I had about 60 items for cheapness, like for $1, the price that says "please just get this crud out of my basement" . . . .But in addition to those I had about a dozen items for sale that werent cheap, I wanted to see about $8 to $20 for them.
Well when you're doing ebay auctions you can stop and query the servers for your own listings to check your progress. But none of the expensive items are showing. Hmm. I start relisting them, figuring I had somehow not committed the final step. Then my phone rings.
Its late at night and I don't recognize the area code, much less the phone number of the person calling me.
So this person tells me they've just bought a bunch of my junk on ebay. I'm grateful, but I must wonder why are they calling me personally. (Most ebay business transpires via email) . . . Well they wondered why I had listed some items twice, where everything was identical except some with low low prices.
So then I recheck my listings, and now my "auctions running" page shows duplicates, and worst of all, the cheapo price had bled over into the expensive things. The person on the phone had clicked Instant Purchase! on the pricey items for $1, thinking I was having some sort of fire sale, and he was quite lucky. But then he saw the duplication, and wondered what was up.
So when he calls me and finds my response to be thoughtful and intelligent: "Huh? Whazzat?" ; he takes mercy on me. He tells me whats happened and cancels the purchases. Somehow he avoided describing me as stupid, which is amazing someone could avoid saying the obvious.
Now he could have held me to the auctions as written, because part of the honor system of ebay says "I sell what I describe" and he "gets what he pays for as advertised".
I find this to be rare, seemingly most people would want to demand the letter of the law be upheld.
Anyways, I'm giving him one of the items at that price for being a good sport, and leaving him positive feedback anyways, just as if a good transaction had happened.
And he paid for the long-distance phone call to
help me with my mistake, that's the topper.
help me with my mistake, that's the topper.
2 comments:
I read your blog entry. The idea that 'no one is honest anymore' is BS. I have found that dealing with the public that MOST people ARE honest, even when it hurts them. There are some trends. The older people are less likely to lie, or at least lie badly. Women tend to be more truthful than men. No comment there. The more education a person has, the more likely they are to attempt to lie. I haven't noticed a big difference in city vs. rural and north vs. south. I have noticed a big difference east vs. west, westerners are more likely to lie to the government than easterners and there is little difference in California and the rest of the west. To be fair, I have had little experience with the upper west, i.e. Washington Oregon Idaho, Montana etc. On the other hand, I scrutinize statements from folks in California, Texas and Nevada closely. I suspect California is a cultural thing, I have the wrong accent. My cousin who lived in South Cali for many years says that the general perception out there is that anyone with a southern accent is stupid. I have found this to be true in dealing with Californians and it can be used to great advantage. ;)
The guy who called you WAS a brick and is deserving of applause and many kind thoughts. Just my two cents on your post. KING of BAMA
>> well you are right, mostly.
> I have a similar discussion frequently
> with people who say the USA is going to heck.
If one thinks things are bad nowadays, one should study seriously the period from 1870-1900. We are living in a golden age compared to then. The good old days that everyone seems to pine for lasted from about 1905-1920. And they were rather problematic for some folks even then. Most of the social ills that afflict the US today have afflicted us in the past. We haven't learned our history. A generation of men were shattered by the Civil War, yet PTSD is rediscovered again and again. We talk of the 'drug epidemic', yet the term 'dope fiend' comes from the laudanum epidemic of the late 1800's. People talk of AIDS as an end time plague, yet thousands died every year in epidemics of yellow fever in such exotic places like Tampa, New Orleans and Memphis. Scarlet fever was a killer of children. There are huge debates about safe food, but before the FDA, milk was often adulterated with chalk dust and water to the point of being non nutritive. As far as political corruption, what Duke Cunningham did which will cause him to spend most of the rest of his life in jail was pretty much SOP for congressmen for most of the 1880's-1890's. I could make a very good case that times are getting better, not worse. But the pessimistic view sells papers and magazines and makes for good Nielsons and Arbitrons. Unfortunately, your outlook colors your world.
remember the story in the Bible
> where Elijah is wailing to the Lord:
> " (they) have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.?
> Then the LORD said to him ... Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal" >
> so I should remember my own argument to those people,
> that there is still good out there, huh?
A lot of people think of me as a pessimist, but I consider myself to be a realistic optimist. However, I am open to the possibility that I may be wrong ... 8 )
from the
KING of BAMA
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