posted on August 22, 2002 06:35:33 AM
I thought I'd share the following correspondence from a customer.
It involved an MP3 player her son bought from me, apparently w/o her permission.
After the auction, I reminded her of all of the usual stipulations re auctions, binding contract, etc.. After 8 weeks, I finally got paid.
What follows is the verbatim texts of her e-mails:
"MY SON 13 YEARS OLD NOT ASK ME FOR PERMIT PUT AUCTION BUT HE ALREADY TOO
LATE BUY NOW
COST 45 DOLLAR SOMETHING. MADE ME VERY PISSED OFF AT HIM. I ALREADY SCREW
AT HIM DO NOT EVER AGAIN AND MUST ASK ME FIRST. SO HE MADE ME TO PAY FOR
HIM. SO I WILL PAY 20.00 TODAY AND NEXT FRIDAY 25.00 IF IS OK WITH YOU.
THANK YOU,JUDIE"
"MADE ME PISSED OFF WITH MY SON. I WILL FIND A WAY TO PAY YOU. BUT ONE THING
I AM VERY DISAP THAT MY PAYCHECK NEXT FRIDAY. I WILL BE HANDLE FOR YOU
THANK YOU, JUDIE"
"please give me your address. i cant find your address in my delete file.
thank you,judie"
"i will not get my paycheck until thursday then i will sure mail to you this
friday.
thank you to be patient with me smile. and god bless you.
judie"
"PLEASE PLEASE FORGIVE ME. THIS IS JUDIE. I AM MOTHER OF SON JOHN(13 YEARS OLD) HE NEVER PAY MP3 THUR EBAY. I AM VERY DISAP THAT MY
SON WILL LEAD HURT MY AUCTION HISTORY THAT I WANT MY AUCTION KEEP GOOD
RECORD. PLEASE DONT GIVE ME NEGATIVE. HE DID NOT ASK ME FOR PERMIT TO USE
MY EBAY AUCTION. PLEASE FORGIVE ME. I TOLD MY SON I WILL EMAIL TO MICHAELD
AND CANCELLED BECAUSE YOU NEVER GIVE TO ME 55.00 DOLLAR THAT HE HAD BEEN
WORK FOR MOWER BUT HE NEVER GIVE TO ME. HE WAS UPSET THAT HE IS TRY TRY
MADE ME TO PAY FOR HIM BUT I WILL NOT PAY FOR HIM.
THANK YOU AND UNDERSTAND AND FORGIVE ME PLEASE.
BLESS YOU,
JUDIE"
"i understand and i alway good with ebay (12) yellow star. i am very good
responsibility with ebay but i will get my own paycheck this thursday made
me have to pay you. i will made him work to pay me no problem.
thank you and really been good patient with me god bless you........
judie"
I WILL GO TO BANK THIS THURSDAY NOON THEN I WILL SEND TO YOU YOU SHOULD
REICEVED SATURDAY.
OF COURSE I WILL MADE MY SON!!!!!!
THANK YOU,JUDIE "
"good news wow my son made it. my son had been mower from next neighborhood,
mamaw and papaw's yard he gave to me 55.00 dollar so i will go stop bank
get check cashier then i will mail to you today. finally. he is learn his
lesson. he will not do again with my acution
thank you,
judie"
"this is judie again,
i dont understand why you never put feedback in my ebay. i already feedback
to you back put "postive" not fair
"this is judie
this is not fair for me put you feedback postive. you never put feedback to
my ebay so i wil report ebay.
judie"
_____________________________________________
The kicker to this is that the e-mail she writes from is a state government (.gov) domain; most likely an asylum.
Please no advice on whether or not to neg.
I've already decided what to do.
This is intended as only a gentle reminder of how unfathomable the results of the www are.
My friend Judi is the person in the next car, the voter in the next booth; bless her heart, the woman I'll probably see on CNN as one disaster or another steals whats left of her peace of mind.
God speed, Judi; my siren of the global village. I can block you from my auctions, but never from my heart.
posted on August 22, 2002 07:46:00 AM
Eight weeks, huh?
Would have been interesting to see the dates of the various and assorted emails. Also, did her last name hint that English might not be her native tongue? (Isn't it always amazing that even people who can barely speak English have such words and phrases in their vocabulary such as "pissed" and others?)
I'm not at all sure but what "peace of mind" should be "piece of mind.
We can only assume that the same God who made us also made Judi. (sigh)
posted on August 22, 2002 11:17:16 AM
See the smiley face? It means I'm kidding. Her language problems as well as that she meant "screamed" were blatantly obvious.
posted on August 22, 2002 05:28:01 PM
Quote:
A Man will spend $2.00 for a $1.00 item he needs.
A Woman will spend $1.00 for a $2.00 item she doesn't need.
Endquote
Funny...first time I heard that it was the other way around.
Go figure.
Judi...well what can you say. I am guessing you got a too deep a peek at a buyer's life.
How many would have negged and moved on, I admire your patience!
I would ignore her. Or you could neutral her..."slow pay, incomprehensible emails"
LOL
posted on August 22, 2002 06:42:44 PM
The interesting thing about it for me was, aside from the garbled syntax, were the inconsistencies.
Obviously, a spell-check wasn't employed; yet she does spell "cashier" & "patient" correctly as well as use the possessive correctly, i.e."mamaw and papaw's yard".
She has an English surname, though that could obviously be through marriage.
I toyed with it because I was certain it had to be another dead-beat ruse and I wanted to see, among other things, whether or not she would play the dreaded "death card"; the ever popular ploy of last resort.
But, to her credit, she didn't kill off anyone...mawmaw, pawpaw or even her feral son.
posted on August 22, 2002 10:25:08 PM
rarriffle when I read those emails I also that she was illerate and maybe not illerate but poorly educated and I don't think they are one in the same. I am a very patient seller and I guess I would have just waited until the final payment. You know it sounds like she lives from paycheck to paycheck in order to keep her family so with this sale, the son threw a monkey wrench in her budget. I don't understand how and why ebay doesn't start using something to weed out the young children from bidding. I am sure there is a test of somekind that can be given to tell what age the seller is. With eBay just a venue we all take chances and hope we come out on top.
What kind of a feed back did you leave?
posted on August 22, 2002 10:27:58 PM
As I reread these emails do you think they were written by two different people? Why the difference in type. Makes you wonder doesn't it?
posted on August 23, 2002 05:34:26 AM"Why the difference in type."
Libra, of course it's possible that two different people wrote these emails, but I don't think they did. Note that there really isn't that much difference...they are either ALL caps, or ALL lower case...never a mixture...which would indicate only a rudimentary knowledge of how to use a typewriter/keyboard. I've known people who found it too frustrating to 'shift', so consquently used all one or the other.
I'm not even sure that illiterate or even semi-literate describes this person. As the originator of the thread points out, Judi can spell...(even 'cancelled', which is frequently misspelled, and 'possibility', in addition to the words that already have been mentioned.)
In fact, I don't see a word that is misspelled, per se....unless the 'buy' should have been 'by' - when read with the 'now' ("by now" ), it's wrong - unless she was referring to a 'buy it now'. Also 'thur', apparently for 'thru' - which isn't a 'good' word anyway. Then there's 'disap' for 'disappointed' - whether she couldn't spell it, or just abbreviated it is anyone's guess. ('Lead' for 'let' maybe?)
Amazingly enough though, 'to' (used several times), and 'too' (used once - "too late" ) are used and spelled correctly!
It would almost appear that she does use a Spellcheck - it wouldn't catch a correctly spelled but misused word. (But that leaves us with the mystery of 'to' and 'too'.)
Could this be a good example of 'textbook English'? Perhaps she has learned words, but not syntax?
Frankly, I am puzzled by it all. Without more information, Judi is, and will remain, an enigma in my mind.
A note to Rariffle: I think we were all saddened, or at least felt some compassion for this lady. (Notice no one jumped in hollering 'Neg the lyin' b----!') I was really proud of us for once.
posted on August 23, 2002 06:59:45 AM
I appreciate the feedback on this exercise in forensics.
It is difficult to pattern her style.
Usually, there are phrases; errors in tense & spelling that repeat themselves in a sample of this size that can be anticipated in subsequent samples.
Not so with Judi. Each seems an original creation.
Gc2 makes some very good points that seem to support this.
Moreover is the fact that, as I mentioned at first, she is writing from a .gov domain.
As all of her correspondence comes during the day, she may be using a state library facility (rather ironic) as opposed to actually working for the state.
Of course, now that I mention it, if she was a bureaucrat, none of her actions or correspondence would be at all out of the ordinary.
I also appreciate the empathy expressed for her by everyone.
There is an intimacy here, in what she unwittingly reveals about her life, that gives me pause.
Having reviewed her purchase history, I know the little things she buys for herself and for her son.
I know her dress size. I know her fondness for bric-a-brac. And inferring from her correspondence, I know that $55 was a strain on her budget.
I know she’s out there and that, like all of us, each day she makes a go of it; wanting but not really
needing, having but not really holding.
I suppose I won’t hear from her again and for that I am truly sorry.
posted on August 23, 2002 08:02:11 AM"...she may be using a state library facility (rather ironic) as opposed to actually working for the state."
She could also be employed by the state at a menial level (janitor, cafeteria, etc.), with access to a computer on breaks, etc.
I suppose she could also be an interpreter, of sorts, in an area where there are many others whose only language is her first language....she wouldn't necessarily have to have writing skills in order to communicate with them, or assist them to communicate with the true powers-that-be.
I'm sure you noticed that in none of her emails is there a mention of a husband - or other children for that matter. Perhaps your review of her bidding habits has revealed otherwise though.
posted on August 23, 2002 11:13:46 PM
Pandora, you have missed your calling...your last post literally made my cry. I sit here at this computer, struggling to help my out of work husband make a living; living from paycheck to paycheck, and hurting financially like millions of other Americans right now. But your words took me zooming back to when I was a single mom raising four kids on my own, living on a nurse's salary and nothing else. That $55 purchase is significant for any single mom trying to make it week to week AND teach her kids life lessons along the way. I do hope that you hear from Judi again...and thank you for sharing this with us. Snuggle
posted on August 23, 2002 11:54:13 PM
very interesting thread proud of you guys always better to give them the benefit of the doubt nowadays 55.00 could be a crisis that could push someone over the edge..we are all human. funny though she had no trouble signing up & manuevering around ebay.
keep seeing what she buys for awhile & let us know if you can.kind of like the judie show . the kid learned a lot from this & if they cannot afford it,it is natural he would want an item like this so much.
well darn,at least she contacted you which is a heck of a lot better than some people would have done. good luck to judie & to you guys
[ edited by timetravelers on Aug 23, 2002 11:56 PM ]
posted on August 24, 2002 10:44:55 AM
What a fascinating thread! I, too, have been caught unawares sometimes,by some buyer's sudden humanity- in my face, so to speak. It's one of the joys and sorrows of ebaying, if you ask me....
"And All Shall be Well, and All Shall be Well, and All Manner of Things Shall be Well"
posted on August 24, 2002 01:18:46 PM
uhhh...uhhh...now wait a minute
If she is apparently using a computer at work, and her email is ".gov", how did her son place the bid???? With her account????
And as for illiteracy, the pattern is too inconsistent with illiteracy, but with abbreviation and speed. A person typing quickly(before the boss walks back in an catches her doing personal business)without really paying attention to accuracy, just trying to get the idea across.
.
A Man will spend $2.00 for a $1.00 item he needs.
A Woman will spend $1.00 for a $2.00 item she doesn't need.
posted on August 24, 2002 02:46:59 PM
He can bid from a different computer...but then maybe she can use the .gov ISP in her home computer but it is not available after 5pm.
"
