Stories from early days of selling online

[toml3030]

Crazy customers from the good old days when selling online was more fun...

Dude receives merchandise. Tries to return it for full cash refund three months after he receives it, broken and abused horribly. Is pissed that he doesn't get full cash refund even though the store policy CLEARLY states "No questions asked returns accepted for 30 days after you sign for the item. NO EXCEPTIONS, EVER". Dude throws a tantrum. Turns out dude cheated on his girl and she ran over all his possessions on her car.

Dude orders three items with different prices and only pays for two. I ship two items. Dude gets pissed that he only gets two items, and he says he understands that i shipped two items because he only paid for two, but couldn't I have sent the "right" two items (by using my mind reading powers and shipping the two he wanted and giving a partial refund because the one he paid for wasn't the one he wanted).

Dude orders from Nigeria (ha!), wants my full legal name, where I live, and my bank account number before he'll send payment. I tell him
to go f himself. He writes on review that he paid for something and I never shipped.

Dude in New York orders Tuesday at 3pm for something with 2 day lead ship time as clearly stated. I ship Wednesday morning from California, dude has it in his hands on Thursday. Writes negative review saying that he needed it on Wednesday.

Dude pays for overnight shipping. I ship same day overnight. Dude isn't at the delivery address next day. Dude is pissed that he didn't
get the item on time.

Dude writes negative feedback because he ordered 3 different items from 3 different vendors in Los Angeles, Boston, and Minnesota and got
charged 3 shipping charges.

Dude offers to pay $50 for something I ask $70 for and sell at stores for $120-$150. I refuse to sell. Dude writes 8 emails within the next 72 hours demanding that I sell it to him at $50. I write that there are 429 merchants on E-Bay who sell the same or similar item and if he can buy it for $50, let me know where he got it, so I can buy from them too. Dude writes me more Emails. I killfile him. Dude writes that I'm rude and provide poor customer service.

Dude orders something. Dude cancels the order. Dude's credit card doesn't get charged. Dude gets pissed that nothing ships.

Dude wants me to ship something for Priority Mail ($5.15) in a $1 packing material. Dude gets pissed that I want to charge $5.95 for shipping.

Dude buys stuff. Dude doesn't like the stuff. Dude gets a full refund on 12/21. Dude wants compensation for "ruining his family's Christmas".

Dude is from Egypt. Dude wants $10,000 worth of stuff. Dude is told that payment would have to clear our bank before anything is sent. Dude writes that I should ship prior to payment because "everyone in Egypt knows that he's good for it".

[kenshintr]

So to sum it all up, why keep selling to the same dude? :P Man you got some crazy customers. I only have one case that I can remember.

Some guy bought a smartphone from me. A notice was left for him to pick it up, he refuse to go pick it up and demand that I refund. I told him that I will refund once the item is sent back to me, I call the post office that have the item and told them to send it back to me the sender. He demand a refund immediately and threaten to call the local police.

[ljakers]

My contribution :
Gal is winning bidder, gal changes her mind, asked to cancel her bid. I sent transaction cancellation, she accepted. She leaves negative feedback.

[rsot]

Best story is tons of money orders in the mail! Miss that

[Sandy D]

I have a picture of my kitchen table in 1995 with it covered in checks and money orders. Sold 100% of everything I could list.

LOL

One of the checks was signed and dated with nothing on the name line or the money amount. See we had crazy buyers even back then.

[JamesNorth101]

Originally Posted by toml3030

Dude is from Egypt. Dude wants $10,000 worth of stuff. Dude is told that payment would have to clear our bank before anything is sent. Dude writes that I should ship prior to payment because "everyone in Egypt knows that he's good for it".

I'm sure he would have been good for it... Seems like a very trust worth guy to me, after all he is not from Nigeria.

[mobilecontractsuk]

Originally Posted by ljakers

My contribution :
Gal is winning bidder, gal changes her mind, asked to cancel her bid. I sent transaction cancellation, she accepted. She leaves negative feedback.

This happens a lot!!!

[rsot]

Originally Posted by Sandy D

I have a picture of my kitchen table in 1995 with it covered in checks and money orders. Sold 100% of everything I could list.

LOL

One of the checks was signed and dated with nothing on the name line or the money amount. See we had crazy buyers even back then.

Man I remember those Sandy - blank name checks and...money orders! Hah yikes.

Then there were buyers who would money orders out to my ebay username...that wasnt as funny

[JamesNorth101]

Originally Posted by rsot

Man I remember those Sandy - blank name checks and...money orders! Hah yikes.

Then there were buyers who would money orders out to my ebay username...that wasnt as funny

Ha, thats pretty funny, maybe not so much at the time understandably. Ever manage to cash one?

[Sandy D]

Originally Posted by JamesNorth101

Ha, thats pretty funny, maybe not so much at the time understandably. Ever manage to cash one?

Yes, just added my name to the end of it.

[imjustme]

Dude, I mean ....dude ...

[jeffweico]

I used to sell an information product on eBay when it was allowed. I sold hundreds of those a week. I remember the mailman ringing my bell because all of the mail would not fit into the mailbox.

Over the period of 3 years I probably sold more than 50,000 items and I had very few non-paying bidders and only ONE bounced check. PayPal did not exist back then, so very few orders were placed with a credit card (I accepted payments through CCNOW, but few people were willing to use it - maybe 10% or less).

Back then, featured auctions meant your listing would rotate with other featured auctions on eBay's front page. And the "dutch auction" format meant you could sell hundreds of items with one listing. And the only listings eBay removed were those trying to sell X-rated items on the main part of the site.

There were SO MANY cool listings back then, I could spend HOURS just browsing and (sometimes) buying. Most people used their email addresses as their user ID's and there was a LOT of communication - not just with your buyers, but with other sellers.

It was a completely different experience back then.

[stanislav]

Originally Posted by rsot

Man I remember those Sandy - blank name checks and...money orders! Hah yikes.

Then there were buyers who would money orders out to my ebay username...that wasnt as funny

[vogeltron]

Yea crazy stories. One of my buddies sold a hat to somebody and they said they never got it even though the tracking said it was delivered. Threatened negative feedback. Guy found him on Myspace with a picture of him wearing the hat at a night club.

But yea, way different back then. Getting stacks of money orders in the mail. Dead beat buyers always saying the MO is in the mail like somebody said above. People listing items with no pictures. Lots of oddball payment services before PayPal became the standard.

What I miss most about those days was that eBay was like a huge a Garage sale. You could find all kinds of crazy rare and cool things. Was more built around the small individual seller than the small larger sellers they have now.

What I remember most was that the FVF's maxed out at like 3-4% and the everyone always had a BIN option with the auctions because it was only like .5 cents to add.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by JamesNorth101

Ha, thats pretty funny, maybe not so much at the time understandably. Ever manage to cash one?

One of my banks was chill - would cash it for me with no problems except slight holding period...of course I kept money in the bank to cover (kind of like PP hah). Those were golden times.

[Pandarian]

Originally Posted by ljakers

My contribution :
Gal is winning bidder, gal changes her mind, asked to cancel her bid. I sent transaction cancellation, she accepted. She leaves negative feedback.

Thats the coolest thing i ever heard about eBay

[GreenBean]

Originally Posted by rsot

Then there were buyers who would money orders out to my ebay username...that wasnt as funny

Que???

Supply the first missing word you see

[user3657]

Originally Posted by rsot

Man I remember those Sandy - blank name checks and...money orders! Hah yikes.

Then there were buyers who would money orders out to my ebay username...that wasnt as funny

What about the days with UPS and COD?

[Sandy D]

Forgot about this one.

Lady wins a very rare antique item. She calls and emails over and over to make sure she won this etc.

She lived 2 states away. 600 miles or so.

She said she was sending a money order next day shipment. I said ok.

2 am in the morning. Door bell rang.

Usually this means bad news to most of us when the door bell rings at 2 am.

DH asks her and a man through the window are you looking for someone or lost?

She said no I am here to pick up the item I won on ebay.

DH said WHAT!!!!!

Its 2 am and and you are knocking on my door wanting to pick up something you wont on ebay?

DH opens the door and says things like What in the h--- is wrong with you people? How about calling us first?

I should even sell it to you for being so stupid!!!

Anyway, she paid with cash, a large chunk by the wall for this rare item and the women insisted we still pack it for the trip back home.

DH told her DH you might as well stay for breakfast now because I have to get up in 2 hours to go to work.

This is why I will never use my home address ever on ebay.

Idiots like these people who believed because they won a high priced item have the right to knock on your door in the am to pick it up.

This is also why I have a storage unit only for my cl items. Meet me at the storage unit right next to the office during daylight hours only.

[Futuremogul888]

I hope you keep an AR15 in that storage unit. Another CL murder in my area yesterday. These days selling on CL is like playing a game of Russian Roulette

A funny story about the good ole days of Ebay. Back when people were auctioning off crazy things like a temporary ad tattoo on their forehead, their virginity, and other crazy services, I used to type in random key words to see what kinda craziness I could find on the bay. One day I typed in the keyword "fight". After seeing your usual boxing memorabilia, I stumbled across an ad of someone auctioning the rights to beat them up for 10 minutes.

The ad looked real serious. It had a picture of them looking particularly **shole. He listed conditions such as no groups, groin punches, and that he would not fight back no matter what. Of course it was a local pickup or should I say local beat up only. Even though it was not in my area, I had to bid just to be a part of it. So I was able to cross something off my bucket list that I did not even know was on there: bidding on rights to beat someone up.

[Sandy D]

Originally Posted by Futuremogul888

I hope you keep an AR15 in that storage unit. Another CL murder in my area yesterday. These days selling on CL is like playing a game of Russian Roulette

Storage unit is right beside the office and the owner is always there. These are live in on site units so the owner lives on the site above the office.

Oh yes, I have the tree trunk with me when I meet someone and if he does not scare the crap out of you with his appearance he has a carry permit and is a dead aim.

Often wonder if someone would want their neck snapped off or shot between the eyes.

Dont know which pain level a would be attacker would want.



I never met any of the cl people without someone with me.

Also, they have to go through the gates to get into the units. It is a 100% gated storage facility.