Problem customer on eBay

[delturcious]

And btw he hasn't left feedback yet... I figured with his responses he would have left an immediate negative, but I'm not sure whether to be hopeful or fearful because of it.

 

[KarenMarie]

The fact that you charged 150% more for shipping than the auction ending price might have something to do with im not wanting to eat the shipping cost. The auction totals were $20, and the shipping charges $31.00, plus what it would cost him to ship them back. It is an awful big hit for the buyer to eat, since you were wrong in where you listed them.

Personally, I would refund shipping, but that is just my opinion. I think you should, at the very least, offer to split the shipping.

 

[Beattie]

You are wrong for not stating the dimensions of the drives in the auction and for listing it in the wrong place. Buyers arent always going to look for model numbers and then look them up somewhere. They see it listed as a laptop drive and that's what they think it is.

 

[delturcious]

even if its a person who deals in laptops and laptop parts?

 

[Beattie]

Originally posted by: delturcious
Yes I screwed up and put them in the wrong category, but he didn't even try to contact me until he received the package. If his first contact had been, "I thought these were laptop drives, is there any way I could send these back and get a refund?" things would have taken a different course, but who's to say what that course would have been? So I think I'm going to just wait since he hasn't responded to my last message and offer to refund everything if he ships them back since he doesn't want them. That is IF he sends me another email :/

of course he didnt contact you until he received the package. He didnt know what he was getting until then

 

[delturcious]

I meant before bidding... the first words out of him in the entire transaction were "These are not laptop drives, way too big." And nothing more. No name at the end, no address to me, no nothing. Those words were the entire email.

The above quoted comment of mine was just a rant, not a valid complaint I'm just a bit on the flabberghasted side... thats all

 

[Bryophyte]

When my son dropped a gallon of milk in the kitchen and made a big mess, he left it there. When I asked him why, he said, "but it was an accident!" I'm going to tell you what I told him: "When you make a mess, it doesn't matter whether it was an accident or on purpose, YOU are responsible for cleaning it up. Take care of it fast before it causes a bigger problem. Part of growing up is learning to take responsibility for your mistakes, fix them, then move on with life." So I say to you, you made a mistake. That's ok, we all make mistakes. It's up to you to fix the mistake, not to blame it on something or someone else or pretend it's going to magically go away. I see that you want to do the right thing, but are trying to figure out what it is. The right thing is owning up to your mistake, apologizing for it, and fixing it. Write him a note telling him that you're sorry for the mistake you made posting it in the wrong category, refund all his money, and either get your drives back at your expense or let him keep them, depending on how much trouble they are worth to you at this point.

 

[TechnoKid]

Originally posted by: Beattie
You are wrong for not stating the dimensions of the drives in the auction and for listing it in the wrong place. Buyers arent always going to look for model numbers and then look them up somewhere. They see it listed as a laptop drive and that's what they think it is.

He didn't list it as a laptop drive, he listed it [the auction item] within the laptop hard drive category. There is a difference, IMO. Not once in his auction description or title did he list them as a laptop drive.

To say that he [seller] is in the wrong for not stating dimensions is that same to the buyer for not asking the dimensions. Can go both ways on that matter.

 

[Bryophyte]

The category "laptop hard drives" is for laptop hard drives. Just because other people put things in the wrong category, that doesn't make it right. Nowhere does the description specifically state that they are "desktop" drives, only that they came from a computer lab, though many people would be able to recognize that he put the items in the wrong category.

 

[Vic]

PLEASE READ ENTIRE AUCTION!!!

I'm with the OP. This is the buyer's fault. He should learn to read or ask questions before he bids. There is no reason why the seller should eat the high cost of shipping 16 old drives over a $20 auction. IMO, this is the type of buyer who fscks up just to make sellers eat it, and it is this type of buyer behavior that makes many people less willing to sell on Ebay (myself included). Sure, the seller may have accidentally listed in the wrong category, but that does not forgive the buyer from not reading the auction.
My advice to the seller. You tried to work it out amicably and fairly. The buyer refused and filed a complaint with Ebay. His mistake as now, in order to cover your own ass, you should take no further action unless instructed to by Ebay. I'm sure you'll take a negative for this. Oh well, it's just one. Counter the negative with a comment of how a buyer who claims to be an experienced reseller in laptops can't read an auction to know the difference between a laptop HD and a desktop HD. That will put his credibility where it belongs: in the toilet.

 

[waggy]

i gotta side with the buyer.

the OP messed up. he has to fix what he did. I don't blame the buyer for not leaving feedback until he knows what is going on. If the seller does not want to refund the money plus shipping then i would leave a negitive. But hopefully he does the right thing.

 

[Vic]

I think I'm gonna do a test to see how bad Ebay has become. I'm gonna go buy something (anything), pay for it, wait til it arrives, open it, then message the seller and tell him that the product wasn't what I was expecting and that I thought it was something totally different. Make the seller give me back the purchase price plus all shipping fees or I'll threaten a negative. Of course I should have read the auction but I didn't, that should be the sellers fault, and what the hell, this could be a great way to go around screwing seller after seller and sticking them with auction fees and shipping charges. Woohoo! :roll:

 

[JulesMaximus]

I think you were fair in offering to take the items back. So, you offered to take them back and refund his money but he has to ship them to you on his dime? Seems fair to me.

 

[KarenMarie]

While the seller might not be bound, legally, to refund in full, it is the right thing to do, since he erred and listed in the wrong place. If the seller has listed a VHS tape in the DVD section and did not specifically express that it was VHS, would the buyer be wrong to think he was gonna get a DVD? The seller should refund the purchase price and shipping, but not return shipping. After all, if someone buys the wrong thing from a brick and motar store, the store will not refund for time and gas to have the buyer return it.

To have the buyer eat $31.00 on $20.00 worth of auctions is bad customer service. And while the seller does not have to refund the shipping, it is deserving of a neg if he does not.

 

[delturcious]

I'm sure I'll be getting a negative for this, but that's no big deal. What I do worry about is what else he's going to do, and until he responds to me, I'm in the dark. If I keep emailing him, then I look like I'm in a panic. So here's what I'm planning on doing: 1) if I hear from him again, then I'll give him the full price back minus what it would cost him to ship it back to me and let him keep the drives. 2) if I don't hear from him, than he's either not willing to work with me @ all (what I think) or he's just going to give up (NOT what I want). Ugh... I've had SOOO many problems with people paying me with credit card via paypal because they refused to read my auctions... thats why my auctions are plastered the way that they are. Now a simple category mistake-I had used that category before-has cause SOOO many headaches.

I got stuck in a deal once where it was a misrepresented item that the shipping was well over the price of the item, but the seller offered me the same deal so I just kept the item and left positive feedback that it was misrepresented, but that the seller was willing to work towards a deal. I don't sell much on eBay, but I'm trying to get rid of all my stuff before I move 500 miles away. I'll be glad to be done with it all when I move! Selling stuff on here and SoundDomain is soooooooo much nicer and with much more friendly people when I have something that's sellable here.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: TechnoKid

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: TechnoKid
does what category the product is listed in have validity on what auction really is? When you are bidding on an auction, you are bidding based on the auction Title, and the auction Description. Things are put in the wrong categories all the time. IMO, you are not bidding on the category, you are bidding on the auction within a category. A category organizes, it does not describe what the object is; that's why ebay gives you an auction desription and title.

I think the buyer is in the wrong, imo.

But did the auction itself specify the size of the drives? Apparently not.

In the auction for the quantum drives, he has it in the title as 800mb, but for the western digitals, he only lists the model number.

No, I mean the physical dimensions of the drives.

 

[nanaki333]

well maybe that'll teach the buyer to actually search for 'laptop hdd' or something. i rarely go to the categories when looking for hardware. you get a bunch of stuff that doesn't belong. buyer's fault. anyone could look at the image of the drives and tell those were not laptop drives. look before you leap!

 

[delturcious]

If I have a question (or a barrage of questions!) I ask. But not everyone thinks that way

 

[Eli]

I'm NOT with the buyer here.

He's a fscking blind idiot.

People put items in different categories all the time, it's to generate hits.

 

[magomago]

there are things EVERYWHERE on ebay that are miscategorized. And especially considering his name, i would say he is at fault. I would also think "damn sellers can't stick things in the right category" though

 

[delturcious]

Yes we "damn sellers" have a hard time of sticking stuff in the right categories from time to time I had sold a couple laptop drives before and the "hard drive lot" category was all I looked @ when I was choosing the category from the dropdown list of previously used categories. Yes my fault on wrong category oops...

 

[rahvin]

Ebay is BUYER BEWARE, I will say it again, if you don't know what you are bidding on you SHOULD NOT BE BIDDING. The categories are simply to make browsing easier, they are NOT there to specify what the item is, that is what the description is for. This is not a store, it's a bloody auction and is very much like a garage sale. If you don't know what you are buying you shouldn't be bidding on anything at all. If the description doesn't match the category or you don't know the model numbers of what you are buying and are google incapable you should EMAIL the seller and ask before bidding because when you bid you are assuming you know what the item is and that is YOUR assumption not the sellers.

Gawd no one is this country has any personal responsiblity.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: Eli
I'm NOT with the buyer here.

He's a fscking blind idiot.

People put items in different categories all the time, it's to generate hits.

Either way when you are cross populating two very close items I think the seller is at fault.

It's not even clear in the one auction what these drives are exactly....says old apple, should work in a PC (commonly = non-apple whether lap or desktop) and will work in any machine with a reformat. Being it's in the laptop HDD category the buyer had every reason to believe that they would work for his needs. It's alot different that putting a compact flash card in the digicam category or X-box under DVD's, movies, and the like hoping to score a buy.

Still it's wrong....but again it's the type of seller YOU want to be. If you want to scam on ebay, it's pretty easy all within the rules. You can make small disclaimers, show a sample image from a nicer item, even put the wrong picture totally.

Not the kind of seller I would like.

Also speaking of being blind, the seller here did not intentionally do this to generate more hits...he then is just as guilty by your own logic.

 

[kranky]

Rahvin, I generally agree with you and I especially agree with the concept of personal responsibility.

But I can't go along with

The categories are simply to make browsing easier, they are NOT there to specify what the item is

First, I'm not speaking about this thread because this instance was clearly just a mistake. But using that as an "out" makes it too easy for scammers to take advantage of people. I think every buyer has a right to expect that if an item is listed in a particular category, then it is in the correct category. Otherwise it's too easy for people to let potential buyers draw an incorrect, but reasonable, assumption about an item.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: delturcious
Bryophyte- I think that would REALLY piss him off. I'm just thinking of the pizza guy scene in Phone Booth! Offering him "go away money" is definitely NOT an option... i may have been an ass, but im not going to the level of "fcking asshole" on this one!

phone booth? Offering a guy a fair refund of compromise is a lot different than saying here's $50 now piss off to a stranger.