Really Bad Ebay Seller

Here is the link I'm commenting on:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Three-Cent-Rose...em20bba5495a

I've been trying to read all I can find- including every article Mike McClung has written in The Chronicle on all of the color varieties of the 3c 1861. I found this stamp a few weeks ago, BOUGHT the stamp, even though it was an obvious new seller, but it was a really different looking (yellowish, brownish) color, and it wasn't expensive.

When I received the stamp it was a plain-old rose 65. Her ad claimed "no returns", and I was able to explain that I did not have a yellowish brown, and had hundreds of roses, and didn't need another one. I even sent her a photocopy of one of the charts in The Chronicle, so she would believe me, and she did refund my payment.

Now tonight, she is using the same photo in the listing for I'm assuming, the same stamp. I have reported it to ebay, and in the report, I told them I would also post on VSC and on SCF.

Just wanted to let y'all know to be very wary of this seller--

Thanks, Ray

I would file with Paypal for a refund as item is not as described (not that there really is a description to begin with except for a bunch of harsh text). The description is pretty much non-existant and there are obvious faults with the stamp. At best, this one probably deserves a low-star rating on a few points and probably not a positive feedback.
Will

Thanks Will-- I did receive a refund, even though she stated "No refunds". I left good feedback as an agreement for receiving my money back-- it was for me, not for her.

I basically have this conversation going on over at VSC also-- I agree that it's bad practice to not leave bad feedback, but at the same time, if it was just a bad picture, there may not have been intent on the one that I bought. As I stated on VSC, when she posted the same picture again, I felt she crossed a huge, wide line.....

Ray

It is UNETHICAL to solicit for good feedback. I'd certainly do something Brother! Thank you for the "heads-up" ray.mac!

Ray, glad to hear you got your money back. It least the seller did that to remedy the problem. She just really needs to work on her listings - more about the stamp and less "Do Nots" or "Will Nots". Half of an auction is accuracy and the other half is service. Sellers like everyone make mistakes. If a seller makes an honest mistake and correct for it then I wouldn't hold anything against them. I just don't like sellers who are dishonest as it gives all of ebay a bad name. I've heard stamp show dealers call ebay a "den of thieves" and "nothing but crooks". Yes, there's some bad eggs, but never paint everyone there with the same brush.

The thing about asking for positive feedback is blow back from the Ebay/Paypal policy of holding onto the funds until the buyer leaves feedback. If a seller has less than 100 in feedback this policy kicks in.

Will

Need to clarify, and here is how my transaction went-- THe stamp I received was a plain-old-rose 65, and the picture was definitely yellow-brown. I then went to the listing, and of course it said "no returns". Since I paid, I think, $9.99 for a common 65, I explained to the seller (begged the seller) that I bought the stamp purely for the color, and then explained that there have been 54 different color varieties of this stamp, where Scott only lists 9, and I thought this might be one of them. I then told her that if she would work with me, I'd still leave excellent feedback. The dealer did not solicit undeserved feedback. I left not my usual feedback, but feedback which said that I had "great communication with this dealer, and that I would purchase again".

I don't think that was misleading, because she claims it was an accurate picture. One does see yellow-tinted pictures taken with digital cameras in bad lighting.

Where she crossed the line into unethical behavior, is when she used the same picture again to put the stamp out there again, after I told her it was misleading in the first place. That's when I took action with ebay reporting, SCF and VSC posts.

To again clarify, I don't look at specific feedback-- you don't know who is writing them. I do look at a seller's quantity of transactions and how close it is to 100%. I'm not of the thought that just because a mistake is made, a dealer should be thrown under the bus-- as long as they rectify the mistake. If they don't rectify the mistake with refunds, then bombs away on the bad feedback.

Bottom line is that she DID cross a line with the 2nd posting of that picture and stamp. And as I also mentioned on VSC earlier, I will have to rethink how I post when I receive an unsatisfactory lot.

Thanks, Ray

Well spoken.

I think that any posting by anyone can and could be taken in different ways dependent upon the reader's own personal experience and his/her feelings towards ebay, the seller, the stamps of a particular country or region or time frame or any other number of qualifiers.

People always judge and perhaps the best a person can do in posting (or indeed even in leaving feedback) is to try to maintain one's own personal integrity and common sense in the matter.

Sometimes in the heat of the moment this is difficult to do. When one feels he is attacked one tends to attack back in self defense. A natural human reaction.

Great men and women employ speech writers and perhaps even letter or e-mail writers. I always thought it would be beneficial to ebay users to have a choice of well written, generally polite and common sense responses to choose from when leaving feedback. The more glowing or the more hateful responses would have more steps to go through in order to leave them, giving the responder time to reconsider and to cool down and be level headed.

No need to draw a sword and issue a challenge when a slightly more civilized or perhaps peaceful response would do as well.