47 replies to this topic

[flashjazzcat]

How can the same sh*t happen to the same guy twice?

On Sunday evening I won and paid for a 600XL in good condition, unboxed and with no PSU or leads. The end price was 0.99 GBP plus 10 GBP p&p. I was surprised not to find any emails on Monday pulling the item, but sure enough, a request to cancel the transaction arrived this afternoon. No reason was provided in the notification, although this message was attached:

This case has been opened by the seller for the following reason: Other.
Additional information provided by the seller: Hello

I'm really sorry but due to unforseen circumstances I am not selling the above item.

Sorry
for any inconvienience this may have caused you.

Many thanks
Suzanne

Not even any attempt at bullcrap. The unforseen circumstances would be the low selling price, I assume. I'm disinclined to cancel the transaction, although no refund has been forthcoming. Although I'm realistic enough to realise this 600XL isn't going to ship, I was thinking of refusing the cancellation, with a note requesting either shipment of the item or a refund. No way is this seller getting away without some form of poor feedback. Does anyone on ebay actually understand how an auction with no reserve actually works???

[Jibbajaba]

I agree. You should not let the seller off the hook. They deserve negative feedback for this. I hate when sellers pull shit like this, because they don't want to pay for either a reserve price, or the higher listing fees that go along with a higher starting price. I would send the seller an e-mail telling them very plainly that you are fully aware of what they are doing, and that you will not allow the transaction to be canceled.

Chris

[AtariLeaf]

Jibbajaba, on Tue Dec 22, 2009 12:34 PM, said:

I agree. You should not let the seller off the hook. They deserve negative feedback for this. I hate when sellers pull shit like this, because they don't want to pay for either a reserve price, or the higher listing fees that go along with a higher starting price. I would send the seller an e-mail telling them very plainly that you are fully aware of what they are doing, and that you will not allow the transaction to be canceled.

Chris

Agreed 100%
You should let this idiot have it with both barrels. This kind of crap is inexcusable.

[flashjazzcat]

Well, once bitten, twice shy as they say. She actually re-sent the request as I was writing the reply in order to hurry me up. She got this along with a click of the decline button:

Hello. This seems to becoming a pattern with ebay sellers disappointed with winning bids on auctions with no reserve price. Given the timing of your withdrawal of this sale (after it sold cheaply) and the lack of a satisfactory explanation, I decline your request to cancel the transaction. I will expect shipment of the item won and paid for in the condition advertised ASAP or a full refund. Feedback will be provided accordingly.

Regards

Jon

No refund and I raise a dispute, but to be honest it would almost be worth a tenner just to leave her stinking feedback. I know legitimate sellers (understandably) complain about ebay's T&Cs, but I'm starting to tire of it from a buyer's point of view too. Perhaps ebay's seller fees are bringing out people's unscrupulous tendencies.

[save2600]

Having no interest in trudging through ePay's legal mumbo jumbo, I wonder what their fine print has to say about this. From my understanding, it's a legally bound contract that applies to both seller and buyer. Maybe a polite e-mail through ePay's messaging system would remind the seller of this.

Then again, they can claim it was eaten by their dog at the last minute or something stupid. BTW: I've recently had a couple of auctions like that were my stuff sold for a penny. I honored the sale and shipped naturally. Merry Christmas you non-bidding douches!

[AtariLeaf]

flashjazzcat, on Tue Dec 22, 2009 12:46 PM, said:

Well, once bitten, twice shy as they say. She actually re-sent the request as I was writing the reply in order to hurry me up. She got this along with a click of the decline button:

Hello. This seems to becoming a pattern with ebay sellers disappointed with winning bids on auctions with no reserve price. Given the timing of your withdrawal of this sale (after it sold cheaply) and the lack of a satisfactory explanation, I decline your request to cancel the transaction. I will expect shipment of the item won and paid for in the condition advertised ASAP or a full refund. Feedback will be provided accordingly.

Regards

Jon

No refund and I raise a dispute, but to be honest it would almost be worth a tenner just to leave her stinking feedback. I know legitimate sellers (understandably) complain about ebay's T&Cs, but I'm starting to tire of it from a buyer's point of view too. Perhaps ebay's seller fees are bringing out people's unscrupulous tendencies.

Post the sellers username so we can avoid him/her

Edited by AtariLeaf, Tue Dec 22, 2009 12:49 PM.

[flashjazzcat]

AtariLeaf, on Tue Dec 22, 2009 12:48 PM, said:

Post the sellers username so we can avoid him/her

It's farthingwood74.

[oky2000]

flashjazzcat, on Tue Dec 22, 2009 12:28 PM, said:

How can the same sh*t happen to the same guy twice?

On Sunday evening I won and paid for a 600XL in good condition, unboxed and with no PSU or leads. The end price was 0.99 GBP plus 10 GBP p&p. I was surprised not to find any emails on Monday pulling the item, but sure enough, a request to cancel the transaction arrived this afternoon. No reason was provided in the notification, although this message was attached:

This case has been opened by the seller for the following reason: Other.
Additional information provided by the seller: Hello

I'm really sorry but due to unforseen circumstances I am not selling the above item.

Sorry
for any inconvienience this may have caused you.

Many thanks
Suzanne

Not even any attempt at bullcrap. The unforseen circumstances would be the low selling price, I assume. I'm disinclined to cancel the transaction, although no refund has been forthcoming. Although I'm realistic enough to realise this 600XL isn't going to ship, I was thinking of refusing the cancellation, with a note requesting either shipment of the item or a refund. No way is this seller getting away without some form of poor feedback. Does anyone on ebay actually understand how an auction with no reserve actually works???

This clearly is a case of the seller being offered more AFTER the auction finished because some numb nuts missed the ending of the auction then emailed the seller and offered a high price.

The seller is at liberty not to complete the transaction under ebay rules, you are at liberty to vent via the feebback system and decline the system generated cancellation request, thereby indicating you would like the item regardless.

[flashjazzcat]

oky2000, on Tue Dec 22, 2009 12:54 PM, said:

This clearly is a case of the seller being offered more AFTER the auction finished because some numb nuts missed the ending of the auction then emailed the seller and offered a high price.

The seller is at liberty not to complete the transaction under ebay rules, you are at liberty to vent via the feebback system and decline the system generated cancellation request, thereby indicating you would like the item regardless.

That looks a good analysis of the situation. Ironically, the listing specified "no private bids".

Actually she was also selling an 800XL (which I didn't bid on) which went for £6. Presumably that buyer got stuffed as well.

Edited by flashjazzcat, Tue Dec 22, 2009 12:57 PM.

[Cebus Capucinis]

Jeez, seriously, people are stupid. If you don't put a reserve price on it because you don't want to pay the additional $1 or so, you should be fully prepared to ship an item that sells for $.01. Just because it's listed does not mean it will sell for the price you WANT it to...

If you already have a bare-minimum willing to accept price in mind, why even use eBay in the first place? Just post it locally for what you want for it....people are getting dumber and dumber, I swear. Just like save2600 I have listed carts for $.01 and have shipped when they sold for exactly $.01. As soon as you click that 'list item' auction you should be fully prepared to ship an item for the bare minimum bid.

[flashjazzcat]

CebusCapucinis, on Tue Dec 22, 2009 1:13 PM, said:

Jeez, seriously, people are stupid. If you don't put a reserve price on it because you don't want to pay the additional $1 or so, you should be fully prepared to ship an item that sells for $.01. Just because it's listed does not mean it will sell for the price you WANT it to...

If you already have a bare-minimum willing to accept price in mind, why even use eBay in the first place? Just post it locally for what you want for it....people are getting dumber and dumber, I swear. Just like save2600 I have listed carts for $.01 and have shipped when they sold for exactly $.01. As soon as you click that 'list item' auction you should be fully prepared to ship an item for the bare minimum bid.

I've said it before: I've been in the same position myself, selling a load of HDDs, RAM and CD burners with £1 starting bids and having to pack them up and post them all for £2.50 and the odd fiver. A fairly new dual channel kit of GEIL RAM which cost me £120 went for £35. As you say, there are other means of selling if you don't like auctions. The classified ads in Micro Mart magazine in the UK actually had someone advertising to BUY Atari equipment for a computing museum.

The dumbest thing about this seller was her assumption that I'm as dumb as she is.

[8bitguy1]

I hate this too....especially since I once sold an Amiga 500 for $2.50 US. None the less I honoured the transaction. It is legally binding...so while it's generally not worth the pain in the ass...Ebay does not have the final say, you could take her to small claims court and force the sale, a judgement would likely include court costs as well.....Not worth it for the sale price here, but for a larger transaction (or even if you had a seller on your end to buy what you just purchased for a lot more) its always an option. I suppose you could threaten legal action sometime, to see what happens....

[oky2000]

I'm not defending the seller, but also remember that

reserve price cost = identical to final value fee charged @ reserve price you set.

So people might as well put it on a buy it now with the 'make offer' button and take it from there really. That's what I do....if it ain't worth much I ain't walking with a big parcel to the post office lol

[carmel_andrews]

I'll second Flashjazz's reference to Micro Mart, used it myself (online version) but only for selling though

[poobah]

oky2000, on Tue Dec 22, 2009 6:10 PM, said:

I'm not defending the seller, but also remember that
reserve price cost = identical to final value fee charged @ reserve price you set.

Absolutely untrue.

For items under $200, the reserve price fee is $2, $200 and up is 1% of the reserve price.

What a beautiful world it would be if that was also the final value fee structure

[flashjazzcat]

No response yet. I'll wait till after work tonight and if nothing by then I'll lodge a complaint.

[carmel_andrews]

Perhaps you want to see if she has a pulse flashjazz...hence no response

[flashjazzcat]

The refund arrived this morning, with a note saying "Sincere apologies again". Bad feedback time: just want to craft the wording perfectly.

How about "Withdrew item without explanation after I won it at low price. Avoid."

Edited by flashjazzcat, Wed Dec 23, 2009 7:56 AM.

[poobah]

flashjazzcat, on Wed Dec 23, 2009 7:43 AM, said:

The refund arrived this morning, with a note saying "Sincere apologies again". Bad feedback time: just want to craft the wording perfectly.

How about "Withdrew item without explanation after I won it at low price. Avoid."

About the best you can do

[flashjazzcat]

Done. Felt good.

[atarian63]

flashjazzcat, on Tue Dec 22, 2009 12:28 PM, said:

How can the same sh*t happen to the same guy twice?

On Sunday evening I won and paid for a 600XL in good condition, unboxed and with no PSU or leads. The end price was 0.99 GBP plus 10 GBP p&p. I was surprised not to find any emails on Monday pulling the item, but sure enough, a request to cancel the transaction arrived this afternoon. No reason was provided in the notification, although this message was attached:

This case has been opened by the seller for the following reason: Other.
Additional information provided by the seller: Hello

I'm really sorry but due to unforseen circumstances I am not selling the above item.

Sorry
for any inconvienience this may have caused you.

Many thanks
Suzanne

Not even any attempt at bullcrap. The unforseen circumstances would be the low selling price, I assume. I'm disinclined to cancel the transaction, although no refund has been forthcoming. Although I'm realistic enough to realise this 600XL isn't going to ship, I was thinking of refusing the cancellation, with a note requesting either shipment of the item or a refund. No way is this seller getting away without some form of poor feedback. Does anyone on ebay actually understand how an auction with no reserve actually works???

for a 9.99 item i would just move on.

[Stephen]

atarian63, on Wed Dec 23, 2009 9:54 AM, said:

for a 9.99 item i would just move on.

Well, sometimes asshats need smacked for the simple fact they are asshats!

Stephen Anderson

[R.Cade]

I'm pretty sure you have to agree to the auction cancellation after the refund, so the feedback will be removed anyway.

[flashjazzcat]

atarian63, on Wed Dec 23, 2009 9:54 AM, said:

for a 9.99 item i would just move on.

And so I will... probably until I next win an Atari on ebay only to be told someone's accidentally sat on it. Apart from the fact this is the second time this is happened in as many weeks, it's not a question of being pedantic, vindictive or petty. It's the actions of sellers who make a joke of the whole idea of an auction. There are plenty of people here who've recounted stories of virtually giving away goods on ebay just because they wanted to honour the contract. While their prime motivation is probably honesty and fair-mindedness, as a seller one would also expect bad feedback for so transparently messing the buyer around (and not even trying to concoct a story to cover it up).

I was pretty disappointed not to get the 600XL, and I've spent more time dealing with its non-arrival and posting on this thread than I would have spent upgrading the RAM in the computer. But that was my choice, and I think it was worth my time. This kind of seller should not be allowed to go unflagged. The whole feedback system is pointless if we're not honest about the behaviour of unscrupulous sellers, especially since sellers no longer have to fear retaliatory bad feedback. The price is completely immaterial, and would only be relevant were a large sum of money proving difficult to recover and further action was pending.

R.Cade, on Wed Dec 23, 2009 10:23 AM, said:

I'm pretty sure you have to agree to the auction cancellation after the refund, so the feedback will be removed anyway.

Well I declined it and the money's in my bank, and the cancellation case is marked closed.

Edited by flashjazzcat, Wed Dec 23, 2009 10:32 AM.

[sl0re]

flashjazzcat, on Tue Dec 22, 2009 12:46 PM, said:

Well, once bitten, twice shy as they say. She actually re-sent the request as I was writing the reply in order to hurry me up. She got this along with a click of the decline button:

Hello. This seems to becoming a pattern with ebay sellers disappointed with winning bids on auctions with no reserve price. Given the timing of your withdrawal of this sale (after it sold cheaply) and the lack of a satisfactory explanation, I decline your request to cancel the transaction. I will expect shipment of the item won and paid for in the condition advertised ASAP or a full refund. Feedback will be provided accordingly.

Regards

Jon

No refund and I raise a dispute, but to be honest it would almost be worth a tenner just to leave her stinking feedback. I know legitimate sellers (understandably) complain about ebay's T&Cs, but I'm starting to tire of it from a buyer's point of view too. Perhaps ebay's seller fees are bringing out people's unscrupulous tendencies.

I don't get the 'or full refund' part. Isn't that what they want vs what you want (to give you back your low winning bid and call it a day)?