Surprising Stuff

The trouble with Ebay.
It is a stacked deck in favor of the buyer. Try sending something electronic and then having the person on the other end say that it is not working to specification. You either return some of the money based upon that person’s word or pay to have it shipped back and give a full refund. Oh, and if you discover the product you sent no longer works at all, guess what, you got substituted out. You lost your model that worked, and your refund, and the expense of return shipping. Don’t do business in electronics on Ebay as a seller. Don’t do business internationally on anything. You send something with tracking, but all international tracking ends at the other country’s border. All of them. Guess what? If the person you sent to says they did not get it, you must refund, and you never see your goods again. They got them all right, and then turned around and got you. So, don’t do business internationally, ever.

People who know you have good feedback will also pick up on that, and know you value it, so they will come back for a discount. The unspoken threat is that you will be given bad feedback if you don’t refund some of the money. You can spend time and effort in overcoming these things, but when all is said and done you will find it is much more difficult to make money selling on Ebay, than you might have thought. Many buyers have figured out the holes in the system, and they are waiting for you if you are the unlucky seller to run into them. Buy on Ebay, don’t sell. Throw it away. It’ll be cheaper in the end, and you’ll suffer much less aggravation.

Cartoon of the Week

by Terry O’Neill