Avoid Buying on eBay!

Introduction
I am a frequent eBay buyer. In fact, I don't really understand why would I trust eBay so much despite other people trying to warn me of scams on eBay. I did not really take much notice of their warnings until recently where I was one of the victims of fraud. I was being conned for more than £400.

In a nutshell, I purchased an item for £400 but the seller said that his paypal account is not working so I would have to send money into his account directly. I should have not listened to the seller. After sending £400 to the account which he gave me, he refused to send me the goods which I have ordered and paid for it.

Immediately I called eBay but they said that they could not help me because I paid via bank transfer and they have no legal right to insist the seller in returning the money to me or send me the good. This is because I did not pay via paypal.

eBay's Failure (1)
I then questioned eBay as to how they are going to deal with my case. All I've been told that eBay has implemented some measures on the seller but I do not know what is it all about. I am not allowed to have the seller's address because it is a breach of data protection. I don't quite understand it because it is unfair taking into account that the seller has my address but I could not have the seller's address despite there are sufficient evidence to proof that the seller has received the money but did not send me any goods.

eBay's Failure (2)
Since I was told from the beginning by one of eBay's customer service advisors that I could not retrieve the money which I have spent even though the seller did not send me the good as promised, I pursue the matter with eBay. However, unfortunately I was told that there is nothing much eBay could help me in this case. I then insisted that they investigate the matter further. I did call them many times but they gave me the same answer as they are looking at the matter.

eBay's Failure (3)
I don't think that eBay is serious about protecting a buyer at all. I then made further calls to eBay and made some suggestions to eBay. I insisted that someone from eBay send me a reply into what is eBay going to do with this seller. One month has passed and I have not received any e-mails nor any calls from eBay even though I have specifically asked them to do. They did not bother to send me an e-mail stating as to the next course of action which they might be taking against the seller. Before I got aggitated with eBay, I did mention to them that they should take onboard Amazon's model where both buyer and seller will have better protection because sellers will have to sell via Amazon's credit system and monies will only be despensed to the seller if the goods have been shipped. If the seller has not sent the goods even though it is stated "shipped", the buyer will be able to get a refund from Amazon and Amazon will investigate further. I don't believe that the eBay customer service officer is keen in improving their security at all.

I am not surprised when eBay sent me an e-mail asking me to change my password due to some security breached. In the e-mail itself, eBay does not seem to be interested in ensuring eBay user's security at all. If that is the case, why would we want to use eBay to buy goods at all? I think we should just spend less time in buying on eBay and move over to Amazon instead.