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July 11, 2006

Stupid eBay Spain

A little over a month ago I sold something via eBay Spain and the winning bidder refused to pay. I went through the dispute process — dispute is "disputa" in Spanish — and after over a month of trying to get payment decided that it was fruitless to continue.

On trying to file my negative feedback for the buyer I was informed that my comment was disallowed because it contained a "prohibited word", but the anti-user interface did not inform me which word (or words). After trying various alternatives I found this page which reveals the answer: the word "disputa" (eBay's own terminology) is disallowed because it contains the string, "puta", which means "whore" in Spanish. Way to go, eBay. Way to go.

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Posted by wincent at July 11, 2006 10:10 PM