I have registered with ebay and suscessfully bid for 12 fluorescent
bulbs. I cannot figure out if the keystrokes I subsequently made
resulted in payment by either credit card or "Pay Pal". The web setup
of ebay is so ununderstandable that I cannot figure this out, or
figure out how to get in touch with the seller, or figure out if "pay
pal" has an annual fee or some other hidden charges.  Does ebay have a
telephone number or email where I can ask or could
somebody help me figure this out?

Dear Vaac, 

Yes it does. 

In order to contact eBay's customer support by email, use this form: 
Contact Us
<http://pages.ebay.com/help/contact_inline/index.html> 

They also have an Answer Centre, where you might find the answer to your problem: 
Answer Centre
<http://pages.ebay.com/community/answercenter/index.html> 

And community boards where you can get help from other members
Community Boards
<http://pages.ebay.com/community/boards/index.html> 

The company does not have a call-centre you could call to. 

I hope this helps. You should also check your email - you might get a
letter from the seller, telling you more. In any case, you can get to
the page where the auction was, and click on the seller's name (on the
top of the page, where it is clickable, in blue): you get to their
page. There is a button there, to contact the seller. Here, you can
contact the seller, tell them that you paid and give them the shipping
address.

Please contact me if you need any further clarifications on this
answer before you rate it.

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Request for Answer Clarification by vaac-ga on 26 Sep 2004 15:05 PDT

Thanks,politicalguru-ga, for your answer. From the comment it seems
that Pay Pal has a phone number. Would you know what it is?

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Request for Answer Clarification by vaac-ga on 26 Sep 2004 15:19 PDT

I got to the answer center but cannot figure out how to send an email
from there in order to find out if my keystrokes intended to result in
a payment actually did; and if not how do I pay?

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Request for Answer Clarification by vaac-ga on 26 Sep 2004 17:19 PDT

I wanted to enter a bid for $ 6.50 but forgot the decimal point. How
can I cancel this bid to avoid being charged $ 650.00 for a n$ 7.00
worth item?

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Clarification of Answer by politicalguru-ga on 27 Sep 2004 00:18 PDT

Vaac, 

Oh! Their decimal point is a comma [,] - if you haven't entered a
comma, usually it wouldn't be acceptable.

Go immidiately to the auction and check what sum you've bidden. 

But - first things first: 
Paypal support: 
Phones are here: http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_contact-phone 
Email in here http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_contact-general 

How to send an email in the eBay "Contact Us" page: 
(1) Log into your eBay account
(2) Go to http://pages.ebay.com/help/contact_inline/index.html 
(3) Choose "ask about bidding or buying"
(4) Choose "paying for your item" - when it is about the question
whether your paid through PayPal or credit card;
(5) Choose "Bidding and buying" - when it is about how to retract your bid. 
(6) Or choose in one of the two "The problem you have got isn't listed".

In any case, you'll reach a page where there are: 
- Links to solutions they already gave to these problems; 
- An option to email the customer support.

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Clarification of Answer by politicalguru-ga on 27 Sep 2004 12:57 PDT

Try also this chat http://livechat.ebay.com/Chat/servlet/AppMain?grp=Activation&__lFILE=index.jsp

You could also login to PayPal

https://www.paypal.com/

If you remember your login name. 

If you have forgotten your password, they'll send you a reminder.

If you've made a payment it should be shown on your account.

I made a payment once (or thought I had) which didn't go through. This
can happen. I phoned PayPal's Helpline and they were very helpful.

Good luck!

ebay is so cofused and user unfriendly that it needs extraordinary
skill to navigate it. I did not  get everything yet, particularly not
how to cancel a mistakangly entered bid, but you have answered enough
so that I will not pursue this further but rate your question.