Shady eBaying

Jetfire · April 2019

Yeah I get that about him loosing money, and being a small business trying to make a go of etc. however, after playing guitar for a million years, I've lost money buying and selling guitars, if you sell something at auction, that's the risk you take. There are ways and means of making sure it gets over £600 without using reserve fees and if eBay fees are that bad, just don't use it. If he was that desperate for to pay his bills hence the listing, (his words not mine) I'd rather have £300ish in my hand rather than hang out for £600 which may not come for another 8 months.

Either way, it's really disappointing and I think his business ethic sucks and he's lost any potential business from me.

drofluf · April 2019

Name and shame!

prowla · April 2019

I would report the refused sale to ebay, as it contravenes the T&Cs the seller accepted when placing the item for auction.

The seller should have put a starting price or reserve on it.

However, from their perspective, would you sell something at a significant loss when it's your livelihood?

prlgmnr · April 2019

drofluf said:

Name and shame!

How many UK builders do you know who post on here? I got it in one.

Snags · April 2019

^ Yes, if that was the nature of the deal.

On occasion I've massively unrequited jobs at work, usually when exhausted/too much on to think it through. Things like quoting kit at the buy price, or forgetting to include components in the cost, but quoting for a full solution. Or being screwed by suppliers who do that and leave me carrying the can.

On every occasion I've been prepared to honour the agreement, even with E&OE on the quote. Because ethics.

I've also usually explained the situation to the client; sometimes they've offered to pick up the slack, sometimes they haven't but they have at least known they're getting a great deal at my expense, and it pays dividends down the line.

You just have to chalk it up to experience and learn not to do it again.

poopot · April 2019

prlgmnr said:

drofluf said:

Name and shame!

How many UK builders do you know who post on here? I got it in one.

There’s a fair few!...

thermionic · April 2019

I put in a decent bid on a Telecaster once, and when my bid won I paid the seller via Paypal within a couple of hours of the auction ending (7 day auction). Ten minutes later I got a message saying “sorry I sold it elsewhere” and a refund! There didn’t seem to be anything I could do apart from leave negative feedback.

hotpickups · April 2019

prlgmnr said:

drofluf said:

Name and shame!

How many UK builders do you know who post on here? I got it in one.

I only know of one on here but I’m sure it can’t be them

poopot · April 2019

I’m guessing this.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F173872858919

ICBM · April 2019

I recently bought a very rare album for a very good price (with Buy It Now) on Ebay. After paying, the money was refunded with no explanation - when I asked, it was “because the CD had a bad crack in it that we hadn’t noticed”.

Hmmm... hadn’t noticed when it was described as playing perfectly, or hadn’t noticed until they saw some other ending prices of the same album?

I’m now expecting the seller to coincidentally find another copy of this very rare album, but with a price about five times as high.

DefaultM · April 2019

Doesn't really make much sense. The market has already shown what it's worth. He might have expected it to sell for more, but it didn't. Relisting it for double seems unlikely to do anything.

gringopig · April 2019

LOL I wouldn't pay £250 for that. My Hello Kitty was a better looking guitar than that horror.
Very poor behaviour from the seller.

Funkfingers · April 2019

poopot said:

... this ...

It is unfortunate that the products cannot command the prices to cover the materials and time that have gone into them. This is the harsh reality of the business.

The irony is that, if Jetfire were to push for the proper completion of the failed eBay transaction, it could contribute to driving a struggling luthier/vendor out of business.

SlopeSoarer · April 2019

Jetfire said:

So I've been following a UK based guitar builder on Instagram for a while. I've liked his stuff for a while now but not wanting to waste anyones time, I've admired from afar, just like posts etc. So last night, a photo is posted of a rather nice guitar that turns out this guy is eBaying, so I follow the link and low and behold, it's up for £250 with a few bids and less than 24 hours to go. Fast forward today and near the auction end time, I slam in my max bid and wait for the minutes to tick by and result, I win with my £352 bid. Less than 10 mins later, the auction is cancelled and said item is relisted with a starting bid of £600 followed by a message saying:

"Hi,

Sorry to have cancelled the transaction for the (guitar) I was expecting to get more for it and simply cannot take so little for it when it cost me almost double that to make it.

The guitar has been relisted at a higher price - reflecting the minimum I can take for it - if you're still interested at all?

Kind regards,

Guitar makers name here."

What grips me the most is there was no reserve or buy it now to stopping me bidding ? The original Instagram post has now been removed and he's saying it back up for sale even though it sold.

I don't understand why people do this sort of thing, really poor attitude. I'm not sure it is possible to give them negative feedback either.

The seller could easily started the bidding at a price around what was his minimum price or my preferred method is to have a 'realistic BuyNow' price and allow buyers to make offers. I normally build in a bit of room for me to deliver within a reasonable distance if bought at the full BuyNow price.

I also hate it when people are bidding up their own listing... hard to prove but there are odd indicators (Bid activity (%) with this seller and looking at feedback scores in previous activities).

I do have mixed feelings with eBay, it is a great selling platform but open to abuse.

Jetfire · April 2019

I am able to give negative feedback and I may still do it. I'm of the mind to chalk to it experience and move on, esp as alot of people agree it's shitty business practise.

Funkfingers · April 2019

For now, keep schtum. Follow the official eBay complaint procedure. Allow a week or so for things to play out.

Best case scenario, you get what was rightfully yours. Worst case scenario, vendor gains a record of shady behaviour. Enough repeats and his account will be closed down.

You might have excepted the eBay presence of a business of that type to be an eBay Shop. Items listed indefinitely at Buy-It-Now or Best Offer prices. Things must be pretty marginal for him.

midlifecrisis · April 2019

ICBM said:

I recently bought a very rare album for a very good price (with Buy It Now) on Ebay. After paying, the money was refunded with no explanation - when I asked, it was “because the CD had a bad crack in it that we hadn’t noticed”.

Hmmm... hadn’t noticed when it was described as playing perfectly, or hadn’t noticed until they saw some other ending prices of the same album?

I’m now expecting the seller to coincidentally find another copy of this very rare album, but with a price about five times as high.

get your revenge, bid an impossibly high price on it if its relisted, win the auction then change your mind.:)

Koa · April 2019

Happens all the time unfortunately, not just on eBay either, I’ve had it happen very recently on here!

Funkfingers · April 2019

midlifecrisis said:
if it's relisted

It is.

I would use the eBay Best Offer button to bid £352. Perhaps, if enough people did that, the vendor might get the hint that everybody knows what he has done.

thecolourbox · April 2019

Yeah I've seen this before when I was highest bidder on a very well respected Klone pedal at a very shall fraction of what they usually go for, presumably because the seller (who I believe was the manufacturer) had inexplicably set the auction to end at 11:30pm on a Tuesday night.

Their tactic was less blatant though, in that they just vanished for a month (although apparently you can still list other pedals for sale from the great abyss) then when they did eventually reply gave me a similar sob story that I was too busy to pick apart so just accepted the refund.

Good to know though that if I wanted to, I could happy start a totally non viable business, sell on eBay, then sob to buyers if I don't sell at the price I want

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Become a Subscriber!

Shady eBaying

Comments