Post Your Crazy, Insane and Problem eBay Customers Here... Sellers Too!

[Nitric]

I think you made the right choice not dealing with that nut job again. Sounds to me like that guy was a scammer of some sort.

One thought I had since I have been around some scammers in my life. Is that maybe he was trying to find a buyer, before he paid. That's why he stretched it out so long. Then by the time I had relisted maybe he found one that would commit to buying at a higher price. This happens with coins and some of the rarer items. That was just my dreamed up theory of a possibility. We use to do it with watches and coin collections too. As soon as you find out about them, your on the phone trying to get possible interest before you even buy. Maybe that's why I think along those lines too. And to be honest? I would not have cared if he would have just told me in a message before hand. No big deal! Lets just make a date where we draw the line!

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Agony and Death on a Gold Rush Steamer: The Disastrous Sinking of the Side-Wheeler Yankee Blade - Grab it through Amazon!

[bigcaddy64]

After hearing all of your stories i guess i feel lucky. 12+ years selling and i've only had a few brushes with the crazy/scammers on ebay, unlike my friends who attract them like a magnet. I've had a couple of head scratchers in the past but these are the ones that i can remember

-Sold a pair of white Lucky Jeans, purchased like new from a woman in the Pacific Palisades. Very nice shape with 1 small stain on the inside leg, near the ankle. I took pictures inside the house because it was right in the middle of our "rainy" season and sunlight wasn't an option. Woman in florida buys them and claims they are dingy/yellow "like you see in the pictures" and wants a partial refund. I explained to her, just as the ad did, that the photographs were taken indoors and the yellow tinge was from the incandescent lighting. I also pointed out a final picture i uploaded once i had 5 minutes of sunshine, showing the jeans were bone white. She vanished without further contact.

- Since i'm in SoCal near the San Gabriel Valley, i have a fair share of Asian buyers which can be difficult to deal with at times. I sold a knife to a buyer that has a store in Japan/China that sells new/used stuff. They wanted me to ship to their CA address, which was fine but then the headache started. Repeated messages were sent asking me to "relist with a lower price", "create a web page with a lower price", "create an invoice with a reflected lower price" and each time the messages were getting more demanding. The idea was to avoid paying customs fees but i'm sorry, i'm not going to create a web site just so you can save 7.00 That one really had me steamed, which is hard to do on ebay.

 

[bigcaddy64]

Another one comes to mind but its not mine. This was my dads experience with the most impatient buyer hes ever had the displeasure of doing business with. The buyer purchased a book from my dad on Saturday afternoon, say 4:00PM, PST. Dad lives in CA, the buyer was in Missouri or somewhere near. On Sunday he gets a message from an very upset buyer who is demanding to know where his book is and why it hasn't arrived yet? The message left my dad somewhat speechless. He had to explain to the guy that mail doesn't move much on Saturday evenings/Sundays but it should arrive by Tuesday/Wed at the latest. That wasn't good enough so the guy waited until it arrived, claimed it wasn't in the box and ebay refunded his money. My dad was out his money and to add insult to injury, the book showed up for sale not long after, for double the price and was being sold by the buyer, who claimed he never got it!! I'm not sure what happened after that but i think the bike community collectively shunned the buyer after that.

I should add the fact that the book in question is a somewhat rare bicycle book. Dad found it in a lot of other books for nearly nothing and knew what it was worth since he owns a few copies.

Dad is a nice guy and a valuable asset to the pre-war Schwinn bike community. They are constantly sending him obscure/not easily manufactured parts from across the country so he can reproduce them. Not many people would bother with a fender or light bracket but if you need it to complete a 1938 Autocycle restoration, its a must have part, especially when finding an OEM part is impossible. To screw him like that is like stepping out of line with the Soup Nazi, you get cut off, and not just by him.

 

[mugsisme]

Isn't this special? I sold something, and then got an PM from a lady asking to buy my item for less. Sure. Send her an offer. I go to pack it up, and she bought the other item. I refunded her a little because the shipping was too much. Mailed them Tuesday, she got them today. Here is the feedback I got for the first one: Nice And here is the feedback from the second one: OK
I guess she is a lady of little words, huh?
I can't get out of here fast enough. I just had a buyer ask me why the PO scanned the package I mailed this morning as delivered to my city. GRR. Probably because the PO scanned it wrong. Something else for me to do before the snow comes.

 

[Joe777Cool]

Isn't this special? I sold something, and then got an PM from a lady asking to buy my item for less. Sure. Send her an offer. I go to pack it up, and she bought the other item. I refunded her a little because the shipping was too much. Mailed them Tuesday, she got them today. Here is the feedback I got for the first one: Nice And here is the feedback from the second one: OK
I guess she is a lady of little words, huh?
I can't get out of here fast enough. I just had a buyer ask me why the PO scanned the package I mailed this morning as delivered to my city. GRR. Probably because the PO scanned it wrong. Something else for me to do before the snow comes.

The nerve of some people! Leaving you not 1 but 2 positive feedbacks!!

 

[cyberdan]

- Since i'm in SoCal near the San Gabriel Valley, i have a fair share of Asian buyers which can be difficult to deal with at times. I sold a knife to a buyer that has a store in Japan/China that sells new/used stuff.

I to live in that area. Are you sure we are not talking Korean?

Your handle sounds very familier. Did I ever sell you a bunch of tools and we met in La Habra for delivery?

 

[SDIceMan]

Had a buyer purchase an AC manifold last week. He messaged me in a panic with a 'buy it now' offer because his fridge was on the fritz and he needed to fix it asap. I shipped it Priority 2-Day, and wouldn't you know it, in about the same time it would've taken him to fix his fridge, I get a return request. I should've seen that one coming.

 

[FreedomUIC]

I just don't get people. I am not a seller on E-Bay, I strictly buy. 99% of the time I am watching the auction end and pay as soon
as it is completed. Once in a blue moon I will bid on something that ends late in the evening while I am in slumberland. Will check
the next day unless it is Sunday then Monday it is. But I always pay asap, don't get this crap with people trying to get something
for nothing......

 

[diggummup]

Had a buyer purchase an AC manifold last week. He messaged me in a panic with a 'buy it now' offer because his fridge was on the fritz and he needed to fix it asap. I shipped it Priority 2-Day, and wouldn't you know it, in about the same time it would've taken him to fix his fridge, I get a return request. I should've seen that one coming.

Gauge set? Used it to fix his fridge and now he's returning it? Used when sold I hope? Something like that needs a high shipping price, with no returns unless SNAD and a hefty restocking fee.

 

[SDIceMan]

Yes, a used gauge set. Lesson learned on my part. He claims that he doesn't believe it's a Matco gauge set. It is most definitely MATCO - I know since I'm the original owner. Claims he called Matco and described it to them and they said it's probably not their's. So a big sarcastic 'thank you' to eBay for having me so scared about negative feedback that I have to just bite my tongue and pacify a shady buyer.

 

[Tahts-a-dats-ago]

I had an account with Ebay for something along the lines of 15 years. Mostly I was the buyer but I did sell on occasion. My feedback was 100% positive (buyer or seller) but I have to admit that selling was a much larger hassle.

For me the biggest problem wasn't the problem buyer, or even the troublesome would-be buyer; it was Ebay itself.

After being lied to on numerous occasions, having my money held for weeks – even after meeting their conditions multiple times....

I finally had enough of it and contacted Ebay one final time to let them know that I would not do business with a company that didn't respect me as a seller. I was promised that the problems would be addressed and that I'd be getting a phone call from someone in management. The call never came and I insisted, in a follow up contact, that my account be abolished for good.

My account was suspended for somewhere around six months, but then finally was deleted. During that time I received a congratulatory email, thanking me for my longevity with Ebay and telling me how important I was to the company.

No phone call, no effort to address the problems; just a meaningless email message that showed little other than Ebay's indifference and ineptness.

I considered it (the email) to be an affirmation of the wisdom behind my desire to end the one-sided relationship.

 

[Rivers rat]

I had 3 problems recently i sold a trousers brand new with tags THillfiger they never get it......UK.........a guys i sold some clay pipes said they were blocked and he couldt smoke them (after 150 years in the mud ) ) i told him my items were RINSED under clear water and thats it.............3rd one was a lady in the US said everything arrived broken i send another lot(INK BOTTLES) well from her posh allotment in Florida she didn't said thank you or even f&%^ off or even left a positive feedback needless to say i didn't make a penny on those 3.I think some buyer know the drill and dont give a s$%^ about ruining your 10000000 positive feedbacks..............i consider myself like a trapper or a fisher man selling my catch it is nt a big deal if a transaction go bad but when you had put effort time and involve a bit of money to find the goods and have to reimburse the filthy buyers it is how shall i say ...annoying



RR

 

[Beachkid23]

I just got a negative. Guy said it was a fake item. Finally after 3 emails he said refund me and I'll change the feedback. Have not heard back and he has not changed the feedback either. Gonna email him again. He probably won't change it. Pisses me off though. Over a $14 item. Member since 2007 and he can't write back or even email that there is a problem. He has a business too. You would think he would work with ya. Jerk.

 

[mugsisme]

Beach, they can't change it. I left a 3 that time for shipping prices, and when I found out it was a defect, I wanted to change it. EBay said I couldn't. I left my feedback, and that is how I felt. Very annoying.

 

[cyberdan]

Finally after 3 emails he said refund me and I'll change the feedback.

Did he say that through the ebay message system? That is called something like feedback blackmail. Have ebay read his your messages.

 

[JunkLover]

I don't get too many problem buyers, but the most common ones are the people who want me to set a Buy It Now price for a particular auction and they want the BIN price to be exactly the same as the opening bid (which I can't even do since Buy It Now prices have to be, I think, at least 30 percent higher than the opening bid). I specifically say in the auction that I will not be doing a Buy It Now option and people still ask me. I tell these people to just place a $#!&ing bid (I say it a little more politely than that), and a vast majority of the time when they take my advice, they wind up being the only bidder and winning it at the price they wanted.

My most recent pain in the butt was some guy who wanted to pay for a DVD with a money order, which I was okay with. He didn't tell me what item he wanted to buy until about three days after he began messaging me and, during that time, another user bought and paid for the DVD. I told this to the money order guy and he threw a fit, saying he went out of his way to purchase a money order and that he was going to send it to me anyway (I don't know how since he didn't have my address). He refused to comprehend that the item he wanted just was not available anymore, but I'm thinking there was never a money order to begin with.

Hands down, the best eBay user I've ever dealt with was someone who attempted to haggle with me over a three-dollar Hello Kitty digital pet. They said they'd be willing to give me $1.75 for it. I had no Best Offer option on the auction either. Even better, I had the opportunity to donate certain percentages of auction proceeds to charity and I was donating anywhere from 20 percent to 50 percent per item of what people paid from that batch of items. Since it was such a small-value item, I was going to be giving 100 percent of whatever I got for the Hello Kitty toy to charity. And someone still wanted to haggle over it. Thankfully, a sane person bought it without complaints.

 

[smokeythecat]

I hope I'm not in a bad case now. Sold a pricey item. Said ships to US only. So the guy who buys it is from the Mideast. He did pay for it a couple days later. I talked to Ebay and they weren't much help, he short paid on the shipping. He paid for the US shipping rate which included full insurance.

I shipped the blasted thing anyhow, underinsured as the USPS would only go so high to his country. I made sure the exact and true amount of the sale was on the customs form. I don't know if he'll get an invoice from customs but I hope he does.

 

[jerseyben]

I hope I'm not in a bad case now. Sold a pricey item. Said ships to US only. So the guy who buys it is from the Mideast. He did pay for it a couple days later. I talked to Ebay and they weren't much help, he short paid on the shipping. He paid for the US shipping rate which included full insurance.

I shipped the blasted thing anyhow, underinsured as the USPS would only go so high to his country. I made sure the exact and true amount of the sale was on the customs form. I don't know if he'll get an invoice from customs but I hope he does.

WHY did you send it? You need to change your settings so your sales will only be available to US buyers.

 

[jerseyben]

Hands down, the best eBay user I've ever dealt with was someone who attempted to haggle with me over a three-dollar Hello Kitty digital pet. They said they'd be willing to give me $1.75 for it. I had no Best Offer option on the auction either. Even better, I had the opportunity to donate certain percentages of auction proceeds to charity and I was donating anywhere from 20 percent to 50 percent per item of what people paid from that batch of items. Since it was such a small-value item, I was going to be giving 100 percent of whatever I got for the Hello Kitty toy to charity. And someone still wanted to haggle over it. Thankfully, a sane person bought it without complaints.

Someone offered you less than your asking price? Not a big deal. Not sure what the charity aspect of the price has to do with it? If that is your worst experience on ebay then you are very lucky!

 

[jerseyben]

Beach, they can't change it. I left a 3 that time for shipping prices, and when I found out it was a defect, I wanted to change it. EBay said I couldn't. I left my feedback, and that is how I felt. Very annoying.

Buyers can change their feedback. The seller must send a special request to the buyer to revise their feedback. There is a limited number of these requests available per year.