Hello.
I just wanted to alert everyone to an excellent bit of programming on CNBC. As it turns out, I normally cannot even say C-N-B-C before I fall asleep. But, this recommendation is for real.
CNBC has put together an hour long documentary about the rise of eBay and its place in the Internet community. This is not a PR project for the company. CNBC reporter David Faber does an excellent job of presenting both the good things and the bad things about the company.
The documentary describe eBay's fraud preventation division in some detail. Faber choose a few special cases of fraud and attempts to follow those from the initial complaint until the situation is resolved. It is an interesting look at how these cases are handled. They report that something like one-one-hundreth of all sales are fraudulent. That's a small percentage, but eBay does process a ton of requests so they add up. ("ton" is a technical term in that usage.)
One of my favorite parts of the documentary comes near the beginning. The vice president of operations takes the film crew on a tour of its data center and network operations center. It would appear that under normal circumstances cameras are not allowed inside these two areas.
The network operations center (NOC) is filled with wall monitors listing bandwidth, the number of new user registrations per second, listings per second, bids per second, etc. The operations staff collects lots of information that users probably consider trivial. However, they use this information to shave fractions of seconds off of common page rendering operations. These seconds, accumulated over millions of users, represent significant savings for the company and customers alike.
Also, Faber take us into several high level meetings where controversial listings are discussed. One of these scenes revolve around bodily fluids. I can't do the scene justice by simpy quoting it. So, I urge you to watch. It is a great laugh.
I am sure that in the coming evenings CNBC will be re-airing this original documentary. Be sure to search it out and watch.
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I would agree with your assesment that their fraud prevention center is seriously lacking.
However, this documentary did reveal that PayPal offers up to $1000 worth of insurance for purchases made using their credit system.
I am not sure about the details of this procedure or when and where it applies, but it might be something to look into if your purchases are under than limit.
Do you call them "European carry alls" or "man purses"? Either way, can you get me one?
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