[SEL] O.T. E-bay Dead Beats

Paul Maples paulmaples at sbcglobal.net
Thu Sep 8 15:51:59 PDT 2005


Well gang after using E-bay off and on for the last five years I finally got burned and even though it was basically my fault I still resent it.



I listed a couple of Gas Engine Books (not hit-miss) books on E-bay and they both sold. One was sold to a man here in Arkansas where I live and one was sold to a man in Michigan State. I failed to look at the man's e-bay rating in Michigan who had bid on and bought my book. Had I checked him out while he was bidding I would have saw that he had only made five purchases from E-bay and already had two negative feedbacks for not paying up. I don't know what my recourse would have been if I had checked this bidder out and discovered this before the sale ended. How do you refuse to accept someone's bid once the bidding has started?



Anyway after the auction was over I sent the man in Michigan a message asking for his full name and address so I could get his book packaged up and ready to mail and I never got an answer, I sent (3) more e-mails and finally got an answer and he said he was in the process of transferring funds from his checking account into his PayPal account so he could pay me and that he would be posting my payment on PayPal within two days so all was well....wrong. He also sent me his mailing address and knowing that in all of the years I have been on E-bay, I had never had an engine man rip me off, I went ahead and mailed his book to him even though he had not paid me. 



Now here is my second mistake, I inadvertently sent the book that was suppose to go to the man in Arkansas to him by mistake. Both books were in their shipping packages waiting to be addressed and mailed and when the man in Michigan sent me his address I just picked up the wrong package and address it to him and mailed it to him.



I quickly fired off a succession of e-mails to this guy in Michigan and in each e-mail I advised him I had sent him the wrong book, that the book he was getting belonged to a man in Arkansas. I ask him to return it to me as soon as possible and I would pay all postage. After (3) e-mails to him over two weeks time he finally responded and said that he would return it to me but he was sure wanting his book. I then went ahead and mailed his book to him, not having been paid for it, hoping to entice him to send the other man's book back. Keep in mind that I still had not looked at his e-bay rating at this time. Meanwhile I notified the man in Arkansas of my stupid mistake and ask him if he wanted me to immediately mail his money back or did he want to wait on the book, he said he wanted to wait on the book to be returned.



I waited a week and never heard a word from the guy in Michigan and to this day, a month later I still have not heard a word from him. Meanwhile I had went to E-bay and checked out his rating and saw that he was a dead beat and I knew I probably would never hear from him again. He has both books and has not paid for nothing.

 

I go to E-bay tonight to plaster this guy with a "Negative Feedback" only to find out he is no longer a registered user so he has bailed on me with both books. I returned the man's money in Arkansas and this has left me with a bad taste in my mouth.



Everyone watch out for:



John Faccin

431 Lind Road

Crystal Falls, Mi 49920

E-bay Name: obcessed1

email address: obcessed4 at aol.com



The only way I know to protect myself from future situations like this is to state in my listing's on e-bay that if you have any negative feedback ratings do not bid on my items. I know this would be unfair to some folks who have negative feedback ratings due to things out of their control such as the Post Office screwing up etc.



Yep, it was all my fault and I guess I deserve what I got but folks please check out the e-bay ratings on your bidders so you do not have to go through what I have nee through. I will no longer mail out anything until I have payment which only hurts the good guys.



       
     

 



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