Ebay Deal gone weird?

TheNomadicCircle

So I bought this item on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310297841107#ht_500wt_949

Now, I personally think it went for a cheap price, but you do find deals on ebay all the time, so I was pleased. However, this morning I got this email:

Hello, regarding the album you purchased. My husband was out of town selling antiques at the time of the auction. He didn't think the album was going to sell on ebay because there was no bid when he left that morning. He sold the album at an antique store. We apologize for this inconvenience. We will give you a full refund in addition to an extra $5.00. So sorry for this. Please reply.
Michelle

I frankly find $5 dollars to be insulting for some reason. What I think might have happened is that they sold the item for less than they wanted. What sort of reply should I sent them?

I was planning to say:

Hello,
I find this totally unacceptable. This should not have happened. This isn't at all inconvenience, its an out and out lie. Why even have the item on ebay if you're going to sell it at some other place? On top of that I find $5 dollars to be pandering and insulting. I want the item that was sold to me.

Is this what I should send? If they can't then I was thinking of taking the refund but giving them negative feedback and watching to see if they list it again. What should I do?

adytum

Can't you just report them to ebay and paypal? Being belligerent over e-mail isn't going to get you anything more than they're already offering.

bowen

Why is a refund of your money plus another $5 insulting?

spool32

Yeah, take the refund. After you get it, leave negative feedback, then watch the seller to see if they list it again.

TheNomadicCircle

bowen wrote: »

Why is a refund of your money plus another $5 insulting?

I do not know, it just seems like they are trying to buy me off and turn around in a couple of weeks and list the item again.

Yeah, take the refund. After you get it, leave negative feedback, then watch the seller to see if they list it again.

I was planning to do this, but I thought I could take some other way around this.

MushroomStick

Keep the info from the auction you won handy and if they list it again report it to ebay along with all the info about how you already won the item.

TheNomadicCircle

Should I leave them negative feedback?

MushroomStick

I would.

TheNomadicCircle

I don't know, their message just sounds fishy and doesn't sit right. It would seem they want to get out of the deal, but I'll be watching their items to see if it pops up. If it does then I'm going to request the item.

Esh

TheNomadicCircle wrote: »

I don't know, their message just sounds fishy and doesn't sit right. It would seem they want to get out of the deal, but I'll be watching their items to see if it pops up. If it does then I'm going to request the item.

Don't pitch a fit at them. Just take your refund, watch for the auction again, [strike]and leave them negative feedback if it's really that big of a deal to you.[/strike]

EDIT: Looking at their Feedback rating, it looks like they made an honest mistake.

TheNomadicCircle

So did message them to accept the refund and left them a neg feedback. Now its time for watching. Thank you all for your help.

bowen

TheNomadicCircle wrote: »

So did message them to accept the refund and left them a neg feedback. Now its time for watching. Thank you all for your help.

You probably should've waited until after you got your refund to make negative feedback.

Esh

TheNomadicCircle wrote: »

So did message them to accept the refund and left them a neg feedback. Now its time for watching. Thank you all for your help.

They have 3404 pieces of Feedback. TWO are negative. I would infer from that they really did make an honest mistake and maybe you over reacted a little. It's kinda fucked up to take the extra $5 and then do that to them.

bowen

One of those was OPs, to boot.

MushroomStick

I would have waited until I got the refund before leaving the feedback, but I do think they deserved the negative feedback in this case. Taking their deal and then immediately reporting them to ebay would've been fucked up.

Deebaser

So a vendor offered you a refund + additional money out of his own pocket for the "inconvenience" and you left him negative feedback.

That's...interesting?

Infidel

Selling an item that you have up on Ebay in an open auction doesn't deserve negative feedback?

That's the situation, just give feedback on the issue as it deserves, now it's over and done with.

Esh

Infidel wrote: »

Selling an item that you have up on Ebay in an open auction doesn't deserve negative feedback?

That's the situation, just give feedback on the issue as it deserves, now it's over and done with.

Sure, if you want to look at the world in only black and white terms. With the extra money the seller gave him, I would've left a neutral feedback at worst. The fact that he took the seller's peace offering of cash and then left negative feedback makes him a bit of a goose.

Infidel

Esh wrote: »

Infidel wrote: »

Selling an item that you have up on Ebay in an open auction doesn't deserve negative feedback?

That's the situation, just give feedback on the issue as it deserves, now it's over and done with.

Sure, if you want to look at the world in only black and white terms. With the extra money the seller gave him, I would've left a neutral feedback at worst.

The point of a feedback system is to apply things on their own merits, and let the cumulative do the talking.

Their positive feedback far outstrips the negative. Giving someone good or neutral feedback on something that is a bad practice just because they already have good feedback or were "nice about it" is not what a feedback system is for. They'll have accurate feedback and people can continue to do business with them as I'm sure they will.

Mostly pointing this out since people want to call him out as a jerk or something for doing what he should be obligated to do.

admanb

TheNomadicCircle wrote: »

I do not know, it just seems like they are trying to buy me off and turn around in a couple of weeks and list the item again.

Someone with 3400 feedback knows how to get the amount they want out of eBay auctions. Buying you off is a lot of effort for the payoff they could get.

Keeping an eye on their listings is fine, but leaving negative feedback was pretty goosey.

Darkewolfe

It's not "rude" to leave negative feedback for an auction that went badly. That is exactly what negative feedback is for. In the feedback, you should say, "Seller offered to correct, refund and provide an extra $5." This way people know what kind of experience you had entirely. Overall, though, the seller simply failed to meet the agreement they offered through ebay initially, and that is deserving of negative feedback.

Feedback is there so people know what percentage of transactions through ebay have been mishandled by that seller. In this case, it is a very small fraction. It's still why the feedback system exists.

Esh

Infidel wrote: »

Esh wrote: »

Infidel wrote: »

Selling an item that you have up on Ebay in an open auction doesn't deserve negative feedback?

That's the situation, just give feedback on the issue as it deserves, now it's over and done with.

Sure, if you want to look at the world in only black and white terms. With the extra money the seller gave him, I would've left a neutral feedback at worst.

The point of a feedback system is to apply things on their own merits, and let the cumulative do the talking.

Their positive feedback far outstrips the negative. Giving someone good or neutral feedback on something that is a bad practice just because they already have good feedback or were "nice about it" is not what a feedback system is for. They'll have accurate feedback and people can continue to do business with them as I'm sure they will.

Mostly pointing this out since people want to call him out as a jerk or something for doing what he should be obligated to do.

It comes down to the fact that if his experience was so traumatizing that he had to leave negative feedback, he should not have taken the extra money. I seriously doubt that this ruined his day by any means.

Myself? I would've shrugged it off, told them to keep the cash, and promptly forgotten about it. Better battles to fight.

OnTheLastCastle

This comes down to whether or not you are willing to accept appeasement from a vendor and still badmouth them. Morally, I don't think it is correct but that's subjective. For me, I either refuse the appeasement or I don't leave negative feedback.

But seriously, why are you so upset over this?

edit: Meanwhile, doesn't ebay have a NEUTRAL feedback or is it just positive/negative. This would be a time to use the neutral setting. They screwed up, instantly made amends.

Infidel

Yes, only report positive feedback, just sweep negatives under the rug, undermining the entire point of a feedback system.

Do you read all the hundreds of positive feedback comments? You can leave comments you know, and then when someone is looking they can see "Seller sold item before auction closed, seller refunded" and make informed decisions. I'd also see that they have tonnes of positives and that it was likely a one off thing.

How am I supposed to identify someone that is actually using this as a scam if all those "one offs" were left as positive fucking feedback?

His day is hardly ruined, but he should leave appropriate feedback, and fuck people trying to chastise him for doing the right thing.

Infidel

OnTheLastCastle wrote: »

This comes down to whether or not you are willing to accept appeasement from a vendor and still badmouth them. Morally, I don't think it is correct but that's subjective. For me, I either refuse the appeasement or I don't leave negative feedback.

But seriously, why are you so upset over this?

edit: Meanwhile, doesn't ebay have a NEUTRAL feedback or is it just positive/negative. This would be a time to use the neutral setting. They screwed up, instantly made amends.

Yeah, I don't think accepting a payoff is a good thing to do in this situation anyways.

There is neutral feedback, but it's unofficial policy that if you would leave neutral feedback, just leave no feedback, since that IS neutral.

bowen

I'd say he should've too, however, he probably should have waited since now he probably won't get squat and have to go through ebay to get just his money back. And then probably have to pay a fee on top of it.

OnTheLastCastle

Uh, but there is a reason to leave neutral feedback here. This was neither a positive nor a negative experience and should be noted as such. "Unofficial policy" is a fake idea.

Infidel

The feedback system isn't "how were you feeling" or "what side of the bed did you wake up on today."

It's a buyer-seller feedback system and the seller fucked up. Oh noes, they get a mark stating exactly how they fucked up a buyer-seller transaction.

Working as intended.

Djeet

Only the buyer can decide whether they had a positive/nuetral/negative experience. Sure you could be a dick* about it, but if he genuinely thinks he got ripped off somehow then he's well within his rights to leave negative feedback.

People genuinely make mistakes though, so I'm wondering what this seller could've done to make the OP OK with the mistake as I'd take a %150 refund any day and be totally OK with that.


*Edit: Sorry, not implying the OP is one, just that there is opportunity for the system to be abused.

Darkewolfe

There is no way that not having the object listed for sale available could be anything but a negative experience. A neutral feedback experience is something like, "Seller was late shipping, but it arrived as described." or "Seller shipped in a mispacked box, item was damaged upon arrival but immediately sent a replacement."

Utterly failing at how ebay works by selling the item you have listed is nothing but a negative experience, and should be listed as such. People need to know that there's a chance this seller will be listing items they don't actually have for sale.

Rikushix

Honestly I would turn down the extra five dollars, accept the refund and nothing else, and then leave negative feedback. As infidel said, bad practices result in bad feedback. I have sympathy for honest mistakes but for obvious reasons those aren't acceptable on Ebay.

MushroomStick

The way I see it, the extra $5 was a bribe to keep the OP from reporting them to ebay and possibly getting their account frozen (even if that outcome would've been unlikely given their existing feedback).

Infidel

People suggesting that he is a goose for not accepting a payoff for positive feedback are the geese. The OP needs help and/or advice, and mine is "provide negative feedback and leave it be."

I don't really care to get into a debate about the moral difference between accepting a payoff and accepting a payoff but not honouring it. I'm in the camp that one shouldn't accept the payoff at all, and I'm leaving things done here now.

Fellhand

You did the right thing by taking the refund plus incentive and leaving negative feedback.

They seem to have pretty good feedback and you're only their second negative.
Even though they sold the item you wanted somewhere else and couldn't honor the auction, they gave you back your money plus 50% when they could have just given you back only your money.

Although, by giving you the extra $5 I think they probably realised they made a mistake and were trying to do right by you.

You should leave the negative feedback because they fucked up and made a mistake, but you don't get to crucify them and it's pretty dick to send an insulting email on top of this over a beat book of old stamps.

ceres

Man, some of you guys are dicks.