Yesterday, I closed out a case with eBAY for an unpaid item I 'sold' at auction. In my life, despite the fact that I have always met the terms, people have complained about difficulties in the transaction even if they were difficulties beyond my control. However, in this case, I was more than patient.
After the auction was over, I received only one message from the prospective buyer. It came after I contacted him over a week later asking why he had not paid, asking if he'd received my other emails, etc. He made an excuse, and I gave him two more weeks. Even when eBAY contacted him, he made no attempt to communicate. This is the only place where I will complain, and I will bar this person from ever bidding on one of my auctions again. There will be no negative feedback, no complaining, anything of that sort; I won't even list their seller ID. I have found that sometimes leaving neutral feedback prompted a negative response, completely unjustified though that was.
EBAY has been a mixed bag. Some of the people are amazing. Some of them are lousy. Most of them are honest. I attempt to be, and it's clearly stated in my terms that I will make things right if people ask. However, when I pay for an item that never arrives and the seller tells me "tough", that's bad business practice. I have not made a stink about items that arrived in conditions other than advertised or the book I once bought that had a stamp inside the front cover indicating that it was a free copy. I could have written and asked for a free one. Usually, it's good enough, and so I'm ok.
When I give you money for a product, I have agreed that I value what you claim it offers at the price I am willing to pay. As a seller, you are obligated to provide what you advertise. My father told me of a time when he went down to pick up some photography equipment he saw advertised. The salesmen all told him it was an error, but my grandfather, who worked in advertising, told them they would sell the set to my dad because they were obligated. A few months back, I went down to look at a newer car, with the internet advertisement in hand because it said that was worth an extra $200 discount, only to discover the price was $1000 more at the dealer than in the ad. I didn't want the car badly enough to argue, but I could have held them to it. I refuse however to buy a car from them, no matter how good the deal appears to be.
The worst punishment I can think of to inflict is to treat people as the strangers they have earned the right to be. When you grieve the social contract, I elect to abstain from future contracts with you, even if you're the only person who might be able to offer it. I have learned that no matter how amazing something seems, something at least as good comes around again if you are patient long enough. In a free economy, I can select which businesses I support by spending my money at places where I am treated as a valuable customer. At least in this case (as opposed to the lost at sea items), eBAY did right by me.
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