Ebay etiquette

[rowdy]

Ebay seems to be full of numpties at the minute.
The missus bid on an item that was collection only and hoped to go and pick it up at the weekend just gone, it being a bank holiday and having a 70 mile round trip to collect the item.

When we messaged the seller we were told that they were away on holiday and couldn't be collected til next [this] week in the evening.

Cue the message from my wife and "can I just ask why you have put your item on to finish when you will be away and the item can not be collected. . . " then saying work late and live far away so can't collect til the weekend. Nothing untoward, just a valid question IMO.

Seller responds with "My life doesn't revolve around ebay, didn't expect such a rude message for such a slight oversight!"

Now, I know that we could, and with hindsight probably should have messaged before we bid to check when the item could be picked up but, I like to remain anonymous till as late as possible to avoid dodgy bids hiking the price up and I was under the impression that it is common courtesy to state in the listing if the seller will be away when the auction ends.

Can we tell them to do one or are we being unreasonable?

[Bibio]

i personally wouldn't mind about the wait.

what did pizz me off was sellers using my email as their own private spamtastic trying to sell me stuff outwith ebay. i sent them an email stating that although i had purchased items from them threw ebay it gave them no right to send me marketing mails direct. to say i was shocked by the reply is an understatement and it has to be one of the rudest i have ever encountered to date.

[speedyctr]

They do just sound like a numpty. My missus uses ebay ALOT, and if we are going away wont list anything to finish during that period. Just mention that in their feedback

Get these people all the time. I'm currently selling a guitar case, titled "Stagg Acoustic Bass Guitar Hard Case". First line of description: "As per the picture, but guitar, amp and strings not included!"

Get this message a day later:

"Hi sorry I found your lot misleading! I thought you had an acoustic bass guitar for sale, can you remove my bid please. Thanks in advance"

Me:
"Misleading?

First line of description: "As per the picture, but guitar, amp and strings not included!".

I do have an acoustic bass for sale, but this is not it, this is an "Stagg Acoustic Bass Guitar Hard Case".
Check my other items for the actual guitar, if you so desire."

Him:
"So, basically as per the picture but nothing included that is in the picture apart from the case."





Me:
"Correct. This is why people actually read descriptions first, or even, at least, the item title. People don't bid on iPad screen protectors and then tell the seller to retract their bid because they thought they get an iPad with it, because there was an iPad in the picture.

Well, that's normally the case. There are of course the few people who serve as the exception..."

[Jayneflakes]

All of this proves something that I have long suspected, there are an awful lot of idiots out there!

Some times you just have to accept that some folks have the brains of a peanut which makes dealing with them awfully tedious.

[rowdy]

It gets better, having sent a message myself yesterday explaining that they should have mention they would be away when the auction ended, common courtesy ect, I have just recieved an apologetic email saying they didn't want people to know they would be away at the weekend, they will also be away next weekend and that they are only around evenings during the week. The feckers.

Sort of makes sense,,but only a little. They didn't want to let people know that they were away.

BUT!

They shouldn't have sold it when they knew they were going away.

I not long sold a camera lens, had an email asking that if they won it, could they collect as they were not far away...No problem I said.

They won,,won the auction at last second, but didn't pay straight away,,5 hours passed, so I emailed them saying well done and did they still want to collect in person. They replied yes, and will pay cash in hand. and can collect in a hour or so.

Now I didn't list it as cash in hand, also,,it had not long passed 11pm. Needless to say, I told them no, you won't come round in the early hours, and posted it to them.

[maviczap]

Similar here, but from the buyers side

Bid on a branded handlebar stem for my bicycle. Got the item and when I went to fit it, the steering tube was loose on the stem even when fully tightend. Tried a reducing shim I had, but that wasn't any good.

Emailed the seller, who said I could get a shim easily EBAY, but I knew that wasn't correct. He didn't have a shim to go with this stem

So did a bit of Googling, and found out that it needed a uber special eccentric shim, but none in the packet, or mentioned in the listing. Plus the stem was only for 1in steer tubes, which is an old standard size, now its 1 1/8in diam.

This wasn't mentioned in the listing

So raised a compliant with EBAY, as not as described, and missing an essential part, as it was useless without this part.

No update until a week after I'd raised the issue with EBAY, he'd obviously told EBAY that I could get any old shim to make it work, as they sided with him, so my compliant was rejected.

But I appealed the same day, and this morning I'd got a refund!!!!!!

[Stingo]

Not sure I agree really. If I was selling something, and I happened to go away, whether it was short notice or not, and the end date happened to fall whilst I was away, I'd just contact the butter upon my return. I don't see the need to give chapter and verse and explanations to people I don't about what I'm doing and what my movements are. There could be lots of reasons why the people in the above case were away, and most likely didn't really see that there was a problem...it's only a bank holiday weekend after all. We've allgot lives, we just need to manage them.

In addition, when I sell stuff I try to ensure that the picture matches, as far as reasonably practicable, the description. If I was selling the wife's necklace for example, I wouldn't take a photo of the contents of the jewellery case and post that on eBay expecting any punter to read word for word the accompanying blurb. I'd take a picture of the item, then describe it...this making it clear for all to see what it is that is for sale, thus negating, hopefully, as many questions as possible.

Clarity and a bit of tolerance is all that is needed. This often works both ways.

There may also be a little misunderstanding in the reading of an email.

"can I just ask why you have put your item on to finish when you will be away and the item can not be collected. . . "

Because you cannot hear a tone in text, it may be perceived by one person as rude when this was not the intention this then leads to more issues.

IMHO I would have asked for a phone number and made a call to discuss a mutually agreed time.