I like to play around with stuff to see how it works. I was interested in how online selling worked so I've been selling used books off and on on Amazon (which is really easy by the way) and decided to give E-Bay selling a try awhile back.
It all went fine - for all my Amazon sales, and my first five or so E-bay sales, I had a perfect customer satisfaction rating.
That is until I decided to sell that used Sony cell phone that Becca didn't need anymore.
After any number of angry accusing email's from Joe (name changed to protect the innocent), the cell phone buyer in Kentucky I have begun to wish Betsy would have taken the phone to her pre-school and let the kids play with it like we've done with other old cell phones.
Here's the deal.
I put the phone on E-Bay with a starting bid of 1 cent. I included the picture you see above of the phone.
My ad read -
"My daughter got a new phone and doesn't need this one.
It was used for about a year.
As you can see from the picture, it has some minor nicks and scratches.
It works fine, just need to plug in your sim card."
Joe the buyer, has sent me any number of E-mails accusing me of duping him into buying a phone, that should have included a charger, with "more than minor" nicks and scratches on it.
I didn't say it was a phone and a charger in the ad but he assumes that absent an explicit note that I was NOT selling a charger, a charger should be included.
I couldn't find the charger before I placed the ad (hence no mention of a charger in the ad). After Joe bought the phone and began to tell me he was an unhappy E-bayer in need of a charger, Betsy and I looked all over the house for it, I emailed Becca and Rachel to see if they knew where it was - alas...all to no avail.
"Minor" nicks and scratches is a subjective evaluation of course, but I was surprised Joe is now accusing me of deliberating showing a photo of the front of the phone to hide the fact that the back has nicks and scratches.
The first picture in E-Bay is free and you pay for additional ones. Call me crazy but I chose the front of the phone for my free photo. You can also choose to use a stock picture of a new phone, with the caveat that it is a stock picture.
To make a story that should be short even longer - for awhile I had a daily running correspondence with Joe to the point where I was thinking of telling him if he wants me to reply to anymore emails he will need to sign up for my "Gold" customer service package.
That's where he sends me some gold (money) and I spend time quibbling with him about what "minor" scratches and nicks are, and if an ad offering a used cell phone really means a used cell phone and a charger.
So the dark side of the E-bay deal is I get my hackles up and waste time and energy arguing with some twit over 8 bucks and some change. It's become the principal of the thing I'm afraid...and what a silly principal to waste time on.
The latest in our saga is that Joe has threatened to turn the sale over to PayPal saying the item was not as described. That sounded good to me, getting a second opinion and all, so I encouraged him to use the wise arbitrators at PayPal to solve this dispute.
