OT: I HATE E-BAY!!!, Got held "feedback hostage".... and lost Options

[ninefourteener]

I'm so pissed off.

Remember the guitar I was selling for my friend last week? It was an absolutely GORGEOUS, mint-condition Alembic. I mean, this thing was MINT.... I cannot possibly express how clean this instrument was.

Nevertheless, winning bidder buys it.... pays for it immediately..... so I leave very positive feedback for such a quick payment, and ship it out the next day.

3 days go by, and I get an e-mail... "It has dents and scratches all over it..... What will you do to rectify this situation??

I told him that if it is damaged, he can bring it to the post office and claim insurance on it. After all, I insured it for more than he paid for it........ But he didn't want to do that.

I offered him a full refund if he sent it back...... He didn't want to do that either.

What he DID want.......... was cash. He said that I should refund the difference between what he paid for shipping, and what I actually spent on shipping..... which was about $35.00. (Keep in mind, this was almost a $1500 transaction). Yet.... he demanded that I pay him first.... THEN he'd leave his feedback.

I refused to "buy him off" for $35....... now I have my first negative feedback in 67 transactions...... over 35 f*cking dollars. What an asshole.

This ever happened to anyone else?

[Bigbohr]

Ebay stock is going through the roof ...
TC

I don't get ebay ... (sorry to all honest sellers)

1) Last year a guy advertised a 914. Went to see the car and the poor thing nearly fell apart. The pan was so rusted out (holes) that sitting in the passenger seat was the same as suicide. Somebody paid like 3000 for the car and left feedback that the car was fantastic. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

2) Bought a fairing for my bike two months ago. Ad said that the fairing had some scratches on the side and the front. I didn't care cause at least it wasn't cracked like my current fairing. Confirmed condition with seller by sending query - "only scratches". When I get the thing it turns out that the nose section is cut off. So I can't use it. Sent the seller and email and didn't hear anything ... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif)

3) Some bozo was selling a Pantera on ebay. Someone bought it for like $19,000. Couple weeks later it's relisted, under a different user ID. I had saved the first auction in Myebay and contacted the winner. He said that after winning the auction he had sent an inspector to check out the car. Was a total piece of sh&#. Totally misrepresented. Funny thing is that obviously if you have negative feedback you can start over on a different account, and as I noticed people were still bidding. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif)

4) Last week I saw 4 auctions for a complete 930 engine, each under a different user ID. The description of all four was identical. One of them looked different, had some pics etc. That was prolly a legit one and the other 3 were a scam. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

Must say that I also have had good experiences on ebay. However, I wonder sometimes whether the bad ones offset the benefit you get from the good ones. I prefer to buy from people on the Pelican classifieds or here (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif)