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Ebay buyer from Hell
- Thread starter Stephen Hurley
- Start date
Man, that dude was a nut. But with what’s at stake in selling a bass on eBay, especially with a high positive rating, I would have been short and polite with my responses, avoiding calling him rude or telling him to be more polite. You kind of got in a pissing match with him, which just fed his nutty-ness. I doubt the bent peg or return request would’ve even happened if you took the high road in your responses. You lucked out with a good result for an unlucky situation.
The old saying that there's "one in every crowd" certainly applies here. It's becoming more apparent though that there are dozens or more in every crowd. I hope you blocked him.
Yup, people are nuts. I once was told to kill myself by an ebay buyer that said I committed fraud by overcharging him for shipping. I charged $4 shipping on a T shirt and the label said $2.10 when he got it. I told him yes..thats for the shipping, the rest is handling... like the fact that i had to pack it and stop at the post office/wait in line. The guy wound up wanting a refund but ebay did nothing for him....because like your situation, he was being a total douche and really aggressive.
Whats funny is that this guy was also in his 50's and whats even more scary is that since I had to ship it to him, I had his home address and he lived about 40 minutes away. Why are people nuts? He had no clue what kind of dude I was and was instigating a stranger over $1.90.
Whats funny is that this guy was also in his 50's and whats even more scary is that since I had to ship it to him, I had his home address and he lived about 40 minutes away. Why are people nuts? He had no clue what kind of dude I was and was instigating a stranger over $1.90.
i agree with everyone saying he´s a nut.
i could have pulled that off too recently. i bought a used bass with lightyears of action, but managed to set it up so no problem. and i think now it was overpriced but hard to tell, since the model was only built in 2001-2002 or something and no others to find.
anyway, i don´t even think about giving the seller any trouble, b/c bass is playable now and in good condition otherwise...and i really like it
i could have pulled that off too recently. i bought a used bass with lightyears of action, but managed to set it up so no problem. and i think now it was overpriced but hard to tell, since the model was only built in 2001-2002 or something and no others to find.
anyway, i don´t even think about giving the seller any trouble, b/c bass is playable now and in good condition otherwise...and i really like it
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I've had a ton of different jobs over the years and have found one thing above all else to be true,
99% of complaints are due to unrealistic expectations.
99% of complaints are due to unrealistic expectations.
Totally. If the buyer wanted a perfect condition bass with a warranty and hex key, he could have paid full price from an authorized retailed. He could have even bought used from GC and added a warranty. But nooooooooo....he wanted every benefit of buying new but at the price of used.
setup can be bad on a new instrument too, so op´s buyer would be at it too
I have sold on both Reverb and eBay for years, but prefer to sell basses in the talkbass classified section. Never had a hostile or unpleasant interaction here, and have found the community by and large to be pretty decent and good to negotiate with.
I'd throw a guitar on the bonfire before I'd deal with eBay. As I see it there are no victims ... only volunteers.
MDBass
Supporting Member
- Nov 7, 2012
- 8,590
- 14,890
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Dingwall-Fender-Bergantino-Dunlop-Tech 21-Darkglass-Nordstrand
Telling someone who is being an ******* and demanding something that wasn’t part of the sale listing that you’ll ship it to them anyway, despite their rudeness, is not an “insult”.
I have been selling on Ebay for over 21 years with over 1500 100% positive feedbacks and never had an issue until now. I sold a 13 year old guitar combo amp that worked perfectly for less than what it was worth. I also lost about $10 on shipping. Not a big deal. The buyer receives the amp and has it for 12 days and then files a return claim stating he used it for less than 15 minutes (yeah right) and it started making noise. I like the OP specify I don't take returns and I don't warranty a used piece of equipment. Ebay freezes my PayPal account (which I got PayPal to reverse). Their return resolution page offers 4 choices: 1. Accept the return and pay return shipping, 2. Give a refund and let the buyer keep the item, 3. Give a partial refund, or 4. Contact the buyer. No option to dispute the claim. So I message the guy 3 times through option 4, offering to file a shipping claim since the amp worked great when shipped. (If there is an issue, it had to be from shipping or abuse.) He still has not responded. I talked to 3 different people at Ebay who all seem to agree with me that 12 days is a bit too long to wait to complain about something not working. I'm waiting for their decision. If they side with the buyer, then I'm done on Ebay. I guess I'll find out soon. Over the years they have become more and more against the sellers who pay them their fees.
I have also been on ebay for quite some time and bought/sold tons of gear. You're spot on with the fact that theyre against sellers these days. The fact that I cant even leave neg feedback for a buyer says quite a bit. Buuuuut overall, I can say that I'm still better off for using them all these years. Even if i had to eat $500, I'd still be way up in the long run. I get double what GC offers me on used gear... I get triple what gamestop offers me on games/consoles.... and I get quick sales due to a huge pool of potential buyers. All of it for less than most shops would have charged me as a consignment fee back in the day.
Funny, I have found, for bass gear, I get more on Reverb or here on TB then I do on Ebay, but there are exceptions. Ebay is great for low dollar items that are easy to ship or specialty items that have no value locally. You can usually find a buyer if you are patient.
100% agreed that here/reverb are better. I was more speaking to the whole 'internet sale to a stranger' vs traditional routes.
HEY! I did NOT like your setup, and that high B string tuner is broken. If I had the hex key I could have fixed it, but I rage ranted and threw the bass through the 3rd story window. I want my refund!!! 
