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Ebay Deal gone weird?
TheNomadicCircle
Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
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:
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:
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?
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?
TheNomadicCircle on
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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.
You probably should've waited until after you got your refund to make negative feedback.
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.
That's...interesting?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.