The Ebay/Gamestop/Craiglist/Amazon/Goodwill/etc rant thread

[AirVillain | 488]

Not a rant (obviously) but I thought it was funny....

An eBay seller made me a counteroffer LOWER than my original offer. 

I was so confused at first, I had to look at my original offer in a few different places just to figure out what the hell was going on. 

Original price $79.99.... Offered $65.... counteroffer of $60.   

[Tabonga | 2,317]

On 11/14/2022 at 9:20 AM, AirVillain said:

Not a rant (obviously) but I thought it was funny....

An eBay seller made me a counteroffer LOWER than my original offer. 

I was so confused at first, I had to look at my original offer in a few different places just to figure out what the hell was going on. 

Original price $79.99.... Offered $65.... counteroffer of $60.   

Some people just like to haggle....

 

[Tanooki | 4,932]

On 11/14/2022 at 11:20 AM, AirVillain said:

Not a rant (obviously) but I thought it was funny....

An eBay seller made me a counteroffer LOWER than my original offer. 

I was so confused at first, I had to look at my original offer in a few different places just to figure out what the hell was going on. 

Original price $79.99.... Offered $65.... counteroffer of $60.   

Careful that's some 4D chess level play at hand there, or they're idiots, desperate, or forgot the 7.

[AirVillain | 488]

On 11/16/2022 at 12:27 AM, Tanooki said:

Careful that's some 4D chess level play at hand there, or they're idiots, desperate, or forgot the 7.

Haha, yeah really.... I was like "Wow, okay.... maybe this guy is just trying to make me feel bad so that I offer MORE. Interesting negotiation tactic. "

I think maybe that's what happened.... Typo.... hit the "6" instead of "7" and of course once you send the offer it's done. 

I'll say thank you. I don't think I ripped them off terribly.... and I think they maybe just wanted to sell the item?

[Teh_Lurv | 254]

I discovered a new form of low-level shitty thrift store behavior. I was at my local Savers yesterday and I noticed an older lady quickly working through the DVD/BR shelves, pulling out all the inserts from each case, and shoving them into her purse. It took me a second to realize she was pilfering the digital code slips.

Edited November 21, 2022 by Teh_Lurv

[360collector | 289]

36 minutes ago, Teh_Lurv said:

I discovered a new form of low-level shitty thrift store behavior. I was at my local Savers yesterday and I noticed an older lady quickly working through the DVD/BR shelves, pulling out all the inserts from each case, and shoving them into her purse. It took me a second to realize she was pilfering the digital code slips.

pure scum

[TDIRunner | 2,731]

1 hour ago, Teh_Lurv said:

I discovered a new form of low-level shitty thrift store behavior. I was at my local Savers yesterday and I noticed an older lady quickly working through the DVD/BR shelves, pulling out all the inserts from each case, and shoving them into her purse. It took me a second to realize she was pilfering the digital code slips.

Most of the time those codes have expiration dates on them.  If they are at a thrift shop, I can't help but think the vast majority are long since expired assuming they weren't redeemed in the first place.  

[FireHazard51 | 2,043]

5 hours ago, TDIRunner said:

Most of the time those codes have expiration dates on them.  If they are at a thrift shop, I can't help but think the vast majority are long since expired assuming they weren't redeemed in the first place.  

I bought some used OLD movies before and the codes where unclaimed.  Pissed when it turns out the codes' are "expired".  Most times it seems like they honor expired codes and is just an excuse used incase their online services are stopped for some reason.  Makes a ton of liability sense to me.

[TDIRunner | 2,731]

9 hours ago, FireHazard51 said:

Most times it seems like they honor expired codes and is just an excuse used incase their online services are stopped for some reason.  Makes a ton of liability sense to me.

Definitely makes sense, but at the same time it also falls under the list of reasons why digital is crap.

I guess the person grabbing the inserts probably didn't care.  If she gets 3 or 4 good digital codes, it was probably worth her time.  

[Andy_Bogomil | 815]

God damn.. broken record here but  Canada Post... $35 to send a small parcel to one major city to another. Criminal. 

[Tanooki | 4,932]

43 minutes ago, Andy_Bogomil said:

God damn.. broken record here but  Canada Post... $35 to send a small parcel to one major city to another. Criminal. 

I can relate sorta, only because the prices heading just south of the border are bs compared to a few years back.  But I really can't complain, refuse to other than pointing it out it's up, because I had a NES cart custom sent this way and I think the price was nearly HALF your big city to big city domestic costs were.  That IS criminally abusive.

[WhyNotZoidberg | 585]

I have had to deal twice now in as many weeks with ebay holding my funds until confirmation of delivery.

First time the customer service rep told me that it was because the transaction was considered « at risk » since it was upwards of 500$. And that the holds could be even longer if the sale hit the 1k$ threshold.

This weeks I auctioned off a New 3DS XL and it went for 295$ and tada! Funds held until confirmation. 
 

I spent an hour over the chat with a customer service rep who couldn’t even begin to explain why this happens and how to avoid it in the future other than in super broad terms that ebay’s system automatically detects which transactions are « out of the seller’s usual selling pattern » and that « as the seller applies the best selling practices there should be less holds as time passes ». He said there are no specific parameters, which directly contradicts the information I received from the first agent.

 

Jesus fucking hell I have 900 items listed, adding as many as I sell every week and they are ALL video games and video game related items. Many of which are well above 200$. And the holds only started last week.

Apparently this is all related to the performance and behavior of the seller account, but I can’t be informed what the performance criteria and what the behavior needs to be.
 

wtf ebay. 

Edited November 27, 2022 by WhyNotZoidberg

[nrslam | 474]

Evilbay collects and keeps interest while they hold your funds. Hardly a coincidence holds have increased as rates have risen. You might as well be doing business with the mob.

[Strange | 1,700]

Man I have some expensive-ish items I’d love to sell but eBay just doesn’t sound like it’s worth it anymore.

[Tanooki | 4,932]

It's not, especially since you don't have the option to report your sales to the IRS anymore once you hit 600.  Ebay will nail you, forget their FVF charges and tell them the full amount.  The massive cut you take for putting up with their shit, their thieving, and then lying on the report on money you don't even see it's not worth it in the slightest.  The friend I help out this year with this stuff, ebay is sucking his value bad compared to just using facebook marketplace in comparison to what gets sponged off and reported.

[WhyNotZoidberg | 585]

14 hours ago, nrslam said:

Evilbay collects and keeps interest while they hold your funds. Hardly a coincidence holds have increased as rates have risen. You might as well be doing business with the mob.

That’s what I believe too. They get to hold on to so much capital at once that these tricks they pull is entirely worth it to them.

Now imagine for a second that you sell and ship a 700$ item, funds are held and the buyer opens a dispute claiming they received a box of tissues instead. How fucking screwed are you.

[FireHazard51 | 2,043]

3 hours ago, WhyNotZoidberg said:

That’s what I believe too. They get to hold on to so much capital at once that these tricks they pull is entirely worth it to them.

Now imagine for a second that you sell and ship a 700$ item, funds are held and the buyer opens a dispute claiming they received a box of tissues instead. How fucking screwed are you.

This is why you need to document to cover your ass as much as possible.  As the purchaser I also need to be worried about being scammed and sent a box of tissues or what typically happens, I get nothing but "tracking" shows it was "delivered".  I have a camera filming deliveries or lack of them.  I take photos of boxes if damage during shipping may be a possibility.  If I was shipping shit that expensive you bet your ass I would photo the item against claims of it being a repo/fake and also film me packing the item with mailing slip.  EVERYONE needs to take actions to defend against scams.  

Ebay holding funds to use as capitol..... kinda doubt it.  Cash is constantly flowing in and out of the company.  I'm not sure if they are required to keep so much cash on hand like Banks are required.  Until an accountant for a large company tells me this is legit a thing I just think this is people speculating that they are making money off you.  If I take $100 and give it back to you a month later I don't "make" money for holding it.  I'd only make money if I lent it out and charged interest on it.  Just saying it likely takes a TON of effort to "make" money off of holding your money for a week.  And how much money do they make from that, $0.03??  I'm thinking the likely easier answer is ebay hates dealing with refunds or charge backs.  What's ebay going to do if you see that $700 hit the bank and then close the account.  The only issue I see is ebay not explaining the process so expectations are set appropriately.  Sucks that they can't point to a policy to explain their actions but I feel realistically the answer is "the computer flagged the sale" and they can't explain more than that.

[nrslam | 474]

They don't need to lend it out, just keep it in an interest-bearing account. And multiply that .03 (or whatever) times the number of people they're doing this to and it adds up to a nice chunk of change for them with virtually no effort and no recourse for sellers.  Probably not the prime reason for the holds, but you can bet they're aware of it include it in their revenue plans.

 

[FireHazard51 | 2,043]

6 hours ago, nrslam said:

They don't need to lend it out, just keep it in an interest-bearing account. And multiply that .03 (or whatever) times the number of people they're doing this to and it adds up to a nice chunk of change for them with virtually no effort and no recourse for sellers.  Probably not the prime reason for the holds, but you can bet they're aware of it include it in their revenue plans.

 

I think you hit it on the head when you said it's not the prime reason (collecting interest).  This not likely some money scheming policy change to make ebay more money.  But I still go back to the idea that if they communicated better about it it would help.  Also if they would acknowledge that accounts get flagged in the policy even if it doesn't look like it should be hit.  AI will never be perfect so it is what it is.

[avatar! | 1,808]

Just got scammed by GameStop! What a shit company, I should have suspected something...

Out of the 5 "new" games I purchased, only one was new. The other 4 showed various degrees of wear and tear, including the case not even closing properly. Just, pure, shit.

AVOID GAMESTOP

[LeatherRebel5150 | 1,056]

33 minutes ago, avatar! said:

Just got scammed by GameStop! What a shit company, I should have suspected something...

Out of the 5 "new" games I purchased, only one was new. The other 4 showed various degrees of wear and tear, including the case not even closing properly. Just, pure, shit.

AVOID GAMESTOP

Not that I don’t sympathize, but this is a widely known thing. They sell the display copies as “new”

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,012]

On 11/28/2022 at 11:31 AM, FireHazard51 said:

".  I have a camera filming deliveries or lack of them. 

Just had one of these cases on eBay get closed w.o a refund even though I had video footage showing no delivery was made during the time frame UPS claimed. They didn't even watch an instant of the video I sent. Just said in 2 separate appeals, tracking shows delivered

[captmorgandrinker | 1,649]

57 minutes ago, LeatherRebel5150 said:

Not that I don’t sympathize, but this is a widely known thing. They sell the display copies as “new”

Yep.   Nobody Hulk Hogan leg-dropped them over gutting a copy and still selling that as "new", so they're still going to do it.   

If they need a display one that bad, sell it as used once you're out of new copies.

[LeatherRebel5150 | 1,056]

38 minutes ago, captmorgandrinker said:

Yep.   Nobody Hulk Hogan leg-dropped them over gutting a copy and still selling that as "new", so they're still going to do it.   

If they need a display one that bad, sell it as used once you're out of new copies.

Or just do what every other retailer started doing years ago and just put those plastic anti theft boxes on the games. Seems like such simple solutions but obviously it doesn’t affect their bottom line to hear these complaints, so they don’t care

[captmorgandrinker | 1,649]

5 minutes ago, LeatherRebel5150 said:

Or just do what every other retailer started doing years ago and just put those plastic anti theft boxes on the games. Seems like such simple solutions but obviously it doesn’t affect their bottom line to hear these complaints, so they don’t care

I voted with my wallet.   I went from spending a few grand a year to only going in to use my 5 dollar pro coupon every month on a $5 Nintendo points card.