More eBay Insanity

[jasonf]

I've never really tried selling products on Ebay, because with the few attempts I've made the auctions, fees and other shipping head aches made it now worth it.
Right now I'm working with Prostores.com it is owned by Ebay, but basically gives you templates to set up your own web address and online store fees are low, around $30/month and there is a small transaction fee of a couple percent, but they also set up all your invoices, shopping carts and templates that you can use as is or modify with HTML.
Not the option for everyone as you need to be selling a fair amount each month, but very userfriendly and helpful so far.
check out the site as a sample: www.HappyScarf.com

[Michael]

Since when has any large corporate merger resulted in better conditions for the consumer? They did make eBay and Paypal more seamlessly integrated but at what cost?

I had given paypal the benefit of the doubt allowing that their motives were reasonable, but they were understaffed and so had no time for discussion. When they froze my account, the only communication was they could send me emails telling me what to do to try and unfreeze, but I could not communicate with them in any way except to fax them the documents they requested.

After, or perhaps shortly before they merged with ebay, they established an 800 line so you could talk to someone, but their policies never changed even when their operating budget and staff increased, which I thought would result in something resembling customer service and fair treatment. I guess it's just as you say, there's no real competition, so they can do whatever they like and whatever's best for them without a sense of fair play, IMO.

[cerebus]

Wow. There must be a sale on crazy pills in stores this year. I just received a message from a client claiming that his item arrived completely destroyed due to poor packaging. Clearly this is his windup in preparation for demanding a refund. This is ridiculous for a couple of reasons: 1) I never pack items poorly. I always make sure to pack them quite well. And 2) the item he claims arrived damaged is sitting right here in front of me, I haven't even mailed it out yet! Sigh... people drive me crazy...

[Ian]

And 2) the item he claims arrived damaged is sitting right here in front of me, I haven't even mailed it out yet!

damn. I feel your pain...

have you thought about taking a picture of the package (showing his name and address) next to today's newspaper and mailing it to him?

[Michael]

Maybe he just got confused about some different auctions, combined with a little OCD on wanting to receive his stuff NOW. Like he really wanted your item, hasn't received it yet, did receive some other crappy item he bought on impulse but it got mangled in transit, and he has transferred part of the reality of what he got — the mangled crap — with his expectation of what he wants — the awesome thing you haven't sent him.

Or he could just be a total nutter

[cerebus]

Maybe he just got confused about some different auctions, combined with a little OCD on wanting to receive his stuff NOW. Like he really wanted your item, hasn't received it yet, did receive some other crappy item he bought on impulse but it got mangled in transit, and he has transferred part of the reality of what he got — the mangled crap — with his expectation of what he wants — the awesome thing you haven't sent him.

Or he could just be a total nutter

I've considered that. I wrote back & asked him if he can send me some photos of the damaged item and the packaging. He said he'll send the pics tomorrow. Should be interesting...