Recently I had the awful experience of having my PayPal account hacked. What made it worse was that I  had connected my paypal account to my bank account (I know, I know.....STUPID !!) And if that isn't enough to curl you toenails, I managed to hit a MAJOR winning streak and won about 20 auctions in a row. Now normally I would have just pulled cash out of the bank and shot off a few money orders. However since the accounts were connected, my bank account was frozen and it was a holiday weekend when I discovered the snafu and there were several overseas sellers who only accepted PayPal..

Needless to say, things got messy really quick. At one point I had 19 alerts on my account. My first reaction was - PANIC. After a stiff shot of Dr.Pepper, I did the only thing I could think of to do - I started emailing sellers like mad. I was honest and told them what had happened. And miracle upon miracle, they understood, they were kind, and they were even supportive ( on top of this nightmare my beloved Rottweiler went into seizures, then $4000.00 worth of surgery and then died a week later) These people whom I had never met were incredibly wonderful and gave me extra time to try to get everything somewhat straightened out and start paying them off one by one. Yje key here folks was COMMUNICATION.

Because I kept the lines of communications open and told them the truth, most of these wonderful people who make up the core of the eBay family of sellers are at heart incredible human beings..They are also incredibly smart and can smell a con a mile off. The key jere is as long as you are being completely honest you can work out almost any problem you can get yourself into playing, buying, and selling here in ebayland.

I'm sure that I will end up with a few strikes against me, but I can survive it and you can too if you ever get in over your head (which is also easy to do in here), just remember that if you treat people they way tou would want to be treated, things will usually work out okay. Just take a deep breath and tell the truth. You might piss someone ohh, but you'll have a clear conscience and probably make a new friend in the process.

Good luck buying & selling!!

Note: To all of you who stretched out a hand of friendship during my recent nightmare (and you know who you are) a million thank yous and hugs aren't nearly what you deserve, but consider them yours anyway!!!!!

Morgan Barnebee