Bad Ebay Experience With Seller Edw1949-Sell - My Quandary

Your statement is from the movie GOODFELLAS .

So that is where we disagree. Item paid for and handed to you. You examine the item and say it is not as described, get to keep the item and got a timely refund, no questions asked. That is the way of the internet exchange being handled by a third party under third party rules.

Now when in person:

I go to a show, item is handed to me. I examine the items and see and say it is not as described. I hand it back. No money exchanges hands. Not a bad experience. No need for long stories or apologies or strokes to feel better. Such delays the return of the as well as delays moving to the next item.

I go to a show, pay and item is handed to me. I examine the items which includes the one in question and see and say it is not as described. I hand it back. Money is handed back for the item with the comment, "Keep it Dan." Still not a bad experience. No need for long stories or apologies or strokes to feel better just delays getting payment and if after payment such is unnecessary commentary.

By mail order:

I make an order, send money. Item arrives in my hands. I examine the items and see it is not as described. I call or write a note of explanation and package it up to mail it back paying postage (an insurance if appropriate) and if necessary making a trip to the PO to mail it back. No money exchanges hands. I wait and eventually the item's purchase price is refunded via check. I must make effort to deposit check. Not a good experience even if I was sent the misidentified item back for free. Too much work to fix the issue.

My time is money just as with the dealer's time is money. The biggest benefit of ebay is such transaction are handled efficiently and generally quickly with little effort on the part of the buyer or seller.

I only sell occasionally but I've refunded before and said "keep it". I'd never ignore the OP like that.

Sluffing off your buyer and letting ebay say "here's your refund" qualifies as poor customer service. I don't buy the silence argument. Full-service sellers, who make their buyers whole, finance this business practice with high seller fees.

The buyer tried to contact the seller three times with no response. The three stamps were in one listing. There is no way of knowing how the individual stamps are really priced if the seller does not talk to you. This may be (likely is) the seller's way of dealing with this issue, writing the whole thing off.

No matter what the moral opinions are, the fact is that without two parties having a dialogue there really is no way of moving forward.

The End

Except that ebay likely footed the bill, which would mean the seller got full payment for the lot.

Nope. With managed payments, this always comes out of the seller's linked account...

John

You heard the one where the cannibals were sitting around eating their meal after meeting some clowns for the first time. One turns to the other and says, "Doesn't this taste funny?"

Ba-dump-bump.

Thank you. Thank you. I am here all week.

*************

I understand your quandary. You've got one little guy on one shoulder telling you to keep it. The other guy on the other shoulder is telling you to return it. I'd return it and not worry about whether I did the right thing or not. For giggles, why not include an SASE with your return - if he really doesn't want to deal with the return, the re-identifying of the errant stamp, and associated re-offering of everything, maybe it would be in his best interest to simply put it in the SASE and mail it back to you. AND you get the stamps you wanted.

Seems to me you got a whole horde of guys on your shoulders. I don't think you need any more advice and guidelines. Do what feels right.