Ebay auction problem-Grr! (Resolution)

I guess if I found myself in this situation, where I’d done everything possible short of a refund, it’d be time to weigh options.

Option 1: Keep fighting it based on your selling policy stated in the auction (I can’t view it anymore so I can’t read what it said.) I think if I was in her situation I’d be able to compromise if I was refunded the value of the box. What would this have sold for without its box? If that difference is more than $5, she might take that offer.

Option 2: Refund her money, take the hit in your pocket, and move on from the hassle.

Option 3: Send her a final email saying you’ve tried working with her within your selling policy to come to a resolution amicably, but you can’t send a full refund, and take the hit on your feedback. You can always post your response under her feedback, with a explanation saying you tried everything you could to come to a suitable agreement. And if you haven’t left your seller’s feedback for her yet (I never do until I receive mine from the buyer), she’ll be less likely to leave nasty remarks knowing you have the power to similarly express your opinion in her feedback.

It depends on what’s worth it most to you. I don’t know how much the item sold for, so I don’t know what amount you’re dealing with here. I hope someone on here is a little more savvy with this sort of issue and can give you some better advice :scratch:

Unless she has it, she can’t possibly know if it’s not as described. However, I would say just refund her…but not till you get it back! Make sure it’s in the same shape you shipped it in, and try to resell it either with the “original” box (if you find it) or the substituted box.

I never told the seller because it wasn’t her fault, I think she paid more in shipping to fix her error than I paid for the happy cat (I only paid around $20 for it). The cat had a few paint rubs when she shipped it, but when it arrived it’s entire right wing was shattered and all the paint on it’s back was scraped off (kinda like it had been thrown). I pieced it back together and filled in the cracks and missing pieces with a heavy clay and painted it to look like my cat, so it’s all good! Anyway, the moral of the story is there are some rotten people out there, don’t give her the chance to pull any more dirty tricks you. 😡 it’s people like that that ruined ebay for me.

Boxes are very important to most collectors, from what I understand. For example, I collected Cherished Teddies for a while and they are almost worthless without their original box and papers. We won’t talk about market over saturation. Although in the model horse hobby (my main hobby) boxes matter little. I would say TOPP collectors are somewhere in between. I sold one of the rare Painted Ponies once without his box because I didn’t have it and he did go for less than the ones with boxes, but still enough for me.

I would refund and relist, but that’s me. And in the relist make it clear I don’t have the original box if I hadn’t found it by then.

As far as if you’ve already shipped it, I would see what she is willing to do for shipping costs. But the item, generic box or not, was not as described, so I would do a full refund and move on.

I agree with refunding, and with pegasus4240 that the item was not as described without the box.

This will sound more harsh than it’s meant as I’m heading to work so I don’t have time to refine it, but that’s kind of not cool on your part. You know (since you just told us) and she knows (why she’s making a stink about it) the box isn’t the original. You know what original means to a collector. Just because the Ebay staff don’t doesn’t mean you should try to make her in the wrong on this.

From my experience, boxes matter to some people. She might not have bid on your auction if she knew there wasn’t a box. I don’t care about boxes, but when I’ve boughten collectible gifts off Ebay as presents (eg. Disney Classic Collections figurines for my sister in-law) I have passed on items without a box or bid higher on auctions when an original box was present.

If she’s being rude or tries to hold your piece for ransom, that sucks, but give her a chance to send it back before we declare the worst of her.

I hate to hear that you ended up in a situation like this Wolfen, but yes, sadly what caused it was not having the original box. Unfortunately you didn’t know things would become this escalated over it, but at least now you know for future sales. I know for me personally knowing the original box is available does determine if I want to make the purchase or not. The good thing is you are willing to correct the matter, now it is up to the buyer to be civil and understand that you realize where your mistake was.

Now another way to look at the situation, did you ship your package with insurance and Delivery Confirmation/Tracking? Because a possibility exists that she should could be trying to pull a scam in that she may already have it, but she’s acting like it didn’t arrive yet so she’ll have both the item and get her money back. It’s a scam that I’ve heard several other eBay sellers suffer from where dishonest buyers actually got away with it. I’m not going to say that is exactly what is happening here, but it certainly can’t be ruled out. Especially if this buyer escalates the issue and PayPal automatically refunds her money without you getting your item back. eBay does have its positives, but the complications can quickly outweigh the good considering what kind of transaction situation you could end up in. At this time there is much more buyer protection than there is seller protection. It never used to be this way, and I think that is when eBay started going down hill for a lot of folks. It’s one of the reasons why so many sellers have stopped using the site, not to mention the skyrocketing fees.

At any rate, do not give this buyer a refund until you receive your item back. If PayPal does it automatically without you getting your item there is nothing you can do about it, especially if she already has the item and is being dishonest about it. But if she does in fact receive it and is truthful, wait until you get it back in your hands in the same condition that you shipped it before sending the refund. Let the buyer know this. Tell her to double box with adequate packing materials and remind her that she needs to insure the package along with Delivery Confirmation/Tracking. If it arrives to you damaged notify eBay and the postal service.

Also, don’t leave the buyer feedback until she has left it for you, that way if she leaves negative you can share your side of the situation and how you tried to amend it. I no longer leave a buyer feedback until I receive it from them first, that way I can explain the truth if they make any false claims. I learned this back when a buyer tried to get me to refund their money blindly when they purchased a few of my prints and claimed the plastic wrap was glued shut to the print and damaged it. They wanted a refund without me seeing the “damage” and wouldn’t even send me a photo. I already knew they were lying, I have never glued a single one of my prints shut. Those particular print sleeves come with a strip of lightly adhesive tape to close the sleeve shut on the outside, and it was obvious that the buyer had touched the strip to the print as they were removing it from the sleeve. Rather than own up to their own mistake they decided to take it out on me instead and claim that the entire thing was glued shut. I told them to send the items back and I would either give them a full refund or send them new ones, whichever they would prefer I was completely open to accommodate them. But nothing was good enough for them, everything I offered to do to make amends they complained and declined. They sent me a number of censored messages, and rather than accept any offer I made for them they left me one star on every line trying to damage my 5 star rating. In short this buyer was completely off their rocker. I was willing to compensate even though it wasn’t my fault, and I still took the hit for it. Since then I just remove that part of the flap off so no one else could use it against me in case they made the same mistake. Anyhow I had already left the individual good feedback, but I went back and replied beneath it explaining what the buyer did after that fiasco. The point is let the buyer leave it first, that way if they leave negative you have more room to explain what you tried to do to correct the matter.

Ugh. Well first off, I am glad that you got through that nasty ebay auction mildly unscathed.. it honestly seems like she was trying to take full advantage of the situation. I mean, $30? Seriously lady? *huff* Sorry, I just really REALLY hate it when people do things like that. I mean, sure, maybe the box was important to her, but surely it couldn’t have been worth nearly half of what she payed. *HUFF*! Still, glad that you only had to give up $5 for the mess 🙂

As far as the car accident goes – that’s just crazy. If I am understanding correctly, he T-boned you? As in, hit you in the side in a perpendicular fashion? (yeah thats worded weird, I didn’t know if “perpendicularly” was a word :lol:) If that’s the case, why would it even matter if your turn signal was on or not – if you were stopped, you were stopped! Did the insurance company side with him?

*rage* Insurance companies are evil! 👿 (sorry to anyone who may work for an insurance company!)