Angry eBay customers..

[Cliff Schecht]

So I've been selling lots of my crap on eBay lately. One pedal that has given me a lot of crap is a Dunlop 105Q Bass Wah. The first buyer was from Brazil and didn't pay. I reauctioned the pedal, got less money for it, tested it before sending it out (it worked), and yet last night I receive this angry email:

I got your pedal and tested it. It absolutely does not work. You sold it because it doesn't work. How could you even mistaken it to work. I am returning your broken pedal and am asking for a full refund including shipping both ways. I am not going to be duped by you.

I get the guys frustration for spending money and it not working, but for him to come at me like this seems ridiculous. It's the kind of accusatory bullshit I dealt with from my graduate advisor. In another email he threatens to let "all of eBay" know what kind of seller I am.

I'm not threatened by this pettiness as much as I am annoyed. I'm an honest seller and try to describe my items accurately with lots of pics. I test everything before I post it and after I sell it. Some stuff I also pick up, fix and resale. This was one of those items, although I picked up this particular pedal MANY years ago and just never used it after I fixed it. But it for damn sure worked when I sent it out, so I'm not sure if it really died or not.

I guess in this instance, however, it doesn't matter because I opted to give a return policy. However, I clearly stated that the buyer pays return shipping and so I'm going to hold strong on this.

What do I do from here? Do I open a case with the conflict resolution center first? I haven't responded to the guys emails yet so I figured I would see what others usually do in this situation before I act. I don't mind the full refund (and eating some shipping charges) but I think that if I state the buyer pays return shipping then he's committed to doing so the second that he clicks buy..

[Cantplay]

I bet you get HIS broken pedal back, not yours.

John

[NickC]

......... I don't mind the full refund (and eating some shipping charges) but I think that if I state the buyer pays return shipping then he's committed to doing so the second that he clicks buy..

There are lots of flakes out there. They will cheat you. Sadly, the way eBay is set up, it becomes a cost of doing business. There isn't much latitude for honest brokers to defend themselves. The system is slanted toward the customer ..... and the maxim "The Customer Is Always Right" prevails.

I had a problem last week with an eBay store that shipped me the wrong item. When I contacted them, their response was to offer me the item at 50% off. Ridiculous! I didn't want the wrong item (heck, I don't even know what it is, or what it's used for). I replied again I wanted them to issue a call tag, or arrange return shipping at their cost. They countered they'd refund me in full within 24 hours and to keep the item. Three days later, still no refund. Sent another message informing them they failed to do what they said, and that if they didn't fix it I'd let eBay/Paypal resolve the matter, and I still didn't want the item and requested an RA. That triggered a full refund, but no RA.

In your situation, it seems the irate buyer is trying to take advantage of you. Maybe he didn't like the pedal. On the other hand, maybe something got dislodged inside during shipping. It's possible. Maybe he used the wrong type/polarity power supply? Maybe he didn't put a battery in? Who knows?

[ToneMerc]

Here's the thing, it's one thing if the buyer has remorse and wants to send it back. In that case, the buyer should pay to return it. However, at this point you have absolutely no evidence that it did not arrive DOA. Therefore, the buyer should not have to pay to ship back a defective item and you should refund his shipping charges, that is the right thing to do.

What are going to open a case over? What if it actually arrived broken, then you will look like an idiot. Years a ago I purchased a pedal from eBay, same spill.....I don't sell junk, the pedal was tested, however it was DOA when I removed it from box. I thought I was going have to put a pistol in his mouth just to get my money back for a pedal that was DOA.

Pettiness goes two ways.............

These issues comes with territory of selling anything to anybody other than yourself.

good luck

TM

[Phil_S]

eBay. You've gotta love it and you've gotta hate it. Probably 98% of transactions are done without a lick of trouble. One person's junk is another's treasure.

eBay's system is stacked against the seller. I think they do this to let the buyers weed out the riff-raff. They have too much activity to do it themselves so their model is to let the marketplace take care of it. Some innocent and undeserving people will get hurt along the way and I don't think eBay cares. Everyone who sells is going get into it with a buyer at some point; the question is when.

It reminds me of some RAM DIMMs I sold with a "no refund" in my ad. Well, it turns out they were bad. (I thought they were good; WTF, he plugged them in backwards and fried them?) So, he fires off NFB without ever contacting me! When I saw that, I simply reversed the PayPal transaction and refunded everything including shipping. It took that MFker over 2 weeks to revise his NFB, which I requested AFTER making the refund. I felt is was a bad idea to hold the refund hostage and it was important to make an act of good faith even though the buyer was such an AH. We all have to deal with it.

Cliff, if I were in your shoes, I'd refund 100% and I'd pick up the return postage. In the larger picture, the $5 or $8 it costs will do nothing to recover your rating, which is worth more than that. It might give you a prayer of repairing your rating. At the very least, you will be able to reply that you gave a full refund and can't fathom why the seller gave you a neg so that people can see you are a stand-up guy. If you feel that the situation is unfixable, then do what you must and suck up the NFB.

I feel for you, really, I do. This is a lot of aggravation over something insignificant.

[Reeltarded]

Tell him you marked the pedal and documented the marking. If he returns a different pedal you are calling the FBI for mail fraud and forwarding the case to Ebay. I dunno... this one bit you. Tell the guy to learn how to speak then burn Ebay to the ground.

I love people. I hate people though.

Always make a video of everything working with a newspaper from the day you list it, like in a kidnapping scenario.

If it got knocked around in the mail and died on the way I wouldn't doubt it. I throw old whas to make them microphonic. Each time they become more microphonic until they don't anymore.

Suck

[M Fowler]

This scam from ebay buyers is going on all over the place. My buddies own a guitar store and they have had to pay for return shipping on amps that were in excellent working order when shipped because Ebay sides with the buyer.

Now the item is worth even less and seller stuck with returned broken crap.
Craigslist has it's share of whiners too.

[Ang3lus]

i had a similar case, a guy bought 3 pickups from me and claimed they are not working and returned them.

they were working when i sent them and got them back.

ebay is a dreaded place now, 21 days to get your money and also risk people stealing your stuff on account of paypal.

[Scumback Speakers]

I've got a love/hate relationship with wah pedals. I love them when they work...but I just went through 3 of the four I own to find that three of them went bad while sitting in the closet, or in a box.

Yup, you read that right. One was a highly upgraded model that had all of these cute little pots inside to dial in your sweep/tone, etc. The on/off switch went south on it, and it was brand new six years ago. I had used it all of four times. Argh!

The next one had a pot go bad while it was sitting, literally, in my closet.

The third one had some other goofy thing go wrong, we haven't figured out what yet.

And to add to my frustration a brand new Line 5 Echo Park on/off switch went bad while sitting on my pedal board unused for four years after it was replaced, and working when I put it on the board.

And players ask me why I plug straight into the amp...sheesh!

So...moral of the story is...wahs have a mind of their own about reliability.

[tsutt]

How do you know your getting your originals back. say someone has fried pups buys a set on ebay swaps them out and claims that what he bought is junk and returns the fried pups and gets his money back and you get f'd could easily happen with an amp. you would have to document everything.

[tsutt]

i say this as this young man told me couple years ago he had some small stereo speakers he blew up. so he goes and buys exact replacements swaps the good for bad and then returns them gets his money back and new speakers.

[M Fowler]

I've got a love/hate relationship with wah pedals. I love them when they work...but I just went through 3 of the four I own to find that three of them went bad while sitting in the closet, or in a box.

Yup, you read that right. One was a highly upgraded model that had all of these cute little pots inside to dial in your sweep/tone, etc. The on/off switch went south on it, and it was brand new six years ago. I had used it all of four times. Argh!

The next one had a pot go bad while it was sitting, literally, in my closet.

The third one had some other goofy thing go wrong, we haven't figured out what yet.

And to add to my frustration a brand new Line 5 Echo Park on/off switch went bad while sitting on my pedal board unused for four years after it was replaced, and working when I put it on the board.

And players ask me why I plug straight into the amp...sheesh!

So...moral of the story is...wahs have a mind of their own about reliability.

You've got Demons in your closet for sure

[jelle]

Yeah, document everything you sell, including detailed gut shots. If one wire is moved, and he is not a certified tech with permission to work on the item, then I would be surprised if eBay could claim that he should get his money back.

Sucks, I hope it will work out. Jelle

[ToneMerc]

Now the item is worth even less and seller stuck with returned broken crap.
Craigslist has it's share of whiners too.

A buddy found that the hard way when he sold a freshly rebuild 700R4 w/new street-strip converter on CL. Buyer had the tranny a month, said it would not shift properly and said another shop said the tranny wasn't a fresh build. I'm nearly a 100% sure the buyer damaged the tailshaft during installation, he tried 3 times to get it installed.
The tranny sat wrapped on my buddys garage floor for 6 years before he decided to sell it and honestly, when it came back from the tranny shop, neither of us verified it was fresh. In the end we gave the buyer 60% of his money back when he returned the tranny and converter.


TM

[M Fowler]

Now the item is worth even less and seller stuck with returned broken crap.
Craigslist has it's share of whiners too.

A buddy found that the hard way when he sold a freshly rebuild 700R4 w/new street-strip converter on CL. Buyer had the tranny a month, said it would not shift properly and said another shop said the tranny wasn't a fresh build. I'm nearly a 100% sure the buyer damaged the tailshaft during installation, he tried 3 times to get it installed.
The tranny sat wrapped on my buddys garage floor for 6 years before he decided to sell it and honestly, when it came back from the tranny shop, neither of us verified it was fresh. In the end we gave the buyer 60% of his money back when he returned the tranny and converter.


TM

Mike,

The guy probably tried to add a different tail shaft/housing so he didn't have to adjust drive shaft length. Probably decided to just use a TH350 and send the 700R4 back making up a story.

Mark