Time for the weekly eBay rant!

Jamauk

Jamauk

Jamauk

Associate
Joined
16 Mar 2004
Posts
1,935
Location
Oxford
Just sold 5x Cisco 7906 phones with SIP firmware on eBay at £3 each, tested before dispatch and they were all working. Buyer received them and after three days of him emailing me (15 in total) asking for help as he couldn't get them to work - I suspect he didn't realise how to set them up as he seemed unsure of what a TFTP server is and how they are centrally managed through .XML files, I even sent him some example config files as he didn't seem to have the ability to research online how to set them up. I managed to get them working quite easily in an Asterisk setup, and I'm still using some in that same setup. The next concern is that they will be swapped for faulty ones seeing as he claimed he could probably use the handsets - I've got MAC addresses and serial numbers recorded but that's pretty much impossible to prove to eBay.

So this morning I get an email from him asking for a 50% refund as he may still be able to use the handsets. I replied through the eBay messaging system that the total amount with postage was £29.50 (£14.50 postage & 5x£3.00 for the phones). As he had a use for the handsets I suggested only refunding 50% of the cost of the phones, so £7.50. The next thing is I get the message from eBay that he wants to return them as they're all faulty. Seems a bit of a strange one that all five would suddenly stop working!

So ultimately the seller will loose out because the buyer is a complete idiot.

[/RANT]
 
Diddums said:
You chanced ebay for £3 phones? You must have a lot of time on your hands :eek:
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I just want rid of them, they're listed at £5, & I only accepted the offer of £3 as he wanted 5 of them. Posting them through DPD is £5 and I can drop them off just up the road from me, so the whole process from the purchase to dispatching doesn't really take much time.

Craig1981 said:
Caveat venditor!
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Very much so. I don't often sell on there, but it seems whenever yo do you either get someone offering a stupidly low offer, asking stupid questions, or in this instance someone who doesn't actually know what they're buying.

I once sold an amplifier on there, the buyer claimed it wasn't working and so it was returned, I suggested he send it to a neighbour of mine (the AudioCellar) as he specialises in fixing Tag Hi-Fi, with the intention of having it fixed and sent back to him which he declined. Then talking to my neighbour about it he mentioned how this person had just sent him a faulty amplifier (same model) for him to repair. I bet if I hadn't said about getting it fixed he would have swapped it for his faulty one. My neighbour just added the amount it cost me to his bill and gave me the cash from it!
 
Last edited:
...Another Rant topic - anyone else been afflicted by the Ebay bug
My collections disappeared

This a link to a discussion board thread in regards to this test, basically ebay says if it is affecting users negatively they will end the test early. Also that after the watch list test is over they will add back the collections and lists that you previously had. If you are having problems or this is affecting your ebay experience let ebay know.
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The stupid ebay software developers do live testing of new user interface functionality, so my collections have been missing from the top left 'My <name>' menu for last two weeks.

I found you can create a browser link to http://www.ebay.co.uk/cln/<ebayid>, but nonetheless ....
 
wife had similar experience recently when a buyer changed their mind after receiving the item and demanded a full refund. refused to return it and eBay sided with them. so wife is down an item and will no doubt get poor feedback from someone with a free item..

I have no idea why anyone sells stuff on eBay anymore. personally I have up on it years ago for buying and selling
 
I forgot to update this thread, I sent the idiot buyer a DPD return label who then asked me where it could be dropped off - it doesn't take that much effort to search either on Google or the DPD website where packages can be dropped off. I wonder if the guy manages to get through everyday life without someone telling him what to do!

Anyway, the buyer returned the phones, when tested they all worked just fine, connected to Asterisk right after downloading the config file from the TFTP server. A complaint to eBay was pointless, the reply I got was that ultimately they have to side with the buyer on this but they understand my frustrations, and a note has been placed on the buyers record, I just wish I could leave him negative feedback. A look at the eBay seller forums echos pretty much this thread, whilst the sellers are the ones who make the money for eBay there's no point looking after them as if they give up selling on there, someone else will be there to step in and sell the same product.

It's a shame that there are so many idiots on there now, years ago (~20) there was eBay & Yahoo auctions and due to the internet not being something everyone had access to, and due to the online time limitations most faced it was generally buyers who knew what they were buying and if they made a mistake they would accept that and either ask for a refund and pay for postage both ways, or they would sell the item on themselves. Now though it just seems too full of time wasters. A couple of months ago I sold an alloy wheel on there through buy it now, the "buyer" then ignored any contact I made and didn't pay.

Makes me wonder why I try and be a good buyer on there, I guess it's because I always work on the basis of treat others as you wish to be treated. Essentially I treat it like a MM auction.
 
jpaul said:
...Another Rant topic - anyone else been afflicted by the Ebay bug
The stupid ebay software developers do live testing of new user interface functionality, so my collections have been missing from the top left 'My <name>' menu for last two weeks.
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It's not a bug. I think you've misunderstood their use of the word "testing". They are performing User Acceptance Testing which, by definition, must be done on the live system. If you dont like it, tell them.
 
Halfmad said:
wife had similar experience recently when a buyer changed their mind after receiving the item and demanded a full refund. refused to return it and eBay sided with them. so wife is down an item and will no doubt get poor feedback from someone with a free item..

I have no idea why anyone sells stuff on eBay anymore. personally I have up on it years ago for buying and selling
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Just WTF???

Can't believe the nerve of some people, plus can't believe Ebay lacks common sense.
 
I did my first other on there recently. It was only cheap so I was prepared to be bent over. But it went smoothly. I made an effort to post the item out on a Sunday too, hours after payment was made.

Did I get any feedback from the buyer even after several weeks? Nope.

touch said:
It's not a bug. I think you've misunderstood their use of the word "testing". They are performing User Acceptance Testing which, by definition, must be done on the live system. If you dont like it, tell them.
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I wouldn't let any UAT be done on my production systems. That's what a UAT environment is for.
 
Forget getting positive feedback these days as people are either lazy or think they can't go back after leaving it. Out of 30 or so successful auctions in the last couple of months less than 10 left positive feedback. I contacted a couple as a courtesy followup and received lots of praise and yet still no feedback left positive or otherwise. Still have 100% though thankfully.
 
Hades said:
I wouldn't let any UAT be done on my production systems. That's what a UAT environment is for.
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Maybe that's not the right term then. What would you call it?
Is it still AB testing if there's no different variations? Does the pre-change scenario count for comparison?

It doesnt matter what it's called anyway. The point is that they're not doing functional testing and the problem he has isn't a bug - it's a deliberately cut-out feature. If he wants it back he needs to tell them he doesnt like the change rather than waiting for them to fix it.
 
touch said:
It's not a bug. I think you've misunderstood their use of the word "testing". They are performing User Acceptance Testing which, by definition, must be done on the live system. If you dont like it, tell them.
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you are evidently not being ironic - can't tell any more w/o an imogi, but, OC only offers a small selection.

They make a piece of functionality (collections) that I use regularly, obscurely accessible, I then have to search for 15minutes to find an explanation/workaround on their community forum, nothing definitive, more like a piece of hear-say on their intentions.
They know how to annoy customers - unfortunately they have a near monopoly - otherwise I would vote with my mouse.
Can't Amazon start a competitive system ?
 
What get's me with some of the people on eBay nowadays is that when you sell something such as an 18 month old phone and you have regular communication with a potential buyer / paid buyer up until the point of despatch of it & ask for them to leave feedback once their happy with it... You never hear from them again, and they don't leave feedback either. There's always that worry that they have that 45 or so day clause with PayPal if anything goes wrong.

... Funny enough they always seem to get in contact as soon as something isn't right! One I recall from late last year was an old MSI laptop that I refurbished & sold on, same as the above - regular communication with what looked like a phone shop who were interested & eventually purchased it. Paid up, I despatched then nothing... Until 3 months later when it decided to stop booting into Windows and what I can do to help.

Liam.
 
LEK-89 said:
What get's me with some of the people on eBay nowadays is that when you sell something such as an 18 month old phone and you have regular communication with a potential buyer / paid buyer up until the point of despatch of it & ask for them to leave feedback once their happy with it... You never hear from them again, and they don't leave feedback either. There's always that worry that they have that 45 or so day clause with PayPal if anything goes wrong.

... Funny enough they always seem to get in contact as soon as something isn't right! One I recall from late last year was an old MSI laptop that I refurbished & sold on, same as the above - regular communication with what looked like a phone shop who were interested & eventually purchased it. Paid up, I despatched then nothing... Until 3 months later when it decided to stop booting into Windows and what I can do to help.

Liam.
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Reminds me of when I sold a mobile phone a couple of years ago on eBay to what turned out to be one of those shady back street phone repair type shops. No less than 10 minutes after the phone had been confirmed as delivered by the courier, they lodged a claim saying it wasn't described without even contacting me first.

I did some digging, that's how I found out it some dodgy phone shop, phoned them up directly and asked what the problem was and offered to swing round to collect and refund them. They weren't expecting that and promptly dropped the claim.
 
A dirty tactic some buyers are doing is bidding and winning on items that they are actually trying to sell themselves. It either makes your item too expensive for other buyers or takes it out of the market completely, so theirs sells instead. They never use the same account so it's impossible to spot.
 
Was selling Dot Matrix printer, some American bid on it when it clearly stated UK auction and delivery only. He wins and pays, i then refund and he leaves me negative feedback. No way I'm sending something across the pond when it sold for £5 with £6 postage.
 
Kiyoshi said:
For £3 phones, and postage as much again as the entire sale, I'd have wanged them all in the nearest recycling bin.
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The phones themselves don't owe me anything, and storing them also isn't a problem so I might as well just sit back and let them sell and hopefully have a smooth transaction. If the buyer of them hadn't been such an idiot about the whole thing I would have just said to forget it and refunded him. The issue I had with that was not only had I tested them before dispatch and confirmed they all worked but also for the amount of help he had asked for proved to me that he didn't really know what he was doing. I also had an issue with the fact postage was £15 and the phones also cost £15, he refused to go through the eBay messaging system despite me asking him to direct messages through that. He asked for a 50% refund as he could still use the handsets (which made me somewhat suspicious of his true intentions) so I pointed out that a 50% refund would surely just be the cost of the phones at £7.50 because he still had a use for them so the postage shouldn't be included, then he went through the eBay refund process. It was more a matter of principal, I lost £21 instead of £30.
 
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