Share your bad selling experiences

D

Deleted member 651479

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I'll start with this one. It wasn't for any money worth mentioning, but it was a major annoyance.

I listed an iPhone 5s on Facebook Marketplace for £30, collection only. I paid £25 for it and wanted £5 interest.

I've listed higher end items in the past, but wanted to tap the lower market too, but found that it attracts the penny pinchers.

I emphasised in the listing twice that I would only accept £30. It was supposed to be a very quick sale. After posting it, I got messages like, "£25" and "15?" The chancers completely ignored the listing descripition. I was in no hurry to sell it.

I had to reply with "Sorry no offers". I didn't want to reply to them, but if you don't, it negatively affects your response percentage rating.

So a man messaged me and asked if I could hold the iPhone until the next day as he had to travel for it on the train. I didn't want to, but he seemed desperate for it and agreed on the £30. He said he would be at the house at 9pm and was very thankful that I was helping him out. I go to sleep before that time, but I agreed as he seemed to really need it. I emphasised again that the price was £30 and he agreed a second time.

The next day, he phones me awhile I'm in Waitroses shopping and asks if I will drop to £25. I replied with "No, sorry. We agreed on £30". I get, "It's too late! I'm already on the train to you and only have £25".

I had a number of messages from people asking to buy for the asking price which was already cheap for a 5s in mint condition. It was supposed to be a quick transaction. I couldn't blow the guy off as I could hear from his voice that he was over 60.

He gets to the station at 10pm and phones me not knowing how to get to my house (which was 3 miles away) and asked if I could meet him at the station. I wanted it out of the way, so went to the station to get this old guy on his way home safely.

I get there and he's no were to be seen.. I phoned him and he was walked down the high street not knowing where he was going. I had to find him on the high street. He was a grey haired Turkish man in an old suit.

He inspected the phone and gave me the £25. Said he had to change trains 3 times from Kensington.

How would you have handled this situation?

I prefer eBay as the buyers just pay and you post, but it leaves you open to paying for returns out of your pocket and paying the high fees.

Facebook Marketplace can be nice for collection only, as you don't have to post or pay fees, but you can't sell directly from your doorstep if you're selling as a business. It's best for private sales.

Gumtree is the worst as you can't see who is collecting. I've nipped sales in the bud on Facebook if the buyer seems a 'block short of a set' and looks like they'll cause a problem.
 
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I would have stuck to my guns, simple. I would not give a damn about how difficult it was for him to get to me.

My best one was a phone was looking for 300 quid which was agreed but then came the kicker could she pay half then I could post then she would pay the other half, yeah right of course no problems.
Gumtree is full of chancers and Facebook is full of people who don't seem to understand what 'will not post and no offers' means.
 
Tried FB Marketplace a while ago and noticed it full of dealers, stealers and plebs and settled on Ebay, which has had a few, but found it quite easy to get rid of them.
Did consider selling here, but reading through many threads over the years has put me off.
 
Tried FB Marketplace a while ago and noticed it full of dealers, stealers and plebs and settled on Ebay, which has had a few, but found it quite easy to get rid of them.
Did consider selling here, but reading through many threads over the years has put me off.
Stopped selling on EBay years ago what with the ever increasing fees and scammers.
 
Stopped selling on EBay years ago what with the ever increasing fees and scammers.

We do clear-outs on the no selling fee/£1 fixed selling fee days. All good so far.
 
Stopped selling on EBay years ago what with the ever increasing fees and scammers.

I did as well and then tried again this year and have been making good money from good buyers.

Only had 3 plebs that were dealt with very quickly by Ebay and as said above I've made some good money from that place.
 
One of my favourites before I was savvy against selling anything of any value on eBay...

Sold a port and polished cylinder head, stage3, titanium valve springs, the lot. £1500...which was cheap as it was about a 2.5k head.

Sold, dispatched, delivered, postive feedback recieved 'Beautiful work on the head, made my car go much quicker'.

177 days later, 'item not as described' opened on PayPal. PayPal rule in his favour despite a plethora of information, including screenshots of his facebook account and the feedback he left.

Week later, a cyclinder head turned up. Basically he sent me his old one back, that was so dry internally it had clearly been sitting in his garage for the past six months.

Submitted evidence to PayPal.

PayPal ruled in his favour, refund given.

The silly shite didn't realise his Facebook was public and I obviously had his address, yet he only had my storage unit address. I offered him the chance to repay the amount multiple times and was met with emails like 'hahah you lose mofo' etc.

Suffice to say his car needed a full spray job a few days later. Paint stripper is a bitch if you accidently spill it when casually walking down a road.
 
177 days later, 'item not as described' opened on PayPal. PayPal rule in his favour despite a plethora of information, including screenshots of his facebook account and the feedback he left.

That is strange. EBay buyers only have 40 days to open a dispute so PayPal should have rejected his claim, even if you didn't have evidence.

One of the worst things about eBay is that a buyer can send anything back and you'll have to pay the return postage. Anyone can buy an item from you and send back their faulty one at your expense with no comebacks. They could accidently break your item within 40 days and get a no quibble refund.

How are they charging an additional 10% fee against postage costs?

Buyers are more inclined to use eBay as they know the sellers are at their mercy.
 
I found most of my selling experiences on Freegle to be plain awful. People don't come to pick things up when they said they would, people ask stupid questions (the answers to which are in my post advertising the item), people writing things like "What sort of bike is it?" ("A free one"),or "Alright mate when can I come and collect?" (very presumptuous), etc. I gave away some old camera bags once, and I got a distinct hint that the person collecting them would be selling them elsewhere (and she was late).

The worst was when I had an old desk to give away. Fed up with people messing me around, I set out a few conditions. I asked people to show me a bit of courtesy by writing something half intelligible, and to tell me why they wanted it, as I wanted it to go to someone deserving and not just someone who'd stick it on eBay or Facebook Marketplace.

Most people were OK with this apart from one person named Simon who had a proper go at me, claiming I was "taking advantage of people" and generally being obnoxious (and incoherent). I had no idea what he was on about and wrote him a message to that effect, pointing out the flaws in his argument (giving something away for free is taking advantage of people?) and telling him that if he wrote back, technically that was harassment and that is an offence. Of course, he wrote back, but I deleted his message without reading it.

I complained to the moderator of the group, who apologised, telling me that Simon probably had mental problems (err, OK). I also wrote a message back to the group, telling them that the desk was no longer available, was going to be taken to the tip and who they should blame (Simon).

(In contrast, my selling experiences on AVF have been nothing but positive.)
 
That is strange. EBay buyers only have 40 days to open a dispute so PayPal should have rejected his claim, even if you didn't have evidence.

One of the worst things about eBay is that a buyer can send anything back and you'll have to pay the return postage. Anyone can buy an item from you and send back their faulty one at your expense with no comebacks. They could accidently break your item within 40 days and get a no quibble refund.

How are they charging an additional 10% fee against postage costs?

Buyers are more inclined to use eBay as they know the sellers are at their mercy.

Thats incorrect.

eBay allow 30 days of the delivery date for 'item not as described' returns. However you can open a dispute on PayPal up to 180 days. They are entirely independent of each other. PayPal won't reject a claim made through them because another company has a different policy.

With a PayPal claim you don't have to pay the return postage though lol.

Basically, if you sell anything on eBay, you are putting a warranty on it for six months. Anything that has 'subjective' elements like clothing, hifi, computers etc means that the buyer can essentially 'try the item out' and if they don't want it, and even if you stipulate no returns, they can return it at your cost by opening an item not as described case.

I've never had any issues selling on AVF, however you only have to read some of the dispute threads to see that it can be equally as volatile, and often the Royal Mail delivery times or known/published delays are ignored, forcing early refunds.
 
I dumped Paypal because of their incredibly poor service when things go wrong. I provided indisputable evidence that the item I had purchased was a fake and it still took nearly nine months before the ruled in my favour.
 
Tried to sell a few baby bits on Facebook market but gave up, in the end. For some reason you'll get people saying they'll definitely have it, you give them your address and arrange a time for them to collect, then they never show up and ghost you on Facebook. Very weird behaviour.
 

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