Ok so here is the rough outline of whats gone on, I sold this guy a dvd player and he's the customer from hell a total douche bag
Graeme,
I don't particularly consider this a "small technical difficulty". It's a £9 or three-odd percent difficulty. That's not a fortune but it could have been avoided.
And "abuse" ?! Where ? By what standards is there any abuse ?
Regarding the payment terms: I was paying the maximum price, coming up with four fifths of the money straight away (and the remainder within quite a short time) and had lots of positive feedback. Cancelling my bid wouldn't have made any sort of business sense at all. That isn't flexible, except in the most limited and literal sense.
Offering to ship to my work address was also easy. You only had to write my work address on the package. And by all appearances, you didn't go to great pains to ensure the package actually left on Friday, which would have saved me this notorious £9.
In my view, a substantively flexible act is one where the protaginist has to put himself out to some degree. I don't see that here.
Obviously you've decided to stick to your guns over this one, which you have your own views about, I guess. There's nothing to be gained from me being morally absolutist about it. So personally I'd prefer to forget about it.
I do think "abuse" is quite intemperate, though.
Patrick
gr4eme wrote:
Patrick,
Your parcel left yesterday for delivery Monday but seeing as Monday is
a public holiday it will be Tuesday. As far as my location i live in a
small village not a major town and we have a sub post office which is
only open certain hours. I am a busy person and taking time off of work
when i can simply ship straight from work on what i believe to be a
superior service. I could of shipped straight to your home leaving you
to go and get the package from the local depot but instead i could see
your problem and offered to ship to your works address.
In all your points you still seem to have forgotten that i was
flexible in your payment terms, i could have simply canceled your bid
and re listed but i continued through with this transaction only to
receive abuse from yourself when a small technical difficulty occurred
with the shipping.
graeme
From: Patrick
Graeme,
I have done scores of deals on E-Bay and always private sellers are a
little flexible as regards dispatch. Conversely, I am flexible as a
seller. I have never had anybody say they can't use Royal Mail. The
fact that your use of a courier rather than the post actually stood to
cost me money (quite apart from time and effort) is as good a reason as
I can think of for you to be a little accommodating.
I certainly agree that a ruthless interpretation of the parameters of
the deal leaves me not a leg to stand on. You say in the ad that you
use a courier and you have done exactly that.
However, without wishing to sound high-falutin or smart-arsy, there is
no better way to put it than that a normative interpretation of those
same parameters is not nearly so favourable to your position:
1) Lots of people (for example, those like myself without families)
live in houses or flats that are vacant during normal working hours.
For these people use of a courier constitutes either staying at home
for a day- thus taking time off work- or having a package delivered to
their work.
2) If the first option is unavailable at short notice (and rather
unfair), the second option might involve altering their travel
arrangements to cope with a large package. This might cost money and/or
a lot of effort.
3) 1 and 2 are obvious points, obviously, which is the point. In my
opinion, they demand some logistical flexibility on the part of private
sellers. Businesses are a different matter, of course. The normative
aspects of business transations are quite different and if you were a
business I would have had different expectations. However, you
represent yourself as a private seller.
4) The particular flexibility I asked from you is that you somehow get
the item to a post office. Now I know that you don't live on a rock in
the Atlantic but in Northamptonshire. If taking time off from work was
the issue, I would have been quite happy for you to do it today.
Requests to use Royal Mail are entirely reasonable in the context of
private sales on e-bay. I have never had a refusal before, no matter
what it says in the ad.
5) The case with me is: 2 tubes and 2 buses in London zones 1 and 2
(out and back at peak hours) equals £9 (shocking I know but £9 is what
it costs). Normally I cycle. Of course the extra cost of the the
alternative to a courier- Royal Mail Special Delivery (which is
insured) would have offset that. That is why I didn't make an issue of
it.
5) But that assumes you having the package to me when you said you
would. Now I have to spend another £9 (also I have to leave the package
at work overnight because I don't want to risk spending £9 on Tuesday
only for the package to arrive on Wednesday). So a direct result of
your work's mistake or whatever is I am out of pocket by £9. And I
EXPLAINED this beforehand (ommitting only the amount).
6) As I explained previously, Special Delivery would have suited me
much better because I could simply have walked to the post office on a
Saturday to pick the item up. Perhaps I should have been more
insistent.
That's all I have to say, really. I feel a £9 refund would be very
JUST and a small price to pay for you having gone to almost no trouble
and me having gone to a great deal of trouble. It would recompense me
for the money I have had to outlay unnecessarily and reflect our equal
status as buyer and seller in an win-win transation that benefits us
both. Of course if you'd prefer to be an oligarch, there's nothing I
can do about it. I won't be leaving negative feedback because I feel
that would be an over-reaction. I'll just be mildly pi**ed off !
I don't think the point about Paypal is a good one. Paypal charge a
percentage. 2% (or whatever it is) of £200 plus 2% of £60 is the same
as 2% of £260.
Please let me know when the package did actually go.
Regards,
Patrick
gr4eme wrote:
Patrick,
I am sorry that you did not receive your item today, after checking
with work it was missed last night and i was willing to refund you the
£9 until i read further into your last email. As far as i can see i
have been more than flexible with this transaction. You sent me a
question through eBay asking if i would accept a split payment and
before i could answer you used the buy it now option. By doing this i
was hit with pay pal fees for both transactions the first being £7
and
the second being £2.24 if you require proof of this i am happy to
email
the transaction reports. It states on the original item sale
information that i ship via a next day courier and i have never had
any
complaints these were my terms and you agreed to these when you
purchased the item. If you look at my feedback you will see that i am
a
good ebayer with no complaints from anyone. As far as i can see i have
been professional through out the whole transaction.
I await your comments
Graeme
From: Patrick
Hello Graeme,
The package has not arrived and the TNT depot where it would have gone
before being dispatched to my work address have had nothing today for
******** school, where I work. This means that either the package
wasn't
picked up or it was picked up too late to be delivered the next day.
You led me to believe it would arrive today, so I travelled to work by
public transport. That cost me £9 over and above the costs I would
have
incurred, as I'm now going to have to do the same again next week.
This
may not be directly your fault (for example it may be down to your
post
room, if you were sending it from work). However, you bear the
responsibility for it, since we had an understanding.
I think it's reasonable that you reinburse me £9 by Paypal. If you
don't think this is reasonable, please explain why. You have been
fairly inflexible regarding shipping (how much trouble would it really
have been for you to get to a post office ?). By doing so you have
cost
me money (it will have been at least £18 by the time I have the
object
home). I think reinbursing me £9 is the very least you can do.
As per my last e-mail, please let me know the consignment note number.
Patrick
gr4eme wrote:
Patrick,
The DVD player was boxed and shipped today to your works address so
should be with you sometime tomorrow
Graeme
From: Patrick
Hello Graeme,
Can you tell me if the DVD player is going to my work address
tommorrow, as per my previous e-mail ?
It makes a difference as to whether I go to work by underground
(costing money) or, as I usually do, by bike (not costing money).
Thanks,
Patrick
Sorry for the delay in my reply. Have now got notification form paypal
so will ship tomorrow. We dont have a saturday service with our carrier
which is TNT. I can ship to your works address if that helps. I ship
next day service with TNT. I wNever just ship in original packaging so
dont wory about it looking expensive i always double box. If you can
let me have the prefered shipping address i would appreciate it.
Graeme
From: Patrick
Hello Graeme. I got paid a day early, so I have paid the balance.
I sent you an E-mail yesterday asking if it was possible to have the
pa
