anything less than a perfect 5 drives our standing down. Many buyers don't know that they have to leave a perfect 5 stars or Sellers are actually hurt..."

So, despite authenticated proof from USPS, PayPal (an eBay company) and veritable institutions, this seller has the nerve to say everyone who leaves negative feedback is lying. She faults eBay for not erasing it. We fault eBay for not erasing her store. And yes, this seller considers buyers who are brave enough to place the correct rating as nothing but ignoramuses. Oooohhh, what does 5 stars mean? Duh!?!

Considering her numerous victims and valid proof from veritable institutions, this criminal seller must have other ties with eBay. Why else would such criminal behaviour and ruder than rude attitude be tolerated?

And yes, we tried filing in PayPal. Despite all the valid proof (even the police as well as the credit card company were impressed and shocked with the evidence), their reply was to grant the seller's request to get the goods back first. In short, after being ripped off close to $600, paying another $130 to ship it here, we now have to spend another $250++ to ship it to the seller...and then, the seller will report to PayPal is he is pleased with the returns... before we can even start to get anywhere near a refund.

What the heck would a seller of illegal items do with these items, other than to fence them all over again to more victims?!

And yes, eBay and Paypal (an eBay company) are actually coddling this criminal. They give her back the illegal replicas, grant her the power to keep our honestly-earned money, and sit pretty through it all.

It is unjust and appalling that many good sellers out there are suspended or fined for something they are not guilty of. It is insidious that in place of such good sellers, criminals like Inner Beauty victimize buyers hither-tither around the marketplace.

It is abominable that eBay lures buyers just to be victimized by fraudulent sellers... over and over again.