I buy and sell a lot on eBay/reverb and 9/10 it goes great, but there’s always that 1 sale that just ends up being an utter ball ache.
I sold my Boss DR-202 recently for £50-£100 less than what you can buy one for elsewhere (in mint condition, boxed). I was happy for a quick sale and figured the buyer got a great deal.
They’ve contacted me today because it turns out I’d mentioned it came with the manual in the listing but it’s actually just some other paperwork (warranty card, etc). Absolutely my error but seems like a minor thing to me.
They’re now wanting to return the drum machine because I won’t refund them £20 for the manual Citing a £28 listing on eBay for an SP-202 manual (obviously nobody with all their faculties is going to pay that). I’ve offered a small refund to cover the cost of printing a manual and contend that they’ve not overpaid for what they’ve got either way.
They’re not happy with that, so I’ve just told them to return it, knowing they’ll never get such a great deal on the machine again and I can probably get a bit more for it if I’m willing to wait. They now also have the hassle of boxing it back up and taking it to the post office.
But it’s just mad what’s important to some people, what are they going to do with the paper manual anyway that means it represents 10% of the cost of the sale??
Edit: We have agreed on a £10 compromise… no hard feelings against the buyer of course it was my error but yea that’s one expensive typo.
Please share your nightmares to make me feel better.
Urgh, that’s rubbish. I guess for a collector, the manual might be important, but it’s a minor thing for someone using it as an instrument.
On the other hand, I bought a drum machine off a guy on eBay that absolutely stank of cigarettes. This wasn’t mentioned in the listing. So I opened a return and the guy went ballistic, calling me a ‘time-waster’ and telling me how I’d be in trouble once he got it back and filed a ‘fraudulent return’ claim against me (whatever that is).
I don’t think charging you £20 is reasonable based on a random listing someone else put up that will never sell. I’m sorry you had to go through that.
The stinky device I received could have been cleaned but it was covered in the material that goes sticky over time, so I didn’t want to introduce any cleaning stuff onto it in case that set it off.
You created your own nightmare really. Not beause you forgot to cross off the manual. Thats fluff. Its because you got into a ‘bargaining’ situation. Don’t do this. I too have transacted tens of thousands of pounds on Ebay and Reverb with gear. And as soon as i get whiff of a ‘twat’ i say send it back. End of. Their loss as you say as they have to box it up and return it in mint condition (or else). Don’t be the nice guy if you sell to a knob.
When I sold a car one time it was the day of the handover and after a week of answering a million questions for the guy, he showed up and proceeded to lowball me by like a $1000 under what we had agreed on which was already below my asking price. He then tried to make like he was going to leave if I wouldn’t take it but was looking quite smug in the face to the point where my blood started to boil.
I needed to make the sale and had already committed to paying some things off because he was “200% sure” that he was going to buy it for the agreed upon price so with anger in my heart I accepted his offer because he said that he had the cash on him and would pay on the spot.
He then handed me an envelope full of money in various denominations and started making a suspicious amount of weird nonsensical small talk trying to engage me to the point where I would have to respond to his queries while I was counting the money.
After counting the money, twice, the envelope was exactly $600 short of the amount that he said was in there.
I brought this to his attention with some distaste and he put on the worst act of being shocked and started feeling around in all of his pockets very dramatically and then slowly took out the missing $600 and handed it to me with his grimy little hand and this look on his face like he had no shame about the act as though it was all part of the game.
I was quite annoyed and feeling very frustrated to the point where the relief of being rid of the car was not even clearing the register but I got some small consolation when the following day he called me because couldn’t figure out how to start it due to something like not understanding the alarm or he wasn’t paying attention when I explained how the manual choke worked but needless to say I didn’t take the call and I did not call him back and in truth I hope he was never able to start the damn thing and then it fell into his mouth and he choked on it.
I did consider this, if I’d just ignored it it probably would have just gone away, maybe a negative feedback. That’s something I’d struggle to do as I try to treat others as well as possible but it doesn’t always pay off!
If you buy and sell a lot these little disputes soon rack up. And are emotionally draining. I prefer to cut them off at source as there are so many twats who play the game and have time to waste.
I stopped doing auctions after too many people contacting me complaining about the ebay-calculated shipping cost after bidding on the item. I would just block them even if it brought the bidding lower. I didn’t want the hassle and didn’t trust that they’d pay for the item anyway. Also suspected some of these were people selling a similar item trying to make it hell for the competition. Just never understood the lengths some people will go just for a few pennies. And yeah, you can sorta sniff this kind of person out. Now I just do fixed price, pay up front, no auctions.
It should be said that this cuts both ways and some sellers are absolute nightmares (not talking about anybody in this thread BTW!), and when you’ve paid them good money and they haven’t posted the item and refuse to respond to messages it gets a bit miserable. Or they don’t pack it properly and send it with Evri who then use the parcel for football practice… Just mentioning for balance. It’s a gamble at either end, however careful you try to be.
Manual in the age when even Big 3 synth companies put only quickstart and warranty page into a synth box. And when it comes from a small reseller, it could be in totally unexpected language, because of import route…
I had similar issues selling my car. The buyer paid cash and wanted all kinds of free stuff that was not promised. I really hate selling stuff. I probably will trade old gear at Perfect Circuit next year to fund new stuff.
sold a mega command on reverb and the guy lied and said it was broken leaves me shitty feedback and demanded a full refund and escalated to payapl who actually took the money from my account wthout askin gme - totally fucking pissed me off - so i get it back and its fine and i sell it to someone else who loves it no probelm
Citing a £28 listing on eBay for an SP-202 manual (obviously nobody with all their faculties is going to pay that). I’ve offered a small refund to cover the cost of printing a manual and contend that they’ve not overpaid for what they’ve got either way.
