posted on October 28, 2000 04:37:49 PM new
I have a rather unusual problem, and I thought I'd post here for your opinions on whether I handled this correctly or not.
I usually post my auctions on ebay, but because the item I wanted to sell was a currently very over-hyped and desirable item (3 guesses as to what I'm talking about), I decided to auction it on Amazon to avoid the current plague of prank bidders on ebay. I set an extremely high take-it price, and to my surprise, someone bought the item at that price. Later that day, I received two completely illegible emails from the buyer, so I called him to see what the heck he was talking about. It turns out that he bought the item by "mistake," begged my forgiveness, and offered to pay for my listing fees. No problem, I'm a very understanding person, and I relisted it again last night. NOW, today I received notice from Amazon that he paid for the item through Amazon.com payments yesterday. According to him, he thought he was updating his shipping address for his credit card, and actually paying for the item was a "mistake" as well. (Imagine someone going through the payment process at Billpoint or Paypal, then saying that they didn't mean to pay!)
As you can imagine, I was extremely irritated by this point. I ended up canceling my relist and all the bids I had on it, I emailed the bidders on that auction and apologized for the inconvenience, and emailed the guy and told him I'd be shipping on Monday.
Sorry for the length! So, what would you have done in my case?
The sad thing is that he's a programmer in the company he works at! There's a chance that he could be feigning stupidity, but after speaking to him on the phone and reading his completely incomprehensible emails, I do believe him. He's already caused me enough trouble as it is, so I'm hoping he'll just let it slide. Thankfully I doubt he'd be able to figure out how to do a chargeback even if one was possible.
posted on October 28, 2000 06:14:05 PM new
I'm wondering if your "stupid" bidder has figured out a way around the "no cash advances" policies of the 3rd party CC services. He "accidently" pays for high priced stuff, then gets a refund. I'd hesitate to ship the unit to him, because I'll betcha he IS bright enough to do a charge back. If that's the case, you're going to be in for a lot of hassles, and possibly out both your merchandise AND your money. Proceed with caution!!
always pickersangel everywhere
posted on October 29, 2000 03:30:38 AM new
This has been a weird night for many.
Tonight, bidder meets my reserve. Auction closes.
NOW, high bidder emails me with a question. She inquires..."Is this price firm?"
posted on October 29, 2000 04:30:46 AM new
decpage, exactly as macandjan said, the email just made absolutely no sense. His email was one long run-on sentence, and he jumped from one idea to another without finishing the previous one. It read like English wasn't his first language, but when I called him, he was definitely a home-bred southern boy.
pickersangel, I did consider that, but since he told me *not* to ship the unit, I think my original assessment was probably correct. I'll call Amazon anyway to make sure though. Thanks for the warning.
posted on October 29, 2000 05:48:09 AM new
A lot of programmers are often working very long hours with a lot of caffeine. Considering the work that might very well lead to periods of someone who is less than coherent and functional for mundane things like communication.
I spent three+ years programming and work in an IT department. It's a joke that we refer to "managing programmers is like herding cats." I would extend that to communication even though some of us have managed to become more articulate.
posted on October 29, 2000 06:16:05 AM new
Kirsten--Telling you not to ship would fit the scheme. He wasn't interested in the item itself at all. Just charging out the money on his CC and then getting it back in cashable form. However, if you were to ship, there's nothing to say that he'd return it or keep it and let you keep the money. Let us know what you find out from Amazon.
always pickersangel everywhere
posted on October 29, 2000 06:33:41 AM new
Yeah, I'd agree with pickersangel. Be VERY CAREFUL here. I know MY BS detector went on alert when I read your message.
Edited to add: Could it be a stolen card? Cool -- he either gets a highly coveted item in time to resell it or (better yet, perhaps), someone else's money in his account.
posted on October 29, 2000 06:34:55 AM new
ACK! I just wrote an extremely long reply, and accidentally deleted it. Anyway, I just got off the phone with Amazon, and there's no chargeback option, so as long as I have proof that I shipped the item to him, there's no way he can get his money back unless it's through me. Anything else I should be doing to protect myself?
posted on October 29, 2000 07:18:26 AM new
CleverGirl raises another frightening possibility. What's Amazon's policy, relative to you, if it turns out the card is stolen? Can you refuse the payment, at this point and resell?
always pickersangel everywhere
