I'll take the post down for the time being and we'll see how it goes. PM sent

So far I still say he's trying to get something for nothing. Trying to take advantage of ebay's return policies.
For a $12 used part!

The smart thing to do is probably to deal with him. If he's being a schmuck, I'd probably advise him he needs to return it and eat the shipping.

Suck it up and refund his money and pay for return shipping. You made a mistake. Ranting about it here is only making matters worse.

Why would you say minimal wear if it was a well worn part? If I was in his shoes, I'd be disappointed too.

Because it was NOT well worn. I didn't make a mistake. It was sold as a used part and has plenty of life left. He knows he's playing a game to get Ebay to refund as much as possible. Wants something for nothing.

I figured out who it is on this forum too so at least I know who he is an his lack of character.

The guy is a cheap ******...used is used, especially if it was cheap. As long as it works he should be happy. Then only time I return is if it was wrongly listed as something else or broken/defective. What I would recommend is make him ship it back, eBay will pay for the return shipping if he opens a "not as described claim" as part of their buyer protection. Then he's has to repack, ship, wait, then you get it, make him wait the full 10 days for his refund, then put him on the blocked buyers list. My blocked list has over 100 people who have low balled offers, complained of asking prices, or just rubbed me the wrong way. I have been on the short side of deals even here where the item wasn't as described but I made do because even if it was slightly wrong it was overall still a decent deal for what it was. Some people just need to grow up. Rant over.

I'd still take it back. I think there is a big difference between "minimal wear" and "plenty of life left".

C'mon Out with it. Need to know applies.

Good idea to block complainers and lowballers. I should have known when it was a lowballoffer on a low price item that he haggled 3 times before I just laughed and accepted it.

Anyone who sells online has to deal with occasional returns, or disgruntled customers.

As someone else has suggested, figure out what the most efficient practical solution is for you.

If you get upset about it, especially for a prolonged period of time, you will lose emotionally as well as financially.

Just treat it as a practical matter rather than a moral one and you will find it's not a big deal at all. You might even say it's a trivial issue not worth getting worked up at all about. But, the choice is yours. You can get as angry as you want. You will find that doing so doesn't help matters in the slightest, however.

Any of us who have dealt with this crap know how frustrating it can be, and sometimes it helps to rant online to an audience that's been through it too. I know I've been where the OP is - and sometimes it helps to rant.

Sometimes the smarter, rational approach isn't the best for us emotionally. Especially in a case like this where eating shipping isn't that big a meal. Heck - buyer MIGHT even back down.

?? I'm not sure what you are getting at here. Do you mean that you think that getting angry over a returned item is actually a good idea?

If OP is getting angry about something as minor as a $20 bicycle item being returned, then it's a fair bet they are getting extremely angry, and in a very unhealthy manner, over issues of actual importance.

It's not so much the transaction as the fact that it's likely symbolic of a larger pattern of blowing things out of proportion and hanging onto their anger.

Occasional returns are just a fact of life in retail. If it's so stressful that every return becomes threadworthy, OP might be better off not selling at all.


I'm just wondering: has the OP ever returned an item? Have they ever haggled over the price of an item? It's like OP has been living under a rock and is completely unfamiliar with purchase negotiation or retail returns.

I suppose in a perfect world, every item a customer receives would be wrapped in handmade gold chiffon and every retailer would make a million bucks profits selling a 2 oz. bag of gummy bears, but in the real world, we have to deal with problems every once in a while and just deal with them instead of crying: "mercy, please! Life is so unfair!"

What I'm getting at is that life can be annoying and it's perfectly healthy to get irritated and blow off steam Mr. Spock

The OP wanted to rant with people who have been annoyed at unreasonable buyers. He probably didn't need your self righteous, pompous harangue.

You are wrong in many ways. I'm not angry in any real sense. He is a knat on an Bull. Perhaps an emoticon would express it better?

Wow...Get a grip.

Think what you want (everyone)...It was me.

The part was sold as having "minimal" wear...I measured it against another Salsa 7075 ring with 10 miles on it...it has lost 35% of its dimension in tooth width and 20% in tooth material THICKNESS...i.e. well worn.

Complaining about "haggling" on a best offer listing...well, um...ok.

Contacting me about an eBay issue, off of eBay, on this forum...BS.

I'm not spending a dime of my own $ dealing with this...sorry.

-Mark in St. Louis

Even if none of this were true, this has some great humor value to it....

LOL, now who's getting angry.

I suppose projecting your anger onto others, and engaging in name-calling is "healthy" too.

OP has obviously returned items as a customer and most likely negotiated for a lower price on items as a customer as well.

It's unrealistic to assume that his customers will never engage in the very same behaviors he has engaged in himself. Customers are self interested and want a low price. Some are more exacting than others when it comes to how they interpret a seller's item description regarding the condition of the item.

These are just the facts of retail life. To expect lillies and honey and thank you letters from customers all of the time is just unrealistic.

Perhaps it is the seller's unrealistic and therefore unreasonable standards about customers which is the real problem, not the customer.

Yeah, I'm siding with the customer this time.

I had a suspicion the OP was engaging in an odd sort of emotional blackmail, defaming another forum member to gain unwarranted sympathy. My suspicions have now been confirmed.

I missed the original post.

What I will say is that I'm getting pretty put off with E-Bay sellers that misrepresent their items. Take photos that fail to represent damage or excess wear on items. Essentially use E-Bay as a dumping ground for stuff that could not sell locally if buyers were given a chance to inspect the merchandise.

Or, perhaps those sellers that use stock photos...
Then when the item arrives, it doesn't look at all like the one depicted in the ad (but the sellers try to claim that the wrong part is an "upgrade".

Especially when one gets stuck with shipping being half the price of the part.

Personally I usually just take my lumps and move on, and rarely give negative feedback, but I have asked for a refund when I ordered 2 items and the seller sent me 1, when NOTHING arrived, or when I got telephone parts when I ordered bicycle parts.

I suppose the question is whether an astute observer would have been able to discern the issue with the part based on the photos and the description.

I will start selling some items soon, so I will get to see the issues from the angle of a seller, but I will do my best to sell quality merchandise with a good description.

It's really ridiculous to claim that 20 - 35% wear is not well worn.

The fact that you are defaming his character rather than working it out with him privately, as common sense and basic courtesy dictate, as would be obvious to anyone with even a minimal ethical standard, says more about YOUR character than the buyer's, or should I say your lack thereof.

3 cheers for the block list!!!!

Well you know what they say about opinions... Haha.

Newbie101 adds the humor to the mix. I bet you're a riot at parties ie: Everything you've claimed I've done, you've now done: character defamation - (despite not naming), judge character based on "teh intarweb post", make assumptions about not working it out (despite me dealing with it), emotional blackmail... wtf? I know where you pulled that one out of... are you trying to emotionally blackmail me? *snif* *snif*

You know what, Newbie101's asstute psychoanalysis has made me realize that Buldogge is actually not that bad, I bet he's a cool guy compared to this obvious newbie. I'm a changed man!

Your emotional blackmail, deep analysis, continual condescention and character attacks, and vacuous pontifications have made me realize there are bigger asses in this world!

This thread got golden fast. Not as golden as handmade chiffon but pretty durn golden! Ha ha! Thanks for the chortle!

Cant see what that cale guy said cuz he is on my block list, just saw that I was quoted lol

You know what [MENTION=183528]buldogge[/MENTION] I extend the olive branch to you sir. You bought a used item that was more used than you thought used was supposed to be used and felt used. Go ahead and return it to me. I certainly don't need $17

Well, I buy and sell A LOT on ebay. And my general principles in doing so are simply this:

When selling, I bend over backwards to list every flaw in any item I sell, and I take the position that the customer is always right, and I never argue with any customer who asks for a refund, and I issue it promptly. Net result, I've never gotten a negative in many hundreds of sales, and fewer than 1% of my buyers have ever asked to return an item for a refund. Oh, and BTW, if I actually inadvertently did misrepresent an item, I refund shipping both ways as well - even though my sales terms state that return shipping is the customer's responsibility. It's happened to me exactly 3 times in over 700 sales, that I shipped an item that had a defect I was unaware of and hence did not fully disclose.

When buying - I always expect that the item is not quite as good as described - but that the price I paid is enough of a bargain to more than cover that difference, such that if it's fully functional, I will have gotten fair value.

The simple fact is, NEITHER the buyer nor the seller in the transaction described in this thread has operated under these sort of principles. So it's hardly surprising that we have a transaction that's gone bad.