After many years of buying on eBay I have come to the conclusion that I can only measure success from the latest transaction. I mean that I have had good transactions and rotten transactions. I have purchased from newbies and established stores and even from people where I live in the Chicago area. But it is the LAST transaction I do recall.
So here is my recent sad sack story. . . . .
I win an auction and discover lo and behold, the Seller in my area. So I pleasantly email the Seller and ask if I could come by as his convenience and pay for the item in CASH. The Seller is located 10 minutes or about 6 miles away. Instead of an email saying ; Sure you saved me the trouble of packing the item and having to share the sale with PayPal;, he writes back:
Hello,
I’m sorry I do not offer a pick-up service.
Thanks…
I’m thinking here just what would that “service” consist of: Listening for a doorbell, opening the door, taking money in exchange for the item. (The item is about 5" by 5" by ½";). Not much different from accepting a package from UPS or picking up your mail.
I emailed back that I wasn’t interested in that particular service, instead I was offering a “drop-off service” where I would drop off cash. NO, he again repeats his message about not offering his services…
So I e-mail again, look buddy, I’m not wealthy and hey your shipping charge was $5.95 but at 6 miles distant I would be paying $1.00 a mile, The post office charges $0.37 and I could mail across the country.
Now I know the Seller owns the rules in eBay, and eBay is not a brick and mortar store but I am the customer.
Maybe the guy was butt-ugly or has an incurable contagious disease or both!!
More likely the item photo’ed well, but was really crap.
I don’t beleive the experience you had with one seller allows you to generalize about all ebay sellers. I’m sure the seller has his/her own reasons for not wanting to meet with a pushy buyer like yourself (at least, that’s how I would classify you, if I was selling to you). In today’s world of identity theft and fraud, why would a seller want a buyer to know where they lived? I, personally, would have asked to meet at a neutral location and if that wasn’t acceptable, bite the bullet and pay the shipping. Doesn’t seem worth it to alienate a person that way. But, that’s just this ebay sellers opinion.
I’m inclined to agree with Macdanny. Most eBay sellers don’t want to meet you, just sell you their items. He’s not a retail establishment, and if he doesn’t want to have you stop by that’s his privilege. I don’t believe there is anything wrong with your suggestion or his rejection of it. You do seem put out to a disproportionate degree. Did you offer to pay the shipping in the end, or did you refuse? If you refused, I can see his point. If you offered to pay the shipping, he has no business relisting.
Ebay has long been a road full of potholes. Some transactions (and the people behind them on both ends) are great, and others are supreme jerks. The problem is there’s often no way to recognize the former in advance (despite any of that “feedback” stuff), and there’s often no way to recognize the latter until it’s too late.
You’re probably just as well off having not completed the transaction with the guy. He comes across as someone you probably wouldn’t want to meet in any event. But you’ll find some of those in just about every hobby, I suppose–not to mention in real life!
The jerk part of sellers that I encountered is the feedback system.
As a buyer my job is to pay for an item in a timely matter. That is it on my end. If I do that, then the seller should give feedback to such.
Yet on many friends purchases, I see sellers wait until they recieve feedback to give it, and if the buyer doesn’t like the item for whatever reason, they dump a negative into the buyers feedback. The buyer did what he was suppossed to to, now the seller is only being retalitory. That is wrong, and sellers need to only give feedback on the paying ability, not give negative on someones opinion on their merchandise. They have response ability to answer that.
The one time I had a problem, I emailed and we solved problem quickly. Everything seems to work if you communicate politely.
Tim, I agree with you as to waiting to give feedback. Though I haven’t had any problems it would be great if neither feedback is shown until both are in the system.
Relative to trains there is a seller, TCA member and a sidebar advertiser on this site, that has gotten into the practice of listing the box and the item separatly. I believe this is against TCA recommendations. It’s quite obvious when they are in sequence, less than a min. apart.
Alanrail,
You may be the nicest guy on earth, but your Ebay seller donesn’t know you.
Your asking them to accept a stranger to their home. This can be very scary these days. Particularly for an older person. If the seller specifies his shipping wishes we should accept them before buying.
Also before this whole thing turns into a flame war, We don’t have to sell or buy on ebay. It is our choice. I have picked up items but we met in neutral place. All worked well. Plus you get a Dennys Grand Slam after meeting. Yummy
In the year 2005 everyone has to be a little cautious, you just don’t know who is on the other end. But I do get to know some people quickly, and have fun with them online and hopefully in person. [8D][8D][8D][8D]
Hello All: I Have picked up Items 100 miles away, also had Items shipped to me from 10 miles away. The bottom line ie this when you bid the sellers term’s are clear, you can also ask the question before you bid(hope to get an answer), I am not saying I agree with the seller but you have to respect the terms of sale or don’t bid. Regards Steve
I’ve met buyers (and sellers) at a public location to deliver product. Usually over a cup of coffee and some train talk. But I’m collector, not a dealer.
Look for the TCA identification in the listing. I always state my membership.
don’t know of any TCA regulations regarding splitting items and boxes.
Of course, I think it’s a bigger sin to split sets, or as I’ve seen, a loco and tender. There was a thread a while back on this issue. But that’s my beleif.
Personally, I have in the past split the boxes and the trains. Kept the trains, soldl the boxes!
6 miles away and he wants to make you go thru e-bay? That guy has a real problem alen. I wouldn’t do a fellow model railroader that way. It might get around and my friends might dissapear. A real stuckup if you ask me or he is really trying to hide something.
The seller IS 6 miles away, a ten minute ride.
He’s in Chicago off the same main Northwest street as mine. I’m two small towns further North.
The cost of shipping was $6.00; that works out to a dollar a mile; I could rent a Limo for less.
The item is likely crap; so the Seller knows that he can’t honestly represent the item in person. I noted that he has two negs over the last month. That’s likely why he threw a cloak over the transaction.
It is interesting that a lot of the responces to this thread seem to favor the cloaked transaction.
If the seller does not wish for you to deliver the item in person, you should respect that. For all the seller knows, you could be the nicest guy in the world, or you could be a serial killer. The same could be said for the seller. The fact is that you just don’t know, and it never hurts to be a little bit too careful.
On the other hand, though, if the seller were a retail establishment, I would expect them to allow you to pick up in person. I’ve done this before.
If the seller’s terms, including shipping, were clearly expained in the seller’s auction description, then they buyer has no grounds to complain.
BillFromWayne
When you bid on Ebay, you enter in to a contract to purchase the item(if you have the highest bid) under the terms spelled out by the seller. If you don’t agree with them, don’t bid.
I have one question for you. I would think that you would have noticed that the item was so nearby before you bid. Why, then, didn’t you contact the seller before the auction closed and make arrangements? If you didn’t do that, you have no reason to complain.