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JFischel · Dec 28, 2004, 10:20 AM

Anyone sell anything on eBay and the buyer all of a sudden makes frantic call / e-mail attempts to you because they didn't read the instructions? I sold an iPod and this woman gives it to her 10 or 11 year old kid. In and of itself, not an issue. What bothers me is that neither the kid nor the woman read the directions. The kid asks me why it won't work with Windows Media Player.

On top of that, a guilt trip is attempted saying that it was the kids only Christmas present. Long story short, anyone so annoyed by people not reading directions and blaming you for it -- it seems to be happening more and more in the world.

Oh well...sorry to vent. Anyone else had similar experiences?

-Josh

buffalolee · Dec 28, 2004, 10:29 AM

That sucks.

Randman · Dec 28, 2004, 10:31 AM

Caveat emptor. Not your problem if you were straight up on the deal. But points if you tried to help the lady after the sale.

JFischel · Dec 28, 2004, 11:01 AM

I actually called them, and talked to the kid. He was trying to load the iPod using Windows Media on a PC with a 4 Pin Firewire port. First, you're not going to get any music, and second of course the battery is going to die down.

The other thing that irks me, is that I sent the thing 3 weeks ago. She left good feedback, so I assumed case closed. All of a sudden this comes up.

I guess I'm just disappointed in the nature of people to blame others for their problems.

-Josh

scaught · Dec 28, 2004, 11:45 AM

Originally posted by JFischel:
I guess I'm just disappointed in the nature of people to blame others for their problems.

-Josh

you just need a paradigm shift, brother.

go from "I guess I'm just disappointed in the nature of people to blame others for their problems." to "i expect people to blame others, including me, for their problems, and this makes me laugh as they flail against their own ignorance" and youll be juuuust fine.

itll probably lead you down the path of jaded narcissism, but ****it. the world could always use another asshole for me to drink with.

Goldfinger · Dec 28, 2004, 11:48 AM

Wow you called them ? I would have given them the middle finger. The only thing I would have done is to refer them to the iPod manual or the Apple support website.

SafariX · Dec 28, 2004, 12:03 PM

I would have said too bad for them. Not your responsibility for their stupidity.

ort888 · Dec 28, 2004, 12:39 PM

Obviously the only decent thing to do would be to write some software that would enable him to use the iPod with Windows Media Player.

I mean, they bought it from you expecting certain things and you really let them down. Maybe you could reverse engineer some sort of alternate iPod or figure out some sort of hardware modification that would allow it to work.

Get hoppin!

wdlove · Dec 28, 2004, 01:03 PM

A sad situation. Kudos to you for trying to assist the lady.

SafariX · Dec 28, 2004, 01:43 PM

I hear the internet sells time machines. you might look into them so you can go back and preemptively warn them of their pending stupidity.

JFischel · Dec 28, 2004, 02:08 PM

LOL! Time machines, software for Windows...you guys ROCK! I was wondering if I was the only one that would see it like that.

Buyer beware. I guess if I sell anything like that again, I'm going to spell out things phoenetically and in seven different languages.

-Josh

Mafia · Dec 28, 2004, 02:43 PM

Originally posted by JFischel:
LOL! Time machines, software for Windows...you guys ROCK! I was wondering if I was the only one that would see it like that.

Buyer beware. I guess if I sell anything like that again, I'm going to spell out things phoenetically and in seven different languages.

-Josh

it really is bull how people try to pull sh!t on ebay. kudos for even trying to help, i never would have called her.

ReggieX · Dec 28, 2004, 03:35 PM

Close: I was buying up Laserdiscs when everyone was dumping them for DVDs, and got some good bargains. I was bidding on a copy of Kieslowski's "Three Colours: White" that I was going to get for quite a low price, when near the last minute someone out-bid me. No big deal, I thought, there are other copies out there.

A week or so later the guy emails me asking if I want to buy it off him; he didn't know it was a Laserdisc! This, despite it being only listed in the LD section and having the words Laserdisc in the auction description and title.

But he was a nice guy, so I traded him my VHS copy of the movie for the LD, and everyone went home happy.

I've pretty much had nothing but positive experiences on eBay, but I've only been buying stuff.

Krypton · Dec 28, 2004, 08:29 PM

I can't stand people who ask for your address, when eBay gives you the sellers address in the check out conformation.

eBay has also started advertising on TV here in the UK, which can only make things worse (I mean people who haven't sold and bought things on the internet before and are pretty clueless).

I have nothing but praise for trading things on Usenet though, there are some very cool people on there

mdc · Dec 28, 2004, 08:40 PM

i sold my xbox recently. the title said "with 20 games" and the listing had a full list of each game.

i got about 3 or so emails asking if any games are going to be sold with it and if i could email them a list of said games.

skalie · Dec 28, 2004, 08:42 PM

If I can slip in a technical question here, if the kid downloaded iTunes could it (the kid) import the music files from Windows Media Player?

Or are we talking totally different formats, as in not MP3??

itistoday · Dec 28, 2004, 09:05 PM

Originally posted by scaught:
you just need a paradigm shift, brother.

go from "I guess I'm just disappointed in the nature of people to blame others for their problems." to "i expect people to blame others, including me, for their problems, and this makes me laugh as they flail against their own ignorance" and youll be juuuust fine.

itll probably lead you down the path of jaded narcissism, but ****it. the world could always use another asshole for me to drink with.

AppleCello · Dec 28, 2004, 09:52 PM

WIndows iTunes lets you import WMA, so it (the kid ) should not have any problems.

skalie · Dec 28, 2004, 09:55 PM

.............whey hey.

or not?

DigitalEl · Dec 29, 2004, 01:39 AM

I feel your pain. Just this week I got screwed.

I made it pretty clear in my auction that the cellphone I was selling was DOA, a non-functioning piece.

Somebody pays waaaaaay too much for it, as is often the case there, where idiots don't do their homework. Then right before paying, they e-mail me and say "I not speak English. I not know your phone no work" or some such bullsh!t.

Thanks for wasting my time, moron. Negative feedback on the way!

And of course, I get no response when sending Second Chance offers. I've had good experiences buying on eBay, but selling is almost always a friggin' hassle!

osxpinot · Dec 29, 2004, 02:03 AM

On a side note:

Does anybody miss eBay as it used to be? They have made so many changes that it drives me insane. And they continue to do! They really need to get back to basics.

Their new 'Advanced Search' is a total piece of crap. First off, it is hidden on the little search box, and there is no longer the big 'Search' tab. And it made it near impossible for me to do a search for items around my house. It was looking in eBay motors. What's so bad about keeping it the way it used to be?

Safari doesn't seem to like eBay much either; my new iBook G4 hangs on searches a lot.

Person Man · Dec 29, 2004, 09:39 PM

The last three items I sold had "Will not ship outside United States" marked on the listing. I even repeated it within the listing itself.

Guess where the highest bidders lived? ALL of them OUTSIDE the US!

And all of them were apologetic and tried to get me to ship them to them anyway. Not to mention illegally circumventing customs...

ReggieX · Dec 30, 2004, 12:10 AM

Originally posted by Person Man:
And all of them were apologetic and tried to get me to ship them to them anyway. Not to mention illegally circumventing customs...

I circumvent Customs as much as possible because it's total BS to pay a $5 "handling charge" on top of the 7% GST for a used piece of whatever, NAFTA my ass; however, I ALWAYS ask the seller first if they're NOT explicit about their shipping locations.

Cody Dawg · Dec 30, 2004, 02:41 AM

I sell tons of stuff on eBay and love it.

But, I'm used to it. My auctions are crystal: "WILL NOT SHIP OUTSIDE OF U.S. AND WE ONLY ACCEPT USPS MONEY ORDERS. WE USE AUCTION SOFTWARE TO AUTOMATICALLY CANCEL BIDS OF BIDDERS NOT IN THE UNITED STATES."

Of course, it's a total lie -- there is no such software -- but morons don't know that, right? So, they don't bid.

You went way out of your way with this lady. But, I've been in similar situations and what I've said is, "Sorry about this. Why don't you relist it using my auction as a template? Just copy and paste my description and use my picture and resell it." Sometimes I'll help them out. I have no problem helping people with their eBay auctions.

The ones that piss me off are the ones that never contact you after an auction end...then you go ahead and report them as a non-paying bidder in order to file for a credit (for commission on the sale) with eBay and they pop up and want to pay and say that they weren't notified...when we both know darn well that both eBay and I notified them.

Still, I'm nice about it. I don't care to be honest. I just relist it and file for a Final Value Fee Credit through eBay and sell it to someone who really wants it.

Good luck!

Oh, and by the way,

Wow you called them ? I would have given them the middle finger.

Made us laugh our *sses off.

shabbasuraj · Dec 30, 2004, 03:02 AM

Person Man · Dec 30, 2004, 10:31 AM

Originally posted by ReggieX:
I circumvent Customs as much as possible because it's total BS to pay a $5 "handling charge" on top of the 7% GST for a used piece of whatever, NAFTA my ass; however, I ALWAYS ask the seller first if they're NOT explicit about their shipping locations.

I'm talking about selling something for US$500 and then the buyer asking me to declare the value as US$10, but still insuring the package for $500.

Don't you think that somebody might pick up on that? "Hmm, why is this package insured for $500 when it's value is only $10?"

GoGoReggieXPowars · Dec 30, 2004, 01:25 PM

Originally posted by Person Man:
I'm talking about selling something for US$500 and then the buyer asking me to declare the value as US$10, but still insuring the package for $500.

Don't you think that somebody might pick up on that? "Hmm, why is this package insured for $500 when it's value is only $10?"

OK, that's more than a bit silly. I was talking more along the lines of a $100 item declared for $15 or similar. They're generally CDs, records or Laserdiscs, so on face value, a used item like that could be only $10 or $15. "Worth" is pretty relative for things of that nature.

OpenStep · Dec 30, 2004, 05:25 PM

Last week I sold an old Wallstreet 233 MHz on eBay for a whoping total of $110 (auction said the system was sold as-is) . Buyer get it and claims "it doesn't work" and won't explain exactly what's wrong with it. Files complaint with PayPal and now they froze the $110