Complete tossers on ebay

[Duckula]

Dear barry_burtons_beard,

Hi there, thanks for your purchase. i am currently away on holiday but I will post your item when I get home in about a week and a half.
Hope this is cool?

RAGE.

[23 Daves]

Dear barry_burtons_beard,

Hi there, thanks for your purchase. i am currently away on holiday but I will post your item when I get home in about a week and a half.
Hope this is cool?

RAGE.

Think yourself lucky you got an email - one of the people I bought from at the beginning of August only just got around to posting the fucking record out today, with no word of explanation for the delay.  TV's Mr Magic Paul Daniels has said that late posters on ebay deserve nothing but negative feedback even if the item is fine, and has never hesitated to leave criticism himself.  I'm tempted to join in his crusade, but I probably won't. 

Meanwhile, I'm still owed money from over a week ago from two buyers (one says his card got stolen whilst on holiday and he needs to get a new one and get it linked to Paypal, which I'm hoping is the truth, whereas the other isn't responding to any communications at all).  But at least my pain-in-the-arse shoddy goods seller has caved in, although he's racking up negative feedback at the moment, and I think he knows that if I leave him some myself his score will finally dip below a 99% approval rating. 

[turnstyle]

I sold a record on eBay last week. In the description, I stated that I would only send it within the UK (purely because I couldn't be arsed to fanny around with posting over seas).

You can probably guess the rest. The winner was from Italy. I told them that I couldn't send them the item, and that they should have read the description before posting.

They wrote back with 'no probs'. I think at the very least they should send me one of their eyeballs, as an illustration of how sincerely sorry that are.

The Italian cunt.

[mook]

having not a clue on how ebay works, i inadvertently bought a copy of a hard days night on vinyl, even though i already have a copy. i don't own a turntable either. how's that for being an ebay tosser. i blame my girlfriend.

[The Giggling Bean]

I'm not a regular seller on ebay, only when I'm desperately skint, but everything is usually smooth sailing.....except last time when I got ripped off by some prick in China. In hindsight it should have been obvious and I should have known better. I'm far too trusting, and I suppose you never think it will happen to you. So I'll share the whole story with you through the E-Mail correspondance he sent me.

He had won 2 MIB Japanese Transformers I was selling for £36 and £25 respectively. I had calculated the postage as a fiver for them had they been shipping in the UK. I didn't realise at the time you could block countries from bidding so decided that as he'd bid on them it was only fair I follow up and send them out. He asked me about shipping so since the 2 items were going to the same address I got them priced up together as one parcel....coming to £17 postage. He wrote back saying........

Hello, there are too many postages of ￡17 that you calculated, I often buy the UK friend's articles, it is enough for you 2 TRANSFORMERS to post to about ￡12-15 of China.Please use the Royal Mail Airmail (Small Packets) mailing way to calculate postages again, I am easy to pay the bill, thanks.


To which I went back to the Post Office and got it recalculated, sending him a message saying Hi There,

Okay I've taken it back to the post office. To send them airmail seperately will be £6.00 each (so £12 in total). The reason it came to £17 the other day was because we'd packed them together and the value was over £40 so it was higher postage. I can send them seperately if that's easier for you. Let me know. The total price will be £73. Hope this is better.


He then didn't E-Mail me for ages so I left it for a while before eventually mailing him back asking if he intended to pay and if he still wanted them. 2 days later he paid up and wrote.

Hello! I have already paid the bill successfully! Please post as soon as possible, it is a bit better that the parcel is durable. enclosing his address at the end. I sent them off the following day. A month goes by and I've deposited....and probably spent....the money when this beauty appeared in my Inbox.

I pay the bill on September 11, but has not already received articles yet for more than 1 month till now. This was accompanied by a dispute which he had opened. So I wrote to him and Ebay saying.......

I sent both of these items in seperate packets via airmail, as requested to lower postage, on the 11th September. I have postage recipts in front of me as we speak to prove this. This is the first I have heard of this issue, there has been no attempt at contact from the buyer he has just gone straight to dispute. I am incredibly annoyed by this, if contact had have been made I would have endeavoured to chase the items up, however he has chosen to go straight to dispute without any correspondance. I would like to know where we take it from here. I will gladly provide scans of the recipts. I would also suggest you check up with the royal mail post office at www.postoffice.co.uk as they are the company responsible for shipping it.

Following this message he wrote I pay the bill on September 11, but has not already received articles yet for more than 1 month till now,so I want to upgrade to and compensate applying.

I was furious about this and when discussing it with my dad he told me that this was a well known scam mentioned on forums he went on. He said there had been a lot of people complaining about shipping to China as this happened quite a lot. It didn't help me though. I tore the house appart looking for my proof of postage receipt, which turned out to be useless. All it proved was that I sent it off and neither Paypal or Ebay would accept it as evidence in this dispute. I called up Ebay asking how I could send it as proof...they told me they wouldn't accept anything it and that if that was all I had then they would find in the buyers favour and refund him........even though the chap agreed with me that he probably had recieved the stuff. In the end I sent one last letter to Ebay saying........

Please find below the correspondance, between ******* and myself, in regards of the missing Transformer items. As you can see the buyer was not happy with the original postage of £17. The postage was high because I packaged both items together for safety and the combined price of the items (over £40). Having accomodated his request to lower postage I packaged them seperately and posted them off on the 11th September. In terms of safety I printed the applicants postal address off and covered it over completely with sellotape (as I always do). This was to prevent it becoming detatched or smudged if wet etc.

You should notice that there has been no correspondance between the buyer and myself after the 11th September. The first I've heard from him since then is when he has put this claim in. I am incredibly angry that there was no attempt made to contact myself to track down these items and that he has gone straight to complaint and refund. I also enclose scans of the postage receipt for these two items.

I appologise for not including the Ebay E-Mail refference id for all the correspondance. Unfortunately some of these messages were not stored in my Ebay mail and as such I found them stored in my Yahoo mailbox. I hope this will be sufficient to prove that I sent the items off in good faith and followed the buyers instructions. Further to this I responded to his complaint over Paypal, this was also ignored and escelated from complaint to claim.

But I was fighting a losing battle. I had to accept that he was going to get a refund, so I did. It almost made me sick to do it but I refunded him the money. I did sent an E-Mail to him telling him that he was not to leave me any negative feedback though. He never responded and closed down his account a few days later. I added him as a seller/buyer to watch but I don't think I'll ever see him again. I was just incredibly pissed off knowing that he'd got my stuff AND his money back for it as well. I meant what I said, the address was covered in sellotape so that it wouldn't get smudged, the same with the return address on the back. There is no way both parcels were lost in the post and not returned to sender.....even now it still grates on me.

Still I did learn 2 valuable lessons. Never again will I send anything to China and I will also only send things recorded/registered post in future.

[The Boston Crab]

To help ease your mind in some way, people sent me shitloads of stuff to China, despite me telling them not to bother, as all of it ended up getting robbed by their postal service employees/the government. Cunts. You have to use FedEx or something for it to stand a chance.

That said, post his email address, I'll find him and cut him.

[The Giggling Bean]

That's actually really interesting Boston. I've been calling him all the bastards for ages, never considering he may genuinely not have received them. That said it does amuse me greatly to think that somewhere the government in China are arguing over whose turn it is to take Sideswipe and Inferno home for the weekend.

[The Boston Crab]

You'll never know for sure, obviously, but even though I distrust the vast majority of Chinese people when it comes to money, I distrust their ability to deliver a parcel from the UK even moreso.

[JesusAndYourBush]

I've had problems with the crappy postal service to a number of countries.  I sold a Beatles box set which sold to someone in Texas.  By the postal method I used (can't remember exactly, it was a while ago) it was supposed to be delivered within 5 days.  It took 5 days just to leave the country, and a further 5  weeks until it was delivered to him.  During that time we exchanged a few chatty emails, talking about Beatles and such, so it seemed obvious to the other that neither of us was pulling a scam, and after 5 weeks I was relieved when it arrived.

I sold a poster to someone in Germany.  The same thing happened, a week to leave the country, then 5 weeks until he received it.

I've sent things from Leeds to Manchester (this wasn't eBay), but it also took 5 weeks, but it was fucking Parcelforce so that's to be expected I suppose, but I could have walked to Manchester and delivered it myself in less time.  Twats.

Has Registered/Recorded changed recently?  Last time I used it you could only track it until it left the country, but no further, and it seems like Royal Mail's attitude is that they've done their bit and they couldn't give a shit what happens to it once out of the country.  What's the point of using "International Recorded" when once it's left the country it's basically just treated as a bogstandard parcel?

My best eBay experience was selling some Misfits albums & singles to a guy in Hong Kong, it took 3 or 4 days for the package to reach him.

[Mr Faineant]

I've no idea if this is true or not, but it's a good eBay reveng story nevertheless. It might be true, so it's worth reading, if you haven't already.


"First of all, I am not claiming to have invented this trick. I imagine others have used it with varying degrees of success. I also want to point out that nothing here is embellished or exaggerated.
I had tickets to a sporting event and couldn't attend. I made a 1-day listing and clearly stated that the tickets must be picked up in person within 24 hours (the game was the evening after the auction ended, so there wasn't any time to ship the tickets). A woman won the auction for about $600. The auction had ended at 10:00am and by 5:00pm she still hadn't responded to my emails trying to organize the exchange. Finally, at 9:30pm, I got a one-liner email: "I overbid and my husband won't let me buy these. Sorry and enjoy the game! :)"
I first tried explaining that I wouldn't have the time to resell the tickets (I already got turned down by the losing bidders). She said, "... that's not my problem. It's eBay, not a car dealership. I can back out if I want." I still don't understand the car dealership reference.
I was pretty upset. I was basically going to be stuck with tickets to an event that I couldn't attend. That's when I got the idea to convince her to change her mind.
I created a new eBay account, "Payback" we'll call it, and sent her a message: "Hi there, I noticed you won an auction for 4 [sporting event] tickets. I meant to bid on these but couldn't get to a computer. I wanted to take my son and dad and would be willing to give you $1,000 for the tickets. I imagine that you've already made plans to attend, but I figured it was worth a shot."
At 11:30pm she responded to Payback: "I'll do it for $1,100, no less. I can meet you at the game if you agree. I need your phone number."
At 11:35pm, Payback wrote: "Deal. Here is my number..." (Thanks Google Voice for the throwaway number). She called a few minutes later and made Payback "promise" to go through with the deal. She emphasized that she'd be out a lot of money if Payback backed out. Payback swore he would never do such a thing.
At 11:45pm, the woman emailed me: "Fine. I'll buy them. But you have to drop them off at my house tonight. I'll have the cash ready." So at fucking midnight I drove to her house across town and met her on the road in front of her apartment building. She was a nasty and rude individual. Things didn't get any better when I told her I wanted an extra $20 for the trouble of driving there at midnight (yeah, pushing my luck, I know). It became very awkward and she literally threw 31 $20 bills at me. I counted them before handing over the tickets. I said, "thanks for the great transaction" as she flipped me off while walking away.
At 10:00am she called Payback to make sure they were still on for the exchange. Payback said that he could no longer go to the game and wouldn't be able to do the exchange. She blew her fucking top and I swear to god started speaking in tongues. Payback said, "Ma'am, this is eBay, not a car dealership" and hung up.
I got a rabid email 10 minutes later telling me that I was going to hell and that she's reported me to the local police, FBI, and... the fire department. WTF?
I never heard another word from her. I have no idea if she went to the game or not.
Was this wrong?
EDIT: The Rabid Email
"Fuxking funny fucker! You know you can go to JAIL for this. YOu theef!!!!! [City] cops FBI fire and government already no. Your done. I got your number and your name. This is thefting property FUCKER!!! Give my $620 back or everything bad wiil happen - FUCK!!!!! You cant steal and get away. Refund me now or else!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You dpnt want a lawsuit. Trust me. u dont. You can have tickets jut give my my money and be done."
That's the bulk of the email, word for word. There was more at the end too. She must have pressed 'enter' 30 times and wrote "FUCK" and the another 30 times and wrote "HELL". Then she wrote her name which was strange.

[23 Daves]

Oh fucking hell... I still haven't had a refund from my seller, he's refusing to reply to my emails, and I've realised that I've missed the deadline for giving feedback/ opening a dispute by a matter of days.

Stupid of me, I know, but the 90 day deadline was a bit useless in this case in that the item was shipped from America, took forever to get here, then obviously I had to return it myself, thereby allowing for more time (which I now realise I shouldn't have done).  Ebay don't want to enter into a discussion or a dispute about this case, and made this clear with a standard email reply.

What's the point of having a 90 day deadline for giving sellers feedback?  When you're getting items shipped from abroad, it can take some considerable time before they arrive, thereby eating into your deadline to give an honest appraisal of the seller.  Ebay still suck in so many ways, don't they? 

[Saucer51]

Hello there (Saucer), thank you for buying from us and making instant payment.

Once you receive your item please could you kindly leave positive 5 star feedback.
If for any reason you are dissatisfied with either the product or the quality of service you have received then please contact us before leaving any neutral or negative feedback or a low star rating of 1 or 2.
Once satisfactory feedback has been received we will then leave feedback in return.

Kind regards,

I had this message a week ago and I have a problem with it. As the buyer I paid as soon as the commit to buy went through, as acknowledged in the above missive. Why should I leave an automatic 5 star endorsement and then, only then,  will I recieve likewise for already paying up on time?
Some people may be happy doing this and it's probably widespread but it does rather negate the star scoring system.
As it turned out, when the goods arrived they were fine. Had they been faulty I would have contacted the seller and given them a chance to rectify but I do resent the you scratch my back i'll scratch yours scam.

[Cerys]

Shop 'em to eBay.  They're taking the piss.

[katzenjammer]

I got one of those once and sent them a 'no u' style response. Cheeky fuckers

[biggytitbo]

Slip me a couple of quid and I'll have them 'eliminated'.

[Brunette Romana 2]

Hello there (Saucer), thank you for buying from us and making instant payment.

Once you receive your item please could you kindly leave positive 5 star feedback.
If for any reason you are dissatisfied with either the product or the quality of service you have received then please contact us before leaving any neutral or negative feedback or a low star rating of 1 or 2.
Once satisfactory feedback has been received we will then leave feedback in return.

Kind regards,

I had this message a week ago and I have a problem with it. As the buyer I paid as soon as the commit to buy went through, as acknowledged in the above missive. Why should I leave an automatic 5 star endorsement and then, only then,  will I recieve likewise for already paying up on time?
Some people may be happy doing this and it's probably widespread but it does rather negate the star scoring system.
As it turned out, when the goods arrived they were fine. Had they been faulty I would have contacted the seller and given them a chance to rectify but I do resent the you scratch my back i'll scratch yours scam.

Yeah, I've had a few of these recently too. It pisses me off mightily- I guess some sellers feel unprotected now they are unable to leave negative feedback, but surely if you pay up on time, you have kept your side of the bargain? It seems petty in the extreme to resort to such tactics to keep your feedback score up, but maybe there are people out there who fire out negative feedback as soon as any part of the transaction goes awry - whether or not it's the seller's fault, which is equally unfair.

[Melodichaze]

Has Registered/Recorded changed recently?  Last time I used it you could only track it until it left the country, but no further, and it seems like Royal Mail's attitude is that they've done their bit and they couldn't give a shit what happens to it once out of the country.  What's the point of using "International Recorded" when once it's left the country it's basically just treated as a bogstandard parcel?

In the case of ebay, yes - it's the only way to send things internationally and not get stung. I sold a load of stuff recently when I moved and stated UK ONLY on the auction but one stupid bugger from Spain bought a musical instrument off me  - he then tried to claim he'd never received it, but thankfully as I send everything 'signed for' I was able to give the tracking details and Paypal found in my favour (-they will always, always find in the buyer's favour otherwise). The chap then realising he wasn't going to be able to scam me that way has now opened a case claiming the instrument is an "imitation" - urgh, what do I look like, a master craftsman?
Ebay is full of cunts, caveat emptor goes the other way too.

[The Giggling Bean]

I'm genuinely interested to know how that one will work out. Okay you sent the item as signed for so you could prove he received it. Now that he's opened another claim insinuating that you sold an imitation will ebay look at the previous claim of his stating he didn't receive it and rule in your favour or will they side with him as the buyer regardless??? I'm cynical about ebay these days and presume they'd find in his favour.....but that's not based on anything. Do keep us informed though.

[Hanslow]

Sorry for the off-topic and boring post.

I'm a novice ebay seller wouldn't mind some advise. Is it best to personalize the sales pitch or keep it professional? Here's what I've came up with;

It seems fairly conclusive this is the best left-handed guitar you can get for this price bracket. Back then I decided against getting one of the generic 'starter guitars' because I wanted to be content with my purchase, as my ability to play rose. This is sage advice for any budding guitarist. A perfect guitar for midgets and yet-to-be-fully-grown people seen as it's a little smaller than a standard acoustic guitar. But don't let that put you off if you're a six footer like me. It provides a 'big' sound. A pain for me to sell,  being the first acoustic I bought. Needs must, I suppose.

Why buy new? This plays the same as all the new ones. And if you stick your nose by the sound-hole you'll still get the gorgeous woody smell. The wear-and-tear is only minimal. In fact I was once told wear-and-tear added character... Okay, maybe that's a little overboard on the salesmanship. Seriously though, have a look at the reviews, and most importantly get yourself down the local guitar-shop and have a play of one. If you're impressed, place a bid. :)

Comes with travel bag.

[Eis Nein]

Photos are always helpful. In this instance, I recommend Kiss make up and a crotch machine gun.

[Hanslow]

I really can't be arsed getting the camera out, I might just write '*Insert pictures of a guitar with a few scratches*'.

So it's a given you don't send off items without using a recorded service. Any other tips?

[MojoJojo]

It seems fairly conclusive this is the best left-handed guitar you can get for this price bracket. Back then I decided against getting one of the generic 'starter guitars' because I wanted to be content with my purchase, as my ability to play rose. This is sage advice for any budding guitarist.

That doesn't quite work proper. Back when? for example
I'd suggest going over the top - it's a shameful thing for any sane and intelligent person to do, but there is a reason marketing people do it. So:

Anyone who knows guitars will tell you this is the best left-handed guitar around. If you're serious about learning to play guitar, you need to get a guitar that won't hold you back as your ability grows. Cheap "starter" guitars aren't any easier to play - good guitarists play them for a challenge.

I stayed away from the why you bought it thing, because that raises the question of why you're selling it.

I actually like your second paragraph, but it doesn't go with what I have written at all.

[DocDaneeka]

You need to fit ZOMG R@RE into the description some how.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I really can't be arsed getting the camera out, I might just write '*Insert pictures of a guitar with a few scratches*'.

So it's a given you don't send off items without using a recorded service. Any other tips?

I'd really recommend using a photo, it'll sell for a lot less if people can't see what they're getting, a while back I read an article which claimed items without photos sell for about 50% less on average.

The text is fine, though that much isn't needed. Most people want to know about the condition of the item and not much else really.

[Eis Nein]

Got a live one. Guy in Austria buys an album for £19.99, with signed-for postage set at £7.49. He asks to change to regular air mail, I refuse politely. He receives the item but it "has a wave" on track one, despite it only being played a couple of times, once before mailing it to check condition. "it is unsellable, what do I want to do? postage is expensive."

He's been polite throughout. I agreed to refund if he'd send it back. Today he opens a case "just to be safe" and says he's sent it back, at a cost of 13 euros. Thing is, the figure he requests in the case is £23.48.

Is this some dodge? I expected to have to refund £27.48, when the disc arrives. Looking at his feedback, he has form for refusing to return disputed items.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I'm afraid you'll lose out. Ebay always find in favour of the buyer, even if you give them proof of him being a liar, as they are a big bunch of cunts.

I'd recommend noting down his address, and in a few months time flying over there and beating the shite out of him.

[Eis Nein]

I'm resigned to the refund, but isn't it standard to send the item back? Otherwise recorded delivery is utterly pointless.

[23 Daves]

This has nothing to do with the subject in hand (so far as I know), but I'm baffled by this person's items for sale.  I mean what?  And why?  Why would you pay ebay money to do this?  Is there an obvious trick I'm missing here, or have I caught his page just before it was due to be updated?:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/lord-anthony/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686

[Viero_Berlotti]

Probably somebody trying to use automated listing software and getting it wrong.

[Beep Cleep Chimney]

This has nothing to do with the subject in hand (so far as I know), but I'm baffled by this person's items for sale.  I mean what?  And why?  Why would you pay ebay money to do this?  Is there an obvious trick I'm missing here, or have I caught his page just before it was due to be updated?:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/lord-anthony/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686

Well, I'm having one! Didn't really want to go over £80 for a CD but fuck it. Cheers for the heads-up.