Money-grubbing bastards...

[Terry Yager]

I'm pizzed!
I mean, it ain't the money, it's the principal that burns my azz! Bad enough that some ignorant prick has enough hair in his azz to pull such a trick, but that such sh!t is even allowed is beyond my comprehension.
So, if you place an ad on a well-known auction site, and in that listing, clearly state that there is a flat-rate shipping & handling fee, why should your buyer be allowed to blackmail you with the threat of (undeserved) negative feedback, just because they don't like paying that fee? What kinda piece-of-sh!t policy is that?

Ok, so I sold an item for $4.99, with a $5.00 flat S&H fee, clearly posted in the ad. The buyer, upon reciept of the item, sees that the actual postage is only $3.42. So now he contacts me, demanding that I refund the "extra" $1.58 that I'd "overcharged" him, and threatens to leave negative feedback if I don't comply! As I said, it ain't the money. $1.58 ain't gonna send me to the poorhouse, but the idea that someone can threaten to ruin a hard-won reputation over such trivial bullsh!t really burns my azz! What can ya do but give in to the cheap sonuvabitch, whether it's "right" or not (I mean, what part of "& handling" do these f***in' idjits not understand)?

--T

[carlsson]

Are the boxes and packing material for free, or included in the shipping cost?

[Vlad]

Just do what I did, e-mail the auction place DAILY for about a week until they strike that one feedback from your record..... But later on down the line I got ripped off and these auction people wouldn't help me like thy said the would so I told the whole place to go F themselves I would go to their competitor.
Which is Ubid. On Ubid you have to be an established business among other things, And they will NOT tolerate fraud, they are a LOT more vengeful than the other auction sites. If you get caught doing anything like you said, you get banned for life. No questions. But the way Ubid has their system set up is, the seller and buyer NEVER have contact with eachother. It all goes through Ubid. There is no "Feedback" system, which I think is one of the all time stupidest things ever implemented because of exactly what happened to you. Ubid is by far the safest places for auctions. The only downside is they don't have the rareish stuff and old stuff that eBay has. Every thing they have is either new, or refurbished. Sometimes they have used stuff, but is usually refurbished. Occasionally they have some off the wall stuff. Like they had a newish IBM Mainframe once......


-Vlad

[Terry Yager]

Are the boxes and packing material for free, or included in the shipping cost?

Ah, well...lemme see. The large manilla envelope cost me $.33, and of course, I left my teleporter on the mothership, so I couldn't beam the package to the Post Office. I had to transport it in a more conventional manner. Economical as the Wailer is, it doesn't run on air, y'know.

--T

[carlsson]

I admit I have never been an eBay user (but I get dozens of faked e-mail about my account). What boggles me the most is that one single negative feedback, even if it comes from very odd conditions like this, would make a difference. I know the saying that one bad word equals 100 good words, but if someone else would like to do business with you later, it is their own fault if they refrain from closing a good deal because one buyer decided to hurt you. If there are several negative within a time period, or a new user who barely has completed any successful trades, I can see the worry.

[Unknown_K]

If you state $5 for S&H then that is what the buyer has to pay. If the S&H seems high ask the seller if they can ship a different way before you bid.

[CP/M User]

"Terry Yager" wrote:

> I'm pizzed!

> I mean, it ain't the money, it's the "principal" that burns my azz!
> Bad enough that some ignorant prick has enough hair in his azz to pull
> such a trick, but that such sh!t is even "allowed" is beyond my
> comprehension.

> So, if you place an ad on a well-known auction site, and in that listing,
> "clearly" state that there is a flat-rate shipping & handling fee, why
> should your buyer be allowed to "blackmail" you with the threat of
> (undeserved) negative feedback, just because they don't like paying
> that fee? What kinda piece-of-sh!t policy is that?

Hmmm. I'm a little puzzled when it comes to Postage & Handling rates -
but what I don't winge about is this the costs. I pay what the shipper
would recommend - I mean it's better to get your goods in the condition
they were sent in isn't it, than to pay a dodgy low rate to get damaged
goods. What do these people want?

Maybe their the kind of people who want things their way <BIG WINK>.
Totally unjustified.

CP/M User.

[NathanAllan]

Sometimes when I order something from anywhere, I try to throw in 2 bucks just to show that I am REALLY willing to have good packing so it gets to me in one piece. That 2 bucks goes to the sellers good will and shows that I am serious, too. It ain't much but it feels good to get an extra 2 bucks. Kinda like a tip.

[Unknown_K]

People who sell things not for the money but because they want somebody else to enjoy the things they no longer use tend to pack things very well. Companies with a long history of selling tend to do a good job. The people who do bad packaging tend to be the ones who are trying to make a few bucks cleaning out their attic and don't care about the items being sold.

I remember buying a lot of 50 Boxed Amiga games from somebody who no longer was into the Amiga scene and he sent them in one huge box but each individual game was individually wrapped and the main box was bouble boxed so the game boxes would not get damaged. Considering I think I paid $2 a game (only good titles BTW) I think the seller went out of his way to package the contents.

[NathanAllan]

Exactly. I traded two big boxes of stuff once with this guy and I did my best to pack up everything so there were no rattling parts or any way for things to get broken cause I cared about him getting it. And he did the same for me except for the stuff that was obviously parts. I remember, it was a bunch of old pc-compatible stuff for a bunch of Commodore stuff. Great trade, that was.

[mryon]

I remember a few years back I shipped all of my Atari carts off to Germany.
Buddy who won the auction was amazed at how well I packed them.

It just seemed the thing to do, I loved them (only sold them as I needed the money). There were 300 or so carts, I wrapped each one on newsprint and every dozen or or so I then bundled up in bubble wrap.

Then every 5 or 6 bubble packets I pack in a Xerox paper box and all of the Xerox boxen in one large box.

I mean, how else would one send 300 little friends on a 6000 kilometre journey?

but I suppose on that one I was happy to eat the cost of the packaging.
If I were a pro eBayer making a living off it, that cost would add up.