Is this eBay buyer just trolling me or am I being unreasonable? 0

[CKinTO]

19 minutes ago, Beige said:

Is there any chance this was a misunderstanding but escalated when the unpaid item case kicked in (I have it manually set on my store)?

I kinda read it as "Can I pay for the books I won, but not shipping, and when you list the others in a few weeks I'll buy some more and pay for them along with the combined postage"?

In other words - I'll pay for the books now, you hang on to them, and if I buy others or not, send me a combined shipping bill when I see your new ones?

July 17
BUYER:
I would not have an issue making the payment if you need the money as you insist... I would just ask if you could hold off on shipping so I can bid on additional listings when you do post and take advantage of combined shipping?

You could read it that way maybe?

Regardless, the buyer certainly could have been much clearer if that's what he meant. Hopefully he paid eventually 

Yes, didn’t see this before my reply, but this is what I was thinking as well. 

[UnboxingTreasures]

This is the BUYERs most recent reply:

 

I could not have been any more direct with you from my 1st initial message.

You have made inflammatory remarks throughout our correspondence and then cry wolf?! 
I do not think you are aware of how you come across and the words you say.
You continuously failed to answer any questions I asked. Then fold when faced with the facts and consider the matter "hostile"... ridiculous, but so be it.

As a veteran eBayer, you know quite well that I can not cancel the order... only you could cancel the listing at this point - still playing your games I see.
No worries though, feel free to cancel the listings.

I hope this message is clear so you do not question any future claims of confusion or hostility.

 

I'm just going to cancel the order and block him from future bids. It isn't worth the headache.

 

 

[WolverineX]

3 hours ago, kav said:

"I appreciate your interest in my items and your business.  Unfortunately I cannot accommodate this request"

Shakespeare to my ears.

[WolverineX]

12 minutes ago, NamesJay said:

This is the BUYERs most recent reply:

 

I could not have been any more direct with you from my 1st initial message.

You have made inflammatory remarks throughout our correspondence and then cry wolf?! 
I do not think you are aware of how you come across and the words you say.
You continuously failed to answer any questions I asked. Then fold when faced with the facts and consider the matter "hostile"... ridiculous, but so be it.

As a veteran eBayer, you know quite well that I can not cancel the order... only you could cancel the listing at this point - still playing your games I see.
No worries though, feel free to cancel the listings.

I hope this message is clear so you do not question any future claims of confusion or hostility.

 

I'm just going to cancel the order and block him from future bids. It isn't worth the headache.

 

 

Yeah.  I feel like there was some miscommunication.  No one is at real fault.  

[kav]

28 minutes ago, NamesJay said:

This is the BUYERs most recent reply:

 

I could not have been any more direct with you from my 1st initial message.

You have made inflammatory remarks throughout our correspondence and then cry wolf?! 
I do not think you are aware of how you come across and the words you say.
You continuously failed to answer any questions I asked. Then fold when faced with the facts and consider the matter "hostile"... ridiculous, but so be it.

As a veteran eBayer, you know quite well that I can not cancel the order... only you could cancel the listing at this point - still playing your games I see.
No worries though, feel free to cancel the listings.

I hope this message is clear so you do not question any future claims of confusion or hostility.

 

I'm just going to cancel the order and block him from future bids. It isn't worth the headache.

 

 

tell him I hope I can still expect good feedback from you-that way if he says no way I shall neg you!  you can have the feedback removed.

[dupont2005]

He should have paid that day and also requested you hold them until he gets to bid on more items

[Hollywood1892]

7 hours ago, dupont2005 said:

He should have paid that day and also requested you hold them until he gets to bid on more items

That's exactly what he should have did.

I'm sorry but business is business. If you buy something,you pay your debt...be a Lannister....with the debt paying,not anything else that that family gets up to it.

Now if a debt is incurred un justly,than absolutely do not pay.

 

Edited July 20, 2019 by Hollywood1892

[Spidey 62]

9 hours ago, CKinTO said:

So I’m going to take a slightly different view as others. I think you were being reasonable, but   I also see where he was coming from. 

He wants to buy more books to save on shipping. Given the books are cheap ($30 each), the shipping (i would assume for 3 slabs, it’s like $20-25), the shipping here is a big % of overall cost here. 

From my read, the breakdown came when:

- He didn’t understand that the next sale would be the same books as what just sold, and that’s why you said for pics, he could look at the sold auctions. He also mistakenly took the auto-message from Ebay to be “from you”, and thus thought you were basically telling him to screw off

- BTW, are all of the new books coming up in next auction slabs? Or raw? I suspect raw (given you don’t list grades when listing out the books), so getting pics of the actual duplicate books in next sale would be a legit request, to see grade

- If you don’t want to do that, totally your call. Reasonable position to take

- He offered to pay for the books now (exc shipping), and so if there was going to be back and forth on books, the only thing I suppose you could have done would be offered to revise the invoice to exclude shipping, so he could pay now and then wait for the next auction (or at least continue the discussion on what books would be in next auction).

You don’t have to do this of course, and this would be going above and beyond, but that’s probably the only thing you could’ve done differently should you have wanted. I don’t think this was a case of him trolling you, but more some misunderstandings, some overreactions, and some immaturity / anger from him when he (mistakenly) thought you initiated a non-buyer ping on him

Either way, he owes for what he bid on and won.  

7 hours ago, Wolverinex said:

Yeah.  I feel like there was some miscommunication.  No one is at real fault.  

Well, the guy who bought and as yet has not paid is at fault.  He knowingly won auctions with clear shipping prices.  Any other requests are on and after.  If no agreements are made, he still needs to pay for the auctions he won. 

[Dino-Mutt]

I think he is a tool. I am assuming you had listed the items in a seven day format. Even if it was a 3 day, Why can't a buyer ask questions about combined shipping and any other concerns before he bids? This is simple in my eyes. His bid is a contract and any negotiations should be made before the end of the auction and his bid. Or have i just been dealing with customers waaay too long?  

[theCapraAegagrus]

I don't see anything wrong with what you did.

[Mercury Man]

[mattn792]

10 hours ago, NamesJay said:

This is the BUYERs most recent reply:

 

I could not have been any more direct with you from my 1st initial message.

You have made inflammatory remarks throughout our correspondence and then cry wolf?! 
I do not think you are aware of how you come across and the words you say.
You continuously failed to answer any questions I asked. Then fold when faced with the facts and consider the matter "hostile"... ridiculous, but so be it.

As a veteran eBayer, you know quite well that I can not cancel the order... only you could cancel the listing at this point - still playing your games I see.
No worries though, feel free to cancel the listings.

I hope this message is clear so you do not question any future claims of confusion or hostility.

 

I'm just going to cancel the order and block him from future bids. It isn't worth the headache.

 

 

Yeah, now he’s not worth your time.  Seems like the type that might pull a return scam since his emotions are on such a hair trigger.

[FineCollector]

Had the buyer not accused the seller of jerking him around, I think the explanation of the non-paying notice would have gone over smoothly, and business could continue.

The OP acted appropriately for the situation, but are comic guys always this immature and mouthy?  I know we're a solitary, unsociable bunch, but all of these arguments start because one guy screams "I'm Batman!" and ignites the situation.

Edited July 20, 2019 by FineCollector

[Hollywood1892]

44 minutes ago, FineCollector said:

Had the buyer not accused the seller of jerking him around, I think the explanation of the non-paying notice would have gone over smoothly, and business could continue.

The OP acted appropriately for the situation, but are comic guys always this immature and mouthy?  I know we're a solitary, unsociable bunch, but all of these arguments start because one guy screams "I'm Batman!" and ignites the situation.

Nice

[Ride the Tiger]

You have gone above and beyond what an eBay seller should do in this situation. You don't bid on  books and complain about combined shipping costs afterwards. That's not the way it works. A buyer needs to look at the shipping costs and include that in his/her bid. Sounds like someone is just trying to make a sweet deal even sweeter but that means  not paying the seller for an undisclosed amount of time. I'd be fearful of getting a negative from a buyer like this. Explain this problem to someone at ebay and see if you can just refund their money after a certain amount of time without them being able to hit you with a negative mark. Send along all verbiage that has occurred and get out of this transaction!

 

 

[Number 6]

I think "fault" would depended on whether you were actually open to combing shipping with future wins at the beginning of the discussion. 

If you weren't open to it then the mistake was 1) not politely but clearly stating "no" at the outset and 2) sending him the list of books you would be relisting as that gave the impression you were open to combining with his current wins. 

The breakdown in communication seems to begin when he proposes to pay for his current wins and you hold off on shipping. For some reason you didn't directly acknowledge this proposal, insitead you both seem to get sidetracked on a discussion about viewing pictures of these items. 

His request seems reasonable on the surface and a show of good faith that you won't be left with a bunch of unpaid items. But even if they're paid for, not shipping items for 2+ weeks waiting for the future listings to go up and end might play havoc with your seller performance rating.  This was anotheir missed opportunity to clearly state that combining wins from future listings wasn't going to work for you. 

Things took a turn for the worse when the Unpaid Item notices went out the buyer got deeply offended - as buyers always do ( never understood that). You then responded in kind that you felt you were being jerked around at which point the discussion seems to have deteriorated.  

I think there was a needlessly prolonged discussion, taking of offense on both sides, and lost sales that could have all been circumvented by simply stating up front that you weren't open do doing combined shipping on listings 2 weeks in the future. 

[RockMyAmadeus]

eBay does NOT "automatically open unpaid cases" UNLESS you have the Unpaid Item Assistant SET to do this...it's still entirely under your control as a seller.

The opening of unpaid item cases...especially after you've been talking with the buyer...looks like bad faith on your part. The buyer's reaction is perfectly understandable.

As a seller, if someone is saying "hey...I want to buy more things from you"...I do everything in my power to make that happen.

Edited July 21, 2019 by RockMyAmadeus

[RockMyAmadeus]

13 hours ago, Number 6 said:

Things took a turn for the worse when the Unpaid Item notices went out the buyer got deeply offended - as buyers always do ( never understood that).

It's the same reason why some buyers got upset when sellers left them non-positive feedback. Because it tells a buyer that the seller doesn't think...whether they do or not...that the buyer is behaving honorably.

In the past, it was very, very serious to have an Unpaid strike on your account. Four of those, and you were booted from eBay. Even today, it's deeply personal, a matter of questioning a buyer's integrity...especially if there's no communication from the seller beforehand, and ESPECIALLY if the buyer and the seller have actually been talking back and forth.

Some sellers, unbelievably, have the UPI set for two DAYS after the winning bid. I won something on a Saturday (auto snipe set bid) of a holiday weekend (I think "president's day" in Feb or something)...and by Monday....still a legal holiday...I got an unpaid item notification. 

I'm probably way too old fashioned for this era of Millennials, but we used to have to wait weeks and weeks for checks to be sent, checks to clear, and then items to be sent. Ok, sure, it's 2019, get with the times...but two days? That's a little extreme.

Apparently, now, they even have offers that you can set to expire in 12 HOURS. Ok, fine, but what if someone isn't home? "But...but...muh COUPONS! They expire in 30 minutes!!!" So, eBay, EXTEND the damn coupons. 

[Logan510]

If someone isn't home they can pay for an item on their smart phone using the eBay app. I do this all the time when I win auctions and I'm not at my computer. It literally takes less than a minute.

If you're a Luddite, I got nothing for ya 

[Logan510]

On 7/19/2019 at 11:41 PM, dupont2005 said:

He should have paid that day and also requested you hold them until he gets to bid on more items

I think it depends on the situation. I've won auctions from sellers who have auctions ending over a period of a few days and I always ask after the first win if they'd be willing for me to pay later if I'm interested in bidding on more of their items. If they say no, I pay right away no problem, but more often than not the seller agrees to my request.

If I were the seller in this particular situation I would've been clearer in my terms and I would not have filed a non paying bidder case so quickly. Maybe I missed something and if so please correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears the OP pushed the button after just 4 days while there was still communication going on. Personally I give buyers 7 days and one last written communication before I file a case. I find it amusing when buyers will actually pay for the item on the last day before eBay is about to refund me...wouldn't it have been easier for them to just pay initially without all the agita?