Ebay Woes

[TheBadFish]

Ok so I decided to put a bunch of quarter cany/gumball machines on ebay in order to make a little extra dough. First off, out of 7 I only sold one....then just a little while ago I got an email about the one that I sold and shipped. This is what the email said......

"Hi there Mike, Received machine today ,very dissapointed, machine came with broken glass ,and open trojan condom inside box . I can understand the broken glass, but not the packageing .Wife and I are discusted . Ron. Hope somthing is done soon , asap......"


I was absolutely baffled. I have no idea how a trojan condom could have gotten in there.... And then I boxed the machine up with packing peanuts and airbags.

I decided to give the guy a refund and a new machine. Alltogether, my ebay venture left me with a warm nestegg of $-47.35 plus whatever its going to cost me to send another package. Anyone else have any ebay horror stories?

[Michael Ubaldi]

Mine isn't so much a horror story as a costly mistake that offered lesson — consider the extra cost of new equipment, and spend a considerable length of time testing electronic equipment. Back in 2002, I purchased an early-generation Boss delay pedal (so old it read "MADE IN JAPAN") that worked for the couple of hours I spent with it before I gave positive feedback to the seller. Shortly afterward, the box died.

The seller was sloppy; his eBay e-mail was disused and I interpreted a lack of a response as incriminating. One fraud appeal, denied on account of my feedback, later, I humbly bought a new delay pedal.

[dropK1CK_ninJA]

Wow.

BadFish, I'd be more inclined to think that the people are either pulling a stunt on you or the shipping people got into your items and messed with.

I would always guantee shipping and take pictures before I shipped something so I had a record.

[TheBadFish]

That is the only thing I can think of....perhaps someone got into the package and played a practical joke one me. It sucks...really.

Well, ya live ya learn.

[dropK1CK_ninJA]

Yeah :( stuff like that is rotten

so sorry it happened

[TheSwP]

I once sold one of the four-piece vinyl window clings I had recovered from my Blockbuster days on ebay. Because you couldn't roll vinyl very well without splitting it, it had to be shipped in a large, flat box. I didn't have the foresight to get a shipping quote before I set the page up, and was stymied later on when I was charged a steep fee for shipping an unusually shaped package. I came out $40 dollars in the red because of that.

Mike, what happened to you was despicable. I'm so sorry.

[TheBadFish]

Thanks brother. I got a message back from the people and they were really nice about it saying it was probably a bad prank someone decided to play on us. So at least they were decent people about it.

[Shockman]

Ok so I decided to put a bunch of quarter cany/gumball machines on ebay in order to make a little extra dough. First off, out of 7 I only sold one....then just a little while ago I got an email about the one that I sold and shipped. This is what the email said......

"Hi there Mike, Received machine today ,very dissapointed, machine came with broken glass ,and open trojan condom inside box . I can understand the broken glass, but not the packageing .Wife and I are discusted . Ron. Hope somthing is done soon , asap......"


I was absolutely baffled. I have no idea how a trojan condom could have gotten in there.... And then I boxed the machine up with packing peanuts and airbags.

I decided to give the guy a refund and a new machine. Alltogether, my ebay venture left me with a warm nestegg of $-47.35 plus whatever its going to cost me to send another package. Anyone else have any ebay horror stories?

Doesn't make sense to me why a shipper employee would tamper with a package in such as way. No gain its doesn't make sense. If they were to tamper with the process its usually results in theft by lost packages. I use to run a print shop/mail room for a private company, dealt with a lot of shipper companies. The only thing that makes sense to me is your buyer scammed you out of 2 free Gum ball machines.

Think about it. You know you packed it. Broken glass, possible. Trojan condom , highly unlikely. What's the point of it in this situation? Even as a prank by a shipper employee. UPS, FEDEX , DHL , Etc all use tracking not just for pick-up and delivery but for change of hands as well. All shipper employees know this. I think this guy took advantage of your honest nature. I could be wrong. I can be very cynical at times. Not much you can do about it now.

"Eliminate the obvious and whatever remains, no matter how improbable, is the truth." ....Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

You're a Good Man Mike.

[Mookel]

I'm sorry to hear that Joey, I've been hearing more and more complaints about Ebay and their lack of customer support and increasing number of scammers. I've only used Ebay a few times to purchase items, never to sell.

[ERRRskate151]

That sucks a ton dude. One thing on Ebay I'll always remember that got me super angry came from a few years ago. I found a copy of the Bouncer , which I never played before. (I got a PS2 a year or two late) and I really wanted to play that game. I found it for 10 bucks on ebay and the lousy bastard of a seller never sent it out. It was only 10 bucks, but I really wanted to try that game out. It wasn't till after I graduated high school that i actually played it... and was thoroughly disappointed by how short it was.

[Dayfish]

Doesn't make sense to me why a shipper employee would tamper with a package in such as way. No gain its doesn't make sense. If they were to tamper with the process its usually results in theft by lost packages. I use to run a print shop/mail room for a private company, dealt with a lot of shipper companies. The only thing that makes sense to me is your buyer scammed you out of 2 free Gum ball machines.

Think about it. You know you packed it. Broken glass, possible. Trojan condom , highly unlikely. What's the point of it in this situation? Even as a prank by a shipper employee. UPS, FEDEX , DHL , Etc all use tracking not just for pick-up and delivery but for change of hands as well. All shipper employees know this. I think this guy took advantage of your honest nature. I could be wrong. I can be very cynical at times. Not much you can do about it now.

"Eliminate the obvious and whatever remains, no matter how improbable, is the truth." ....Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

You're a Good Man Mike.


I tend to be cynical by nature as well (moreso than normal now, and it's probably permanent), and this is where my mind went to immediately. I kept on thinking, "hmm, I wonder if the buyer lied in order to get a free gumball machine..." People are really nasty, and this is why I hardly ever experiment with ebay. I have in the past for a necklace that I just had to have and couldn't get any other way, but I am extremely leery when dealing with people over the internet. I prefer to do things face to face.

[TeamSharkie]

Just recently, I sold 20 or so iTunes gift cards on Ebay. I mentioned several times in the listing that I would be emailing the code to the buyer and that to make sure his/her PayPal email was up to date as that would be the email I send it to. The first dozen or so went as smooth as could be, but then this one guy sends me an email saying he never received it, so I email him the code again.

Several days later, he sends another email saying he never received the card, and told me to provide a tracking number. At this point, I realized he must have thought I would send the actual card. I shoot him another email and explain the situation to him. Several days later, he filed a PayPal claim against me, claiming that the item was never received. I send him email after email but he never responds once. I have to end up getting his info from Ebay and actually calling him to see what the deal is. Some prepubescent kid picks up the phone and I tell him who I am and ask what the deal is. This kid sounds like he's about to have a bowel movement and he says that he went out of town so he didn't see any of my emails. I know it's a load of bs but he agrees to drop the claim against me. What a little ass that kid was.