eBay

rio1953 · ‎10-17-2017

This is what a buyer wrote to me yesterday "Hi, it appears I am the only one watching this item I admit it is larger than average, but the fish in side has sustained a lot of sun damage especially the view of the fish pointed left to right, that whole side is pale in comparison to the other side also when to look at the pale side to can see deterioration in a few locations same is true for the other side as well. That being said I would be willing to offer $150.00 in its present condition."

The problem that I have today is that he bought the item for the full price and I feel uncomfortable about the transaction.

Please give me some advice on the best way of dealing with this and cover myself in all events.

esclyons · ‎10-17-2017

if you didn't respond, perhaps they felt they really wanted it, and you don't accept offers, so they had to just pay for it. i have had someone send me offers, then 30 minutes just use the buy it now. perhaps they worried someone else would buy it.. if it has been bought and paid for , i would pack it up perfect, mail it with tracking and appropriate insurance, and hope for the best..just my opinion.

lady.stark · ‎10-17-2017

I would first thank him for his purchase and politely tell him that since he purchased at full price, you cannot give him a discount. However, if he wishes, you can cancel the transaction without any consequences for him (assuming you did not ship yet).

If he agrees, be sure to select "Buyer ask for cancellation" as the reason to avoid a defect.

gwrocen · ‎10-17-2017

@rio1953 wrote:
This is what a buyer wrote to me yesterday "Hi, it appears I am the only one watching this item I admit it is larger than average, but the fish in side has sustained a lot of sun damage especially the view of the fish pointed left to right, that whole side is pale in comparison to the other side also when to look at the pale side to can see deterioration in a few locations same is true for the other side as well. That being said I would be willing to offer $150.00 in its present condition."
The problem that I have today is that he bought the item for the full price and I feel uncomfortable about the transaction.
Please give me some advice on the best way of dealing with this and cover myself in all events.

I agree - I would feel uncomfortable about this transaction, too.

Buyer has already shown their colors by "picking holes" in the item.

If you send it, you can almost be sure that the buyer will find something else wrong with the item

and will file a case ("not as described" or something).

I would politely get buyer's permission to cancel the auction ("buyer request as the reason")

and then block the buyer.

Just our opinion to avoid a stressful situation later where if you send it

you may potentially lose your money (refund) and the item too.

rose-dee · ‎10-17-2017

This is a bit of a sticky situation. I think you really only have two choices:

1) Send a note to the buyer, thanking them for their purchase and saying you received his earlier offer but unfortunately can't take offers on this item. Then ask if he would prefer to cancel. If he replies yes, cancel using the "buyer changed mind or made a mistake" reason.

Needless to say, I wouldn't ship until I'd heard from him. If I didn't get a reply to my message within 24 hours, I might even be tempted to phone him.

It seems this person really wanted the item pretty badly but already had issues with it. Hopefully the issues he mentioned were fully described in the listing? That may help to protect you against a SNAD. If you can afford to send it with tracking and insurance, I definitely would do so.

2) Your other alternative, from a purely business-relations point of view, is to bite your tongue and message the buyer telling him you'll refund the difference between his offer and the full listing price (I'm assuming the difference isn't astronomical). Then you're unlikely to have any griping from him afterwards. This would probably be my choice in any case if I hadn't described the problems well in the listing.

Sorry you're in this dilemma -- sales are hard enough to come by these days.

rio1953 · ‎10-17-2017

Ok let's start with saying:

1st. - whatever faults the buyer found with the item are not true and as such not listed in the listing.

2nd - he had offered less than the half of the asked listed price.

3rd - I have free shipping on the item.

If anything goes wrong with this transaction I am going to loose quite a bit of money.

What if I just cancel?

musicyouneed · ‎10-17-2017

What do you want to do? It sounds like you want to cancel, if so can you handle the fall out. Possible negative comment; may affect future sales; too many of these and you can get kicked off ebay.

Maybe a seller here has cancelled an item and can tell you what the fall out was.

Sometimes you have to go by your gut. What is the buyers feedback both given and received?

If you choose to go through with the sale, make sure you send it with tracking.

ricarmic · ‎10-17-2017

Sometimes I think we read so many horror stories here we think buyers tend to be criminals trying to burn us.

It is possible that the opposite is true, perhaps this buyer has been burned by sellers in the past and is worried they aren't going to get what they want. The pictures, viewed with a "something is going to be wrong" perspective will look different than someone who is looking at them with a "nothing will be wrong" perspective.

If I were to lean toward the a problem is coming perspective, my guess is that once the item is in hand, the same issues will be presented again along with a request for a partial refund of the difference. So the question likely comes down to whether you're willing to risk the difference or not.

Personally I've had a significant number of people buy an item when I do not offer a discount, they come back later and buy it for the whole price with no complaints. Having said this, there is a significant difference between the two in this case, certainly might trigger the spider senses.

My own approach to this stuff is "burn me once shame on you, burn me twice shame on me". In this situation, I would simply send this as I would for anyone else, with tracking and depending on my spider senses that day block the buyer immediately or if anything happens after they receive.

Let us know what happens!!

dutchman48 · ‎10-17-2017

There is a huge difference between stamps and a $338 glass globe!

It does appear there are white dots on the globe that do not appear to be air bubbles.

dutchman48 · ‎10-17-2017

@rio1953 wrote:
This is what a buyer wrote to me yesterday "Hi, it appears I am the only one watching this item I admit it is larger than average, but the fish in side has sustained a lot of sun damage especially the view of the fish pointed left to right, that whole side is pale in comparison to the other side also when to look at the pale side to can see deterioration in a few locations same is true for the other side as well. That being said I would be willing to offer $150.00 in its present condition."
The problem that I have today is that he bought the item for the full price and I feel uncomfortable about the transaction.
Please give me some advice on the best way of dealing with this and cover myself in all events.

Go with your gut. My gut would tell me a SNAD waiting to happen after the buyers comments. Be prepared for a partial refund, or to pay return shipping and refund in full.

Where is the buyer and what is the buyer's feedback?

Can you afford a cancel defect and a neg?

gwrocen · ‎10-17-2017

@rio1953 wrote:
Ok let's start with saying:
1st. - whatever faults the buyer found with the item are not true and as such not listed in the listing.
2nd - he had offered less than the half of the asked listed price.
3rd - I have free shipping on the item.
If anything goes wrong with this transaction I am going to loose quite a bit of money.
What if I just cancel?

eBay will believe the buyer if you ship this item and they bring up the same issues.

Best not to get into a discussion with the buyer. (This was advice we followed from another poster.

And in our opinion, it has turned out to be good advice.)

We have cancelled an auction because we were not comfortable with the information we had on the buyer.

If you cancel, eBay give you 3 choices for cancelling -

We selected the "something wrong with buyer's shipping address" as the reason for cancelling.

(The other two options are "out of stock" and "buyer requested cancellation".)

Then we blocked the bidder. End of story. Nothing happened.

We did not lose any money, we did not have to deal with a case opened against us and we

still had our item which we relisted and sold.

ricarmic · ‎10-17-2017

@dutchman48 wrote:
There is a huge difference between stamps and a $338 glass globe!

It does appear there are white dots on the globe that do not appear to be air bubbles.

A collectible glass globe, a $300 coin, a $300 stamp (I have some listed)... all are subject to quality and condition opinions and can suffer the same problems/issues.....

rio1953 · ‎10-18-2017

I understand that but to make issues with the item before you buy it and even go as far as to tell me with a low ball offer that you don't think it is worth the amount I am asking, then buying the item for the full price......what would that make you think?

Anyways I have contacted the buyer asking if he would like to cancel the transaction in case the item had been bought by mistake.

This was his answer:

I was going to find out why I couldn't send messages, then I seen your. Paperweight in my purchased items list so I sent you a "Thankyou" and it went through, I'm not sure what hang up was but everything seems normal. I have not seen that in 20 years, unless eBay finally realized I was at least 20% of their GNP.....lol.....have a good one.

Buyer is in the States, been on eBay for a long time and the feedback seems to be ok.

I will keep you guys posted......

femmefan1946 · ‎10-18-2017

There is a huge difference between stamps and a $338 glass globe!

I was saying a couple of weeks ago that our public auction offered and sold a stamp (Canada#3) and that it was picked up and carried into Canada in person and later delivered to the buyer in person.

He took the courier out to lunch.

It sold for $285,000 Cdn plus GST plus a 10% buyer commission.

Here are the catalogue and the Prices Realized.

https://sparks-auctions.com/auction-25/

When we don't know another person's area of expertise, it is not a good idea to comment on it.

lady.stark · ‎10-19-2017

@rio1953 wrote:

This was his answer:
I was going to find out why I couldn't send messages, then I seen your. Paperweight in my purchased items list so I sent you a "Thankyou" and it went through, I'm not sure what hang up was but everything seems normal. I have not seen that in 20 years, unless eBay finally realized I was at least 20% of their GNP.....lol.....have a good one.

This is his message? Really weird... I don't understand a word of it... do you?