Saturday, July 09, 2005

Buying And Selling On eBay



The weather is cool and rainy here in upstate New York. I guess we are feeling the effects of hurricane Dennis. But I am thankful that we aren't having the actual storm. I grew up in Florida and lived through many hurricanes. So I feel for the people that do have to put up with up with them. And I pray that you will all be safe. And your animals too.

I have mentioned on here many times that I have a eBay store. I love eBay and I have shopped a lot on it and for the most part, I have been happy with what I bought. But there are some buys that were just horrible. One of them was a mountain bike for my husband, a Tank bicycle. It was made in China. I don't know if that is good or bad. I think it don't matter where things were made, it's by who they were made.

My husband rode the bike pretty easy. We live on a dirt road and have some really big hills. And our dog, Nikita goes with him. So he wasn'tjumping things like the kids do or even going very fast. It just kept falling apart. The eBay seller did send us a part that was missing. But it wasn't even ridden a month. It didn't cost very much, about $130., but it is a pretty bike. And for some people, $130. is a big chunk of money.

Now I plan on buying another bike for him and one for myself and wanted two extras for when others are here visiting. But I will not be purchasing them at eBay or anywhere on the internet. Used ones probably would have been better.

One of the other things we purchased on eBay was our laptop computers. Mine is a IBM Thinkpad. I bought it from a "Powerseller" who states in his listing that he only says it will arrive working - after that you are on your own. At first, it seemed good, so I gave him good feedback. He never gave me any feedback, even though I paid him through PayPal immediately.

But right from the start I have had trouble with it. The modem had to be replaced, the Windows program has never been right. My colors don't come in at all, the text is always LARGE and ugly. But for the most part, I love the computer itself. I just think it was worn out. It was used. So I will be buying a new laptop as soon as I can from IBM directly. I want it new and in perfect working order. This one also will just go black when you are in the middle of something important.

My husband purchased a used laptop also on eBay, a Dell. He hated it from the start. He had to completely wipe everything out of it. It gives him a headache constantly and still does. The guy who had it was moving to Japan, and he loved it so much, that he wrote all kinds of things to remember about taking care of a computer. It was and is a piece of junk. But it's what we have for now.

I'm not saying all our purchases from eBay were horrible. But these were the worst ones and the funny thing is that they costed the most money. That is probably why some people will hate eBay and others will love it. If you think buying from a "Powerseller" makes a difference, that is a misconception. Sometimes, you find that the so called "Powerseller" is too busy to give good service. And the new seller is careful to give very good service and sell quality items because they want that positive feedback number to go up so badly!

I got my first and only "negative" feedback from a girl from Canada (don't sell international anymore!) who bought a erotic book that in my description, I told that the book had loose pages that had come out, but were still all there. It was a old book, but it was hot on eBay. I sold it for a very low price and the price was reflective of those facts. She NEVER contacted me and said she was unhappy with it or anything. Just gave me a negative. Of course, she was new and I was her first purchase (lucky me!).

The other bad feedback I received was from "desperate husband" in Arizona. He gave me a neutral. For a record that I played at home and was fine and by the time he got it, it was no good. I knew he was going to be trouble before I even sent that record to him. He wanted it mailed in a box instead of a padded envelope (which is how I always sent records out, and all the way to Italy with no problems). So I had a Priority Mail box and I sent it in that. But I did not know they had a flat rate of $7.70 as I had never used it before. He had "postage due" and boy was he mad! I refunded the money for the extra postage and apologized (sometimes you have to eat crow). But he still left me a nasty neutral feedback instead. Never emailed me to tell me he didn't like the record or anything. He is now blocked from my eBay sales.

So you can see that sellers or buyers can be a problem. People are the real problem. I think that people are not as nice as they used to be. They used to help each other out. eBay shows you a good example of the cut throat society that we live in. I think my problem has always been that I try to be nice to everyone and then I come across someone like the girl from Canada, or "desperate husband" and I have a problem dealing with them.

Copyright © 2005  Kathleen G. Lupole


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