Ed Oscuro
10-08-2003, 02:00 PM
1.) Trying to play me off against an imaginary bidder
"Yeah, he actually went up $20! You'll have to offer something better."
Though I've never actually felt a seller was trying this, it's something that irks me. This also feeds into
2.) Changing the trade
I usually never discuss the details of a trade, even after they're completed, but this is an exception. So this fellow has something that I want and says he'll trade for a GameCube and some games. Great, I spend a day or so waiting for a reply to an email and I put together a small list of games that I could possibly send. Right as I'm about to buy somebody's GameCube, he emails back...oh, somebody ELSE offered me an XBOX bundle that I like better! How nice of them. That not only inconvienenced myself, but made me look bad to the person I contacted about buying the GameCube (our own Forum's AdamG, who doesn't deserve to recieve yet another email from me saying that I'm interested in something when I turn out not to be. For his good conduct in the face of all this, I commend him highly).
3.) Oops, we screwed up the webpage and now we give you...FREE SHITTY GAMES!
While I continue to maintain that Game Choice Club is honest and pleasant to deal with, their practice of updating their website is horrid. I bought $661.97 worth of stuff from them, and two months later it's still being held up because they don't have a mint Sharp Twin Famicom of the style and condition that I paid for. They tried once (only once, honorably) to get me to trade. Now, like waving a carrot underneath my nose, they offer to give me "two free games of our choice." Wow! Wonderful. The part that's truly galling, though, is something I've already mentioned here on the boards: They listed the unit as "in stock" when I purchased it; the next day their page mysteriously was updated to a red "restock soon. As I originally feared, it was not because I'd bought the last one. This is even worse considering that they now require you to register with them and use a shopping cart system to buy games--if they're doing that, they should also have a system to keep their site updated.
I've also had them wholly run out of games I wanted after I made the purchase, and essentially had another game forced on me. Hopefully, my copies of the MD Shadow Dancer, Phantasy Star IV and Real Bout Fatal Fury Special won't suffer the same fate.
I also dislike people who convince themselves that they'll go find what you asked for and end up not responding to your emails for a week. I can wait for a long time, but I by no means enjoy it.
4.) Bundling different parts of games that don't go together.
While this happened to me recently because I both selected the wrong item to buy and also didn't look at the listing closely enough, NOBODY should EVER offer to sell a Mega Games 1 box with a beat up Streets of Rage manual and a Golden Axe box inside. Nobody. Ever. It's an inherently confusing practice and there's no value in doing this. While I won't throw these items away, I do not appreciate that I essentially have junk to store somewhere now.
5.) Being far too free in giving out "excellent" or "mint" grades to items you're selling.
This is common, far too common. It does seem, though, that eBay sellers aren't using the terms "RARE" and especially "L@@K!" as much as they used to -- perhaps it was only my recent visit to see what was there, but it looked to me like more rare stuff was selling (and being ignored ;_;) and these terms were nowhere in sight. Go eBay!
6.) I don't believe you're serious about this, so I'm going to take EVERY POSSIBLE PRECAUTION to see that you WON'T, or rather, CAN'T buy it.
A very few people know who I'm talking about. While I would probably regret this purchase now, I would have saved up for it and this conduct was wholly inappropriate. I really should not have posted this, but folks: If you really aren't looking forward to somebody getting money around for a purchase, then just say you can't wait that long. Seeing how these items wouldn't have sold otherwise, though, I find it rather odd that my insistence that I'd pay *when* I had the money didn't make an impression.
7.) Being a n00b about packaging.
Some people feel they can package a game better if they flatten the box out carefully...and they might be right. It's certainly no worse than recieving a game which you know was perfect WHEN you bought it, but has a partially or totally crushed box because the seller is incompetent. This happened to my MSX2, which has a series of deep gashes along the left side, and various big scuff marks from the items (power supply, some games) that were put on top of it. It's a miracle that the Super Famicom games I also recieved weren't terribly damaged as well.
And the final seller practice which I abhor...
8.) Flaming the everlasting HELL out of an interested buyer because they did something you don't like!
I'll admit that I make my errors, and I make them daily. I'll also say, though, that I never put a nasty edge on my emails and any complaints are decidedly low-key. While I haven't had many instances where this happened, though, the fact that some people apparently have a need to truly flame the hell out somebody for raising a concern (or even just being generally cranky) is inexcusable. Everybody deserves to have their concerns met with a carefully writen, thoughtful reply that does not have sarcasm or nastiness in it, EVEN IF the original email they're replying to was filled with caps and "WTF?"
That just about sums things up. While no doubt this may make me some enemies, I honestly feel these comments are all fair and are simply attacks on certain behaviors that I dislike -- not a person in whole.
"Yeah, he actually went up $20! You'll have to offer something better."
Though I've never actually felt a seller was trying this, it's something that irks me. This also feeds into
2.) Changing the trade
I usually never discuss the details of a trade, even after they're completed, but this is an exception. So this fellow has something that I want and says he'll trade for a GameCube and some games. Great, I spend a day or so waiting for a reply to an email and I put together a small list of games that I could possibly send. Right as I'm about to buy somebody's GameCube, he emails back...oh, somebody ELSE offered me an XBOX bundle that I like better! How nice of them. That not only inconvienenced myself, but made me look bad to the person I contacted about buying the GameCube (our own Forum's AdamG, who doesn't deserve to recieve yet another email from me saying that I'm interested in something when I turn out not to be. For his good conduct in the face of all this, I commend him highly).
3.) Oops, we screwed up the webpage and now we give you...FREE SHITTY GAMES!
While I continue to maintain that Game Choice Club is honest and pleasant to deal with, their practice of updating their website is horrid. I bought $661.97 worth of stuff from them, and two months later it's still being held up because they don't have a mint Sharp Twin Famicom of the style and condition that I paid for. They tried once (only once, honorably) to get me to trade. Now, like waving a carrot underneath my nose, they offer to give me "two free games of our choice." Wow! Wonderful. The part that's truly galling, though, is something I've already mentioned here on the boards: They listed the unit as "in stock" when I purchased it; the next day their page mysteriously was updated to a red "restock soon. As I originally feared, it was not because I'd bought the last one. This is even worse considering that they now require you to register with them and use a shopping cart system to buy games--if they're doing that, they should also have a system to keep their site updated.
I've also had them wholly run out of games I wanted after I made the purchase, and essentially had another game forced on me. Hopefully, my copies of the MD Shadow Dancer, Phantasy Star IV and Real Bout Fatal Fury Special won't suffer the same fate.
I also dislike people who convince themselves that they'll go find what you asked for and end up not responding to your emails for a week. I can wait for a long time, but I by no means enjoy it.
4.) Bundling different parts of games that don't go together.
While this happened to me recently because I both selected the wrong item to buy and also didn't look at the listing closely enough, NOBODY should EVER offer to sell a Mega Games 1 box with a beat up Streets of Rage manual and a Golden Axe box inside. Nobody. Ever. It's an inherently confusing practice and there's no value in doing this. While I won't throw these items away, I do not appreciate that I essentially have junk to store somewhere now.
5.) Being far too free in giving out "excellent" or "mint" grades to items you're selling.
This is common, far too common. It does seem, though, that eBay sellers aren't using the terms "RARE" and especially "L@@K!" as much as they used to -- perhaps it was only my recent visit to see what was there, but it looked to me like more rare stuff was selling (and being ignored ;_;) and these terms were nowhere in sight. Go eBay!
6.) I don't believe you're serious about this, so I'm going to take EVERY POSSIBLE PRECAUTION to see that you WON'T, or rather, CAN'T buy it.
A very few people know who I'm talking about. While I would probably regret this purchase now, I would have saved up for it and this conduct was wholly inappropriate. I really should not have posted this, but folks: If you really aren't looking forward to somebody getting money around for a purchase, then just say you can't wait that long. Seeing how these items wouldn't have sold otherwise, though, I find it rather odd that my insistence that I'd pay *when* I had the money didn't make an impression.
7.) Being a n00b about packaging.
Some people feel they can package a game better if they flatten the box out carefully...and they might be right. It's certainly no worse than recieving a game which you know was perfect WHEN you bought it, but has a partially or totally crushed box because the seller is incompetent. This happened to my MSX2, which has a series of deep gashes along the left side, and various big scuff marks from the items (power supply, some games) that were put on top of it. It's a miracle that the Super Famicom games I also recieved weren't terribly damaged as well.
And the final seller practice which I abhor...
8.) Flaming the everlasting HELL out of an interested buyer because they did something you don't like!
I'll admit that I make my errors, and I make them daily. I'll also say, though, that I never put a nasty edge on my emails and any complaints are decidedly low-key. While I haven't had many instances where this happened, though, the fact that some people apparently have a need to truly flame the hell out somebody for raising a concern (or even just being generally cranky) is inexcusable. Everybody deserves to have their concerns met with a carefully writen, thoughtful reply that does not have sarcasm or nastiness in it, EVEN IF the original email they're replying to was filled with caps and "WTF?"
That just about sums things up. While no doubt this may make me some enemies, I honestly feel these comments are all fair and are simply attacks on certain behaviors that I dislike -- not a person in whole.