Scare Fu

Guy buys a clock from me. He asks for 5 days to pay. I turn off unpaid item assistant, and when I do, I see that I have a message.

Shithead from China has opened a "return" case for the clock he never picked up from customs! I call ebay and say "He hasn't even GOTTEN the clock, how can he return something he doesn't have?" and the Filipino chick on the other end cheerfully tells me that I can tell him that myself in the case. Uhhh he KNOWS he hasn't picked it up.

I message ebay for business on Facebook to no avail, been 24 hours and...crickets. I have until the 4th to decide whether I want to take it up the ass to the tune of over $200 from this prick so time is of the essence. I feel like if I choose return, then I might possibly be able to claim insurance because he will have to pick it up in order to return it. I am not sure how insurance works in this case. It IS broken and someone other than me or him broke it, however, he's the addressee and doesn't have the clock in his possession so me filing a claim might not be a legal thing.

One thing I can control - I have now decided that if it is over 2 pounds then I won't be shipping it internationally. That way I will only be out $20 when shit goes south. One dickhead has ruined shit for everybody.

Go Love Yourself Longtime

I sold a clock. Said clock was mailed October 5. Said clock arrived in China on the 9th. Delivery attempted 4 separate times the last one being October 25.

Asshole opens case on November 17.

"The buyer didn't receive the item." Buyer wants: "A refund"

Oh fuck yoooo.  I submit the tracking showing 4 attempted deliveries and call ebay. They look into it and say it's in chinese customs. They tell me to open a case with USPS to look for it and then call back so that they can close the case on the 23rd seeing as I did send it and he refused to pick it up it's his problem now. I open an inquiry with the USPS, they also say it is in China but they will look into it. I call ebay on the 23rd as planned. They say he refused to pick it up, not my problem. Case closed in my favor.

Fucker messages me yesterday, attaches 3 photos of a clock that looks like someone attacked it with a hammer and tells me this is my clock at the customs and that it would cost $50 to repair it or return it to me. This is clearly a last gasp attempt at a money grab now since his last try backfired.

WHYYYYYYYY did you not just pick it up, then open a case for a damaged item? Why lie and say it never got delivered?

Had he picked it up, I could have claimed it on insurance and he would have gotten a refund of the purchase price at least - as it stands, with his dumb ass claiming that it never got delivered, the USPS won't lift a finger, and sorry, not sorry, neither will I. He simply tried to say he never got it and tried to hit me for the full price instead of going about it the right way and picking it up and letting me use the insurance - he screwed himself, let him live with it.

Low Baller

Thanks ebay - thanks a bunch for your "make offer" feature. I have had mixed results and a few outright insults.

The other day I listed a doll. Said doll sells for $45-$100. Most listed right now start at $45. I start mine at $19.00. Someone offers $25. I ignore it. Another offers $37.50. I mull it over for a few hours. Not TERRIBLE offers, but too low. Someone bids and takes the offer off the table. Now the doll is sitting at $50 with several hours to go. Glad I mulled.

I list a light up ceramic tree. The last one like mine sold for $100.00. I start mine at $20.00. I know it will go up and probably end at $40-$50 because luck-of-the-draw mine never go for as much as the first one did. lol. I immediately get an offer for $10.00. Are you fucking kidding me? I decline.

There's never a middle of the road, doable offer. It's either balls out high ballpark which is accepted immediately or so low that it is insulting...lol.

The Bitch Goes On

So crazy My Child doll buyer finally opened a return - 1 single day before the time frame to do so ran out. I believe she did this in order to be a bitch. This, of course, happened to be the same week that my mortgage, water and house insurance bill were due so I had to scramble and am still scrambling.

I find it amusing when I found her "healing business" page (some MLM oil shit) that she is all whippy hippy and zen and loves everyone - everyone except ebay sellers she wants to screw over, that is.

I stuck it to her though, I waited until the last possible second then dumped my paypal account so it forced an e-check so she has to wait up to 6 more days. Take that, bitch.

The reason I am so hostile is because she either lied and/or damaged the doll herself. The doll had no problems when sent. However, the doll had a slightly bobby head when I took it out of the box after she sent it back - until I took a small amount of initiative and jammed it down back into the socket it had been popped out of. My husband goes "I bet she pulled it out by the head." Seeing as the head had no movement when it was here, I'd say so too. Two seconds of pushing the head down could have saved a lot of trouble here. Idiot.

Ebay's new payments system is proving to be an epic nightmare for some, they cannot accept paypal. This is chasing away numerous buyers, and the cherry on top is that they cannot sell internationally. I know this applies to Global, but I am unsure if it also applies to all forms of international shipping. Glad I didn't get an e-mail to opt in, not like I would have anyway, having a large amount of distrust for way ebay runs things.

Of course, this has sparked some discussion on some boards I frequent, namely the cheerleader board. One person expressed concern and another advised her to read ecommercebytes, then a second person told her not to read ecommercebytes because "They are biased against ebay". 

All I have ever seen the writer there do is write ups with information given to her by ecommerce sellers. She reports things. She isn't biased. The comment section on that newsletter is biased, but rightfully so. They are ebay sellers and know what they like and what they don't and there's not been a whole lot of shit to like about ebay since 2008.

I find the paranoia on that cheerleader board to be more rampant. They always feel the need to quash any concerns that sellers might have. They cheerfully dole out refunds and kiss buyer ass.

I don't roll that way. We are individuals with smaller resources. We should not have to dole out of pocket to make some yahoo happy, sorry. Wal-Mart, Amazon and other large retailers - sure, fine, they can kiss buyer ass in the name of customer service, they have the money with which to do it!

We, however, wind up with our house insurance cancelled and get in jeopardy with our newly modified mortgage. *headdesk*

Assmasters

The cheerleader board is outta control these past few days.

It's been fun to watch board member's actual real feelings about shithead buyers come out, then watch as one of the admins will quickly do damage control, removing the "offending" post before anyone sees it, with a verbal spanking to the offender that no one should "disparage trading partners".

One was clear feedback extortion, and for once, no admin had any type of spin they could put to it, to make it seem as if the buyer was just in his feelings - the guy was an asshole right there in bold black and white for the world to see. There was no sugarcoating it this time. LOL.

This was the other night.

This morning, there is another clear-as-day asshole buyer leaving a negative and accusing the seller of "dropshipping" and adding that he reported her for "fraud". The item was ordered just before the 3 day weekend and is apparently still enroute.

The seller - who didn't even know what dropshipping was, is panicked because she cannot pull up tracking right now and all the admin dipshits have for her is "Did you reach out to your buyer?"

My take on that is fuck the buyer. 

He has already carpet-bombed her feedback. If it were me, I'd be "reaching out" alright. I would make the return I would be demanding as painful as possible and call ebay to have that shit removed.

Her response to the buyer was:

"First of all, I have no idea what a "drop ship" means. I sent it out just like I do all my other items. I've never had any issues with them reaching their destination. I really don't appreciate the negative feedback you left as it is completely false statements."

She got verbally spanked by an admin calling her response "defensive". Someone is wrecking her feedback with lies! They basically told her she was doing nothing to "defuse" the situation. Then they told her to stick to the "facts" If indeed she does not know what dropshipping is, and is not a fraud, then her response was indeed, factual. Plus, what is there to defuse at this point? 

The fucker already did the damage. There is NOTHING to do now but somehow pull up tracking and wait. This fucker obviously is unpleasant to deal with. Why stress yourself out bending over backward for an asshole that is already off the rails? 

I wouldn't, and I am still a Top Rated seller. I am all for customer service if I did indeed screw up, however, if someone goes on the attack unwarranted, I WILL defend myself. This board just wants you to take it up the ass on a continual basis, and this mollycoddling is EXACTLY why these buyers are out of control.

Why Dolly Dingle?

People are always saying to me "Why sell doll shit if it is such a headache?" This case is a good example of why. I would not suggest willy-nilly buying cases full of crap, because sometimes it just doesn't pan out, but this one did.

I paid $10.00 - $11.60 with buyer's premium and tax. I had to pay $10.00 for a new leg for the TnT Barbie, but then that only put me at $23.50 or so all in.

I am now approaching $500 in sales so far, and I still have the case, about 10 outfits, and one doll left. It was an eclectic mishmash of Barbie, Tressy, Uneeda PeeWee, and Tammy family dolls, Ken clothing, and super well made, but pretty sure it's home made Barbie clothing but it's super mod and there was lots of metallic stuff.

To the layman, it looked like a lot of utter crap with one decent Barbie so I got away with one. I even turned my nose up at it at first because the clothing wasn't tagged and aimed low, I had plans to only bid as high as $25 and that was only because of the TnT.

I haunted Facebook boards and sold some Ken items in a group to recoup my initial cost. Broke a HTF Ken outfit into 3 parts and sold the pieces separately. Dolls then went individually. I had to repair Barbie's leg, do some minor cleanup/styling on the dolls and iron the clothing, but that's all. I sat on the clothing for a month, afraid it would not sell because it wasn't tagged, but when I pulled the trigger I was pleasantly surprised.

Oh My Child of Golden Light

I haven't had to write a blog in a long time. This is because I haven't had to deal with an asshole for awhile, but like like a golden light, this bitch dropped right into my lap...lol.

 Auction descrition: "Brunette hair. Hazel eyes. Face looks nice. Doll is clean and in good shape. No holes, stains, popped stitches. Wears her original seersucker outfit (overalls, jacket and shirt - no shoes unfortunately). Outfit is in good shape. Non smoking home, kept away from pets."

Buyer (after she paid, which kills my shipping metric): "Can you wait to mail it? I am going to be gone " I wait to mail, dinging my metric, and then I get this in my inbox:

"I received the doll yesterday. She is cute but her neck is quite loose. If you move her slightly her head flips backwards. This is totally unexpected since you did not mention this and stated she is in great shape. If this issue was known I'm pretty sure it would have affected the bids. I am requesting a partial refund of $15.00 to compensate for this issue. I am not a person who looks for the slightest thing wrong to reduce the price. My feedback is 100%"

I point out to her that buyers can only have 100% positive feedback because we are not allowed to leave a negative, and told her that she can return it for a full refund. Now, the fact that she points out that she is not fishing for a discount tells me that she is indeed fishing for one.

As can be seen, I never stated that the doll was in "great" shape. I like the nice touch where she places blame squarely on me - I "didn't mention" something so now she can try and guilt me into a refund. Problem is, I inspect thoroughly and I feel 0 guilt because I know the doll was fine. No questions were directed at me to ask about issues of any sort during said auction and even if they were, I would have said no because there weren't any, and she STILL would have pulled this stunt. When in my possession, the doll did not a have a "loose" head. I did not say as much to her, just waited for the reply.

Today I got the reply:

  "Thanks, but no thanks. I run my own healing business, take care of my elderly mother and still have to manage our household. Now you expect me to find the time to package up the doll, drive to the post office, stand in line and then pay for the privilege to return her all because you failed to mention that her head was so loose it easily falls backwards upon movement. I felt requesting a $15 partial refund was generous on my part. As I said - check my reviews from sellers. I am an honest & caring person that is not out to take advantage of you"

Oh no you didn't, bitch! You picked the worst fuckin' person to give your sob story to, lady. NOW IT'S ON!

"That is my policy, sorry.
We all have problems - I am supporting 4 people alone because my husband is sick. I drive a 17-year-old car and haven't been on a vacation in years, my dad committed suicide fairly recently with a shotgun. My problems aren't yours, and vice versa. The issue at hand is that my policy is returns only if you are unhappy.
The policy is the same for everyone. No exceptions. You can open a return case, print out the free label provided to stick on the box and leave it on the porch for the mailman to pick up, then you won't have to go to the PO."

Fuckin' wahhh. Your most likely MLM "healing business" scheme takes up so much of your time that you cannot POSSIBLY make it to the post office. *eyeroll*

You can refer to my previous blogs for things I have had to do to get to the post office. Death in the family? Too bad. Post office. Miscarriage? Too bad. Post office. No car? Too bad. Post office. Blizzard? Too bad. Post office. Shall I go on?

I am SUCH an asshole for requesting that you adhere to my policies like everyone else has to! I guess I should just set aside the rules for you because you've been such a delight to deal with.

And "generous"? Ha. Taking money from me and my family because a doll's head moves when you shake it around? Really? Even if the head was loose, how many times are you going to be shaking that thing around and moving it?

You know what? Stuff  Kleenex down the neck hole, shake the bitch around and go fuck yourself, you rude self-centered asshole.

Resale is indeed, a bitch.


 
 

 

Circle Jerks

Just came into a motherload of harder to find pony playsets and accessories. For the past couple of weeks I have been practically giving away lots of of my extra generation one and four ponies in a facebook group. First, my posts got pushed right down into obscurity, then when bumped back up, here came the flakes. These were not run-of-the-mill common years 1-3 $2 bait ponies that seem to come out in droves, they were decent fairly uncommon late 80's ones but I was asking $5 each to empty my credenza drawers. I had one person lowball the shit out of me on 2. Then many, many ghosters. "Send me better pics" *disappears without ever replying*

Yet these other people will have common, crappy year 2 rainbows or some such shit and people are all like "PM'd you" (though I am sure the OP was low-balled to death) then SOLD signs later on. I would hate to see what the G3's would go for. Not even gonna go there.

So now that I have these wonderful hard to find things - fuck the board. I will not be offering them there first. They are the most flaky, unreliable, bunch of cheap-asses on the web.

What's sad, is nowadays when someone posts a For Sale thread on a pony board, they have to lay out the specifics immediately to weed out the cheapskates and dilly-dallys. "I won't do holds, I won't do trades, I only accept paypal. If payment is not received by x amount of time, I will relist"

I remember back when I was actively collecting, eyerolling at some of the "I am broke, can you wait til next week for payment?" or "Will you trade?" replies to other people's sales posts, even now 15 years later, when these same girls are 30-40 years old, the same mentality persists.

The only trades I ever did were back in the late 90's early 2000's and they were another toy for ponies. There was a classified ad board - cannot remember where now and I would post "Beanie Babies for My Little Pony toys" I would stand in line and wait for the goddamned Beanie bears that were so sought after, and trade the fuckers for ponies. I got several lots that way. A flea market I frequented would always have Cabbage Patch Kids, but never ponies. Joined a CPK board and same thing - dolls for ponies. That way you're not getting someone's elses bait junk that they don't want. You're getting fresh shit that hasn't been cherry picked to death. I have what you want, you have what I want - let's trade. Then everybody's happy. I traded many a Jesmar to Germany for Euro exclusives. Totally worth it.

Rah Rah Sis Boom Bah Humbug

The Rah rah ebay buyer loving board tonight -

Poster:
"So I've now had my first, "you lied about your product There are marks all over the inside etc" message from a buyer "well you can just refund me half my money and we will call it even" etc (not exactly the words used) does that mean I'm officially a real eBay reseller ? Lol.
So glad all the eBay messages are there and saved.
I politely replied she could initiate a return using proper eBay protocol, shipping was on her, and I'd be glad to refund her the money once.i had the purse back. Said it nicely twice.
When I got the "well I was going to keep it and clean it up but you were dishonest" well I'm done.
I know I know it's business not personal but I had to vent.

Real question though, when proper procedure is followed and a return is initiated and accepted do you refund just the price of the product itself or the whole thing they paid, ie the cost of the product plus shipping?"

Moderator: 
"Sorry but we don't do venting, so if you could edit your post it would be greatly appreciated!

Your question depends upon whether or not the item had free shipping or the buyer paid shipping"

Yes. God forbid you don't handle a namby pamby lying buyer wrangling for a discount with kid gloves and have the nerve to out them to someone in public. I hate how they mollycoddle buyers. As if ebay doesn't do it enough already.

Mountain Momma

I got a big lot of dolls. In said lot were 3 of a doll I already have 3 of. I decide to sell said dolls on a Facebook board cheap to get rid of them quick.  Implications were that the doll were in decent shape, but might need a hair brushing/article of clothing.

One lady wants all three, what is shipping for all? I tell her..$12.00 (It was actually like $14, but I shaved off a couple of bucks because I really want these fuckers gone). She ghosts me. Yeah lady 4 pound box of dolls going across the country is not going to be cheap - dur.

A few days later another lady is interested - she addresses me repeatedly and in all caps.

  CAN I PLEASE HAVE A CLOSER PIC OF THE FACE TO THE ONE THAT'S THE HAIR IS MORE BROWNISH?
ALSO DOES HER HAIR STILL WORK WINDING UP FROM THE BACK AND THE BUTTON ON BELLY PUSH IN WHILE GENTLY PULLING THE TAIL WORK SMOOTHLY?

These 2 came after I already took a close-up and posted it *headdesk*

  CAN I PLEASE HAVE CLOSER PIC OF THE BROWN HAIRED FACE AND HER HAIR TAIL HANGING FROM BEHIND?
THANK YOU.

 THANK YOU HUN, BUT CAN I PLEASE HAVE A CLOSER ONE OF HER FACE?
ALSO HOW DOES HER BASE HAIR THE SHORT HAIR LOOK? ANY MISSING HAIR PLUGS, MEANING BALDING?

Ah, we actually scrolled and looked...

  SORRY JUST SEEN PIC OF HER FACE WHERE YOU POSTED IT. BUT CAN YOU STILL PLEASE ANSWER MY OTHER QUESTIONS?
THANKS.

  HUN, CAN YOU PLEASE ANSWER MY OTHER QUESTIONS ABOVE?
THANKS.

Slightly annoying but, eh. She wants a close-up picture of the face. She wants a picture of the back, she wants a picture of the button, she wants to know if any hair plugs are missing. I jump through all these hoops and then she asks about shipping. I quote the price and send her an invoice. She pays, I send her the label number, thinking okay this deal is done now and she will leave me alone. This is about 9PM.

At midnight the bitch is all like "How did you send her?" I was like Jesus, you are dumber than a bucket o' rocks...I answer "Uh, the post office was closed at 9PM when I printed the label. She is going out this afternoon priority mail"

WT actual F? Does she think I have a fuckin' mail chute in my living room?

This is the hardest I have had to work to get $10 in a long fucking time. All this time I have like $500-$600 worth of merchandise sitting on the back-burner while I take 50 million pics of this one cheap-ass doll and handle this tree nut with kid gloves. Not.worth.it. And I know she will end up finding something she doesn't like about it and bitch copiously once it arrives. I just thank God it's not an ebay transaction.

Amazon-lite...NOT

Now ebay won't do a damned thing when you have a real asshole you're dealing with. Someone who lies like hell and tries to get a discount just gets away with it.

However, I got a message that they sure felt free to take away over $100 worth of bids because someone they considered a no no was bidding. Where are they when you get a real asshole after a sale? *crickets*

Now I gotta ask, if this asshole wasn't registered, how did they even bid in the first place, and how do they have a user ID?

I also like that nice touch where they say don't complete the sale - UNLESS you get payment. Then they want a piece of that ass. lol. And then they will generously "credit all fees except final value". That's nice. You removed the bids, but I am still being made to pay? Special. Why not put it in the "unsold" section if you're going to pull shit like this? Why the hell should I pay for the actions of
A. An unregistered buyer
B. You?

Then to "help" avoid this situation use a buy it now with immediate payment. This fucking doll sells anywhere from the $100-$400. I don't want to scare buyers away by asking for $400 right out of the gate, some won't bother to offer. However, I don't want to leave money on the table. I figure with an auction, they set the price they want to pay, and I get what's fair. Fixed price is a no go for a lot of things I sell.

I am tired of ebay trying to become Amazon. Amazon already exists. You cannot compete or be them, so quit trying. Go back to the Collectibles market and auctions. It's what made you.

Each month I get a message from them suggesting I sell some sort of electronic thing such as an iPhone. Have you heard about the fraud that goes on with electronics? Buyers sending back the same model, but broken, buyers taking parts off and then sending it back, buyers claiming they cannot activate, but want their money back, and they keep the thing. NO THANK YOU. Don't even get me started on the clothing market there. "It didn't fit" (even though you included all the measurements). And you get it back smelling like this:

Ugh. I understand evolution, but they are doing it all wrong. I have been using that site for 20 years and in that time I have gained an understanding of the way things work with the antiques and collectibles market there. You will sell yourself short with BIN. An example of this, was me buying a misidentified Francie doll the other day for $24.00. If she had been auctioned, even with the title wrong, other buyers would have found her, I would have been in a fight, and the price would have been double or triple in the end. The seller left money on the table by using BIN.  Am I happy I got a deal? Yes. But I feel a little bad for the seller, being one myself.

Here is the message I got:

Hello _______

We had to cancel bids for the buyer, ___________, because they aren't registered on eBay:
 Auction 1 
 Auction 2


We've also made it easy to relist your item if it was removed. Although the item is no longer available in search listings, you will find it in the Sold section of My eBay. For more information, please visit:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/relist.html

To help you avoid this situation in the future, consider setting a Buy It Now price and requiring buyers to make an immediate payment. For more information on immediate payments, visit:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/pay/require-immediate-payment.html

We recommend you take the following actions if this buyer won the item:
- If you haven't received payment, don't complete the sale or send the item to the buyer.
- Don't communicate with the buyer directly.
- Verify any payments you've been notified of by logging into your PayPal account (or other online payment service).
- If the buyer requests a refund or additional payments, don't send any money without contacting eBay first.
- If you've already sent the item, try contacting the shipping carrier to find out if you can stop shipment.

In these types of situations, we may, at our sole discretion, decide whether to credit the fees for removed listings.
- We have credited all associated fees except for the final value fee for your listing(s).

If you have any concerns or questions, click "Help & Contact" at the top of most eBay pages.

Mr. Grupie

I belong to a group. The group is chuck full of Ebay cheerleaders. I joined it because I thought it was about something else, but I stayed to read the bullshit.

It has been painful for me to hold my tongue as they kiss buyer butt and dole out refunds like candy.

It's almost like they are proud to pay someone off to shut them up when they've screwed up.

If anybody even has the slightest tone while talking about a pampered buyer in the group, they go apeshit and the offender is then schooled not to assume anything bad about a buyer even if there are a million red flags. They also advise people not to block anyone and assume "Ebay will take care of it"

Uh guys, 99 times out of 100, they don't. Ebay provides the block feature so you can take out the trash yourself.

I am sorry, but sometimes you get yourself an asshole.

These people brush off refunds as if they are rolling in cash. Oh well, I will just sell more.

Is it really "selling" though when basically you are just shipping shit out and paying people to take it?

In my world, sometimes a buyer needs to be held accountable.

Sometimes they should pay return shipping, and sometimes you don't want that asshole as a repeat buyer.

Even though I am so clearly rogue, I hold the exalted Top Rated Seller status they all seem to want. I toe that middle line so hard I should wear a tutu. I feel like if I clearly screwed up, then sure, I refund. However, if the buyer is just being an asshat, they get treated as such, and BLOCKED.

I always roll my eyes as someone in the group posts a self-congratulatory "I refunded my buyer immediately, now I will have a repeat customer!"

Uhhh, is someone who complains and returns shit really what you want for a repeat buyer? SMH

You Don't Work So...

Just got done scrubbing 6 antique fans. We drove an hour to get to some auction in Vermont, and sat through hours of crap and repro cast iron banks to get to a huge lot of clocks the auctioneer had. When I got home I spent all night babysitting my rogue furnace, and so woke up late - 8:30. As soon as I got up, I went out to the trunk and grabbed last night's haul.

After lugging in about 11 clocks and the 6 fans, I set about testing things. I wound one clock...ticked for a few minutes, promising. Then I grabbed a wipe, wiped everything down, and tested each and every fan and 2 clocks. To my amazement, each of the fans worked perfectly. The clocks, however, not so much. One Westclox wall clock just about lit me up like Vegas, lol. A nice GE Westminster chime clock hummed and that was it.

I sighed and looked at the bedraggled pile of fans and went to work...2 of the fans had blades painted white. They looked rusty so that was kind of discouraging. I took the worst one and stuck it on a rack in my sink. I sprayed the bastard with Awesome and scrubbed it with a toothbrush. I could not get around the cage to the blades. I took the cage off. I spray more Awesome and the "rust" comes right off the blades - it was nicotine tar. I stood at my sink for about 2 1/2 hours straight until each fan was presentably clean, then I took the cords, bound them up nicely with a brand new twist tie. Later today I will oil 4 clocks and rewire 2 more. Yet, people think I just buy shit cheap, take a picture and list it.

I get the "You should go here for work" or "You don't work so..." bullshit from people all the time. I indeed work. It is hard work sometimes, and it sure as hell is time-consuming. Make no mistake, Just because I work from home, does not mean I have all this free time to do people's bidding. Things don't clean and repair themselves, nor do they pack and mail themselves. They do not research themselves, do write-ups on themselves, or appease customers when something is not up to par. That in itself is work and a skillset.