Too Good To Be True

soolin

wigginsmum wrote:

Ooh - when and where is the Discworld convention? I make a brilliant Nanny Ogg.

Hinkley near leicester. I'm in an internet cafe at the moment* so I can't post the link but I'm sure Kay will have it. It's end of August sometime.

Soo

* blasted broadband connection has gone down and bT can't even look for the fault for weeks.

wigginsmum

Cheers, Soolin - I'll have a look.

Kay

https://www.dwcon.org - not many places left now though....

Kay

Getting back on topic, I have just received this from the seller - any thoughts as to how I should respond to it?

Hi, you have bid on my item a few days ago, I haven't received your payment yet, when can you pay for it?

frivolous_fay

Two options:

Buy

or

Ignore him and take a possible neg / strike

bs7

options 3 and 4:

- makes some nonsense up and stall him until you find out if ebay will pull the auction for fee avoidance (and therefore avoid the risk of negative feedback); i.e. 'the cheque is in the post', etc.

or

- be honest with the seller and tell them you didn't notice the postage charge until after you won the auction, and that you were actually looking for a cheaper one. (remember, they know that if they leave a negative you may well do the same - so it may be more likely to reach a stalemate that way than ignoring them altogether and giving them no other option).

Sugar_Coated_Owl

I personally would email the seller and say sorry but you made a mistake and actually do not want the item. Perhaps you could offer to pay the sellers listing fees.

frivolous_fay

Pay the listing fees of a fee avoiding scumbag?

Regardless of the fact that they'd only be about 20p, I'm not sure I'd feel good about helping out a seller like that. I'd rather take a neg... or stall for time.

Kay

Have sent the following (thought I'd be nice to them before telling them I've reported them to ebay for extortionate P&P if the nice approach doesn't work). Take the point that I shouldn't offer to pay even their 20p, but if I do then they can't complain at all - especially as it was a 2nd chance offer cos they've got lots of the damn things!

Hello - I'm hoping you can help me out of an embarrassing situation here. I'm only after a set of costume pearls for a fancy-dress costume, and with your auction starting at 99p, I assumed that yours were such and didn't read the ad properly, as I only found it with a short time to go on the auction. I hadn't seen or realised that the postage costs made it such an expensive item, or that they are real pearls. I can only apologise for my oversight (I don't make a habit of this as my feedback will attest) - and ask you whether on this occasion you can cancel my bid. I am happy to reimburse any ebay fees you have incurred for this. Best regards, Kay

Kay

Well, it worked - the seller has cancelled my bid and neither of us gets negged! I notice fleabay never bothered to get involved, despite me reporting the seller twice for flouting ebay policy on P&P, so it seems that they're not at all bothered. The seller is now trying to flog his necklaces for 10p - oh, plus the P&P of course!

Many thanks to everyone for their input, and hopefully, a couple of us will meet up at the Discworld convention as a result of this!