Ebay threats

[ksdaddy]

I've been selling on ebay for 11 years. Feedback rating of 4265. Actually 4784 positives but for a long time "repeat" customers didn't count more than once.

 

No negatives. None.

 

A few weeks back I sold an item for $31. It was a tiny bit oversized in the eyes of priority mail; it would have been some crazy dollar amount to ship priority, like $25. So I shipped by parcel post, which is slow. Very slow. But that fact was stated in the auction. No question how it was going to ship. I will do delivery confirmation and insurance IF YOU ASK FOR IT AND PAY FOR IT. Otherwise, you're on your own.

 

So this guy has emailed me a half dozen times *****ing that his item hasn't come in yet. Of course I can't find the post office receipt to at least prove it was shipped, even though that won't help track it. He is getting pretty abusive. I think. I told him there was nothing I could do, and if he would like to carry it to the next level, he should put in a claim to Paypal. That won't get me off the hook but at least it will follow protocol.

 

I pointed out that I wasn't about to put my 100% positive 4000+ feedback in jeopardy for a $30 part. He countered by pointing out I hadn't left him feedback yet and implied I had made my ebay career extorting feedback.

 

We're talking a total of $41 here. It's not worth my time. I told him if it hasn't arrived by the end of the week I would just give him his damn $41 back and be done with it. He could be lying through his teeth about receiving it, and he may lie and say he didn't get it this week either. At this point I don't care.

 

Lesson learned, I will never, EVER sell anything on ebay without charging for delivery confirmation and insurance. I've always tried to keep shipping costs down by trimming the fat but no more. Side note, in eleven years I have never lost a package or had an insurance claim.

 

I don't know what kind of response I'm looking for from you guys, I'm just crabbing.

[myspace.com/jessenoah]

ebay is a pain in the ***

shipping companies are a pain in the ***

 

im going to go back to my hermit cave in the middle of the forest now, bye!

:-

[GIANTRobOT420]

Patience is a virtue

[tazzboy]

How long ago did you ship the item and where is going to?

[ksdaddy]

Shipped on March 29th going from Maine to West Virginia. It should have arrived by now, I know, but there's no way to track it.

[Riffster]

I somehow used parcel post to ship a pickup I sold on eBay, it never made it.

 

Eventhough I had the shipping receipt, scanned it and sent it to the buyer he was an ***, once he saw parcel post on the receipt he knew he had the upper hand. My listing did not committ to ship any specific way or had insurance and I pointed this out but he required a tracking number from me

 

I refunded the $15, yes $15 and the guy asks me if I have any other guitar parts for sale, he is always interested in good deals...with this question there at the end do you think he received the item? I would bet yes.

[KL]

Take the hit ksd, let that sucker give you negative feedback if he's that pathetic. It will be obvious to anyone who looks at your feedback that he is the idiot. One negative feedback in over 4000 is evidence enough in itself. Be polite in your email responses via ebay, but if you ever get that dwebe on the phone tell him to . . . . . well you know the rest.

[Riverside]

I've always wondered why sellers don't (usually) give positive feedback to buyers when payment is received. What can possibly be gained by waiting for the buyer to leave feedback first?

[Riffster]

I've always wondered why sellers don't (usually) give positive feedback to buyers when payment is received. What can possibly be gained by waiting for the buyer to leave feedback first?

 

Not a matter of gain, when an item is paid for the transaction does not end there. Receipt, inspection and satisfaction are still part of the transaction.

[KL]

I've always wondered why sellers don't (usually) give positive feedback to buyers when payment is received. What can possibly be gained by waiting for the buyer to leave feedback first?

 

I bought some guitar parts for about $10 off ebay and a printed note came with them saying "Leave us positive feedback so that we can do the same for you"

 

Not only is that against ebay policy I'm not playing that game. My response to this is first off not to bother giving any feedback, and second never to use that seller again.

[tazzboy]

Shipped on March 29th going from Maine to West Virginia. It should have arrived by now' date=' I know, but there's no way to track it. [/quote']

 

Yeah it should take this long 7 to 10 days, so I have a feeling that it is probably lost and you are going to have to issue him a refund.

[Riverside]

Not a matter of gain' date=' when an item is paid for the transaction does not end there. Receipt, inspection and satisfaction are still part of the transaction.[/quote']

 

From the buyer's perspective, their part of the transaction has been performed flawlessly. Why should the seller not acknowledge that when it happens?

 

Or are you saying that the seller should wait to see if the buyer is going to cause other problems?

[ksdaddy]

I don't have any real policy about leaving feedback, as far as who leaves feedback first. When I first got on ebay I let positive feedback as soon as the item was paid for. A couple years into it I began hearing tales of buyers threatening negative feedback after the fact, asking for partial refunds, etc., or negative feedback would be left. Never happened to me, but it spooked me enough so that for a while I held off leaving feedback until they left it for me. A couple years back they changed the feedback system so that the seller can NOT leave negative feedback on the buyer; it's not an option. Truthfully I don't put much thought into it now. If I see that my ebay rating has jumped up a point or two, I will go in and make sure they get good feedback in return. Once in a while, maybe once a month or so, I'll go into my items that I haven't left feedback on yet and "clean house", posting good feedback for all just to get them off the 'to do' list. As stated, I don't really have any policy, I just get to it when I get to it.

 

This guy may just be cranky. The reason I say that is that when he first emailed me a week or more ago, he was all nasty at first and when I did my best to find out what I could, asking my wife when she shipped (and she remebered it because of the odd shape), tearing my shipping drawers apart looking for a post office receipt, looking under the seats of the cars and in jacket pockets for same and reported back to him, and further pointing out that he gave me a PO Box AND an RV park address, and did he check everywhere? All of a sudden he was nice as pie and assured me, 'aw, no sweat, it'll show up soon'. Today he crawled right up my nether orifice and tried to tie my small intestines in a knot.

 

I've slowed down on ebay; 5 or 6 years go I typically had 70 or 80 items on there at any given time. Ebay's fees and priority mail rates have driven me way. My grandmother used to say, "Might as well be an idle fool as a busy one."

[ksdaddy]

Yeah it should take this long 7 to 10 days' date=' so I have a feeling that it is probably lost and you are going to have to issue him a refund.[/quote']

 

And I have no issue with that at all. I won't be bought at any price, and I will gladly give him his money back if it's lost, I just take it personally that he is implying I never sent it.

[FirstMeasure]

If you have nearly 5000 Positive Transactions and ONE bad apple, I don't think that warrants any Policy Change on your part. 4999 people that weren't a Pain in the Buns deserve some consideration, don't they?

[sgbass]

Is it worth dealing with ebay business?.

[Riverside]

Is it worth dealing with ebay business?.

 

Well' date=' it appears that there is extortion on Craigslist, too:

 

 

Hmm, it used to have extortion.

[rocketman]

My guitar tech told me that Fender, as well as Gibson, make him pay for shipping of parts and they won't credit him until they receive it. Well, sure enough the same thing happened to him on a tremolo. So he ended up eating the cost of it. BTW, he also works on Taylor guitars and he said that they are great. Learning this lesson sucks for sure...

[saturn]

I almost always do Delivery Confirmation, to protect me as much as a service to the buyer. Now I usually print the shipping label through Paypal, and I've even opened a USPS account. The rate is a little better and a del. conf. is automatically generated. Plus I don't have to stand in the Post Office line.

 

As a seller I always leave positive feedback as soon as I get a payment. I annoys me when the buyer doesn't bother to post back, but oh well. I've been pretty lucky so far that none of my transactions went too bad. The few issues that have come up, I've fixed and the buyer was happy.

[NeoConMan]

"I hadn't left him feedback yet and implied I had made my ebay career extorting feedback."

 

That situation pisses me off too.

 

When I sell something, I post good feedback as soon as I receive payment.

Then the waiting game begins....

 

Twice I've sent messages via the Ebay system, using the item number, to remind the buyer.....

 

 

The reason I felt compelled to do so?

As soon as I receive payment for something, I mark it as such on Ebay - but then go the extra mile.

I also send them a friendly message thanking them, and letting them know I've already posted good feedback.

 

 

I have two stories of Ebay bullsh!t, both have happy endings.

 

First, I bought a small set of Boston Acoustics home stereo speakers.

They were cheap - like $50 or something - because they were old as hell. Guy said they worked great.

Paid over $40 to ship them.

 

Plugged them in, cranked them up, and one of them was popping with hard bass - bad voice coil probably...

I sent a message to the guy with my phone number, urged him to call me.

He sent me his number in return, so I called the guy.

 

He told me I could return them, and he would eat the shipping - to preserve his 100% feedback.

So, he's gonna be out $100 on the deal.

The more I talked to him, it made no sense to do all that. I suggested we meet in the middle.

He said he would refund my shipping and allow me to keep the speakers.

 

I agreed, we had a great talk for an hour or so, and he kept his rating because he made the effort to do so.

I hooked the speakers up to my TV for concerts and such, they never get loud enough to pop.

He got excellent feedback from me.

 

KSDaddy, I hope your deal can be resolved in such a fashion.

You've worked hard for your feedback - and done nothing wrong.

 

 

 

 

 

The other guy was simply an idiot.

I bought an ADCOM home stereo receiver from a guy in Florida.

PayPal transfered the money immediately.

Then nothing....

 

I look on Ebay - he's no longer a registered user.

How does that happen?

 

I had an email address for him, turned out to be for his job.

No answers.

 

Sent a message to Ebay, they let me know that the guy was "no longer a registered user" - no sh!t!!!

Since I used postal money orders for payment I proceeded with fraud charges at the Post Office.

They wanted me to go to the police, so I did.

Filed a report with them, and they said it would be forwarded to the Hollywood, FL police.

 

I sent the guy a couple more emails, the last one detailing the lengths I had just gone to.

I explained that I had some vacation coming up, I knew where he worked (it shipped from there) and that

I would be coming to Florida in a couple of weeks to exact my idea of justice one way or another.

 

I guess the disclosure of the Postmaster General going to his job to investigate mail fraud got his attention.

He finally replied.

Said he had shipped it, but had been out of the country since then.

I told him to call me (for the 100th time) and he finally did.....

 

I told him he didn't need to worry about it anymore, the authorities were involved now.

I planned to speak with Detective so and so at the Hollywood Police department when I got to town.

Since I was coming from Arizona to Florida at my own expense, I let him know that it was gonna cost him

way more than the few hundred bucks he fxcked me out of - and it was coming out of his ***.

 

He called me back, swearing he had shipped it, even reading my address back to ensure it was correct.

I asked him why he was suddenly no longer an Ebay user - he wouldn't answer.....

I told the guy he had seriously fxcked up, and that the cops were the least of his worries.

He was scared he would get fired over the shipping thing - I told him I didn't care.

He never once offered to return the purchase price or the shipping charges.

 

Nothing for a week or so....

 

One day I have a couple kids at my door from up the road.

They were wondering if "their" package was mine.

 

Had my name on it, but their address.

What are the odds?

Put the wrong address on something but it's still a good address?

 

They said their mom was intending to return it via FedEx, but never did.

It sat at their house for a couple weeks until the kids got the bright idea.

 

I opened it, there was the receiver.

The guy filled out the shipping label wrong.

 

I sent him an email letting him know I received the package from two neighborhood kids.

Explained the incorrect address issue.

Told him I considered the matter closed.

Never heard from him again, and left no feedback because the idiot is "no longer a registered user"

[badbluesplayer]

When I sell something on ebay now, I don't leave feedback right away, only because I'm a little nervous about some people, especially the people with only a few transactions. I'd say about half of the people who have less than 10 transactions don't leave any feedback. If they don't leave any feedback, I'm just happy they aren't messing with me.

[ksdaddy]

Once again he browbeat me, demanding I leave feedback, so I did. His phrase was, "You don't want to get into a pissing contest with a skunk or pick a fight with an old man...me!"

 

So I left simple positive feedback stating the item was paid for promptly. If I haven't heard that he has received the item by the end of the week I'm just going to give him his money back and walk away. It's not worth the hassle of trying to defend myself anymore, even though I haven't done anything wrong. I can look myself in the mirror at the end of the day and look my children in the eye; that's more important than a lousy $41.

 

Someone once said, "Let the baby have his bottle". Well put.

[TommyK]

Not Ebay related, but shipping related.

 

My son was in the part of his life where he was buying a lot of computer parts. FedEx, UPS and others were having trouble finding our place. He finally told FedEx to have the driver call him when he was in town. Our village has about 300 houses. The street we live on is three blocks long.

 

One morning the phone rang. It was the driver. He couldn't find us. My son walked out into the street and flagged him down. He was 2 blocks away. Apparently, they were using a Garmin, or an equivalent, to find us. These devices, along with MapQuest and the like, pull their data from two address / map databases out in cyberspace. Years ago when MapQuest was new, finding our home was dead on. Sometime in the interim, our little village got all mucked up. Garmin put us on the other side of main street. Apparently, these delivery truck drivers don't read maps any more. For crimany sakes, our street is 3 blocks long. Our name is on the mail box. The street number too. Common sense would dictate, looking around, maybe east got messed up wit west, but no. The drivers make one attempt and if the Garmin is wrong, they throw up their hands and go home.

 

My SIL sent my wife flowers once, then called a few days later to see how she liked them. "Flowers?" said my wife. Her sister called FTD and chewed them out. They re-sent. But, nothing arrived. The flower sender said, "It's your fault for giving us an obviously wrong address," and refused to re-deliver again.

 

This became an issue when I ordered my $40.00 voucher for my digital/analog TV converter box. My address did not come up at all and they thought I might have been in the apartment a block to the north and east. They had 125 apartments in that building. (there are 8).

 

It took me a year to get it accomplished but now my address correctly displays on MapQuest again and I suppose Garmin.

 

 

Oh yeah. On a hunch, my wife walked two blocks down to the closest address to ours on the other side of town. She asked about flower deliveries. The man who lives there said, "Yeah, I got them." My wife's name was on the flowers, but he had no incentive, apparently, to send the delivery driver down the street. >jerk<

 

 

 

Bottom line, if you are having trouble with deliveries, look up your address on MapQuest to see if it is correct.

[NeoConMan]

if you are having trouble with deliveries' date=' look up your address on MapQuest to see if it is correct.[/quote']

Mine's not either.

The best way to test it?

Look up your house, and the roads in your area - especially the secondary smaller roads.

See if the roads you KNOW are accurate before you set out for strange new lands.

 

 

GPS is a great tool if you use the NAVIGATION capability.

Anytime you're relying on a database, expect trouble.

 

A couple friends of mine use their street map GPS all the time.

One of them is a pilot like me, knows the importance of accurate info.

His wife knows this too, but she would drive off a cliff if her little screen told her to.

 

First time they came to visit my new place a few years ago, I was talking to her on her cell phone.

As they got close, I was helping them with directions to make sure they got it right.

She was trying to impress me with her smart gadget, I told her to ignore it and follow my written directions.

 

Several times she interrupted me, saying "GPS says I can turn here and go to blah, blah..."

No, don't go that way. It's a narrow rough-*** road - stay where you are.

"Well, the GPS is showing this road and that as alternatives - see, it displays good alternatives!"

That road is NOT a good alternative. Stay with the directions I gave you.

 

The next day, we were driving someplace, she again was trying (like a child) to impress me with her toy.

So, I told her to take one of the roads it showed.

We found ourselves at a fenced-off dirt dead-end in the desert. More than once.

 

Some of the roads in the database were anticipated to be finished, but the housing market died.

So did the new road construction.

 

One of the roads near me is called Salome Highway. It's DIRT.

It's impassable for all but quads in some places, fences built across it here and there.

New roads follow it in some places - with different names - but then some software resurrects it as a real road.

It was indeed a highway - 50 years ago, before any paved roads were built in this area of the county.

The roadway is still there from Buckeye out to where the town of Salome used to be - sorta.

But it is no longer maintained in many areas, so it's NOT A HIGHWAY!

That name was bestowed upon it when the term "highway" simply meant it was a maintained road.

 

Those things are great for info, but as the aviation regulations warned they are NOT for primary navigation.

It's like setting the cruise control in you car then going to sleep.

The capability of the little box is not there.

[Riffster]

From the buyer's perspective' date=' their part of the transaction has been performed flawlessly. Why should the seller not acknowledge that when it happens?

 

Or are you saying that the seller should wait to see if the buyer is going to cause other problems?[/quote']

 

The seller should wait and see if everything is OK and if there is no need for a clarification, refund, etc.

 

Paying for an item promptly is just the beginning of getting good feedback on a transaction.

 

A lot of buyers are abusing the systemt now, they know they cannot get bad feedback unless they did not pay, some will dismiss the specificationss of a listing is that is what is convenient to them.

 

Example: you post shipping charges, and clearly specify insurance is optional and and extra charge. Buyer pays quickly does not purchase insurance, package gets lost. I guarantee you 99% of these instances the buyer will try to get that package out of your *** if they have to. I assure you that. Do they deserve positive feedback? no they do not.

 

There are a lot of buyers that are utterly unexperienced and think they are ordering from a store.