posted on March 11, 2001 10:50:48 AM
Ever notice that when you say "I sell on eBay" at a party, someone in the room will have a triumph or a horror story to share? Here's one that I promised to take to the "experts" here at AW...any help is much appreciated!
Someone I met told me she was having problems with a seller--she's a relative newbie, and she just won a beautiful lot of women's clothing (mixed sizes, same manufacturer) at the opening bid. She's planning to keep some for herself, and pass the smaller sizes to her sister.
Somehow (she didn't say how, but I have a feeling she was being her chatty, friendly self in her reply to his EOA) the seller found out that her sister is also registered on eBay. He sent a rather snarly e-mail, threatening to report them to Safe Harbor and to neg--apparently he feels that they should have been bidding against each other.
Now, I know that this is very much frowned-upon in RL auctions--but she says she and her sister weren't conspiring to keep the price down--in fact, her sister hadn't even seen the listing. I told her it sounded like the seller was just disappointed at the price he got, and that if I were him, I'd chalk it up to experience and work on my descriptions and photos. (And I made a mental note not to buy from him--he sounds scary.)
She's worried about the Safe Harbor threat--I don't think she should be. Do you?
posted on March 11, 2001 11:02:26 AM
So, let me get this straight.....he's going to report her and her sister for NOT bidding against each other? I must have missed that one in the rule books!
Advise your friend to tell the Seller to go boil his head. If sharing your buy with a family member is against Ebay rules, then I've heard it all.
posted on March 11, 2001 11:27:11 AM
From what you have posted... it appears that your friend has done NOTHING wrong.
Tell her not to worry about what the seller will tell SafeHarbor. However, if the seller is THAT cranky about the whole thing, I'd be more worried about receiving NEGATIVE FEEDBACK UNjustly from that seller. *sigh*
I think your friend should not respond to the comments that seller has made... via eMail or feedback and just ignore the threat about SafeHarbor, but DO follow through with payment etc. so that the seller won't have any REAL reason to "dog her" in the feedback forum.
IF she still gets some form of negative feedback, she could then leave appropriate feedback for the transaction... as well as placing a follow up comment in her own file that is brief, factual and sincere so that anyone reading it will have a clear understanding of who the "hot head" is.
posted on March 11, 2001 05:16:13 PM
It sound to me like she did NOTHING wrong. Giving items that don't fit to someone who could use them is a good thing. What did the seller think? That one person could wear size 8 AND size 16? Sounds like a grumpy seller. She could buy from me any time.
posted on March 11, 2001 05:36:29 PM
I agree with Renee. He is lucky anyone even bid on an auction for clothes of such different sizes. Thats probably why it only got one bid. I am surprised that a seller would even treat his customers like that. Why isnt he worried about getting neg feedback. If I was her , if he ends up leaving a positive I would neg him for bad customer service. I know I would want to be warned who this guy is...he sounds like quite the psycho. Would he prefer that she just threw the clothes that didnt fit in the garbaage? I wonder if she was intending on giving them to the poor if he would be mad that they werent bidding against her? Everytime I think Ive heard it all....
P.S. Im still LMAO @ telling him to go boil his head.
posted on March 11, 2001 06:20:11 PM
I think that to REALLY get back at this weirdo seller is to hook him up with ExecutiveGirl's wacko customer (the "Why Me" thread--it's a HOOT if you haven't read it!). Serve him right!!!
posted on March 11, 2001 09:32:54 PM
From what I understand,it is against eBay rules for family members to bid against each other.I read several threads about estate auctions where family members bid against each other to drive up the price of estate items.I would check this out. I really am sure about this and would ask ebay for confirmation on this, and then slam this guy for suggesting you do something against eBay rules. This will shut him up and give you the perfect ammunition to negate any neg he might leave you.Good Luck!
