A question: What would you do?

[iamzip]

:bang:I recently won an auction on eBay. The item was a very nice, but now woefully obsolete, APS camera. Probably several hundred dollars new. I won it for $10, free shipping.
When the seller sent me the invoice, it had a $10 charge for shipping on it ($19.99 total). When I pointed out that the listing had stated "free shipping," their response was (basically), "I'm sorry, that was a mistake. You can either pay the $20 or we can cancel the sale and I can re list it." I pointed out that, once an auction was over, you are committed to selling it, and can't change the terms of sale. He then made some remark about not paying me $10 to ship it to me, and said again that he would sell it for $20, or cancel it. I sent him a long message quoting eBay's policies, and saying that it probably wasn't worth it for him to argue over $10 and risk negative feedback as well as penalties for backing out of a sale.

Now here's the thing: My maximum bid was about $30. Which means that the $20 he is asking is still less than I was originally willing to pay. So am I just being a complete ****? The thing is, I don't know that he's not scamming me. Maybe he's just upset it didn't fetch more and wants to try to get more money from me. Furthermore, I don't appreciate his handling of the problem. Perhaps if he had said something like, "I'm sorry, I meant to charge $xx for shipping, but made a mistake. Could you possible pay a bit more for shipping? If not, I will gladly take the loss and send it to you for the listed price," instead of, "pay it or else." I ran a retail store for years and know that quibbling over $10 is pretty much useless and poor customer service.

Anyway, I am sorry if this is a boring rant ,or inappropriate, or people simply don't want to hear about it. I can delete it if people want. Sometimes sellers on eBay just get my blood boiling and I feel the need to vent. Rant over.

 

[spyder2000]

I'm a buyer and a seller. As a seller he agreed to eBay's terms. If he fails to follow through on the sale as the auction ended, provide him with negative feedback.

The seller had the opportunity to revise his listing following the initial listing of the sale. This would appear below the initial description. He could also have canceled it and relisted.

Me? I'd offer the opportunity to be paid and ship as listed or receive a negative from me. I am still at 100% for the life of my account (March 1999).

 

[johannielscom]

I'd take the camera for USD 20 and upon receival post neg. feedback.
That's the proper way to do it.
You get the item for a song (like you said, still very cheap regarding original retail price), and he gets the feedback he deserves. And that will probably cost him more than USD 10 in the end, so he'll consider twice with the next sale.

 

[seifadiaz]

Listed price should be honored. If he really plans on getting more out of it, he should have listed it with a reserve price.

You either get is as $10 + positive feedback, or get it as $20 + negative feedback.

 

[pschauss]

I would walk away from the sale. If the seller is scamming you on the shipping cost how do you know he is not scamming you on the camera?

 

[axiom]

for an extra $10, you get to leave a negative feedback. This is a rare opportunity, don't miss it!

 

[BillBingham2]

Zip,

One part of me says that I'd offer to split the cost on shipping. Do not give feedback till you get and test the camera. He could have put a note on the auction about the error. Written Evil Bay and asked for a relisting correction for free (they do do it). That would be the most equitable thing to do.

A bigger part of me says I'd take the sellers offer and let him cancel the auction and run the other way. There are jerks out there and this sounds like a really 5hister. You are right from the perspective of a store owner but many Evil Bay sellers and buyers are out for themselves and one sale. There are many good ones (e.g. Richard over at Woodmere Camera) too so don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

Make sure you have PDFs of everything, the add, all pictures, all emails to cover your a55 on this one.

B2 (;->

 

[Keith]

I'd walk away from the sale ... wait until he relists it ... win it again at say eighty dollars then send him a message telling him you made a mistake with your bid and don't want it!

Probably not a good idea actually but revenge can be sweet at times! 😛

People like him are a pain in the butt!

 

[ZeissFan]

I would not pay and just drop the deal. There are plenty of other cameras out there. No big deal.

I won a camera case for $1 (although I had bid $15). The seller slapped a $15 handling charge. I wrote to him and told him that I wasn't paying him $15 to put it into a box PLUS another $15 to ship it.