Poor eBay experience: can't win them all

[XMIT]

As many of you know I've suspended keyboard sales for personal reasons. I also suspended sales through eBay for keyboards for those same reasons: I don't have the bandwidth to do an excellent job with sales, with two young children in the house.

This weekend, an eBay buyer with zero feedback requested a refund. Normally I comply with such requests gladly and promptly. However this particular buyer seemed insistent to make my life as difficult as possible by:
- contacting me directly, instead of through eBay, for conflict resolution;
- refusing to pay for return shipping;
- threatening legal action;
- claiming there was an error in the listing.

The items in question were two two-eye black clicky Space Invaders keyboards. As we know there are some variations on a theme but most are largely identical. The buyer was upset that the keyboards delivered were not the exact model number they desired, despite the fact that (a) the buyer did not tell me exactly which model number they desired, and (b) my listing said that "keyboards will be selected at random".

In the end, I gave this buyer a full refund. I can't help but feel that all I've done is to further enable a bully. Transactions like this make me regret eBay sales - and thankful for direct forum sales.

My request is this: if, as a buyer, you are not 100% sure of the item you will receive, please, ask questions *before buying*. I would much rather have a difficult buyer walk away before the purchase, than having to deal with them later.

[seebart]

Sorry to hear that, its impossible to avoid fierce buyers like that. EBay has shifted their rules toward buyers more and more. I understand your upset.

[XMIT]

I swear there used to be a way to block buyers with zero feedback. I can't seem to find a way to do this any longer.

I did have one less than perfect experience with a buyer here. The buyer simply said, "this is the item as it arrived, this is unfortunate". We worked together to find a resolution here. This eBay buyer and I could have done the same thing, but instead, they threatened legal action, which landed them a spot on my black list.

Ah well. I always prefer forum sales - even /r/mechmarket - ahead of eBay. Not that I've ever posted to /r/mechmarket.

[7bit]

You have been treated right!


You better sell them here, exclusively to DT members!

[andrewjoy]

I had a very similar issue with a buyer on ebay , selling my old GTX480s , he claimed that they did not work. I fully tested them ( i even cleaned them and replaced the TIM with high quality thermal compound) and was happy to refund him if he returned the item but he would not. In the end after i sent him some links to ebay terms of service at the time he gave up and the dispute expired.

[XMIT]

Yeah. Two things.

One, I'm not doing any more group auctions. One item, one auction, and probably no combined shipping either.

Two, no refunds for eBay auctions, final sale only!

I hate that it has come to this after so many years of dealing with eBay. If someone wants a higher standard of service they can come find me here on DT.

[Touch_It]

Quite the bummer. I really don't understand some people. You have been extremely excellent as a seller. Even when it took me a while to ship the Tipro to you (still feel bad about that btw). In the end karma always seems to win. (if you believe in that).

[klikkyklik]

Yeah, pretty crazy deal. XMIT is very good to work with - anyone that has an issue (particularly to the point of taking legal action) after he's had a chance to communicate has mental problems.

[Muirium]

Well, if everyone who happens to be an asshole were locked up, I shudder to think what the world would be like…

[fohat]

to the point of taking legal action

And the value of the item is so much greater than a lawyer's minimum fee ....

Clearly, the entire complaint was bogus. Every ebay buyer knows that ebay will almost always side with them if their complaint has any appearance of merit, even based on lies - to the point of sucking the money out of the seller's account without even asking and giving it back to the buyer. I have had it happen to me.

[Redmaus]

Seems DT is a much more friendly place for sales, never had a bad experience here.

[Muirium]

DT: conspicuously free of cockwads. Can't say that for Fleabay!

Sales always work better with people you know, especially from a like minded community. eBay is the opposite, so there's no mystery as to why it's so superbly heinous. The only thing going for it is scale. Take a risk on a bigger buck, and chance losing it too.

[webwit]

Yesterday was my last bad experience here. Avoid doing business with Thvle.

[Muirium]

Heh, takes some balls to rip off the top dog of a forum!

I've heard some tales of nastiness around here too, but typically from people I've never heard of*. Which is always the problem.

*The exceptions being wild characters like, infamously, Monedas of course. And the occasional instance of someone vanishing from the community completely with unfinished business, like Peter.

[fohat]

The exceptions being wild characters like, infamously, Monedas of course.

I feel like I must keep championing Monedas/Mandolin's reputation here.

Did he ever do anything wrong?

He was flamed, tortuously, both here and on Geekhack when he listed low serial number Model Ms for ludicrous prices, which was only semi-serious, in my opinion. He is a dentistry student in South America, after all, and probably needed the money if he could have gotten it.

I won 2 wonderful little sculptures for very low bids in his open ebay auctions, including this Sterculius (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterquilinus) which includes at least 3 different furs including vicuna, and a zombie.

I sold him a keyboard, and gave him some key caps for armatures for his art work, and he gave me a couple of finished products. His Chihuahuas are exquisite and he made me a green one when I said that it looked like Yoda.

He seemed like a very nice and honest guy to me.

[002]

like Peter.

I got stung by this guy too. This is the only bad transaction I've had on DT so far and I reserve any hard feelings because no-one seems to know the circumstances behind his sudden departure.

As for Monedas..well I can't remember if I ever had ill words for him but I doubt it. All I know is that you have to have a thick skin on Frugalthority if you plan to sell items at a premium

[Muirium]

Frugalthority indeed! That's one of the best things around here: a common attitude to pricing that even a Scot finds agreeable! So far, I've never been ripped off. Because I am bloody notoriously price conscious, and a lot more active on the forum than the market. People can just imagine my public grumbling, the horror puts the dodgy ones right off.

So I ultimately never had dealings with Peter (too expensive) or Monedas (too batshit). I had a high school friend who was from Brazil and returned there to train as a dentist. You don't do that in Latin America unless your family can afford to, believe me! A few magic crystal powered cons aren't going to pay those bills. Peter was quite a regular in his day, and I almost struck a deal with him a few times. He had a good reputation until he vanished.

Ducky Nordic went dark just as fast and final. Yet he had a beamspring at Cindy's he'd already paid for. I advised her to sell it to someone else (not me!) after she tried and failed to reach him for a while. He was just as gone then as he is now. Hopefully in a good way, but these things we never know.

[002]

I wonder if Ducky Nordic started getting death threats for giving me second prize for that stupid duck I drew in mspaint...

[macmakkara]

I have no idea where kayvee went... But i know that "ducky Nordic" deal with teraset was severed for some unknown reason.

[002]

That's a shame if it's true. He was cool and a collector himself IIRC.