posted on March 1, 2003 01:22:25 PM new
In early December, I sold an item and immediately received e'mail from the buyer to the effect that he was going on a several-week vacation and would pay for the item when he returned. Grrrrr...E'mailed him and said as long as it's paid for within 10 days as in my TOS, that was fine. Heard nothing back.
On day 10, I received a PayPal payment from him with a sort of snippy tone to it, regarding the fact that he had, in fact, paid on time. By then, the item had been inadvertently damaged - only thing I ever sold that was damaged on my end, my fault.
Refunded his payment and said the item was no longer available, as it wasn't in the condition in which it had been pictured and I didn't want to sell damaged merchandise. Immediately, he wrote demanding the item. The tone sounded like he thought I just didn't want to do business with him (which I was thinking by then anyway, to be honest about it).
I wrote back and said it's simply not available, I've refunded your payment in full, end of story paleeeeze. Just left a bad taste in my mouth and put him on blocked bidder list.
Now I have an item he wants to bid on (not an expensive item) and he wrote saying he has perfect feedback, etc., doesn't recall doing business with me and why is he on my blocked bidder list? I deleted it without answering, hoping he'd go away. Have another similar e'mail this morning, wondering why he can't bid and not recalling doing business with me.
I have completely lost perspective and just feel cranky and irritable in general about this person. Am I being unreasonable? Am _I_ the PITA? Should I take him off the blocked bidder list and let him bid? Or should I just put the latest demanding e'mail in File 13? Like I said, I've lost perspective; input appreciated!
Auction ends in 3 days - already have a bid on it, so not like I'm not going to sell it.
[ edited by ccharned on Mar 1, 2003 01:38 PM ]
posted on March 1, 2003 01:46:36 PM new
Personally, I think it would be best to ignore him and keep him on your blocked bidders list.
He blew you off when it came time to pay for the prior auction, giving his SEVERAL WEEK vacation priority over paying for his win. With PayPal it would have been just as fast to pay you on time as to email you that he would pay you later. But, no, he had to be an ass about it and make you wait for your money right at the height of the holiday season.
He strung you out until the last day for payment per your TOS, was snippy about it, and immediately assumed retaliation on your part when you found the item was damaged. Your honesty about the damage and your immediate refund were not appreciated, but were met with more hostility. I'm guessing he never went to charm school.
Later when he bids on another of your auctions, he doesn't remember you? Maybe he doesn't (he's so busy and important), or maybe he does (and wants another chance to mess with you). Either way, is this really a customer that you want to cultivate? Not me. Life is too short to let people like this sap my time, money, and strength.
posted on March 1, 2003 01:52:45 PM new
IMHO you are overreacting just a little bit. He bid in good faith, did pay within your time frame.
You should have emailed him as soon as the item was damaged, explaining what happened. You admit it was your fault, then blocked him. I think you owe him a full explanation at the least. Just to tell him it was unavailable doesn't quite cut it.
posted on March 1, 2003 01:56:30 PM new
I have aprox. 75 blocked bidders and do not remember why I blocked a lot of them. When they email me and ask why they are blocked I tell them that there are only 2 reasons you would be blocked. You didn't pay or you were a jerk about something when I dealt with you.
About half email me back to say I always pay for my auctions when I win. I don't bother to email them back I just block there emails. I don't want to recieve email from a jerk.
posted on March 1, 2003 02:18:02 PM new
You can and should reserve the right to refuse to do business with anyone. He was a jerk. You rightfully blocked him. You are subject to having him "mess with you" as another person put it if you let him back in. I strongly suspect his motives.
Block him in your email program and don't watse time on him. Sure, you may have gotten paid for the item that may not sell this listing. But if you let him bid you could be setting yourself up for much unwanted trouble from a person who has already proven they can be quite difficult.
Why tie your attention up on a difficult person, waiting for "the other shoe to fall"?
You may have to wait till the 90th day after auction for him to leave feedback. That's too long to have your attention tied up on one jerk who may retaliate with a neg if he's holding a secret grudge.
If he had apologized profusely about the earlier incident, I would have reconsidered. But he didn't and probably never thought he was wrong.
posted on March 1, 2003 02:32:04 PM new
i have been selling on ebay for 7 years,i never have the need to block anyone.
i am sure there are jerks and assholes out there,including yours truly.
but to block bidders??are you kidding?do you like money??do you like to eat??
i would say,he paid you in good faith,you ruined the merchandise,dont blame him,blame yourself.
posted on March 1, 2003 03:18:38 PM new
stopwhining, there are some sellers who not only want to eat, they want the bidders to smooch butt while paying.
posted on March 1, 2003 03:40:12 PM new
Not true. I have biddders blocked that have continually bid and not paid. I have bidders blocked that paid and then left negs because despite clearly spelled out shippng terms felt that they should wait until feedback phase tocomplain or question, I have one bidder blocked because the whack job asks 101 questions about magazines that he is bidding on including what someone interviewed in it says.
I expect 3 things of my bidders
1) Pay for what you bid for
2) If you have a problem with terms, discuss it
3) To know the difference between reasonable and unreasonable expectations and respect that even sellers get to live a life outside of ebay (i.e. - do'nt get pissy because I didn't answer your e-mail in under 3.2 minutes.)
posted on March 1, 2003 04:14:18 PM new
talk about answering emails,i have found the professional dealers are the worst offenders.they either dont answer at all,or by the time they answer,one has already lost interest or forget what the question is/
posted on March 1, 2003 05:09:16 PM new
I think I would give this bidder one more chance. If it falls through, you can offer it to the second highest bidder. Just my humble opinion.
posted on March 1, 2003 06:46:35 PM new
Trust you first instinct. You blocked him for a reason. If you still feel compelled to waffle, check his bidding history against his FB.
posted on March 2, 2003 08:32:06 PM new
In situations like this, you have to trust your instinct. You received a bad vibe from this bidder from almost the beginning, so perhaps leaving him blocked is a good thing. Just do what you feel is necessary...after all, it is your business!
However, as an aside, I think that if I was the bidder in the first situation, I would feel/think the same way; that you still have the item, but decided to pull it from availability because I pushed your buttons and you don't like me anymore. Sorry, but that would be the first thing going through my head. Of course, I would never intentionally push someone elses buttons like this guy did!
"Who's tending the bar? Sniping works up a thirst"
posted on March 3, 2003 08:00:20 AM new
I agree with your original action, as I have often blocked a bidder, even after a successful completion of a sale for various reasons - normally, and mainly their attitude, or if they are just such an e-mail pest that it takes too much time to deal with them.
Occasionally, it saves time and money to just not deal with certain people.
We like happy, satisfied customers, not complainers, whiners, or people who have nothing else to do but write e-mails about basically nothing at all.
TIME IS MONEY and some folks just consume too much time to deal with which makes selling to them less than profitable OR their attitude is just too pushy to tip toe around, for us it simply isn't worth the sale.
Sniping works up a thirst"