Another eBay rant...

After 8 years and hundreds of transactions, today I got my first negative.

I sold a sewing machine, clearly described as used, working. And the dud who bought it apparently expected a new machine or so.

He threatened me with negative feedback unless I accommodate him.
I replied asking what he got in mind as accommodation, emphasizing that I described the machine to my best knowledge and conscience. But instead of replying, he leaves negative feedback.

I would have refunded him, like I always do.
What a twat.

 

And you are saying this in a gaming forum for what reason? :lol:

 

Hey, this is off topic after all

Did I mention that the guy was a noob with a total feedback of four?

It is just pathetic, I had a perfect score, not even a neutral feedback.

 

Send the message where he threatened you with a negative to Ebay. What that guy did is called "feedback extortion," where someone threatens you with a negative unless you give thier money back AND let them keep the item. This guy will get banned for that, and you'll get the neg taken off your score.

I had a guy do this to me with a $2.00 DVD. Some people are just jerks.

 

Same is happening to me right now. Sold a sat nav worth £500 sold for £155 and the buyer wants £29.99 or bad feedback. I have 264 Positive Feedback: 100%.
What is the world come to.

 

What can i do.

 

Well, it could have been the sewing machine that was controlled by a Gameboy:

http://www.retrothing.com/2006/04/izek_sewing_mac.html

 

Hawanja outlined what you should do in his post above.

 

Report it to Ebay, conversely I've had to report sellers to Ebay because they take the piss with postage and I politely said

"Please refund the difference between the postage cost and what I paid for postage, packing was second hand and the cost of the tape would have been all of 1p. Overcharging for postage is against Ebay policy (insert ebay policy here), failure to do so will result in me filing a report and leaving negative feedback. Thanks", some try to charge 15 quid for things that cost 9 quid to send.

 

I don't understand how you could report someone for moderately too high postage. The price is overall ebay price + shipping. Why are you even bothering to look at shipping separately. EBay rips the hell out of people off, and shipping is the only way to even remotely try and compensate. As a seller, you also don't always know exactly what it will cost, but the buyer uses the combined price...also, sometimes it costs more to ship than stated...you gonna pay for the underamount? I've had times where EBay limits the shipping allowed for video games - and guess what, it costs more to ship than that...

 

I've bought about 80 items this month and out of these only 3 of charge postage which was less the the postage cost (and even then you are talking about less then one pound and one sent it registered post as he took a week to ship), most were the postage plus about 1.50 for postage and handling (so if they charged me 7.50 the postage was 6 quid) 4 overcharged, one refunded the difference without me even asking (so if you don't know the postage, then you could do this...) and the others over charged by more then 4 pounds, one overcharging by 10 pounds and were fairly rude when I asked why the postage was a lot higher then the postage and a reasonable handling rate.

I don't think your points are valid, as experience tells me that most people charge a reasonable postage rate. Plus no one forces sellers to use Ebay and it's wrong of them to get more money by whacking it on postage.

 

Since we're talking about eBay, I got my eye on a nice used coupe there.

The thing is, has anyone bought a car off ebay? what are the odds I might end up with a lemon?

 

If it is not too far away, I suggest to examine the car before placing a bid.

I would not buy a used car before taking a look at it first, ever.

Unless it is my dream car and I plan on restoring it anyway.

 

On ebay I don't even care about the rankings any more. If you have 1000+ transactions and just one bad one, I know the ratio mix is about right because there's always some jerk who gives retaliatory feedback. I wouldn't hold it against a seller.

 

Everything I can say is boy, did eBay change during those 8 years I have been on there. And not for the better. I think after I have finalized my last 3 active transactions I will stop selling there for good. I rather sell for half the price on forums, minus the hassle and the fees, and you know that your stuff is going to a good home. Basta.

 

I'd say the odds are about 190%.

"Car looks mint, untested"
"I don't have the equipment to start up this car. Sold AS-IS"
"This RARE car was used to transport human passengers on public roads. If you don't know what it is, DON'T BID! NO WARRANTY PROVIDED"
"LQQK! I don't know exactly what this machine is but I'm selling it to a good home. Paypal only, local pickup only."

 

Sorry to disagree Jamtex, but I agree with AberAber.

As a seller I charge reasonable postage costs, but I dont expect other sellers to do the same. When I bid on an item I take the postage costs into account in the final price, and I am sure many other people do as well.

If the postage costs are high (Especially when you know that the item wont cost the amount stated to send) then I just accept that the seller is trying to recoup some extra on the postage. In most cases a high postage cost causes the item to sell for quite a bit less than it normally would any way, partly because people have to offset the price for the postage, and partly because a high postage cost puts off many buyers - I have actually got quite a few bargains because of this.

All I am trying to say is as a buyer you are aware of the postage costs before you bid/buy an item, regardless of how 'off' that postage cost may be. As long as the postage costs are not hidden, I really dont have a problem with it. I would not dream of emailing the seller after receiving the item asking them to refund some of the postage costs, or risk negative feedback - I just dont think thats very fair.

Just my opinion, nothing personal ;-)

 

What I hate is when I paid for insured shipping and the seller ships it as simple letter.

 

I agree, that is pretty annoying. Also annoying is when the seller states an item will be sent in a box, and then sends it in a jiffy bag/envelope :crying:

 

Had my fair share of those too!