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eBay BIN concerns

Started by whetteon,

318 posts in this topic

Mr. Zipper

Mr. Zipper

Posted
Posted

I just made the grievous mistake of skimming this thread quickly. doh! What a bunch of overanalytical . :sick: And I can't believe so many people -- under the banner of some sort of misguided "honor" -- expect you to eat $100 because of an obvious typographical error.

 

Many printed ads have escape clauses to account for typographical errors. An ebay auction is no different. If in your heart -- and as the auction title indicates -- you intended to list it for $225, you should not feel the slightest bit guilty for not honoring the sale. Indeed, it seems as if the buyer is knowingly taking advantage of an obvious typographical error.

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Red Hook

Red Hook

Posted
Posted
I just made the grievous mistake of skimming this thread quickly. doh! What a bunch of overanalytical . :sick: And I can't believe so many people -- under the banner of some sort of misguided "honor" -- expect you to eat $100 because of an obvious typographical error.

 

You noticed that too?

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The Black Hand ®

The Black Hand ®

Posted
Posted
I just made the grievous mistake of skimming this thread quickly. doh! What a bunch of overanalytical . :sick: And I can't believe so many people -- under the banner of some sort of misguided "honor" -- expect you to eat $100 because of an obvious typographical error.

 

Many printed ads have escape clauses to account for typographical errors. An ebay auction is no different. If in your heart -- and as the auction title indicates -- you intended to list it for $225, you should not feel the slightest bit guilty for not honoring the sale. Indeed, it seems as if the buyer is knowingly taking advantage of an obvious typographical error.

 

My problem with this thread was the attack on the buyer at the beginning of the thread and the buyer being called a weasel among other things.This matter was being spun to make the buyer look like a bad guy. That was wrong! This whole matter should have been handled behind the scenes and off the boards. He wanted our opinion and we gave it. Demonizing the buyer was not the right thing to do. Like I mentioned before, I mistyped 225.00 instead of 325.00 for an earlyArchie Pep comic. As soon as the auction showed, someone hit the bin. I honored that sale. That's the way I did business. I didn't get angry at the buyer and call him names.Does that clarify things for you?

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topofthetotem

topofthetotem

Posted
Posted
Wow don't agree with Red and get personal insult I guess his Team America is showing.

 

It's not that I don't agree with you. I just don't believe you. :gossip:

Too each their own. (shrug)

 

But I would like to offer a little info about myself.

I sold my van for $4500.00 to a couple, they made a sizeable down payment but I kept the vehicle registared under my name until it was paid off.I told them I would cover any repairs for 3 months.

I sold it at the beginning of last winter and everything worked fine. When summer comes rolling around I get a call that this part and that part are acting up(mainly an air condition pump).

They still owe me money like $200.00 bucks for it so I send them to my mechanic and I cover all the labour and material cost of the repairs to the tune of $700.00.

I could have just said forget that last payment and it's now your problem but I didn't!

I did put my money where my mouth is and covered the cost of repairs 3 months longer then we agreed upon because thats the type of person that I am.

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whetteon

whetteon

Posted
  • Author
Posted
I just made the grievous mistake of skimming this thread quickly. doh! What a bunch of overanalytical . :sick: And I can't believe so many people -- under the banner of some sort of misguided "honor" -- expect you to eat $100 because of an obvious typographical error.

 

Many printed ads have escape clauses to account for typographical errors. An ebay auction is no different. If in your heart -- and as the auction title indicates -- you intended to list it for $225, you should not feel the slightest bit guilty for not honoring the sale. Indeed, it seems as if the buyer is knowingly taking advantage of an obvious typographical error.

 

My problem with this thread was the attack on the buyer at the beginning of the thread and the buyer being called a weasel among other things.This matter was being spun to make the buyer look like a bad guy. That was wrong! This whole matter should have been handled behind the scenes and off the boards. He wanted our opinion and we gave it. Demonizing the buyer was not the right thing to do. Like I mentioned before, I mistyped 225.00 instead of 325.00 for an earlyArchie Pep comic. As soon as the auction showed, someone hit the bin. I honored that sale. That's the way I did business. I didn't get angry at the buyer and call him names.Does that clarify things for you?

 

I'm confused. When did I call the buyer a name? And you're asking me not to get angry when a mistake happens in life? You must have the nerves of a saint. I get angry at myself for many mistakes a day. It's who I am. It's my character. Sorry if that offends you. :foryou:

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CKB

CKB

Posted
Posted
Why take this beyond the situation at hand?

 

$100 mistake. period

 

 

Because if it's an argument based on ethics than the amount is inconsequential. If it is based more on the amount, I'm just trying to ascertain at what point the amount becomes a factor. $100 might be very little to one guy, and quite a bit to another.

 

 

The details of this transaction are very specific. Not sure why one would want to add a bunch of "what ifs" into the equation. (shrug)

 

 

To learn something.

Or to avoid something? hm

 

If I made the mistake I pay, if they made the mistake they pay.

 

How about be nice to each other and no one pays??

 

And you guys sneer at my "expect every deal to go bad and be pleasantly surprised when it doesn't" creed...... (tsk)

 

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The Black Hand ®

The Black Hand ®

Posted
Posted
I just made the grievous mistake of skimming this thread quickly. doh! What a bunch of overanalytical . :sick: And I can't believe so many people -- under the banner of some sort of misguided "honor" -- expect you to eat $100 because of an obvious typographical error.

 

Many printed ads have escape clauses to account for typographical errors. An ebay auction is no different. If in your heart -- and as the auction title indicates -- you intended to list it for $225, you should not feel the slightest bit guilty for not honoring the sale. Indeed, it seems as if the buyer is knowingly taking advantage of an obvious typographical error.

 

My problem with this thread was the attack on the buyer at the beginning of the thread and the buyer being called a weasel among other things.This matter was being spun to make the buyer look like a bad guy. That was wrong! This whole matter should have been handled behind the scenes and off the boards. He wanted our opinion and we gave it. Demonizing the buyer was not the right thing to do. Like I mentioned before, I mistyped 225.00 instead of 325.00 for an earlyArchie Pep comic. As soon as the auction showed, someone hit the bin. I honored that sale. That's the way I did business. I didn't get angry at the buyer and call him names.Does that clarify things for you?

 

I'm confused. When did I call the buyer a name? And you're asking me not to get angry when a mistake happens in life? You must have the nerves of a saint. I get angry at myself for many mistakes a day. It's who I am. It's my character. Sorry if that offends you. :foryou:

I see that it was whomerjay who was supporting you and used some of the nastier tones,and the word weasel as well as a couple of others.If you didn't instigate that , then apoologies, but I still disagree with your stance. :foryou:

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Anfield Fox

Anfield Fox

Posted
Posted
I just made the grievous mistake of skimming this thread quickly. doh! What a bunch of overanalytical . :sick: And I can't believe so many people -- under the banner of some sort of misguided "honor" -- expect you to eat $100 because of an obvious typographical error.

 

Many printed ads have escape clauses to account for typographical errors. An ebay auction is no different. If in your heart -- and as the auction title indicates -- you intended to list it for $225, you should not feel the slightest bit guilty for not honoring the sale. Indeed, it seems as if the buyer is knowingly taking advantage of an obvious typographical error.

 

That's a good point actually. Hadn't thought about it but a lot of the time i read in the papers how a large store would misprice something on their website like TV's for a cent or cheap beer or whatever and it would spread very quickly via e-mail. The stores have it in the small print that they don't have to sell at that price and they usually don't. Case in point, last year a few of us here ordered the Absoloute Sandman Hardback when Amazon priced it for $15 instead of $75. A month later most of us got an e-mail saying that they couldn't honor it and refunded our money.

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skypinkblu

skypinkblu

Posted
Posted

 

"All higher culture is based on cruelty"

 

Neitzsche

 

 

"All that glitters is not gold."

 

-Tolkien-

 

 

“Man has gone long enough, or even too long, without being man enough to face the simple truth that the trouble with man is man”

 

James Thurber

 

 

 

etc, etc....

 

 

"SOME People Suck."

 

-Andrew Cretella

 

Fixed that for ya...;) :busy:

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trmoore54

trmoore54

Posted
Posted
I just made the grievous mistake of skimming this thread quickly. doh! What a bunch of overanalytical . :sick: And I can't believe so many people -- under the banner of some sort of misguided "honor" -- expect you to eat $100 because of an obvious typographical error.

 

Many printed ads have escape clauses to account for typographical errors. An ebay auction is no different. If in your heart -- and as the auction title indicates -- you intended to list it for $225, you should not feel the slightest bit guilty for not honoring the sale. Indeed, it seems as if the buyer is knowingly taking advantage of an obvious typographical error.

 

You are wrong...DEAD WRONG...when it comes to contractual obligations! Read the whole thread...this isn't some sympathy cruise toward rationalization of the mistaken...err and suffer the consequences...(we're not in the sandbox anymore...this is the ADULT world!) Your response is knee-jerk at best and Jerk at worst...

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trmoore54

trmoore54

Posted
Posted
I just made the grievous mistake of skimming this thread quickly. doh! What a bunch of overanalytical . :sick: And I can't believe so many people -- under the banner of some sort of misguided "honor" -- expect you to eat $100 because of an obvious typographical error.

 

Many printed ads have escape clauses to account for typographical errors. An ebay auction is no different. If in your heart -- and as the auction title indicates -- you intended to list it for $225, you should not feel the slightest bit guilty for not honoring the sale. Indeed, it seems as if the buyer is knowingly taking advantage of an obvious typographical error.

 

My problem with this thread was the attack on the buyer at the beginning of the thread and the buyer being called a weasel among other things.This matter was being spun to make the buyer look like a bad guy. That was wrong! This whole matter should have been handled behind the scenes and off the boards. He wanted our opinion and we gave it. Demonizing the buyer was not the right thing to do. Like I mentioned before, I mistyped 225.00 instead of 325.00 for an earlyArchie Pep comic. As soon as the auction showed, someone hit the bin. I honored that sale. That's the way I did business. I didn't get angry at the buyer and call him names.Does that clarify things for you?

 

I'm confused. When did I call the buyer a name? And you're asking me not to get angry when a mistake happens in life? You must have the nerves of a saint. I get angry at myself for many mistakes a day. It's who I am. It's my character. Sorry if that offends you. :foryou:

 

In the name of Samuel Jackson's character in Pulp Fiction during the restaurant robbery scene..."tell that person_without_enough_empathy to chill!

(forgive me...I'm just riffing on this...)

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trmoore54

trmoore54

Posted
Posted
I just made the grievous mistake of skimming this thread quickly. doh! What a bunch of overanalytical . :sick: And I can't believe so many people -- under the banner of some sort of misguided "honor" -- expect you to eat $100 because of an obvious typographical error.

 

Many printed ads have escape clauses to account for typographical errors. An ebay auction is no different. If in your heart -- and as the auction title indicates -- you intended to list it for $225, you should not feel the slightest bit guilty for not honoring the sale. Indeed, it seems as if the buyer is knowingly taking advantage of an obvious typographical error.

 

That's a good point actually. Hadn't thought about it but a lot of the time i read in the papers how a large store would misprice something on their website like TV's for a cent or cheap beer or whatever and it would spread very quickly via e-mail. The stores have it in the small print that they don't have to sell at that price and they usually don't. Case in point, last year a few of us here ordered the Absoloute Sandman Hardback when Amazon priced it for $15 instead of $75. A month later most of us got an e-mail saying that they couldn't honor it and refunded our money.

 

See earlier comments in this thread...that is practiced still but is illegal under contract law...they're just playin' the PT Barnum/hillbilly scam game whereby a sucker is born every minute...if challenged, they must honor the sale in a court of law.

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Ebel 1911

Ebel 1911

Posted
Posted

Many valid points on both sides have been raised. I think skypinkblu's story is a great example of the bottom line of this whole debate:

 

Decide what is important to you and act on that decision.

 

In sky's story she was the buyer and the seller made a mistake and stood by it because that's what the seller thought was appropriate. Because of this sky has been a loyal customer.

 

That doesn't mean this is the right decision for all people all the time. I'm sure you all have done nice things for a buyer that resulted in absolutely no further benefit to you.

 

rantrant

I had a similar situation as a seller. I'm not a dealer, just sell things on occasion to raise funds to buy something new. I had 2 lots with 5 comics between them. One buyer bought the 2 lots and asked for the combined shipping price with insurance. I gave him a price which was a best-guess estimate from the USPS website of something like $17. It turned out shipping and insurance was really $32. I could have sent it a cheaper way but had advertised that I'd send it Priority Mail so I did and took the $15 hit.

 

Not only did this have no appreciation from this buyer but about 2 weeks after I sent these, he complained about a scratch in the CGC case that I had not seen. I had large pictures but did not see any scratch in the pictures I had taken. This guy wanted to resubmit it to CGC and have me pay for his resubmission because he said "my customers expect a higher grade" of product. The scratch was not a crack, I verified this with him, it was a surface blemish on the back of the case.

 

First he really tried to get me to say that it was a postal issue since he had purchased insurance. I packed the comics really well and unless the box was squeezed between a truck and a building, I'm confident the trouble, if it existed before he had it sitting around for 2 weeks, was not caused by the postal service and was not about to say it was their fault since I do not believe that's at all likely.

 

I asked him to send me a picture of the scratch and, since he bought 5 comics, I'd determine the percent cost of this comic based on Overstreet Values and his total purchase price. For instance if the total OS value was $500 and the specified comic was worth $100 then the refund for that comic would have been 20% of his actual purchase price. If his total purchase price was $300 then he'd get $60 back for the comic in question. He did not send me any picture of the scratch and did not like this suggested refund method, though it seemed the most reasonable method to me. I then told him he could return everything and I'd refund all his money and this also did not work for him, since he'd gotten a great deal.

 

After he complained again, I pointed out that I had already spent $15 more than he paid so that I could send them to him in the manner that I had agreed. This meant absolutely nothing to him and he said he understood I was trying to work with him but he'd contact Ebay to see what they had to say.

 

That was the end of it because I'd clearly been trying to satisfy him and Ebay had nothing to say about it. I did place him, the first and only one so far, on my Banned list from any further auctions. He thought the $16 resubmit cost was most important so he has missed out on the opportunity to get any more good deals on comics of the type that he sells.

 

To me, Whet's customer sounds a little like this guy was to me. Whet's tried to be reasonable with him and the guy wants to stick to the great deal he got. This particular customer, by ignoring all of Whet's attempts to communicate and constantly resubmitting payment to Paypal, does sound like an opportunist.

 

IMHO the buyer is correct in the "rightness" of being able to try to enforce the purchase, but by his actions the buyer is also showing that he is unwilling to consider human error and is only interested in his own needs.

 

If it were me, I'd probably take the loss and ban the guy from any further transactions. OR I'd get mad and stubborn and refuse to let him off that easily. It sounds like this guy will not be a loyal customer because he is unwilling to communicate with Whet. Using that information, it's Whet's call on what he thinks is the best method for him.

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skypinkblu

skypinkblu

Posted
Posted
Many valid points on both sides have been raised. I think skypinkblu's story is a great example of the bottom line of this whole debate:

 

Decide what is important to you and act on that decision.

 

In sky's story she was the buyer and the seller made a mistake and stood by it because that's what the seller thought was appropriate. Because of this sky has been a loyal customer.

 

That doesn't mean this is the right decision for all people all the time. I'm sure you all have done nice things for a buyer that resulted in absolutely no further benefit to you.

 

rantrant

I had a similar situation as a seller. I'm not a dealer, just sell things on occasion to raise funds to buy something new. I had 2 lots with 5 comics between them. One buyer bought the 2 lots and asked for the combined shipping price with insurance. I gave him a price which was a best-guess estimate from the USPS website of something like $17. It turned out shipping and insurance was really $32. I could have sent it a cheaper way but had advertised that I'd send it Priority Mail so I did and took the $15 hit.

 

Not only did this have no appreciation from this buyer but about 2 weeks after I sent these, he complained about a scratch in the CGC case that I had not seen. I had large pictures but did not see any scratch in the pictures I had taken. This guy wanted to resubmit it to CGC and have me pay for his resubmission because he said "my customers expect a higher grade" of product. The scratch was not a crack, I verified this with him, it was a surface blemish on the back of the case.

 

First he really tried to get me to say that it was a postal issue since he had purchased insurance. I packed the comics really well and unless the box was squeezed between a truck and a building, I'm confident the trouble, if it existed before he had it sitting around for 2 weeks, was not caused by the postal service and was not about to say it was their fault since I do not believe that's at all likely.

 

I asked him to send me a picture of the scratch and, since he bought 5 comics, I'd determine the percent cost of this comic based on Overstreet Values and his total purchase price. For instance if the total OS value was $500 and the specified comic was worth $100 then the refund for that comic would have been 20% of his actual purchase price. If his total purchase price was $300 then he'd get $60 back for the comic in question. He did not send me any picture of the scratch and did not like this suggested refund method, though it seemed the most reasonable method to me. I then told him he could return everything and I'd refund all his money and this also did not work for him, since he'd gotten a great deal.

 

After he complained again, I pointed out that I had already spent $15 more than he paid so that I could send them to him in the manner that I had agreed. This meant absolutely nothing to him and he said he understood I was trying to work with him but he'd contact Ebay to see what they had to say.

 

That was the end of it because I'd clearly been trying to satisfy him and Ebay had nothing to say about it. I did place him, the first and only one so far, on my Banned list from any further auctions. He thought the $16 resubmit cost was most important so he has missed out on the opportunity to get any more good deals on comics of the type that he sells.

 

To me, Whet's customer sounds a little like this guy was to me. Whet's tried to be reasonable with him and the guy wants to stick to the great deal he got. This particular customer, by ignoring all of Whet's attempts to communicate and constantly resubmitting payment to Paypal, does sound like an opportunist.

 

IMHO the buyer is correct in the "rightness" of being able to try to enforce the purchase, but by his actions the buyer is also showing that he is unwilling to consider human error and is only interested in his own needs.

 

If it were me, I'd probably take the loss and ban the guy from any further transactions. OR I'd get mad and stubborn and refuse to let him off that easily. It sounds like this guy will not be a loyal customer because he is unwilling to communicate with Whet. Using that information, it's Whet's call on what he thinks is the best method for him.

 

Since you mentioned my example, I thought I'd comment on this. First off, my advice was from the very beginning that Whet CALL the person. You can find out so much more from a phone call than ASSUMING the worst...and that is all anyone here has been doing, who thinks the buyer is a bad person.

 

I've had several potentially bad experiences work out after a simple phone call, email just doesn't allow you to interact with someone the way speaking with them does and sometimes, even a comma in the wrong place, can allow the other person to invent a whole new spin on what you are trying to say.

 

I had forgotten an incident from many years ago, with a board member here, that was worked out over the phone, an extremely nice honest person who sent me a PM here, a few months ago to say hi, and before we spoke on the phone, I have a feeling we both thought the other person was more than a bit odd.

 

If you think you are having a problem with a buyer OR a seller, pick up the phone, if they are a screaming lunatic, you can always put it down and go watch TV while they rant...but chances are, they are just like you....trying to be reasonable

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