Originally Posted by fairbid
I can't negotiate with insanity.
Well, as a third party observer who doesn't get to see all the facts, it's a little tough for me to see where you're coming from when you say "I'm not name calling, she's just crazy." The response you sent her about mental instability and ebay hell was absolutely insulting, and to call it anything else would be just plain wrong.
That being said, none of us are seeing the entire e-mail string between the two of you, so there's really no great way to tell what happened. I will tell you that it sounds like the bike WAS in pretty bad shape in terms of the finish when it arrived to the buyer. As a self-proclaimed layman, you may not have appreciated that, but there's no reason that a bike's finish should look like that, even if it's 14 years old, without it having been altered significantly at some point. So it sounds to me like the buyer had a legitimate gripe. How that led to the "go to ebay hell" message I'm not sure, but it sure sounds like you didn't think the buyer was making a legitimate complaint and you snowballed from there, even questioning her sanity.
Please don't sell yourself as a completely innocent, aboveboard person who's as pure as fresh snow. You can't call yourself a legitimate, reasonable person and go on to talk about how your buyer is insane, even if she is. It really doesn't do much for your credibility. I don't know what you have against the west coast or if you just can't get how a cyclist would worry about the finish on a bike, but you need to get over it and just give this buyer her refund. Under ebay's rules, the only thing she needs to do is pay YOU for the bike in a timely manner, and inspect it on arrival to ensure the auction was accurate. It sounds like it was not, and all of this finding another buyer business, etc., is not something that she is required to do. She paid for an item and received it in a condition that was not specified in the auction, therefore she has a recourse through you and paypal to get her money back and return the item to you.
In the future, I would try to know a little more about what you're selling, especially when it comes to big ticket items. A quick trip to a local bike shop to inspect the bike would've gone a long way in preventing this.
DrPete