Another Day, Another Deadbeat. Give Me A Break.

Bah.

Yesterday, I had to open a non-paying bidder case against the second chance bidder on a doll I sold.

The first bidder asked me to wait a week for payment, then didn't pay and I had to file the first NPB case.  This made me scramble to pay off a quite large bill. Then I had to wait another 4 days for the case to end.

Case ends, get fees back, and offer to second bidder, "Can I pay next week?" Ugh. Okay.

Next week rolls around, no money. I send invoice, wait another 24 hours and file NPB. This morning she messages me and says "In the past two weeks, everything that could go wrong, did, can I pay next Friday?"

Last two weeks? Everything that could go wrong, did? Tell me about it. *eyeroll*

Somehow I doubt the man that raised her put a gun in his mouth and decided to end it all, but I said nothing to her about that. I just explained that my dad died unexpectedly at 53 and I have been dealing with that. Then I told her that I'd like to wait, because in a perfect world, I would not care, really, but all my bills are due between the 28th and 30th, the doll has been tied up for a month and I want my fees back.

I am fed up with these ebay bidders, but I hate the unlimited time formats on other sales sites. There is no urgency to buy within a certain time-frame and when you've got bills to pay, you need stuff to move quickly and so I am rather stuck with ebay to finance my major bills, which literally are due between the 28th and 30th. Granted the small steady sales all month from other sites do help, but when I need a major chunk of money in a certain time-frame, ebay is still my regretful go-to.

Traffic Coneheads

Gosh darn it, I want to thank the OLA cheerleaders for amusing me on almost a daily basis. Since my stepdad died, I have been looking for ways to forget, and they give me much blogger fodder... 

Guy that belongs to group:

Poll for the group... Does anyone have suggestions as to the best option to replace Paypal? We stand behind our products, even beyond our 30 day guarantee but 180 days isn't going to work for our business model. Anyone else?

OLA Cheerleader #1: (I find it annoying that she and I share a name)

You need a venue that YOU determine what you accept. Onlineauction.com allows you to choose what type payment you wish to accept. 

Did he ask about selling venues? No. He asked about payment options.

Quit pushing the site so hard. It doesn't help, it just comes off as cheesy and desperate.

How about instead of trying to get more sellers who are sitting there wasting $8 a month with their thumbs up their asses because there is no buyer traffic...find some buyer traffic.

Then there was a guy who posted an actually very useful article on "12 Common Listing Mistakes on Ebay" immediately people are all like "it's a mistake to list on ebay in the first place" and "thinking ebay cares is a mistake" etc.
Yes, assholes. We get that ebay is a sleazy, shitty place these days. However, you're just shooting the messenger. I read the tips, and they are helpful for all online listing sites. Not just ebay.

Quit jumping all over anyone who mentions ebay in a post, people. We have all been shit on by ebay at some point, it's why we're there. Quit with the censorship and bullying of those who still sell there.

Myself, I don't want to have to sell elsewhere, I rather Donohoe just fuckin' got kicked to the curb and things go back to the pre-Wall St. days. Feedback for both sides, customer service that works, search engine that actually finds what you want, 14 day buyer pays shipping returns and that's it. I know it's not going to happen, but hey, it's my fuckin' pipe dream. Let me have it.

Fixed price unlimited time listings suck. The reason they suck is there's no urgency. On ebay you have a set time limit...this shit's over with in three, five, seven, ten days, you miss out if you don't bid.

On Bonanza and Etsy, it's "Eh, it's here for months, years. I can wait til next week, month to buy it" Therefore you get sporadic sales. I need set time limits because I get bills every month that I need dealt with. I cannot wait for that one $10 sale every other month. I need them NOW.

Advertising Exec

Today somebody adds me to their "treasury" on Etsy.

Accompanying this add is a snotty-sounding message instructing me to "pay it forward", go to this link and do xxx ooo.

Pay what forward, pray tell?  People who saw my shit on your treasury will add it to favorites and still not buy it, and you want me to blow a half hour I could be using to make money for real setting up a fuckin' treasury to pay some unsolicited favoriting forward?

No.

Then someone shares an OLA related blog on the board. This blog kind of cracked me up. OLA is great, rah rah sis boom bah...but this quote is especially funny:

I have been setting up and selling here for just over a month. The only con I have found as of yet is buyer traffic

That's the biggest con of all! You need traffic to make sales.

Then they go on with this drivel:

 Also, much depends upon you to advertise yourself. Social media and correctly done SEO play a vital part in this. If you're not willing to put forth time and effort into doing that, then you will never succeed in selling here, nor on any other small ecommerce platform, not even on your own website. Only the top dog will do it for you and it comes with a hefty price.

So why not try selling here? Seriously? What do you have to lose? $8 a month. You're likely paying more than that for a single space any day at a flea market, antique booth, craft show, etc.

Yes. I pay $30 for a space at a fleamarket, however, I actually sell shit there because there's traffic. $8 a month is 16 Cumby's Chug Jug refills. What do I have to lose? $8 more a month, that's what. Plus I don't like the "advertise yourself" BS, as I've previously stated in other blog posts.

If I am paying your ass to be on your site, you do the advertising, not me. I spend enough time hunting down the merchandise, cleaning it, repairing it, photographing it, and writing up descriptions. Then I spend more time gathering packing materials and then packing the shit for shipment afterward. I also have a part-time job and a young child. I don't have time to be "advertising myself".

Second Chance Deadbeat 2 Electric Boogaloo

So now my second chance bidder has ducked and covered and not paid for the merch after asking me to wait a week. So I am still out fees on $140 and the $140...

Today I got the stupid doll the bitch in Utah ambiguously e-mailed me about twice before she opened a paypal case on me.

In the second message she sent she said the doll had a "chip on the thumb" That fucker has NO SUCH damage. Only the busted leg that either she broke beforehand, or broke while it bounced around in that box for several days with only one sheet of bubble wrap and no padding.

Charley taped me opening the thing, and also while I pulled out only the doll, with previously mentioned  smashed leg. With the doll, I had sent an extra leg and two vintage dresses, and they were not in the box she sent me. I immediately got on the horn with paypal and complained about it, sent a pic, and threatened to send the video.

They refunded her and me. Fuck that! Why the hell should that dumb bitch get a refund after keeping half the lot and busting what she sent me?  I don't care if I did get my money back. That bitch is in for some heavy spam revenge, dating site ads, magazines she doesn't want, and copious complaining using her real name on several boards. Fucking bitch.

Pegasisters And Other Bothers...

Tomorrow I should receive the stupid doll that the dumb bitch in Utah is so concerned about. It had better be the one I sent, because I will set off a spam bomb like you would not believe. Then she might decide to give BJs in back alleys on craigslist and subscribe to a hundred magazines or so...I plan on taping the opening of said package for further proof to use against her in her paypal claim so if it isn't the right one, I will have videoed proof.

That said, I have yet another fickle, annoying pony buyer. I want to slap her face off for being a manipulative idiot.

I advertise ponies for sale. One person contacts me with a list, I tell her they are available, she pays, I sent them. The other idiot...can I have a couple of days? Okay. Sure.

Hi there!

The money was finally transferred, so I sent it. I can't wait to see her! :)

Thanks!

 I never got any notification that I got paid, so I know she hasn't sent it. So I don't send it.

Today I get:

Hello there! ^^

I emailed you the other day about the pony and I didn't get a response. I did say in the email that I sent the money, but after I sent it I decided not to because I wanted your confirmation on it. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused. 

Anyway, speaking of confirmation, would it be okay if I sent the money? I just want to make sure you're ready for it and all that. I'm excited to to see her and I hope to hear from you soon. :3

I respond with "Well, had you sent the money, I would have e-mailed you with the tracking number. When you said you sent me a payment and didn't, I felt like I was being fucked with to be honest" I did not say it like that, but the implication was there.

I am not into long, drawn out conversations about shit. We agree on price. You send money. I send item, with tracking, and send you the number. Done. How fuckin' hard is that? Now I have had that pony...which has had a LOT of interest in it BTW, on hold for a week and for what? Because I didn't reply to your bullshit e-mail? You said you paid and you DIDN'T, what more was there for me to say? Ugh.

Update: She paid and the thing will get mailed on Monday. I feel so angry right now because of my stepdad that I am glad I am not doing many more transactions, I tend to lash out quickly lately...

You're going to wish you'd never met me...

Yesterday my stepdad committed suicide. He did the Kurt Cobain thing. My distraught mother came over to my house and told me she walked in on something, she was not sure what, and then called the cops and went back home. When I got to her house, the cops were putting police tape everywhere, and a neighbor lady was hugging my mom. I had to inform my daughter that her beloved "Bumpa" was gone and how. And then had to watch as two idiot teenagers videotaped the whole coroner van/gurney thing with their iPhones.

On top of all this loveliness, my asshole doll buyer of of ambiguous messages and who received said item on August 8th decided to file a paypal case against me.

That fucking bitch picked the wrong time and the wrong person to mess with.

Bitch. You don't mess with a very upset person who knows your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address is all I have to say. My revenge will have EPIC proportions. I am going to take your fuckin' bullshit for as long as paypal says I have to, and then I am going to exact my very own "seller protection". You will not get this freebie unscathed, believe me.

Sunday Sunday Sunday

So...Miss "Can I pay you next Saturday?" has indeed NOT paid on next Saturday. NPB filed today. Sick of dicking around. I had to scrape up $150+ from somewhere else to pay my electric bill while waiting on her slow ass. Next line of business is second chance offers to the first two other bidders and then another relisting. I hate how one irresponsible person can take up so much of your time and energy.

In a perfect world you should be able to select a time limit of how long you're willing to wait for payment and if a buyer exceeds it, you should be automatically entitled to relist with no repercussions. You had your chance, too bad. It's another way that ebay caters to buyers.

This doll has been tied up for 10 days now. 3 day listing. 7 day wait for payment, now the 3 day case wait to see if the bitch will actually pay, then 24 more hours to see if second chance bidder wants it, 24 more if I send the second bidder one...so 15 days in all, 18 if I have to relist. Almost a month in limbo because one person decided to be an idiot.

Instead of "Report a Buyer" can we have the "Shank a Bitch" feature?

Second Chance Deadbeat

Lady who wanted to pay me this Saturday after bidding a sky-high price for a doll still hasn't paid...these buyers don't realize that some sellers actually LIVE off of this money. I scraped up enough to pay my electric bill after selling several other things and working the snack bar.

She's tied up this item for over a week, and if I have to file a non-paying bidder case on her, it will be tied up for 4 MORE days while ebay farts around waiting for her to pay...not to mention I will be getting hit with the fees until it's resolved with nothing to show for it. 


Second chance offer is a joke too. The first bidder will leave you a negative if you sell it to the second one. I got left a negative for an item I sold a few years back because of  "second chance". 

I waited around for a week for payment, sent two invoices, and the guy never responded.  Finally, I sent the second chance offer and sold it to the second bidder and he came back and paid the day after I shipped it and got pissed and left me a negative when I told him I had already sold it and refunded him.

Not to mention now with this thing it's been over a week, and the other bidders have had a chance to cool off and experience ebays many glorious glitches and will be gun-shy.

Battle Time

So today I log into my ebay. The same bitch who contacted me about a doll about 3 weeks ago has contacted me again...with a contradictory complaint conveniently 2 days before "buyer protection" is about to run out.

She has "private feedback" meaning she has probably done this before and people tried to warn others. I reported her ass to ebay.

First time she contacts me on August 14:

There are no markings and this isn't a German doll ...what do I do?

My reply:

Are you talking about the doll I sent you? It was marked Germany clearly on the back of the head, but If you wish to return it, then I will refund you fully with whatever you pay for return shipping included upon receipt of it. Please let me know.
Amy

Today's message:

 I'm very easy going, but there is a small chip on her right thumb finger and her teeth aren't real, like a real German doll, usually you can see the teeth on this doll there is just a white flat bar there. I want be very fair, but I'm not sure if this doll is an antique or is it a reproduction? I just want to be fair and be treated fairly..

I don't think this is real. Without the real teeth but i don't know for sure what do, do you have any ideas.

My reply:

 You contacted me before and I told you then if you return the doll that I sent you, I will refund you in full upon receipt of the doll.

I made sure I clearly said "doll I sent you" because if it isn't...she'll be in hot water because I will push this to the brink. I've already reported her, and blocked her from future purchases from me.

Research is my forte. Her name is unusual so she was really easy to track down. She's 55. She got in some hot water for calling people posing as a bank rep, and appears to hop from profession to profession. She also dabbles in Barbies. She's gone through about 8 user IDs on ebay and also has an Etsy shop. She lives in Utah, which I knew anyway because that's where I sent the item. She sells on ebay too, which would be a prime reason for me to make that second account I've been dying to set up. Public Library here I come! I can NBP her ass for shits n giggles or buy something and give her the "buyer protection" torpedo she needs to get banned. Try to scam me, bitch. Just try it.

Slim Pickins

Today we went on a pick with a guy we know from the auction house. It is a condemned house that is due to be torn down in several days. It was the most smelly, moldy, dirty, horrible place I've been. It was disgusting. Now I know how the houses on the show "Hoarders" must smell and look. Piles of moldy crap everywhere. The roof leaked, the plumbing leaked, there was no electricity and it was nearly 90 degrees out and HUMID AS FUCK.

You'd dig, and every once in awhile something that looked like it must have been owned by a human once would pop out of a pile. I crawled over plastic grocery bags full of old, rotting trash to dig through the kitchen cabinets and scraped up a large pile of Visions cookware, a teapot with a forget-me-not motif, a mod ashtray, and a Pyrex Butterprint bowl. I sang "Booty Wurk" to myself the entire time...lol.

Upstairs, I dug under overturned bureau drawers and an old mattress to find some old purses and a 1940's sheer nightgown...it's badly stained and might not be salvageable, but I'll boil it in some oxi. Same room also got a vintage hawaiian shirt and an old polyester pink gingham "Annette Funicello" type bikini top, as well as a wicker purse marked "Hawaii". In another room, Charley unearthed an old doll, and I found a weird kitschy old skirt and a tablecloth. Downstairs there was a tattered piece of barkcloth tossed over an old sewing machine and then piled up with old moldy magazines. I chopped the bastard apart in order to remove it, but parts of it will be able to be used in some sort of project. I was not going to leave it behind. I crawled across a grody pile of wet paper insulation to dig through a closet where I found two tooled leather belts in good shape.

There was so much crap around each piece of furniture that you could not remove it even if you wanted to, which was a shame, because there was a hoosier cabinet, 2 formica and chrome tables with at least 6 matching aqua chairs (they actually were in good shape, but I cannot imagine how long it will take for the mold smell to dissipate), 2 beautiful delicate wrought iron beds, a suite of waterfall furniture (bed was shot, rest look salvageable), and an art deco Lane cedar chest. If it had been my own pick...I'd have gotten me some thick rubber gloves and started chucking the small in-the-way shit out the back windows so the town would not see, and dragged that damned furniture out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-VnjtQhKc0