Robert W. Rose

I’ve had so many bad ebay experiences over the years I could write a book about them. I heard somewhere that “1 in 10” ebay transactions are fraudulent, but my ratio is closer to about 1 in 5. The last one I got hit with was a non paying bidder, one of these mysterious zero-feedback accounts that can never be contacted. I filed a “dispute” with ebay, but guess what? Since they couldn’t contact the bidder their system sided in their favor and concluded I still had to pay the $2.64 in ebay fees.

To dispute $2.64 with ebay they require you to take a test of perseverance. You can not contact ebay on the phone, only through their chat system. To do this you must wait. And you must wait some more. And finally, you must communicate with a person over chat who obvious speaks English as a second language and types at a rate of about 3 words per minute. What follows is the complete log of my experiences. Pay attention to the time stamps.

SystemSystem
Initial Question/Comment: eBay Seller Account Fees
8:59:39 PM SystemSystem
Thank you for contacting eBay Billing Support! Your feedback is important to us. Please take time at the end of this chat to fill out a brief survey letting us know how we did today.
8:59:39 PM SystemSystem
You are successfully connected to eBay Billing Support. Please hold for the next available Billing Agent
9:00:35 PM SystemSystem
We appreciate your patience. You will be able to type in your question as soon as you are connected with a Billing Support Agent. Please continue to hold for the next available representative.
9:01:35 PM SystemSystem
We apologize for the wait and thank you for your continued patience. Please continue to hold to keep your place in line. You should be connected to the next available agent shortly.
9:02:35 PM SystemSystem
We are sorry for the delayed connection. Your question is important to us and one of our representatives will be with you soon.
9:20:43 PM SystemSystem
Stanley J. has joined this session!
9:20:43 PM SystemSystem
Connected with Stanley J.
9:20:48 PM AgentStanley J.
Hello, thank you for waiting and welcome to eBay Billing Live Help! My name is Stanley. If you’re a registered member, may I please start by having you confirm your User ID and first name?
9:20:49 PM Customergfm1212
hello, xxxxxx Robert Rose
9:21:00 PM Customergfm1212
I have a FVF issue
9:21:01 PM Customergfm1212
“Normally, Insertion Fees are non-refundable. However, if your listing ends without a winning buyer or ends with an Unpaid Item (UPI), you may qualify for a credit by relisting the item. If the item sells the second time, eBay will refund the Insertion Fee for relisting.”
9:21:09 PM Customergfm1212
I have not been given the option to relist my item
9:21:47 PM Customergfm1212
am i speaking to human being?
9:21:48 PM AgentStanley J.
I will be glad to check this for you.
9:21:53 PM AgentStanley J.
To proceed, may I have the item number please?
9:22:02 PM Customergfm1212
you can’t look that up?
9:22:23 PM AgentStanley J.
Yes, you are speaking to Stanley J.
9:23:03 PM Customergfm1212
the item number is xxxxxxxxxxx
9:23:24 PM Customergfm1212
what is the capital of washington?
9:24:03 PM Customergfm1212
are you there?
9:24:53 PM Customergfm1212
i never got a FVF credit for my item
9:24:55 PM AgentStanley J.
Olympia, is the capital of Washington.
9:25:14 PM AgentStanley J.
Don’t worry, I will help you with same.
9:25:17 PM AgentStanley J.
While I am pulling up your account, could you please verify your full name, address & telephone number and your email address that is registered to the account?
9:25:18 PM Customergfm1212
ok you passed the voit-kamph test
9:25:40 PM Customergfm1212
Robert Rose xxxxxx xxxx@xxxx
9:27:42 PM Customergfm1212
i think the phone number i gave to ebay is xxx-xxx-xxxx
9:28:24 PM Customergfm1212
i was not able to contact the bidder
9:28:30 PM Customergfm1212
i filed a dispute, nothing happened
9:28:34 PM Customergfm1212
now my account is blocked
9:28:39 PM AgentStanley J.
Oh I see…
9:28:54 PM AgentStanley J.
Give me a minute.
9:31:29 PM AgentStanley J.
Robert, the contact information, you have provided does not match with our database.
9:31:59 PM AgentStanley J.
The email address xxxx@xxxxx is correct.
9:32:24 PM AgentStanley J.
The phone number is correct.
9:32:37 PM Customergfm1212
oh you guys have a different address for me..
9:32:54 PM Customergfm1212
Robert Rose
xxxx
xxxxxx
United States
9:33:14 PM AgentStanley J.
Okay.
9:33:40 PM AgentStanley J.
Thanks for the information.
9:35:25 PM AgentStanley J.
Let me bring a smile on your face..
9:37:04 PM AgentStanley J.
I will credit you the Final Value Fees (FVF).
9:38:23 PM Customergfm1212
ok
9:39:10 PM AgentStanley J.
Please give me 2-3 minutes while I process the credit for you.
9:43:01 PM AgentStanley J.
I have credited you the Final Value Fees (FVF) and I would like to inform you that…..
9:43:53 PM Customergfm1212
i still get this error “Your account has been placed on hold due to non-payment. Please make a one-time payment for US $2.65 today to prevent your account from being further restricted.”
9:44:01 PM AgentStanley J.
as the Unpaid Item Dispute (UPI) was not closed even after 45 days, the Final Value Fees (FVF) was not credited.
9:44:31 PM AgentStanley J.
Dont’t worry, I will remove the hold on your account.
9:46:32 PM AgentStanley J.
Give me a minute more.
9:50:01 PM Customergfm1212
it now shows i owe $0.49
9:50:42 PM AgentStanley J.
Yes, I have credited you the fees, that is the reason why it shows $0.49.
9:50:52 PM Customergfm1212
why do i owe $0.49
9:51:55 PM Customergfm1212
i should owe $0.00
9:52:23 PM AgentStanley J.
It is Buy It Now Listing Fee $0.25 and insertion fee of $0.20 for the item xxxx.
9:52:41 PM Customergfm1212
the FVF was $2.61 not $2.16
9:53:04 PM Customergfm1212
Last Invoice: (Jan 15) $2.61
9:53:20 PM Customergfm1212
then i got charged $.04 in interest
9:54:03 PM AgentStanley J.
The FVF which shows on your account is $2.16.
9:54:14 PM Customergfm1212
where did the $.49 come from
9:54:16 PM AgentStanley J.
I have already credited you that.
9:55:22 PM Customergfm1212
please remove the other $.49
9:57:03 PM Customergfm1212
the only invoice i got in the last 6 months was for $2.61, not $2.16
9:57:08 PM AgentStanley J.
Okay, I will arrange to remove the $.49 charge on your account.
9:57:24 PM Customergfm1212
then i got a $.04 charge for something else.. interest? it doesnt say
9:57:36 PM Customergfm1212
please do, thank you
9:57:38 PM Customergfm1212
can i go now?
9:58:18 PM AgentStanley J.
Please wait for a minute or two.
10:00:03 PM AgentStanley J.
I am crediting the fees for you.
10:00:13 PM Customergfm1212
thank you
10:01:00 PM Customergfm1212
are we done then?
10:01:49 PM AgentStanley J.
Yes, I have credited you the listing fees.
10:02:21 PM Customergfm1212
it still shows that I owe $.49
10:03:48 PM AgentStanley J.
It will take some time to get updated on your account.
10:04:06 PM Customergfm1212
now it shows i owe $.04
10:04:17 PM Customergfm1212
what is the deal stanley j?
10:
05:03 PM AgentStanley J.
Oh, I see.
10:05:18 PM AgentStanley J.
Don’t worry, it will be $0.00.
10:05:33 PM AgentStanley J.
It will take some time.
10:05:53 PM AgentStanley J.
I will get that rectified.

I couldn’t take it any longer. At this point I just left the chat window open and left my computer.

UPDATE 2/20/08: ebay just sent me a notice that they have put my account back on hold… “Your account has been put on hold because the US $0.04 balance on your eBay account hasn’t been paid.”

UPDATE 2/23/08: After (I’m not joking) 8 emails back and forth with ebay they finally removed the $.04 from my account balance. What a pain. In the future I think I would recommend people use email exclusively to contact ebay. After the 4th message I sent something must have clicked in their system because I finally got a reply that sounded like a human being reviewed what I was writing and not a form-automated response letter.

What would you say if the NSA came to you and said, “We want you to spy on your neighbors for us. Send us a transcript of everything they say.” You say, “isn’t that illegal?” They say, “congress is working on a bill that will make it legal in 2-3 years. Don’t worry about it, we’ll grant you retroactive immunity for spying on your neighbors.”

What would you say if the NSA said your neighbor was a terrorist, and that they need you to assassinate him. “If we killed him it would be too high-profile. We need you to do it for us.” You say, “isn’t that illegal?” They say, “congress is working on a bill that will make it legal in 2-3 years. Don’t worry about it, we’ll grant you retroactive immunity for assassinating terrorists.”

Is that too much of a stretch?

Just because the government asks you to do something doesn’t make it right, or even legal.

Take Action!

That’s the title from an Associated Press article published today. So wait, did they opt for Blu-ray or High-Definition DVD? I can’t tell!?!

Hehe.. OK, so I know what they meant by the headline, but come’on…

I finally got Oblivion last weekend so I could see what all the fuss was about.

The game lasted about 12 hours for me (over two days) and then I just got up and turned it off. In 12 hours it hard-locked the PS3 twice and had four non-recoverable bugs (player stuck or frozen NPCs). I have never before seen such an unstable game on the PS3. I’m *very* surprised it got through Format QA.

But that’s not why I quit playing.

I quit playing when I realized that all I had done for the last 12 hours was be an errand boy. I went to point A to talk to some dude. He sent me on a quest to point B to retrieve some item. I got the item and brought it back, only to discover it actually had to be delivered to point C. Setup. A catch. Conclusion. The first 12 hours was nothing but variations on this same theme.

A lot of RPGs use the “errand boy” mechanic but Oblivion is crazy-realistic in it’s recreation: in all those 12 hours I probably ran only 6-7 errands. Most games will have you doing 6-7 every couple of hours. Good games will weave the errands together in some meaningful fashion so you have to build a mental-map of how they fit together. In Oblivion there didn’t appear to be much benefit to parallelizing the errands, as they seemed to be designed to be done completely independent of each other.

Maybe I picked the “wrong” character at the beginning — a thief. Not much in terms of action with the thief. The little action I did see as the thief I didn’t particularly care for anyways. The combat made little sense to me–is it really only just button mashing with occasional timing?

The problem with “save anywhere”

There were a couple other things that irritated me about the game, and I don’t think these problems are unique to Oblivion, I think it’s the whole “rich RPG” genre that irritates me. These games can make you do things that just are simply not fun in my opinion.

Since you can “save anywhere” rather than at carefully chosen points, the game designer takes license to put the player into bad situations where there’s no way to get out of them. “If you don’t like the direction the game is heading, restart from your last save.” This works as long as you save often. When you forget to save, you’re screwed. This happen to me more than once; the first time it cost me about 2 hours of gameplay.

Starting over in these types of games is rarely fun. When you end up having to repeat something that wasn’t particularly challenging in the first place it’s especially not fun.

Because starting over sucks so bad you end up taking even more advantage of the “save anywhere” than you probably should. At any time when you think there’s even the slightest potential for the game to sink you into a hole you create a new save. As you progress, your threshold for what constitutes a “hole” diminishes. What you end up doing is you make things even less fun for yourself because you just eliminated the risk from the game.

You start out saying: Oh! Before I attack this mob I should probably save in case I die. I’m glad I remembered!

And by the end you’re thinking: Should I use 30 lockpicks to discover what treasure is in this chest? Who cares, if it’s not worth 30 lockpicks I’ll just revert to my last save file.

In the 12 hours I played the game I created over 70 save files. Something isn’t right when a player feels they need to take out that many insurance policies. With no risk you diminish the fun. But you can’t have the flip side either: making the player redo 2 hours of game play isn’t right either. (That is, unless repeating what you did previously is the game)..

I got some nasty malware on my computer this week; I’ve had it shut off until I had the energy to investigate what was going on. AVG Free was reporting I had four viruses on it at various times:

Trojan dropper.agent.git
Trojan dropper.agent.dbo
Backdoor.agent.PDA
Virus Win32.lop (an adware virus)

However, no amount of quarantining was getting rid of the viruses, something was actively installing them. The damn thing was also continuing to infect other programs on my system..

Looking in my Windows\System32 folder I found several recently modified files:

ctfmon.exe
sstqp.dll
ddccaxv.dll
ptqss.ini
sstqp.exe
vturq.exe
qrutv.ini

I’m sure most of these file names were randomly generated… I was able to delete all of them except the dll’s. sstqp.exe kept reappearing, but I managed to nullify it by deleting it and then replacing it with a 0k read-only file.

Searching the registry, sure enough, I found a dozen spots where these files were referenced. Some in pretty clever places: Did you know you can specify an executable to run whenever winlogon is run? Did you know you can specify an executable to run whenever the windows authentication service is run? **Seriously** — what the hell Microsoft? You can’t even boot in command prompt mode to get rid of this crap.

Deleting their references in the registry didn’t work, something was just adding them right back. I needed to delete the dll’s to prevent them from loading, but how?

This stumped me for a good hour. I tried a bunch of different things to get rid of the dll’s (without pulling the drive and putting it into another NTFS compatible system) but nothing seemed to work. Running Unlocker on them hard-locked the system. Move on Boot was worthless.

Finally, while searching for references to “dropper.agent.git” I stumbled upon a hacky little tool called The Avenger that did the trick. With this tool you have to write a script that specifies the file(s) to delete and it will delete them the next time your computer starts up, presumably before Windows has a chance to execute them. IT WORKED.

Thank you, Avenger!

At home and at work I’ve had this problem where Photoshop freezes for about 60 seconds whenever I go to open a file (7 at home; CS2 at work–both versions do it). Even a tiny 32×32 pixel file will lag opening. After my tenth productivity hang today I finally decided to track the problem down, and it’s not at all what I would have suspected: network printers. If your default printer is a network printer Photoshop will take longer to open files. And if your PC can’t connect to the printer for whatever reason it takes even longer. I frequently turn my network printer off at home, and at work I’ve got a ton of network printer profiles I don’t even use anymore, the default one being invalid. The workaround for me is to make my default printer at home a FILE: printer. Lame.

I don’t entirely blame Photoshop on this… even the Printer Control Panel can’t figure out if a printer is connected or not until you go to access it. But couldn’t they push whatever this printer thing is doing into a thread, so at least you can keep working?

Woke up to a shock this morning–we use propane to heat the living room in our house, and the propane bill showed we were being charged a whopping $2.75/gallon… at least a $0.60/gallon increase from the last bill I remember looking at. To find out if this was a reasonable price I did some searching and came across the Energy Information Administration’s This week in Petroleum website that tracks propane prices across the country. I guess things could be worse, the website shows for the week ending 12/17/07 the average price of propane in New England was $2.93/gallon.

But propane prices aren’t that interesting to blog about. [no offense] What jumped out at me on the site was this little graph that compared petroleum exploration investment to actual increases in petroleum reserves. Basically, there appears to be no correlation:

We’ve been spending more on petroleum exploration every year since 2000 but we haven’t seen anything come of it. Granted, the website says there may be reason for this: “It sometimes takes years from the start of exploration before oil is discovered and then designated as ‘proved’ reserves. Also, higher costs for raw materials and drilling rigs mean that some of the additional spending went into just maintaining what companies were already doing.“

Pay no attention to that last sentence about petroleum exploration dollars going towards maintaining existing systems… Instead, take this information with the recent energy bill that passed congress, where: “nearly half of House Republicans condemned the legislation as a ‘No Energy Bill’ because it lacked expanded access to new oil and gas exploration“.

But according to the EIA website the results of new gas exploration has gained traction “only two of the previous 17 years.” One would conclude that the money we’re putting into new gas exploration isn’t bearing fruit! So why then would House Republicans push for putting more money into exploration?

According to the Associated Press, police in Sacramento rounded up gift certificates from local businesses and are pulling people over while driving to hand them out. Apparently this is to “promote the holiday spirit and enhance goodwill between the traffic unit and the motoring public,” and to, erm, avoid doing real police work perhaps?

I wonder what the hourly cost of a patrol car is, and how much it really costs to pull someone over. I doubt it’s cheap. For every silly little $5 Starbucks gift card they’re handing out they’re probably burning $50-250 taxpayer dollars. (and then there’s the lost opportunity cost of catching someone during that time who was actually breaking the law…)

Yesterday, many websites reported that Microsoft was going to be offering a free copy of Windows Vista to users who signed up for the Windows Feedback Program and participated for 3 months. I went to check it out myself today but found no trace of anything “free” on their website.

A quick search for site:microsoft.com found the original wording that appearing on their site yesterday. They must have removed it after they hit their target numbers:

What about the free product?
If you are a Windows Vista or Windows XP user and decide to join and participate in both programs, we will send you a free Microsoft product when you participate in the program. Limit one gift per person. This offer is non-transferable. This offer expires on 12/31/07, while supplies last, and is not redeemable for cash. Taxes, if any, are your sole responsibility.

It would be nice to at least say, “free gift no longer available”. But this is the Internet! Who cares!?

Combat Ops is a fantastic example of a game that does multiplayer and does it well… You can pick up a copy of Combat Ops for $10 on the Playstation Store.

Did I mention Logans Shadow was their game of the month pick for October? Not like I’m bragging or anything. 🙂