Stress-Free Marbles Zone

that1 · Joined: 15 Aug 2007 Posts: 186 Location: here

Had some recent bad experiences on eBay with sellers asleep at the switch or just downright rude. They were definitely negative experiences, but I know on the bay if you leave a negative feedback you're pretty much sure to get one in retaliation.

I've only ever left 1 negative to a real block-head so I'm hesitating with the most recent ones. What to do? Fire away or suck it up and put it behind me?

that1 · Joined: 15 Aug 2007 Posts: 186 Location: here

I should probably mention I'm not out a whole lot of money, but I am out a few decent marbles from incomplete transactions.

#1 -$13 shipping for a .99 cent 1/2" marble is unreasonable. No response to multiple requests of why shipping is $13. No marble

#2 -Respond to multiple requests for a total with shipping if you want payment. After 10 days with no responses, and I take it upon myself to send payment for item + generous amount for shipping (I wanted to get this paid for, if shipping turns out to be cheaper please return the difference) , don't refund and refuse to send me item since "Sorry, it took you 10 days to pay, and payment was due in 7". No marbles

#3 -If your auction says paypal is accepted, and then you say "but not from you", you run the risk of payment being delayed or Lord forbid getting lost in the mail. I even offered to pay this guys listing fees since he was POSITIVE I was out to screw him over. No marbles and an off-the-meds "do not ever contact me again".

I've got over 6 years worth of positive feedbacks, but these last 3 transactions are complete garbage.

tankgrrl29 · Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 2:08 pm Post subject:

wow, that's messed up! i'm pretty slow on the trigger with negatives, but if the issue is clear-cut and applies to the overall auction, i'm not opposed to giving one, even if i'm going to get a retaliatory one myself.

problem here is you'd get up to 3, and then you start to look like a troublemaker.

#1 - was the shipping price listed in the auction? if so, too bad for you - you bought it. but if you were notified after the fact, i'd report them. ebay has rules against grossly inflated shipping charges.

#2 - the person sounds like a jerk, but it could've been an internet glitch and not their fault about the delay...then again, they should've sent an invoice

#3 - wtheck is up with that? why no paypal from you? (hey, you're starting to sound like a troublemaker LOL)

honestly, any one of these would be a candidate for a neg in my book, but i'd space them out and make sure i bought from known sellers in between and built up some positives to cushion them.

(easy to say from my chair Smile

)

Ponkochan · Site Admin Joined: 03 Aug 2007 Posts: 1475

I totally know where you're coming from and agree with Chris' response.

ebay's feedback system is not an accurate system because of the fear of the retaliatory negative. When I first started out selling, I'd read a number of articles. Most of them recommended using 2 accts., one for buying and one for selling. The premise behind it was don't give away your "buying sources" if you're a seller. So I did have another acct. that I set up for selling. I think it was about my 3rd buying transaction (actually bought 2 lots from this seller) and they were scammers (won't bore you with the details).........but I left them neutral with the reasons stated. They hit me back with 2 negatives. With only a few transactions under that ID, my score dropped really low. So..........I haven't used that ID to buy marbles with............only small stuff where I wasn't worried about what the seller thought about my low rating. hehe After that, almost all my marble buying has gone through my brother's acct.

If your acct. is used mostly for selling............then a negative has a worse impact than if you're mostly a buyer. IMHO
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Lizzy

Click here to see my marble listings on ebay!

harbor · Joined: 29 Dec 2007 Posts: 133 Location: Big Sky Country

So glad I happened upon this thread.
A few months ago, I was the winning bidder on a lot of marbles. Then I noticed that is said 6 lots available. I emailed immediately to ask the seller what was up with that. He wrote back to hang on, he just noticed it too. In those few minutes, the second highest bidder made payment. The seller then emailed me that he had delivered them to the second highest bidder. As they were marbles I really wqanted, I made paypal payment also, so I could leave feedback. I left negative feedback saying I was high bidder and item was delivered to second highest bidder. He then left me negative feedback ( curious how he did that when he didn't sell me the item) and ruined my perfect score. This was very hard to get over. Then he refunded my payment and sent me a verbally abusive letter. I forwARDED it to ebay asking how he could get away with not sellinbg the item to the winning bidder. Ebay hemmed and hawed around and basically said, they may or may not have taken some action against him but it is against their rules to tell what they did! Duh!
Anyway...I was sad about my less than perfec`t feedback score, but I got over it..doesn't seem to affect my buying abilities, but sometimes my listings do not bring as much money as similiar items do...do you think it has affected my selling? Anyway...now I never leave negatives, not that I really any longer care about the score! LOL!
Beware a buyer named Leadbelly something, and beware ebay!
Thanks for listening
Catherine
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Rockhounding has evolved into marble obsessing!Just want to learn all I can about these lovely works of art, so have patience with my questioning, and I will sit appreciatively and listen!