EBAY! I QUIT YOU

I’ve been on ebay since 1998.  I really like the idea, especially since I’ve always been into niche hobbies and live in a small community.  It’s a hour drive to just find a bike shop and I can’t usually afford to buy new stuff anyway so buying used is usually the way I go.

I also sell occasionally on ebay, not all that often really, just went I want to clear out stuff I don’t use anymore.  I recently sold several older Polar heart rate monitors with not so good results.  I had a very old monitor that needed a battery to work, I didn’t want to throw it away because I knew it worked, and I didn’t want to buy a 5 dollar battery for it because I didn’t need it.  I put it on ebay and it sold for 5 bucks.  All good right.

No, the buyer sent me an angry email demanded that I refund his money and send him money so he could mail the monitor back.  I asked if he had tried putting a battery in it.  He claimed he had several times and couldn’t get it to work.  I told him if he sent it back to me and I found it didn’t work with a battery I would refund him the money.  That wasn’t good enough so he gave me a negative feedback and filed a complaint with ebay.  The buyers messages were rarely longer then a sentence, he wouldn’t take the time to explain his problem, and when I wrote back trying to figure out what the problem was, he didn’t have time to communicate, just filed a case.

Ebay froze the big 5 dollar transaction and required him to send back the item.  I bought the battery for it and guess what, it worked, but I still have negative feedback.

The ware on the right side is clearly visible, despite being touched up, as I said in the description.

I sold some more stuff recently, one item was a Bontrager RXL saddle that would cost about 130 dollars new.  It sold for 27 bucks.  The price was so low because I stated the saddle had ware that I had touched up and the pictures showed that the saddle was definitly worn.

Well guess what, the guy who got it thought he was going to get a new saddle and wanted his money back, then he sent a second message complaining of the cost of returning the saddle, it was hard to decipher but it seemed to indicate he wanted some of the money back.

I replied letting him know that saddle was described as used with wear, and the pictures showed the wear.  I apologized for the misunderstanding and offered him a refund of 7 dollars to see if that would make him happy and I got this gem of a message back along with negative feedback.

Ur add was very confuss n u said top was Good And sides was touched up the Part of seat where u painted is the top u cant see the damage to the seat in the pics . U ripped me off Its ok i Will just contact ebay And see what they can do i have took pics of the seat to show all the damage And they have ur pics u r the one that has to live with ur self that seat is trash u should have listed just like it looks u didnt say the top was torn from b n scraped On the ground i have got sum very nice used stuff from ebay in past. U dont Get what u paid For stuff u always have to sell it For less when it is used i wanted this seat For a two week old Bike i wouldnt put this junk On My wifes Bike.i tried to ask u nicely And u had to be a Smart ass in ur message u sent me u can keep ur 7 bucks i Will do everything i can to make everybody know u sell crap.,do u really need 27 so bad u would send pep junk i wouldnt even try to sell a seat in this condition i might give it away but not to many pep would want a seat in this condition probaly would Get trashed im be n complete honest if.some damage happened to one of My seats like this it would come off My Bike it would just make My Bike look bad. Oh well u live And learn ur the First person that has got me this Good hope ur happy with ur 27 bucks

That’s it I’m done with ebay, I know there are ignorant people out there, I know not everyone learned how to properly use the English language and that some people have disabilities.  The problem is that ebay is completely slanted to favor the buyer.  I’m not Wal-Mart, I’m not running a business, and I’m not dealing with returns, but ebay wants to treat me like I work for them, even though I’m paying them.

Feedback is now completely sided with the buyer, they are immune to negative feedback.

From now on I’m craigslist, give away, or trashcan.