PDA

View Full Version : eBay Nutter



Cornelius
12-07-2009, 08:57 PM
Put this crazy lady on your blocked bidder list: rush*floyd

So this woman and another person bid my American McGee's Alice up to $55 a week ago Sunday. She called shortly after the auction ended and left a message saying she couldn't follow through with the transaction and asking me to cancel the transaction. I quickly made the second chance offer, but the other bidder had hit a BIN just after the auction.

Deadbeat bidders piss me off at the best of times, but something about her calling instead of emailing rubbed me the wrong way. I ended up calling the next day or she called again, don't remember. I told her that to get my fees back, I'd have to file a NPB dispute, and she said all I had to do was file a cancel request, which she's had sellers do for her many times in the past. She had some story about someone using her account trying to help her, but she actually has had this game since she was 3. She clearly sounds well into middle age, and this game came out, what, 6 or 8 years ago? So now she's lied to me and presented a really strange explanation for why she can't pay. I hung up on her.

She called that night at 1 am, waking me up, though I didn't answer in time and she left a really long message that ran out of 'tape'. I put her number in my phone so it won't ring any more when she calls. Another call at around 8 the next morning, another long message. The gist of her messages is that she doesn't understand how I could hang up on her, and how she just needs me to do the cancel request and she's sorry and blah, blah, blah. All this with a Louisiana drawl, just to give some context (nothing against southern accents, I have one myself according to my wife).

I don't think I communicated to her anymore and a week goes by. Sunday (yesterday) I re-list the item since she's made it clear she won't pay. Today I filed a non-paying buyer dispute. She called with some story (on voicemail) that she called eBay and they said I'd been refunded on my FVFs and that I should just drop the case and do a cancel request. She also said she couldn't pay now, because I had the item relisted. I emailed her and told her not to worry about it being re-listed, since I could cancel it if she pays.

Well, she thinks she 'has me' now. It is apparently against eBay rules to re-list an item while still requesting payment for it. I didn't know that. So now in her eyes (and voicemails that took 3 separate messages) I'm breaking eBay's rules and boy won't I be sorry. One of her messages said she'd been on the phone with them for 2.5 hours! Not that I believe that necessarily, but man, for that much time wouldn't it have been easier just to pay for the item?

So I sorta understand eBay's policy about not re-listing while waiting for payment, but it isn't like if you are running a B&M store you can't sell an item locally while simultaneously having it listed. That's why they have the cancel auction/item no longer available option. I'll still have time to do so if she pays at the last minute of the NPB dispute. Funnily enough, that's what she 'threatened' to do, so that all the new bidders would be "pissed" at me, and won't I be sorry then. Except that it doesn't end for 2 days after her deadline. I'd LMAO if she actually pays after all this. That'd be brilliant!

Anyway, I guess I've unknowingly violated a policy. The worst I figure can happen is they pull my re-list auction ($1), and I lose my FVF from the first time + that listing fee (4.26). It is worth well more than that to make sure she gets a NPB strike. I guess that's actually the worst case, if she doesn't get a strike.

So this is my 'best' eBay story to date. Largely because of the immediate and constant phone calls that filled up multiple voicemail time limits. Really, who calls on eBay?

So what's your craziest eBayer story?

ryborg
12-07-2009, 10:25 PM
You do realize that she isn't paying because she won the same game for less a day later, right?

http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBidItems&userid=rush*floyd&completed=1&all=0&rows=200&sort=1&_rdc=1

Call her out on it and see what she says. A lot of people change their stories when provided with hard evidence of their dishonesty.

I've never heard of that "you're not allowed to sell the same item while waiting for payment" rule. How does ebay know you don't just have two of the same item? That's an unenforceable policy, unless it's a one of a kind item or something like tickets, where there can be only one. I wouldn't worry about anything happening to you from ebay.

Oh, you gotta record those voicemails. I have a few saved from idiots similar to the one you're dealing with. I never answer unknown calls outside of my area code because it's likely an ebay loser. I *never* talk to them over the phone, but I will record their funny messages.

nebrazca78
12-07-2009, 10:32 PM
I feel so lucky having completed over 20,000 eBay auctions and never having had to deal with true insanity such as this. I don't even have a good story, just d-bags who can't pay and then make up crap about how their brother/son or someone accidentally won the auction. Knock on wood.

Cornelius
12-07-2009, 11:12 PM
You do realize that she isn't paying because she won the same game for less a day later, right?

http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBidItems&userid=rush*floyd&completed=1&all=0&rows=200&sort=1&_rdc=1

Call her out on it and see what she says. A lot of people change their stories when provided with hard evidence of their dishonesty.

I've never heard of that "you're not allowed to sell the same item while waiting for payment" rule. How does ebay know you don't just have two of the same item? That's an unenforceable policy, unless it's a one of a kind item or something like tickets, where there can be only one. I wouldn't worry about anything happening to you from ebay.

Oh, you gotta record those voicemails. I have a few saved from idiots similar to the one you're dealing with. I never answer unknown calls outside of my area code because it's likely an ebay loser. I *never* talk to them over the phone, but I will record their funny messages.

No, I didn't know she'd bought another one.

The problem in my case is that I re-listed the item, so it must be the identical, exact item I listed before. I do actually have another copy to sell, but it isn't the exact one I listed before.

Kitsune Sniper
12-07-2009, 11:46 PM
Jesus Effin' Christ.

Yep, definitely banning her.

rpepper9
12-09-2009, 10:34 AM
I have re-listed items while the NPB dispute is still going on. The way I figure, the weekend, especially on Sundays, is the prime time for an auction to end. So I try to get most of my auctions listed on Sundays, so they end on Sundays. I am not going to wait an odd amount of time to re-list an item, only to have it end on a Tuesday or some such nonsense!

This is even more important right now with people wanting items for Christmas. If I get a feeling that a person is not going to pay, I wouldn't hesitate to re-list to get a item sold in time for Christmas.

Remember Christmas season = Higher bids by people who may not know what an item is really worth, or who are buying for grand kids etc.

riverdragon
12-09-2009, 10:45 AM
I was selling an old acoustic guitar one time and this guy started sending me links to pictures of himself asking if I thought he would look good with that guitar.

aaron7
12-09-2009, 11:07 AM
Know the best part about bidders like this? YOU CAN'T LEAVE A NEGATIVE!

Not just to make yourself feel better, but to warn others of her crappy activity.

Sigh.

Cornelius
12-09-2009, 02:03 PM
I have re-listed items while the NPB dispute is still going on. The way I figure, the weekend, especially on Sundays, is the prime time for an auction to end. So I try to get most of my auctions listed on Sundays, so they end on Sundays. I am not going to wait an odd amount of time to re-list an item, only to have it end on a Tuesday or some such nonsense!

This is even more important right now with people wanting items for Christmas. If I get a feeling that a person is not going to pay, I wouldn't hesitate to re-list to get a item sold in time for Christmas.

This is exactly why I re-listed it. I always try to have my listings end on Sunday evening, and this is kind of the last chance for that before xmas. That, and she said she wasn't going to pay, so why wait?


I was selling an old acoustic guitar one time and this guy started sending me links to pictures of himself asking if I thought he would look good with that guitar.

Wow, that's a weird one. Hopefully he was clothed!


Know the best part about bidders like this? YOU CAN'T LEAVE A NEGATIVE!

Not just to make yourself feel better, but to warn others of her crappy activity.

Sigh.
I just hope that the reason she put up such a stink was because she knows some action will be take against her. Sounds like she's done this before, and supposedly eBay is harder on NPBs now. It is a slim hope, though. If eBay had a 1 or 2 strike NPB policy, I wouldn't care about the feedback.

Porksta
12-09-2009, 02:34 PM
Uh, how did she get your phone number?

wingzrow
12-09-2009, 03:23 PM
Added to blocked list. Great read man, I love hearing stories like this. Lucky for me just some redundant stupid questions and nothing else come my way.

Namnuta
12-09-2009, 04:20 PM
Added to my blocked list as well. Thanks for the heads up.

jb143
12-09-2009, 05:01 PM
Uh, how did she get your phone number?

Some people list it in their contact information. You can also request it from ebay if they have it on file but it's not public.

Cornelius
12-09-2009, 07:49 PM
Uh, how did she get your phone number?


Some people list it in their contact information. You can also request it from ebay if they have it on file but it's not public.

Mine isn't just listed to the public, but a buyer or seller that you have an active transaction with (i.e. she won the auction) can do a request through eBay and contact info is sent to both parties. I don't know if a phone number on file is required or not, but I would have put it in years and years ago when I barely ever sold anything, so I wouldn't have thought anything of it. And in all these years, no one has ever called.

ryborg
12-09-2009, 09:33 PM
I don't know if a phone number on file is required or not....

It is now. Ebay even checks every so often, so if you have an old/fake number, they will eventually find out and make you put your real number in. That's actually the only legitimate part of my public user info.

I get calls from buyers every so often, but I never answer them. Unless it's something extremely timely, like tickets for a show/game that same day, there is no reason to not use email.

TRM
12-10-2009, 01:20 AM
I was selling an old acoustic guitar one time and this guy started sending me links to pictures of himself asking if I thought he would look good with that guitar.

Well we are all dying to hear the answer: did he look good with that guitar? lol.

MarioMania
12-10-2009, 01:51 AM
What item was it??

riverdragon
12-10-2009, 02:36 PM
Wow, that's a weird one. Hopefully he was clothed!

Fortunately he was.



Well we are all dying to hear the answer: did he look good with that guitar? lol.

haha of course he did. The auction specifically stated that this guitar will make anyone look good and was guaranteed to be a babe magnet. ROFL