posted on September 7, 2001 12:30:57 PM new
The old saying was "The customer is always right" but dealing with sellers on eBay (I'm
both a seller and a buyer) I've come to the conclusion that most sellers believe the customer is never right. What with their precise instructions on doing this and not doing that during the payment phase, it can be very frustrating. I purposely avoid sellers with payment instructions longer then 2 paragraphs.
Latest episode for me involved my sending off a money order to a seller that takes cash and pay pal only. I didn't think twice about it and just sent a money order off my standard way of paying. Next thing the seller says they can't accept the money order. I say "OK" and nothing happens, no procedures, no nothing back from the seller. A week passes and I get an email from eBay saying that this seller has advised them that I haven't paid for the product and to do so immediately. I contact the seller and tell them I thought you'd be sending the money order back or something. They said nope that I should pay immediately, I then stated that they should send back my original money order and I'd issue a new one. Nope, too expensive they can't do this. The seller has about 200+ feedback and 2 negatives so I'm not going to send them 2 payments for 1 item and I tell them. I then said that I'd pay for the postage with the new payment, nope again back from the seller. Again, I state that I will not send them another payment. They reply that they will be contacting eBay, "fine", I replied back.
A couple of days go by and I receive from eBay a non-payment warning, with the warning
comes instructions on how to contest the sellers accusations. I fax off my receipt plus copies of their emails and mine (I haven't heard back from eBay yet). I then informed the seller that I too have contacted eBay and that they should send my money order back ASAP. They replied that they can't they have destroyed it.
This is all over a 5.00 book (9 dollars for shipping!). If this seller had to have just
sent back my payment or even cashed the lousy money order there would have been no
problems. Granted I made an error but come on, too expensive to send back? Maybe they
don't trust me but why should I trust them? I have over 140 postive feedbacks and NO negatives.
Finally, getting back to my subject title, when it comes to dealing with a lot of eBay
sellers the customer is always wrong and better not make a mistake or else. I find myself doing less and less transactions through eBay because of this. I run a book business, via a web site, I receive hundreds of orders. Every so often the buyer pays in the incorrect format, do I hold their original payment hostage? No I return and tell them to send another it's part of running a business. It's called customer service which quite a few eBay sellers don't seem to understand. I buy quite a bit (or use to buy) on eBay and a lot of times I have dealt directly, after the initial eBay transaction, with the dealer. This seller lost out not only the 5 dollars for the book but on possible future sales because of a lack of CUSTOMER SERVICE.
I haven't received a neg from them but I am considering negging them which will then cause them to neg me. I'm also considering on contacting the post office for mail fraud, can they destroy my payment?
posted on September 7, 2001 12:36:52 PM new
I'd be surprised if the PO was particularly interested, since this doesn't smell much like the kind of "mail fraud" they seem to like. (assuming the seller didn't actually cash the payment instead of destroying it).
How hard is it to get your money back for the (presumably) destroyed money order? If it isn't too hard, do that, leave appropriate feedback, and move on.
posted on September 7, 2001 12:38:17 PM new
Let me get this straight...
You sent off a payment you KNEW the seller didn't accept and then expect the seller to spend his money to send the MO back to you. He should should just send you a box of shiny beads saying that is his standard way of issuing refunds.
In this case, he is right. He let you know what forms of payment he accepted and YOU JUST IGNORED HIM!!! Sellers do not need buyers like that. Neither should they have to kowtow to them.
I think you are "over-defending" the seller here. The buyer made an innocent mistake (money orders are generally accepted by most sellers), and all they were asking for was for the person to slip the MO in an envelope and send it back so they could send another payment. They offered postage (as well they should have).
Yes, buyer made a mistake..but seller was obnoxious in destroying the MO. And the excuse ("too expensive to send back" ) is just plain ludicrous.
I'll vote for "honest mistake" over "obnoxious" anyday.
The buyer wanted the item, was willing to pay properly...the seller snatched "defeat from the jaws of victory" on this one.
[ edited by captainkirk on Sep 7, 2001 12:47 PM ]
posted on September 7, 2001 12:54:55 PM new
Regardless of whether it was a mistake or intentional, the seller is obligated to either return the MO or accept it as payment.
I wouldn't send an alternative payment until the seller returned the MO either.
But I would look into stopping payment on the MO, and forget about dealing with this seller.
posted on September 7, 2001 01:04:36 PM new
What a nutty seller! They accept PayPal (and pay fees for the privilege and PayPal is much less safe than a Money Order), and cash only??? What the heck is wrong with a Money Order? There are no fees the seller pays for accepting a MO, unlike PayPal, and it's almost like cash! I can understand NO to PayPal, but NO to a Money Order??? What's this world coming to??? Is this an episode from the Twilight Zone???
posted on September 7, 2001 01:07:24 PM new
I've heard rumors of fraudulent money orders recently. I suspect the cheapo money orders are easy to reproduce (at least enough to fool most of us). Also people can do "stop payments" on them after getting the item.
posted on September 7, 2001 01:18:24 PM new
From now on, I'm only going to accept labor from buyers. Its the only thing I can think of that doesn't have the risk of fraud.
So, if you want an item from me, you'll have to come to my house and, say, wash my cars and do my laundry.
I think my new TOS should do wonders for my sales!
Mrlatenite:
Aren't you, too, being a bit harsh here..."deadbeat"? I think there is a BIG difference between someone who REFUSES to follow a reasonable, stated TOS versus the case here, where they made an honest mistake?
We all make mistakes...that doesn't make us all deadbeats, does it? Buyer was willing to correct the mistake at his own expense, that sounds reasonable to me.
posted on September 7, 2001 01:35:05 PM newSeller did nothing wrong???? SYEALING a payment is NOT wrong? (by not returning it, they are stealing it).
This buyer sent payment (not in the preferred form seller wanted, but, payment non-the-less. BTW: Did seller stipulate in the listing that they will NOT accept Money Order?
I do not, have not and never will send CASH....not taking a chance on seller claiming to not have received it...Why CASH and PAYPAL only? Or why CASH only? easier to defraud IRS? Well, seller cannot have it both ways!...
Errors can be made. Part of being a merchant has to do with knowing about customer service....and using good judgment, both of these lacking in this seller.
Take your Money Order receipt (hopefully, you saved that portion..) and ask for a refund. Good luck
posted on September 7, 2001 01:53:05 PM new
Having been on both sides of this fence: first I do think the seller was unreasonable for not sending the money order back but the buyer was also unreasonable for not reading the payment terms in the auction. When I buy, I read them CAREFULLY before I bid. If I don't like what I see, I either email the seller to see if they are etched in stone on these terms and if they are, I move on to another item. I have in my auctions that I sell to US only. In the last couple of months I've had high bidders from England, Denmark, Canada and Puerto Rico. I worked with it and completed the transaction but actually they were wrong to have even bid on these items. To the person who started this thread: if you had an auction and I was high bidder and sent you some magic beans for payment, would you accept them? Granted your auction probably doesn't list them as a method of payment, but perhaps you would accept them anyway? Another question for the person who started the thread: if the seller's terms didn't say money order, did you try to contact him to see if he would take your money order? I think good communication could solve 90% of the problems that seem to arise on Ebay auctions.
posted on September 7, 2001 02:10:17 PM new
I'll take "magic beans" if they'll convert. I've had international buyers send foreign currency after I explicitly told them not to.
But, being a merchant, I accepted the currency and coverted it and sent the merchandise.
I look at it like killing weeds in my yard. I'll never erradicate all the weeds, but I just try to control them to a comfortable level.
Payment methods are a control mechanism, not inflexible rules that must be enforced at the cost of a transaction.
Which comes back to the question: Do you want to be a rule enforcer or a merchant ?
Packer has a thought: You might need the actual money order to be able to get a refund. (I thought destroying money orders would be much like destroying cash.)
Unless the magic beans were really Salvia Divinorum seeds.....then I would plant them and wait for the $$$ to grow.
Don't have anything nice to say about someone??? Then come and sit by me!!
posted on September 7, 2001 02:54:33 PM new
It seems to me that most of the blame is wrongfully being put on the seller here. The seller made the terms of their auction, and the terms were broken by the buyer. What was the very first thing that went wrong here? The buyer DID NOT READ the auction and sent the seller a money order. As crazy as I think it is to NOT accept MO's, hey, it's the seller's policy and anyone who bids has to abide by the seller's terms.
Why couldn't the buyer have just re-sent an accepted payment method, and have the seller return the old MO with their item? That way the seller would not be out any money, or inconvenienced, and the buyer could have easily gotten their money back from the MO.
But, as I've said (and read) a zillion times here, it all comes down to buyers who don't bother to read. Plain and simple.
[ edited by ExecutiveGirl on Sep 7, 2001 05:00 PM ]
posted on September 7, 2001 03:27:21 PM new
ExecutiveGirl, the whole point was that the seller refused to return the MO. This is the first I've ever heard of US sellers not accepting an MO.
I looked at the back of one of the MOs I just purchased, to put a stop payment on it costs $12 and a whole bunch of paperwork. Hardly worth it on a lot of transactions.
I can see why the original poster is complaining. Even here, people are telling him he's stupid. He made a mistake, tried to rectify it, but the seller wanted nothing to do with it. Talk about hideous customer service.
posted on September 7, 2001 04:56:03 PM new
I am sure if you just fax a copy of the MO receipt that should stop that kind of seller shenanigans.
What a damnable thing to see a seller acting like a child for the sake of being right.
You can hang yourself with your own TOS.
I hope you neg the seller. Why? Because you paid, you made an honest mistake and the seller is a neanderthal.
Besides as a bidder a neg is no drama, so hand it out with aplomb.
posted on September 7, 2001 05:00:03 PM new
The buyer outright said they DID NOT BOTHER TO READ the seller's terms and I cannot believe anyone is applauding this person for not reading the seller's terms - not even to see what kind of payments they accept.
Probably 90% of the problems on ebay would be elimated if buyers took 2 minutes to read what they are obligating themselves to.
posted on September 7, 2001 05:21:52 PM new
seller = crook. move on!
Slink Eye
--------
OLD JAPANESE SAYING: More Talk - More Mistakes, Less Talk - Less Mistakes, No Talk - No Mistakes.
posted on September 7, 2001 05:32:54 PM new
Some view this as being totally the bidder's fault. Well, it takes two to tango...and 2 wrongs do not make a right, etc,etc...
As a seller, I only sell to the US, Japan and Canada. Yet a delightful English Lady approached me to please sell to her in England...Had she sent me payment on her own, without checking with me first, I still would not have turned her away.
Yes, the bidder should have read the complete listing...but, big deal! She never expected to be crucified for sending a MONEY ORDER, for gosh sake! Wonder what seller would have done, had the buyer sent a PERSONAL CHECK!!!OOOOOH! Now, that's a thought!....Would seller have mailed buyer a BOMB?
Let he/she who has never made a mistake cast the first...neg...
********
Gosh Shosh! My "About Me" Page
[ edited by shoshanah on Sep 7, 2001 05:35 PM ]
posted on September 7, 2001 05:52:45 PM new
Shoshanah- You have exactly the right attitude to be a successful merchant - you are in the business to exchange merchandise for money.
I state in my auctions that I'll accept checks, MOs, or Paypal. Yet I still get cash sent. I also get paid through other payment services that I am not even a member of, but I sign up, get the money and send the goods.
The bottom line with the seller in question is- does he/she want to get paid or play games ?
posted on September 7, 2001 08:37:39 PM new
tcinorm2000:
If that same seller sent you the wrong item, would you expect to return it to him at YOUR expense?
You sent him the wrong form of payment.
The seller has no obligation to return anything to you unless you pay for its return.
As for not taking money orders:
Many people do not accept money orders. Money orders are constantly being counterfeited. One of my banks told me a few months ago that they had gotten a counterfeit postal money order. Many banks now hold money orders until they clear. There is no hold on cash and paypal.
The seller is not a crook. He stuck to his auction terms, which many sellers don't and now he is the bad guy.
