Article as seen on msn.com
WTHR-TV
Richard Essex /Eyewitness News
Indianapolis – The Better Business Bureau is issuing a new warning about ten places you do not want to spend your money.
Topping the list is a popular online classified advertising service.
Craigslist, according to the BBB, is one of those places on the Internet where everything goes.
“They have hundreds, it appears, hundreds of services. They have classified, they have personals where you can match up just about anything you want,” said Carmondy. “All kind of possibilities with these personals.”
There is no fee to post your ad, look around or buy anything on the site. But there is a laundry list of precautionary advice and small print legal warnings.
“They are saying they are not responsible for any posting whatsoever,” Carmondy said. “But Craigslist is protected, if you read their terms of use.”
The site has set it up to protect their interests, but not necessarily the customers.
“There are no warranties, no guarantees, no nothing,” Carmondy said.
The site’s users are charged with policing the site themselves. In a forum for complaints, regular users post negative experiences, including one man who claims he was taken by a bad cell phone.
Eyewitness News posted a simple question to the Craigslist community on the site, asking, “Why do you use this site?” Within minutes, there were responses, none of which were positive and all seemed suspicious of the intent of the poster.
But even with the warnings and self-policing, there are still problems.
“The reason Craigslist is on the top of the Better Business Bureau hot topics [is] because they are not taking care of the consumers that are complaining,” Carmondy said.
