A quick one from the Bay of E...

[houdini]

I've been selling some of our unwanted items on a certain auction site. I'm not a professional seller by any means, but haven't encountered too many problems...until this person put dents in my desktop from the amount of times I banged my head on it.

I put an item up for sale, via auction, collection only as it's heavy. No problem.

Get this email: "hi writing from [city nearby] my name is Poul how much you want it for buy it now and cancelled auction"

*wince* Strike one for the spelling, including the apparently inability to spell his own name.

I didn't answer that email immediately as I was away. So, the next day (when I am checking through my emails) I also have the following gem from the same person: "hi how much you want for buyy it now"

*headdesk* Strike two for the spelling and impatience! But hey, ok, someone's interested - I'll put a buy it now on. It's a bit more than the bid price - let's say the bid's £100 and the buy it now is £150.

I politely email him to let him know I've put a buy it now on, but don't hear anything else, and he doesn't buy it. Ok. Fine. Someone else has bid, yay! They win! They contact me! All is going well!

And then, a day after the auction has ended, I get another email... "if you interested can offer you 150"

Strike three. Dude...if you were willing to offer that, why didn't you buy it when it was still for sale? You really think I'd reject someone who has bid, paid, contacted me to arrange delivery (and can spell!!) in favour of, well, you?

I don't understand people

[KatherineB]

Congratulations! You just avoided becoming the victim of a probable scammer!

[Krandor]

Almost certainly a scammer. I think the big clue is the first email where they wanted the auction cancelled. They wanted the transaction done outside of ebay which is why they likely never did the buy it now thing.

[Dreamstalker]

I have done off-ebay transactions for serious buyers who missed out on the widget for whatever reason and it ended with no bids, but the few I have done were prior customers.

I was once selling some manga books and the kid was hounding me to lower the price as well as cancel other auctions and sell to him offsite (he actually had a term for it in feedback so E wouldn't catch on and would only leave a positive if a seller did do this...I wonder if the reason he used code was so that he could direct others to the 'suckers', why mention it otherwise?).

Eventually I found other sellers he had done this to and we got him banned for multiple IDs and feedback extortion--this was back when ebay actually cared about that stuff--among other shenanigans.

[Mikkel]

His name may have been Danish. Paul can be spelled Poul here. For instance Poul Anderson, the author.

[emax4]

I had a similar issue where a guy waited two weeks after the ending to pay me, and I sent him emails every two days for a week after the auction ended. Then he stated his email got hacked, but he was sending me texts, also sent a buyers dispute with PayPal. I called PayPal and they gave me advice, but I also wanted to give this guy the benefit of the doubt just in case his email was hacked (yet he told me days after sending me those texts).

So I took the package to the post office, got permission from the counter person to take photos too, and I got them! One of the package on the scale, another of the stickers being applied, the tracking number and receipts, and more. After waiting a few days and making sure the package had been delivered, I went to PayPal and uploaded the photos, then called them again to confirm that they got them. The lady put me on hold, then ok'd everything! So I got a nice little email saying "The ruling has been found in your favor." ^_^ Never heard from the buyer again!

[smileyeagle1021]

So I took the package to the post office, got permission from the counter person to take photos too, and I got them! One of the package on the scale, another of the stickers being applied, the tracking number and receipts, and more. After waiting a few days and making sure the package had been delivered, I went to PayPal and uploaded the photos, then called them again to confirm that they got them. The lady put me on hold, then ok'd everything! So I got a nice little email saying "The ruling has been found in your favor." ^_^ Never heard from the buyer again!

This is why I always pay the extra for tracking and delivery confirmation and depending on the price of what I am selling a signature as well (it is really hard for someone to claim that they never received that $100 text book when I have return address service with their signature on it).

[wagegoth]

I've just quit selling anything on eBay. Too many issues with buyers. It only takes the usual 10% to screw it up for everyone.

[starsinthesky]

We had a rule of three when we regulary sold on ebay. Every 3rd auction had issues.

[Kittish]

We had a rule of three when we regulary sold on ebay. Every 3rd auction had issues.

....I hadn't thought about it, but you're right.

[freespirit114]

Only sold one or two things on ebay but we buy quite often. My boys are really into hockey and baseball and love jerseys but those things are expensive! Especially for a 5 and 8yr old who don't care to much. So ebay it is. Had a few problems with sellers claiming things to be much higher ticket items than they were or getting something that was falling apart when it was described as like new and pictured new but a reversal on paypal when the seller would not contact us back took care of those.

[Mr Hero]

I had a weird one back in March. I was selling a bunch of games and one guy won 4 of my auctions, but only paid for 1 game. So I sent him a PM letting him know that I was sending all items together and needed payment from him. After no response after a few days I decided F it and sent him the game he paid for and filed for a claim.

And yet I wasn't allowed to post negative feedback. Oh well, I gave him positive feedback but said non paying bidder in the comment.

To this day I still think he was trying to pull a fast one on me but failed.