posted on November 2, 2000 07:49:26 AM
I put up a bunch of LPs as part of my "clean out" the preowned inventory items campaign and one Lot of 2 records sold on 10/17 for the opening bid of $5.95 to someone in France.
I'm learning that I'm not efficient enough to process $6.00 sales for individual items, even when the inventory is free, and net more than below minimum wage but that's another story.
She had contacted me before bidding and asked if I would split the Lot as she was only interested in one of the records. I politly answered "Thanks but no" as I start LPs at $4.95 and only add a dollar for additional items when I group records by the same singer or band.
She bid, I sent out the EOA and the next thing I see is an email from the "I Trust You Escrow Co.", does that strike anyone else as a bit of an oxymoran, saying she had elected to use escrow for the transaction.
I considered entering into an email exchange to explain how I did not offer escrow in my TOS, she should have asked me before bidding, at least an email after the sale would have been nice etc.
I decided the whole thing wasn't worth the trouble and to take the path of least resistence. Just considered the whole thing amusing and ducked the work of educating her on accepted procedures. OK, I ducked my responsability and passed that on to the next lucky seller but some days that's the best I can do.
Since then I awake nearly every morning to another "I Trust You Escrow" email. Instructions, cc of invoice amount including fee, acknowledgement of payment, caution that payment was being cleared, notice of underpayment, acknowledgement of receipt of balance due, balance due being cleared, and today a combined authorization to ship and notice of overpayment. Overpayment amount shown to be 0.00.
I'm glad I choose to be amused, I'm certainly looking forward to when she finds a flaw in one of the LPs or album covers, I can't begin to imagine what would happen if some serious money, like say 20 bucks became involved, and I want to wish you all an equally pleasant experience when the "I Trust You" escrow company and perpetual motion machine comes a calling.
PS I also got a letter yesterday from someone in Germany who won a Lp after a bit of a bidding war. $35.00 US dollars enclosed. Going on 50 years now that I've been selling and people continue to amaze me.
posted on November 2, 2000 06:42:37 PM
Why is it that the people who continually win the lowest priced merchandise are the biggest pains to deal with? It is definitely true; I've seen it again & again. (Well, I kinda fall into that category myself, but that woman & her escrow take the cake! hehehehehe...)
I LOVE international bidders. They amaze me too. I can never understand what makes them want to buy my stuff when they're often paying more in shipping charges than they are for the actual item they win...but I don't ask questions as long as they pay...
