Man fingers daughter in Elvis eBay cock-up
Print storyBuys King's car for $245k - by mistake
Posted in Bootnotes, 1st August 2005 16:14 GMT
Join our expert panel in discussing application security
In what must be considered the adult, e-commerce equivalent of "the dog ate my homework", a New York man has fingered his own daughter for accidently buying on eBay a 1969 Mercedes once owned by Elvis Presley for a cool $245,000.
Jason Shepherd used eBay's "Buy it Now!" facility to secure the automobile, or rather, he didn't, because he reckons "that the bid was a mistake made when his daughter accidentally hit a key on his computer".
That's how the Merc's owner, Gene Epstein of Philadelphia, describes Shepherd's epic excuse for renegeing on the deal. For his part, Epstein is having none of it, and is suing Shepherd for the cash plus $150k in damages. His lawsuit - filed in the US District Court in Philadelphia - states: "Once an item is removed from the active sale list on eBay and listed as sold, its reappearance on the active auction listings creates the impression that the item being sold is in some way unsaleable or unmarketable."
In an attack of good sense, though, Epstein says he will drop the matter if Shepherd issues an apology as drafted by Epstein himself, and coughs up a token amount. ®
Related stories
eBay pulls illegal Live 8 DVDs
Nude eBayer flashes 19in monitor
eBayers demand money for old rope
Can Outsiders Enhance Exchange?
The future of SaaS and IT infrastructure management
Solving on-premise email challenges with on-demand services
The business case for application security
Reducing messaging and web security costs with managed services
Win a Samsung C6625!
Is your cameraphone an oxymoron?
Reg Mobile and Wireless newsletter is go! go! go!
Sign up, sign up for The Register IT security newsletter