Like many people I’ve used eBay to sell unwanted items to raise cash. Nothing major, just a few things here and there that I could get a few bucks for and free up some room in my garage or basement.
I’m really not a huge fan of eBay these days because it seems there is less and less room for small scale guys like me. I’m not a power-seller and I don’t want to be. I just want to unload a few things I don’t need instead of throwing them away.
Anyway, most of my transactions have been pretty smooth. I sold a large lot of old VHS tapes and a couple smaller lots of books, and a few other random items.
The last item I auctioned off was a Linksys wireless router. I had picked it up on Amazon for $48 when I first bought my laptop so I could be free to roam the house and not be chained down to the desk. I used it for about six months and everything worked perfectly. Then I switched internet providers and I no longer needed the router because FIOS gave me one to use for free.
So rather than have an unused router sitting around collecting dust I figured I’d just pack it up back in the box and sell it. After all it was barely used and looked as good as new. I had the original box and everything else that came with it.
I auctioned it off on eBay but all I got was a lousy $14. The seller sent me $22 (eight bucks for shipping) but after mailing it off and paying paypal and ebay fees all that was left was about $12.
“Oh well,” I thought. “I wasn’t using it anyway and $12 is better than nothing.”
After a few days I received an email from the seller complaining that I ripped her off and sold her a router that didn’t work. I wouldn’t say she was nasty about it but there was certainly the implication that I knowingly sold her damaged goods.
I responded as nicely as possible that the router was working perfectly when I boxed it up and mailed it and is she sure she’s using it right? I suggested reseting the router back to default settings as that might clear up any problems.
She then wrote back that she tried everything and it doesn’t work and she wants a refund. She’ll mail the router back to me but I need to pay the return shipping.
Three Scenarios
I start thinking about what went wrong here and came up with a few ideas.
1. The router is fine and she doesn’t know what she’s doing. If she sends it back I can always resell it and hope for a better outcome.
2. The router was damaged in shipping and is useless. I’d be paying for a worthless piece of trash that I couldn’t resell.
3. I’m being scammed. Maybe her router broke and she concocted this scheme to get one for nothing. She could send back her broken one and I’d probably never know the difference. It seems like a lot of trouble to scam such a small amount, but people are crazy.
The first scenario is the only one in which I could come out ahead. The other two result in me getting stuck with a broken router. Since the odds were against me I decided to cut my losses. I sent her a $22 refund and told her to toss the broken router since I couldn’t resell it anyway.
Could it all have been a scam? Maybe. But probably not. And either way I decided it didn’t make sense to pay another $8 shipping and throw good money after bad to reaquire a broken router that is useless and unsellable.
In the end I got nothing for my router. Oh well. At least I gained a little extra room in the basement!
What would you have done in my situation? Do you have any eBay selling tips or any general tips for selling online that could have helped me avoid this mess?
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve been in the same situation and did as you did, giving the refund and accepting the loss. A certain percentage of all business transactions will simply go awry, so increase prices accordingly.
Was it a scam or just incompetence on the buyer’s part? Tough to say.
Yep, things just don’t go as planned sometimes. We resold Magic: The Gathering cards on Ebay for 2 years. I had 2 complaints about not receiving enough rares (they did, they just didn’t know that some older rares aren’t marked with a gold symbol) and I had 1 person say that they never received the package.
For the 2 rare complainers, I explained how they could look them up and let it go. For the 1 person who never received the package, I sent another one ($2.15 for shipping and cards we didn’t want anyway was cheaper than refunding $6 and redoing the whole thing).
It sucks which is why I now sell mainly on Craigslist and only buy on Ebay occasionally.
Hey Crystal,
I do like shopping on eBay. you can find some good deals on some random items as long as you are careful not too get carried away and bid too much.
I hate when this happens. What I usually do is point to the very clear indication that no returns are accepted, however, if they were willing to pay shipping back to me I’d refund everything except shipping.
Most people accept the deal and leave positive remarks
Evan´s last [type] ..Is Evan a Personal Finance D-Bag Part 2
Yea, I probably could have been a jerk and refused a refund but I’m a nice guy I guess. haha
If I were in that scenario, I would have followed done as Evan suggested.
After all, you are out the ebay and paypal fees, time packaging up the product, gas money driving it to the post office (if you went that route), and the time waiting in line to ship it.
My first auction where I was a seller, the buyer never sent payment. I was so mad, that I dinged him pretty bad on the review and complained of non-payment to ebay. They suspended his account and he didn’t get to leave negative feedback on the transaction.
I believe sometimes it’s worth getting a bad feedback rating when I’m in the right. But my scenario was pretty obvious!
Most of my transactions has been pleasant. I’m sure you won’t get another bad one for a long time…
I guess if you’d refused to accept the return, she could give you a poor rating on eBay? I’ve never sold on eBay (seems too complicated for the few things i’d want to sell) and so I do sell on Craig’s List..
As someone who has used both, why don’t you write a post comparing eBay to Craig’s List with all thepros and cons? That would make for an interesting story.
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