One-Dollar Wonders

30 Comments

• Heather replied 12 years ago

  Giant Hugs, Rae. Golden Rule, right?

• Jem replied 12 years ago

  I used to sell alot on Ebay, so I know what you mean! Hopefully the package will arrive soon, so you don't have to deal with this person anymore. :-)

• Mochi replied 12 years ago

  Argh. I wouldn't have the strength....soon they'll be out of your life!

• Queen Mum replied 12 years ago

  good grief. We just can't handle a little waiting as a society anymore. We want it and we want it yesterday.

• Jyoti replied 12 years ago

  Oh noez rae! The internet is filled with silly, silly people who don't understand there are human beings sitting on the other end. xD

  I once had a craptastic ebay seller though-- I sent something to my boyfriend and forgot to list his apt number which is totally my fault and it was returned to sender-- but in following up (...weeks later), he told me the package was sitting in a house he didn't live in anymore and he'd send it when he could be bothered to go pick it up as it was an inconvenience for him to finish up the transaction.

  I wish you were my ebay seller all the time, lol! I know I'd be way happier with ebay that way!

• nicoleb replied 12 years ago

  ugh.

  I just print postage right off my computer that gives them a free tracking number. "Where's my stuff?!" *points* "Looks like Kentucky."

• Meredith1953 replied 12 years ago

  Hopefully you will never have to deal with him again!

• rae replied 12 years ago

  Yes... one way or another, it will soon be over. At least, it will be 45 days after they decide to escalate the case to Ebay for resolution. I am happy to work with nice people if something gets lost in the mail, but I think I'll make this person wait it out. -_-

  Jyoti, I'm sorry to hear of your experience. I have had some of those, too, so it really does burn me up more when I try to give good service and get a lot of guff back. I hope you have better transactions in the future, should you decide to buy again.

  Nicole, part of the problem is that USPS has been getting super duper lax with scanning in packages for tracking! If you ever notice sellers putting in their listings that "tracking numbers are really just delivery confirmations" or something similar, this is what they mean. I understand the frustration, since it looks like I never sent the box, but really... I can't control the postmen.

  Maybe I should just charge $$$ for shipping and use UPS... but then no one would buy, right?

  Oy.

• Jaime replied 12 years ago

  A few years ago I sold some dvds on Ebay. I made a big point of writing they were coming from Israel and would take a bit longer (in truth they all arrived within 2 weeks). If I recall correctly, every single one of my buyers complained about the time. I stopped selling on ebay after that.

• nicoleb replied 12 years ago

  Rae - oh yeah. I know all about that. My small town post office is really good about making sure they scan the bar code for me but i had a busier post office in the past when i lived in a different town that was horrible about doing this. :-/ Hang in there!

• ironkurtin replied 12 years ago

  The post office has gotten terribly bad about this very recently. I used to be able to track things to the day. Not so anymore! I got home today to FOUR boxes and stinkeye from my beloved.

  I have had some horrible, horrible buyers too. It makes me glad I do not work in retail and just sell once in a while for "fun"!

• RandomThoughts (Andrea) replied 12 years ago

  I know what you're saying, Rae. I sold a little handbag on eBay. Little black and white dealie. Buyer was very rude, said she thought it would be bright white but it was more of a soft white/bone color. I clearly stated no returns on the auction.

  I decided to refund her because I just didn't want to deal with the hassel. When she asked for shipping too, I told her to fly a kite.

  OTOH, we just purchased a tablet from eBay. I paid immediately and eagerly awaited it's arrival. it was a day or two late according to the delivery estimate but I figured USPS... not exact. The seller then contacts me stating that he is out of state (apparently he lives in Seattle), and why had I not come and picked up the tablet? He wouldn't be back in the city for another 2 or 3 weeks so I could wait or have a roomate leave it in their carport. (!!!)

  Uhm, WTF? I _paid_ for shipping. Never said I wanted to pick it up and why did he wait until he was ALREADY out of state to contact me??? After having to chase him around a little bit he finally arranged a pick up time with his roommates (no way was I comfortable with his leaving it out where it could get stole, or "stolen"). He's yet to refund my shipping. Grrr.....

• Julie replied 12 years ago

  Lack of patience seems to be the in thing, these days. A friend from Ireland stopped in to visit me on her return from the US, and remarked, "I reckon those Yanks stand in front of microwaves screaming, 'COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' ." Sadly, I'm starting to see Canadians in some of the bigger centres starting to do the same thing. Relax people, the sun will rise, tomorrow.

  Cheers
  Julie

• rae replied 12 years ago

  Andrea, that's just awful! I bet he wanted to do a pickup only listing and simply filled out the listing details wrong... still lame of him not to own up to it - and um, not contact you to schedule a pickup right away, if that's what he thought was going on. Have you filed a Paypal claim for the shipping fees?

  Julie, that's too funny - and true! Especially in traffic. o_0

  As an update, I replied to the case. Explained that, yes, in fact I did reply to you. Yes, in fact, I did update you on the shipping status. Well, the buyer has closed the case for now and said she feels really bad about it and had just forgotten that I emailed her. Whew... now I can stop shaking my fists in the air and start praying that USPS doesn't lose her bag.

• ironkurtin replied 12 years ago

  I remember my "favorite" ebay transaction, where the seller accused me of being a liar and a bad person and creating some sort of great sweater conspiracy to deceive her about the sweater she had purchased, which was *obviously* not a woman's sweater (?) and *obviously* not cashmere (although the label said so) and which her husband said was ugly (oookay...). She went on to say if I took it back she'd buy more from me. Gee... big incentive.

  And her final feedback was, "Great item! Will be back!" Don't do me any favors, crazy lady!

• Lisa replied 12 years ago

  Sorry to hear about your frustration Rae. I recently sold some items on Ebay and not one of the buyers ever bothered to rate me as a seller. I don't have many ratings anyway (since I don't sell on Ebay often) and now Paypal contected me stating my rating is too low in transactions so my funds will be held for 21 days. I have positive ratings for all my selling but since not many people rate, I don't have many ratings. So frustrating!

• Mo replied 12 years ago

  I feel for you. I have a doozie right now. A dress I sold before we packed for the move was not paid for. I finally opened a non paying bidder case and waited to hear any response. Days passed and nothing, and so I packed up the dress with all my worldly belongings to drive across the country. Guess who finally pays the very first day we hit the road?? Yep, now the dress is under god knows what in the back of our truck here in South Carolina. My BF says if she waited a week to finally pay, she can wait a week for us to get home and unpack to ship it. I know he's right but part of me really has the urge to do the right thing and start digging it out. Sigh.

• ironkurtin replied 12 years ago

  Mo, I think if you let her know there's a delay your bases are covered. Have a great trip!

• Mo replied 12 years ago

  IK, I emailed her 3 times about paying, and timeframes due to my upcoming move. Not one response from any of them. So I guess technically I'm covered, but I have this nagging 'do gooder' gene or something rattling loose LOL.

• rae replied 12 years ago

  Yeesh, how I wish there was still a buyer rating system! I just don't understand the fact that buyers have no built-in checks and balances in Ebay.

  I think you are in the clear, Mo. You don't need any more stress during a huge move like this.

• Fruitful replied 12 years ago

  Lisa, I feel guilty now *off to leave Ebay feedback*

• nicoleb replied 12 years ago

  Lol Fruitful.

  Sometimes i think buyers feel a sort of position of power on Ebay ever since they changed some rules around where you can't leave anything but positive feedback for them.

• Jjsloane replied 12 years ago

  Thank you for confirming why I have been avoiding ebay (and my garage is piling up with "stuff") I once was tormented nonstop by a person from Japan who insisted I must sell him my purple Renaissance cape even though I told him I do not ship internationally. I could write a book with his replies and pathetic begging for the item. I had to block him. I'm sure your buyer will relax once they have their item, but it is annoying they are pestering you.

• Fruitful replied 12 years ago

  Nicole, I think some people are definitely like that.

  Unfortunately I'm not - I put off leaving feedback because I was unhappy with how they squashed my shoes when they packed them. I never leave negs though, so I just gave them a 5 star rating and wrote "thankyou". Sigh. I know that's not helping them improve, I just feel there's so much potential for misunderstanding I don't want to say anything inflammatory. If buyers check all my left feedback they'll know "thankyou" means "meh" compared to my normally gushing feedback...

• Mander replied 12 years ago

  Funny how a little documentation can make people back off. I hear similar kinds of tales a lot from my friends who are teachers -- people claim that they handed in assignments or what have you, complain to deans and heads of departments because they didn't receive an instant reply to their 3am email, and so on. Yet somehow they seem to slink away under the "oh, I forgot" excuse when their impatience and/or lies are documented...

  I often feel limited in leaving feedback, too. It's such a stupid game on Ebay's part -- you basically can't say anything negative, because of retaliatory bad feedback, which then makes people afraid to deal with you. It's one of the reasons why I only buy small stuff from ebay. At least if I lose out on a transaction, I'm not losing much.

• Isabel replied 12 years ago

  I agree with QM. Everything has to be instantaneous - THEN add to that the we feel we can exude control over someone' s life by affecting their reputation and you get self-absorbed crazies.

• RoseandJoan replied 12 years ago

  Fingers crossed the parcel arrives soon so this person is out of your life Rae!

• ironkurtin replied 12 years ago

  Another ebay story... I sold something, they paid, I shipped it out, then my mother in law died in an accident. In the whirlwind after that, I paid NO attention to anything that had to do with ebay.

  I get back home and the buyer has written in my feedback, "I PAID ON TIME AND NEVER GOT POSITIVE FEEDBACK - WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY?!!!!" I contact the buyer to explain that I had a death in the family, and that "never" was going to end in about 5 minutes.

  In return, I get a rant back that "we all have lives, leaving feedback is just common courtesy!"

  Maybe she missed the part about how my mother in law DOESN'T have a life anymore? Whoever this person is, their life must be very empty if they're hoping for instantaneous validation via ebay feedback scores.

• rae replied 12 years ago

  IK, that is beyond disgusting! I would have reported this person to Ebay for misuse/being abusive through the emails. Grossly insensitive. Either that, or I might have completely lost it and replied with a mad string of expletives.

  One of my close friends missed my wedding because she needed to attend her aunt's death rites. No problem. That kind of thing trumps all - yes, including Ebay feedback that can be given at pretty much any time... SO sorry to hear about that horrible buyer; I think karma will get her, though.

• Isabel replied 12 years ago

  Ik - I am so sorry to hear that also. People have transferred their insecurities onto the web. It is crazy. Look at that man who killed a young couple because they "defriended" his daughter on Facebook.

  Mine is nothing like yours but I bought something from Amazon recently and I got a handwritten note from the seller telling me NOT TO LEAVE ANYTHING LESS THAN 5 STARS on the review ( yes, in capital letters ). It then went on to say that they only want to be a 5 star seller and that they only want customers that will agree with that and fully appreciate them. If not, then I could return the item.. REALLY ? All you did was mail it to me. I liked the product so I kept it and left them a tepid review and they reported me - for giving them 3 stars! People are just so strange.....