Honestly, do bidders think I'm retarded?

[hezeuschrist]

I swear, it doesn't matter if I sell 2 items to 200 items, I like to wait until I paid for all of them so i can ship them all at once, and without fail I always have one idiot continually hold out payment because he/she/it is completely stupid.

The one I'm in the middle of now though is just mind boggling. I sold two auctions to one person, Saga Frontier 1 w/ guide, and Saga Frontier 2 w/ guide. I did pretty well for what they're worth ($65 combined), so i was pretty happy.

I should note that all of my auctions state payment must be received/sent within 4 days of auction close. I'm not actually heartless enough to relist/resell something that fast if the person communicates with me, but this one is just off the wall dumb.

I get this message the day after the auctions closed, after I sent a combined invoice for much cheaper shipping.


I'm have to add funds to my paypal account. Once that goes through I'll send the payment right away.

Ok. No problems. The next day:


I tried to pay you and it said...transaction cancelled. User is currently unable to accept a payment. I'll wait a bit and try again later.

Uhh, what? I just closed three other auctions, all three of which paid me instantly, just fine. I checked with paypal to make sure there weren't any issues with my account, to which I received some computer generated crap about making sure the bidder has the right email address and to make sure I put the right email address in the listing. It's obviously right, I just sold three other things the same day.

So I sent him a message asking him to try again...

and I get nothing. I send another message:


Hello, I've still not received payment for these items which closed 4 days ago on Saturday. My auction clearly states that payment must be received within 4 days, and you had trouble initially trying to pay me. I've since had no contact with you and assure you that there are no issues with receiving money through paypal on my end.

Please get back to me before I'm forced to offer the items to the next highest bidders.

Here's where it gets good. I get this brilliant response:


hi this is a friend of the winner. he gave me his passwords and asked me to reply to you if you had sent anything. he also told me to inform you that his intenet shut down because they are upgrading...something with verizon around his neighborhood. well......i don't know what else to say. but i know that he still wants to purchase the items. he just can't till his internet goes back up.

hi my name is Hezeuschrist and apparently you think I'm retarded. I have no patience for this brand of idiocy so I get short with him/her/it:


Uhh, right. It's downright impossible for any one person to be unable to find an internet connection for the 30 seconds it takes to make a paypal payment.

If I don't have payment by friday they're going to the next highest bidders, no questions asked.

I think about it for a minute and suppose that I may have been a bit harsh, but I want my money and I want to move on to my next set of auctions. When I get the response I'm not worried about having been harsh:


it is when he's 78years old and doesn't leave his house.

...

Good God. As though it's not already abundantly clear that the user is just trying to buy time until funds clear/he gets paid/his pimp gives him his cut, he tries to make me feel sorry for a 78 year old invalid.

Who plays Playstation RPG's.

Right.

I send him one last email, doing my best to restrain myself:


And he's paying top dollar for video games from 1997?

I can't be held accountable for a buyers inability to pay me on time, no matter the circumstances. I've been selling stuff on ebay for a very long time and I've heard a lot of excuses.

If he wants these items, I'll be paid by 6pm EST tomorrow night. If I don't have payment by then, I'll be offering the items to the next highest bidders

And one more gem from this wonderful fellow:


yeah. those games are amazing..ass

Hahaha, mommy and daddy should keep the kiddies off eBay.

[gum_drops]

Sounds like a real winner. I like the 78 years old and cant leave the house part.

My favorite is when the bidder claims they didnt buy the item. They will usually blame it on a younger sibling of cousin. I had one buyer who didnt even attempt to blame someone and just said they never purchased the game and knew nothing of it, great stuff.

[Zing]

Yeah, I have had the "my toddler clicked the buy button" excuse.

[8bitnes]

Believe it or not, 70 year olds do enjoy RPGs. I picked up a huge lot of SNES RPGs at a yard sale from a very elderly gentleman. Anyhow, I hate getting the run-around as well. One thing I would do is check his bidding history to see if he has bought other items in recent days and maybe follow-up on his follow-through.

[Trebuken]

I think sellers have to be more patitent with their payment deadlines. 4-days isn't unreasonable, but ebay policy allows for 30-days for a transaction to be complete (unless stated otherwise). Stating payment needs to be received within 4-days leaves the seller 36 days to get te item to the buyer which is a bit unfair to the buyer.

In general it should be 10-days to make payment, 20 days for seller to ship.

This seller was giving out to much BS though; relisting/selling only leads to negative feedback.

I had an auction that was ending in a couple hours the other day when the seller pulled the listing, stating 'it was sold offline'. I was set to win and no mention was made in the auction that it was for sale elsewhere. Bad ebay etiquette.

Maintaining ebay etiquette is important because once someone departs from it you know they are no good...

[JerseyDevil65]

You ship all your auctions at one time only after everyone has paid? So you are penalizing someone who paid you quickly by making them wait and then you complain when a buyer makes you wait?

[8-bitNesMan]

You ship all your auctions at one time only after everyone has paid? So you are penalizing someone who paid you quickly by making them wait and then you complain when a buyer makes you wait?

He stated his terms clearly in the auction. It's obvious this jerk buyer was giving him the runaround.

[JerseyDevil65]

He stated his terms clearly in the auction. It's obvious this jerk buyer was giving him the runaround.

Yes, that is obvious but does he also state in his terms that he may make you wait to ship your package because he doesn't feel like making 2 trips to the PO?

[ryborg]

Yes, that is obvious but does he also state in his terms that he may make you wait to ship your package because he doesn't feel like making 2 trips to the PO?

Since the buyer has 4 days to pay, the longest a paid-for package would be not shipped is 4 days, which is reasonable and standard practice for most sellers. If he was making people wait for 10 days or so, that is a bit much and he should make a note of it in the description. It's fine the way it is.

[darkhades]

My father is 69 yrs old and loves playing RPG's. He's currently playing Rogue Galaxy for PS2, and Etrian Oddyssey for the DS.