Tell us some of your online sales stories 1 July 2022 at 8:31AM in Ebay, auctions, car boot sales, post & parcels 36 replies 2.4K views

JustAnotherSaver

I was going to say Marketplace because from my experience that's where the dregs of society seem to be but I'm sure some of you will have some great eBay tales or maybe Gumtree or whoever else.

I'm currently having a house clear out & as eBay haven't given me a 'max £1 on sales' offer in a while, I'm listing on Facebook Marketplace and oh boy is it making me want to send my head through a wall.

There's the usual "is this available" to which you say yes & then a week later they're back ... "is this available" that we'll all get.

Then I had this clown. Thankfully (I hope!!!) he unravelled the bubble wrap and found his item that I 'never sent'. I mean, who even gets in touch with someone saying they never sent something without properly checking what you've opened?

I don't think I mentioned it in that thread but he messaged me somewhere around 10pm one night also to say he'd sent payment & then messaged again like 7:30-8:00am with a bunch of question marks.

Am I not allowed to sleep? Jesus! I'm not about to get in to a text to-&-fro at that time of night anyway.

Then a couple days after that I had someone buy another item from me. I told them I was out at the moment, gave them my post code etc, told them I'd be back at such-a-time.....

They told me they'd set off and need it now.

I said well that's no good to me as I just told you I'm out. I'll be back at 11.

Their reply - fine, 11 will have to do then.

You're damn right it'll have to do you stroppy mare!!

2 more.....

1) Selling a vacuum cleaner spares or repair, damaged. Says this in the title, says it in the description. BIG CAPITAL LETTERS, also says collection only.

Woman who basically looks like she's just punched her keyboard for her message ... after i decipher it she's asking if i still have it and does it work.

Yes I still have it and the condition is mentioned in the listing title AND description (I'd had enough by this point - that is me being VERY patient & nice).

Follows up with can I deliver it to her!!!!!!

Told her delivery/collection is ALSO mentioned in the description. Then I left the chat & blocked her.

2) Recently, 'sold' another item. It's up for £5. Guy just messages me "10". Not "£10" or "will you take £10", either of which would be odd, but just "10".

Thinking another timewaster I ignore it.

Next day he offers £5, I accept.

exchange details. I ask when he's thinking of collecting, he tells me after 12. I tell him I'll be back home from 1pm. He responds ok.

Haven't seen him.

Now I guess today is still technically after yesterday's 12 but it's a bit taking the piddle.

I'm sure some of you will have some good ones.

TripleH

Listed an item for buyer collect (bulky item).

Buyer messages asking will I send it? I politely decline.

They pay up and advise I should send it and they'll pay me once its delivered.

Item sold for £1.50 but will cost triple that to send by cheapest courier.

fenwick458

Facebook marketplace is awful I don't use it. I don't think it's the buyers fault you get lots of stupid questions, its the platform. you can't actually search for stuff you want, you just get random stuff popping up. it doesn't say how long stuff has been listed, or where it is, and it's hard to find a page with the description, the price and a photo all together

JustAnotherSaver

fenwick458 said:

Facebook marketplace is awful I don't use it. I don't think it's the buyers fault you get lots of stupid questions, its the platform. you can't actually search for stuff you want, you just get random stuff popping up. it doesn't say how long stuff has been listed, or where it is, and it's hard to find a page with the description, the price and a photo all together

I appreciate they don't know how long something has been listed and not everyone is like me & marks something as sold as soon as it is sold. A lot of people have their money so who cares about a listing anymore, right?

So I don't mind the "is this still for sale" questions.

It's when they ask if something is working when the listing title says faulty. Come on, make a little effort to read.

And like Thursday when they say they'll turn up after 12 but then don't have the basic manners to say sorry I've changed my mind, I don't want it any more.

That is the very reason I refuse to deliver items locally (I'm getting a lot of requests to). I'm not running around town AT MY COST with fuel prices the way they are, to go knocking on someones door to find they've nipped out to see their mate Dave.

It's also why I refuse to bend over backwards for a buyer. If I'm in then I'm in & we can do the deal but I'm not stopping in just for you for you to then not bother turning up, so if me saying no I'm not stopping in costs me a sale then it costs me a sale. I'd rather that than get wound up over stopping in only for you to not turn up ........ because on the balance of things, there's way more timewasters on Facebook than there is genuine people.

Brie

I've done ok with Gumtree a couple of times but ultimately I go for freegle as buying/selling is such a faff.  I will respond directly to someone and ask when they are coming to collect and then agree a set time.  Likewise a couple of times I've had someone say they want something and will pay for my petrol if I can deliver.  I normally would arrange to do something else en route - go to Taxcos or wherever.  I say I'm on my way to the shops I'll drop it off in 20 minutes and if you're not at home I'll leave it by your door.  That way I've done my bit.

I'm not fond of selling stuff and telling people to collect and pay.  If they have any complaints they know where I live and that could potentially be an issue.  Not that I've had that problem. 

I sold a perfectly good dyson for £50 - think I asked for £100 knowing that it was worth a lot more being practically knew.  Maybe I fell for a story but the woman who bought asked for a lower price and showed up in the worst old banger you could imagine so I don't' really think she was ripping me off.  And if she resold for more, well good for her.  Another time I was selling a nice Ikea solid wood table and had it on Gumtree mid December talking it up as a great way to accommodate all the family for Christmas.  A young couple bought it and I got a lovely email after from the wife thanking me for selling it to them as it was so much nicer than she was expecting.  Nearly brought a tear to my eye!

TripleH

We had a fridge freezer on gumtree. Had a buyer mess us around twice stating a time and not turning up or message that he wasn't. We sold it for £10 to another couple who did turn up first time.

I messaged the time waster who had said he would turn up the following night to collect it (as I am kind) and got endless abuse off of him about how I let him down and was a timewaster. He even said I  needed to find him a replacement as I owed him a fridge freezer.

Number blocked, lesson learnt.

JellyphantCastle

Sold something low-ish value on eBay and, totally my error here, managed to send the item to someone else (I was selling a lot of stuff at the time and good old human error kicked in). 

Realised my error and contacted the buyer to say I could either refund them in full or, by way of apology, order the item brand new from Amazon to be delivered direct to the buyer the next day. They opted for that. I double checked the address with the buyer and ordered it.  Tracking showed it as delivered the next day, handed to resident. 

Buyer pipes up, where is it, you said it would be here today. I sent screenshots of the delivery but buyer totally adamant they’d not received it. I contacted Amazon, said it was showing as delivered but wasn’t - they offered a replacement which I accepted. 

Relayed this to the buyer - “I’ve changed my mind now, you shouldn’t have ordered a replacement as I don’t want the item”. Filed a INR claim and got a full refund, and, I suspect, the Amazon delivery they claimed not to have received. 

Buyer had paid for second class postage so all of this carry on took place before they even would have received the original item in the first place. 

I check I’m putting the right label on the right package VERY carefully now!

JustAnotherSaver

Wow, @JellyphantCastle my instant thought on that one is that you dealt with someone we used to see on Jeremy Kyle & they were just royally taking the piddle, knowing full well that Amazon don't really put up much of a grumble & just seem to hand out refunds fairly easily. Some people really do take the pee.

I remember one time I sold some Sennheiser wireless earphones. I think they cost me like £300. It was a stupid buy really. I wore them once, perhaps twice & just thought you know what, I'm not going to use these much, I'll see what I can get.

They were selling around £200 so as per what I usually do - I ask for a bit less to ensure I get a sale, so I list at £150.

Now I had a guy who contacted me wanting to buy them for £50 AND wanted me to deliver them to somewhere that is an hours drive away from me. When I told him not a chance he actually got offended.

A little later I see he's listing something himself. Got to say I was tempted to ask him to take a fraction of his asking price and deliver it halfway round the world.

But I didn't.

Jerry_Cornelius

I've got 3 ebay ones I can remember ..

Most "annoying" was a seller who bid on a collectible lego set and won it. About a week after sending got positive feedback but with a negative comment - saying they had been made to "look a fool" and had "bought in good faith". Next thing i know the item is being returned as "Not As Described", with a snotty message about if I dont refund her she'll do this and that. She then uses a 24 hr service which cost twice what I paid to send, and then sends it wrapped in polythene; not the rigid box i sent it in - I nearly always package my stuff in boxes for protection and the thin walled box for this lego set was no exception. Consequently, I get it back and its squashed on one side. Reading between the lines, it seems she thought she was bidding on a different set with the same name, larger and much more expensive (3x the price), even tho my set description, photos and lego set number were all of the item she received - therefore it was "as described". If she'd just emailed me to say she made a mistake, no problems, we could have sorted it, but no, it was all my fault apprently. 

Another was a collectible I sold with damage - I stated this, and it was won by someone who was happy with it. About 2 weeks later I get an email from another buyer I've not dealt with - turns out the first buyer of my collectible simply relisted it with different pictures, but did not mention the damage, and this other buyer gets it and is fuming because it is damaged, but the first buyer also managed to leave my packing slip in the new parcel which the other buyer found, and this was how they found my original listing and were able to contact me, and put me in the loop.

Third is a "sob" story I received a few years ago on a listing. I still have the email, from which the message I was sent is shown below. My TV had gone to the great scrapyard in the sky, so I put the remote on ebay for £6, there were loads of universal types which covered the TV in question, and looked very similar to the original remote, just as functional, but very few genuine remotes were listed. Anyway I get the message below. I quite like the last line ... still not sure what packaging precautions to implement when sending to Newcastle ...!

IftiBashir

Brie said:

I'm not fond of selling stuff and telling people to collect and pay.  If they have any complaints they know where I live and that could potentially be an issue.  Not that I've had that problem. 

100% this. 
I sold a bedroom wardrobe - well gave it away really as I just wanted rid - so in such cases I have no choice but to offer collection from my home (even though I still get delivery requests!). But generally I get people to meet me at the closest station - not only is it covered by CCTV, but when a buyer purchases something, I'm happy to stay with them while they open and test etc so they are completely happy (I have nothing to hide and am honest with descriptions), but some automatically feel like they have a 10 year guarantee with the item. I don't want anyone knocking on my door due to an item I sold a year ago!

I once sold an external RAID drive for around £1.5k.
Had no choice but to let the buyer round as I wanted him to connect his own laptop to it and test etc beforehand. I actually insisted he do this as I didn't want him to take it and then say something was wrong etc. 
The guy ended up coming 2 hours late and staying in my house for 3 hours!!! It seemed he had a mental issue, as he told me his life story, how he regularly got in trouble with the police, and so on. It was actually rather frightening. 
It was at this point I stopped inviting people into the house for collections. 

When I sell an item I always try to insist the buyer opens the package and checks/tests the item in front of me (unless its a gift purchase of course). That way we know everything works fine and both parties are happy. 

JustAnotherSaver

Jerry_Cornelius said:

I've got 3 ebay ones I can remember ..

Most "annoying" was a seller who bid on a collectible lego set and won it. About a week after sending got positive feedback but with a negative comment - saying they had been made to "look a fool" and had "bought in good faith". Next thing i know the item is being returned as "Not As Described", with a snotty message about if I dont refund her she'll do this and that. She then uses a 24 hr service which cost twice what I paid to send, and then sends it wrapped in polythene; not the rigid box i sent it in - I nearly always package my stuff in boxes for protection and the thin walled box for this lego set was no exception. Consequently, I get it back and its squashed on one side. Reading between the lines, it seems she thought she was bidding on a different set with the same name, larger and much more expensive (3x the price), even tho my set description, photos and lego set number were all of the item she received - therefore it was "as described". If she'd just emailed me to say she made a mistake, no problems, we could have sorted it, but no, it was all my fault apprently. 

This one reminded me of a tale I have and also brings a question from me...

I sold a digital camera on eBay. The flash had gone knackered. Everything else worked on it as it should but the flash was knackered.

I wasn't interested in paying someone to fix it nor was I interested in trying to squeeze top dollar (I rarely am - I usually just want a quick sale), so I listed it up.

Listing title was something like "Canon blahblah model *FAULTY*" - and that's how I wrote it. The camera in small case and faulty in stars in upper case.

I opened up in the listing with massive text - THIS IS FAULTY. I AM LISTING THIS AS FAULTY BECAUSE THE FLASH DOES NOT WORK. YOU WILL BE ASKED BEFORE I POST THIS IF YOU HAVE READ & UNDERSTOOD THIS SO THAT NEITHER OF US HAVE OUR TIME WASTED.

I then go on to describe it in normal case and finish off at the end again in capitals, ONCE AGAIN, THIS IS BEING SOLD AS FAULTY DUE TO NO FLASH, OTHER THAN THAT IT WORKS.

Anyway the listing ends & someone pays.

As per my promise I message them -

Hi, just contacting you as like I said in the listing, I'm just checking that you've noticed the camera is actually faulty, the flash doesn't work but other than that it's a working camera. You still ok with this & want me to post?

Their reply - no I didn't know that. I don't want it now.

I wont tell you what it made me feel like doing because I'd probably get banned off this forum. But the question....

* So you post something out. They're a bit of an idiot and want to return it. You get it back but not in the condition you sent it.

Where do you stand?

My guess is because eBay love to protect the buyer & give the middle finger to the seller, it's a case of unlucky, you've no cash & now no item. You may as well have just chucked it in the bin from the get go. Oh it's expensive and costs £500? Unlucky you.

???

Jerry_Cornelius said:

Third is a "sob" story I received a few years ago on a listing. I still have the email, from which the message I was sent is shown below. My TV had gone to the great scrapyard in the sky, so I put the remote on ebay for £6, there were loads of universal types which covered the TV in question, and looked very similar to the original remote, just as functional, but very few genuine remotes were listed. Anyway I get the message below. I quite like the last line ... still not sure what packaging precautions to implement when sending to Newcastle ...!

The cheek of some people!!!!

I'm not being funny but you were asking for £6. We're not breaking banks here.

I have a few items on Marketplace where I'm just asking for £5 or £10. At these prices I refuse to move on the price. It's £5 for Christ's sake. I sold a TV for £20 recently, a 1st gen fire stick for £5. I don't ask silly amounts so I don't move for silly offers.

This one reminds me of when I was selling a set of wheels (car). I can't remember whether it was 2 wheels or 4 as I've sold a few. I also can't remember how much I was asking for as it's been a few years now. I just remember the cheek of it.

So for arguments sake, let's say I was selling 4 wheels for £100. That could've actually been it tbh but we'll go with that.

Guy gets in touch & says I'll give you £50.

I ask - are you being serious? I'm already listing them way less than anything else you can get on eBay right now. Items that are actually selling.

His reply ....

Yeah but I'm coming from Glasgow (3hrs from me) so there's the fuel cost.

At this point I'd already decided I wasn't selling to this guy even if he offered me £200 so I didn't care about my reply -

I said something along the lines of are you for real? So if I have to drive to my supermarket instead of it being a 1 minute walk round the corner, then they should knock 50% off their item price for me to accommodate my travel?

The price is the price. I'm not forcing you to travel or even bid on it. You don't have to. You can buy elsewhere closer, but as I've already said - I'm asking for far less than anyone else.

Had you been sensible and offered £90 or had you not used a terrible excuse like travel then maybe but no I wont be lowering my price just because of your travel. I'd rather not sell them.

Yep I know you're supposed to maintain pleasantries, but the guy had flicked my switch I'm afraid.