Is anyone else tired of lame eBay seller excuses?

envoy98

I have been waiting on a lot from a guy for over 3 weeks and no emails, no feedback...nothing. I finally emailed him yesterday...again, and got this response.

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Hello, It seems I've had an entire shipment lost by USPS. They are working on it and so am I. Some packages from 3 weeks ago are just now turning up. They won't tell me obviously how they botched this up, but I handle all dealings with the post office myself and if your item doesn't turn up soon I will refund you fully. I personally insure all of my own packages and I also provide insurance for other eBay sellers as well thru ALLSHIPINSURANCE. You are covered and thanks for your cooperation and patience. This situation will be resolved promptly. Please keep me updated on your package because if it arrives you can notify me a lot sooner than our incompetent USPS. thanks again <name witheld>
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At least if I forget to ship something or make a mistake I own up to it, and usually refund the shipping charges as a sign of mea culpa. I am just getting so tired of these lame excuses. Funny, some from 3 weeks ago are just now starting to show up...well that means mine should be showing up soon too then. But what it really means is "if I tell him others are starting to show up from 3 weeks ago, and he gets his within a week, I'll look like I was telling the truth" Only problem is the postmark will be from today.

Why can't people either own up or find a newer, less worn out excuse. UGH!

I just wanted to vent. Thanks for listening!

By the way, what's the lamest excuse you've ever gotten for non-payment or slow/never arrived shipping?

I've had the "I was in the hospital", "UPS/FedEx/USPS Lost it", "death in family", "email was down". Are there any I haven't seen yet?

Southsider

The postmark doesn't lie!

cspeier1

I have a good one. 4 weeks ago I sold a drive shaft loop for $10.00 and $15.00 shipping. I had it clearly stated in the auction, the freight charge. I had some newbie, with less than 20 feedback, win the auction. Days went by without him contacting me. I sent him six emails says that if he didn't want the item to let me know and I'd sell it to someone else.. Finally after 2 weeks I followed ebay rules, filed a NPB and did what I was suppose to do I left him negitive feedback. I stated in the feedback that he was a non-paying bidder and didn't respond to my email.. JUST WHAT WE ARE SUPPOSE TO DO ACCORDING TO EBAY... 3 weeks after, he leaves ME negitive feedback saying the freight was overpriced! I was floored.. I emailed Ebay telling the story and they replied saying there is nothing they could do.. They told me I could get the feedback taken off, "with a court order" I was really pissed so I email the fraud department saying that the buyer never had any intension of paying for the item. The grounds for this, the auction clearly stated the freight charge and his grounds for non-payment wouldn't stand up in court because I had posted the charge. They replied with, "this does not meet requirements for feedback removal" saying that Ebay "can't police every auction, it's soley between seller and buyer"

The entire Ebay system SUCKS.. Being a Powerseller is WORTHLESS.. Ebay should be ashamed of the company it's become. I wish you could leave feedback for Ebay.. That would be interesting...I work to hard to take care of customers to let some idiot put a dent in it. My policy is if your not happy with anything I sell, return it for a refund and I'll even pay shipping!

Chad

downgoesfrazier

Get a grip envoy. The guy is communicating--more than I can say for most buyers/sellers. True, it may be an excuse, but you certainly don't know that right now. For the record I personally HAVE been in the hospital AND had deaths in the family that have delayed items a couple of days...the post-mark, indeed does not lie but give guys the benefit of the doubt when they are communicative. You sound like the kind of guy who would be pissed either way. If the guy said I spaced it out or I misplaced your check, etc. You'd bash him for that too, wouldn't you? Good luck with the transaction. I do hope it works out for you.


dgf

TMc

Personally I tired of ebay bashing. It has taken all of our worthless stuff and made it marketable. Not only marketable, but allows us access to buyers world wide. We all have made $ from that company and I'm glad they are here. As far a neg popping up now and then...WHO CARES??? Not the seller, not the buyer. Everyone knows it happens, and I have never been hurt by the one that I got. It was my first feedback ever. Never did a seller not sell to me. They are greedy, they want the top $ they can get. The buyer don't shy away either. Occasional neg feedbacks are overrated. Quit complaining...or try one of the other auction sites. You will come back running.

downgoesfrazier

envoy,
I just removed my head from my a$$ and realized you stated that you emailed him for three weeks and he JUST NOW emailed you back. The first time I read it as he was emailing you for three weeks...my bad! I retract everything above...he's a tool. Best of luck.


dgf

Stone193

<< <i>You sound like the kind of guy who would be pissed either way >>


dgf
How did you derive that?

This was my reply till I saw you came back on what you read. Very classy of you. Envoy is one of the good guys IMO.
Mike

cspeier1

Personally I tired of ebay bashing. It has taken all of our worthless stuff and made it marketable. Not only marketable, but allows us access to buyers world wide. We all have made $ from that company and I'm glad they are here. As far a neg popping up now and then...WHO CARES??? Not the seller, not the buyer. Everyone knows it happens, and I have never been hurt by the one that I got. It was my first feedback ever. Never did a seller not sell to me. They are greedy, they want the top $ they can get. The buyer don't shy away either. Occasional neg feedbacks are overrated. Quit complaining...or try one of the other auction sites. You will come back running.

Your the type of person who would do something like what I described.. Just Admit it...

Stone193

<< <i>Quit complaining...or try one of the other auction sites. You will come back running >>


TMc
Someone could come back and tell you to quit complaining about people complaining.....and where would that get us. I think that Chad was just doing a little 'good ole fashion' venting from how I read it. I don't sell on ebay but learn a lot from the posts on situations that come up. Here's a point from a business standpoint: one has to decide how much commercial impact a negative really has. I'm with you, an occasional neg is not going to hurt you. But to many, it's a painful reminder that they have done NOTHING wrong - so one can decide, is it better to just forget it when a guy doesn't pay or use the system - I say pick your battles - the size of the transaction, the specific situation, the past history of the buyer etc.
Mike

envoy98

Well, this went in a bit different direction than I intended. Thanks dgf for retracting your statement. But to answer your initial inquiry, no, I wouldn't be pi$$ed at him either way. Sure, I'd be annoyed he spaced it, but as I stated, I've done the exact same thing. The point of my post was more as comic relief than a bellyache. I just am getting tired of the lame excuses, after you've done more than 10 transactions on ebay you've probably heard them all. I was trying to see if I had in fact heard them all! This wasn't mean to be a complaint forum, I am sure the guy will sell to me, I just wanted to see what other excuses people have heard, or maybe even used?

And thanks for sticking up for me Stone, much appreciated!

And Chad, bonehead buyers like that suck. I've gotten a neg from 2 people because they didn't pay and I left a neg. Not much you can do, most buyers know that some people are dumb and some are going to do stupid things. Buyers and sellers alike are not going to hold that against you. My only suggestion is that you don't respond with any personal attacks or use the words "tool, loser, sicko etc" in your reply. A simple statement of fact gives you all the credibility you need.

Stone193

<< <i>A simple statement of fact gives you all the credibility you need. >>


Envoy
Very wise words - I tend to stay away from ebayers who use any type of retaliatory profanity instead of just sticking to the facts. I have seen major debates on what ebay is: a big garage sale v. a business. If you take a "business" approach to your "garage sale" - I think one will come out farther ahead IMO.
Mike

nojo

Unfortunately for us, eBay saves tons of cash by not getting involved in feedback disputes. eBay practically runs itself...it's just a bunch of servers with some admins. Add in a limited number of CSRs and a few programmers to give us new "My eBay" pages every few years, and that's it. Almost like free money to them.

If they hired people to take care of feedback disputes, profits would go down. A few people complaining doesn't hurt them, because there's practically nowhere else to go.

All in all though, the vast majority of transactions go smoothly. I've been lucky so far and have only encountered 2 NPBs. Still sucks when you get slammed with a moronic negative, but you just have to lament and move on

Southsider

I agree about maintaining your professionalism.
A few negatives won't keep me away from an auction, but if the response to the negatives is "LOSER" or "IDIOT" it really makes me think twice if I want to deal with that seller.

helionaut

Until you get the package and see the postmark, you might have to give him the benefit of the doubt. Everyone has post office problems from time to time. Every quarter I mail out invoices for my business and at least 15 of them end up in our mailbox 2 days later because they momentarily can't tell the difference between the "From" address and the "To" address. Twice I've had boxes take over 2 weeks to reach me because some moron put some sort of barcode sticker over my address and the mail carrier or whoever handles it couldn't be bothered to remove it to find out where it's supposed to go. I've had credit card checks take over 10 days to reach the destination, incurring late fees that I had to get sorted. The postal system is an amazing thing, and for all they might screw up, they do get it mostly right. A bag gets mislaid, and the brontosaurs that work there sort it out when they get around to it. But they usually do get around to it eventually.

That said, the seller is probably just lazy.

mudflap02

No, I am not tired of lame seller excuses. I enjoy them.

Dhjacks

<< <i>Unfortunately for us, eBay saves tons of cash by not getting involved in feedback disputes. eBay practically runs itself...it's just a bunch of servers with some admins. Add in a limited number of CSRs and a few programmers to give us new "My eBay" pages every few years, and that's it. Almost like free money to them. >>



Ebay, at last count, employs 5,200 people. That always amazes me. What do all those people do....certainly not answer the phone.

NickM

My all-time favorite lame seller excuse was: The post office is really far away from me, so I can only go there once every other week.

Nick

envoy98

Helio, I think you're right. I will give him the benefit of the doubt, but my guess is, he probably just got lazy/forgot or didn't have the product, or has more than he can deal with at the moment.

Nick, that is exactly the kind of stuff I was looking for. I haven't heard that one before, that's good though!