an ebay seller for electric fans -- my experience

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My recent experience with an ebay seller offering Hayden electric fans... since it's against the rules to post ebay user information here, you'll just have to figure it out on your own. Take a look at my ebay feedback and look at the guy who posted on Date: May-08-03 07:44:17 PDT.

Anyway...

I was tracking one of his auctions for a pair of Hayden 12" electric fans, and I put a snipe bid on them as it was ending in the middle of the night. The next morning I saw that the bid had been run up waaaayyy high. So, I just decided to buy from his ebay store as it was MUCH cheaper than what the auction had gone for. I bought 2 of the fans for $37.50 each + $12 shipping, and I bought them from ONE listing.

When I went to pay, it turned out he wanted $12 EACH for shipping. So I shelled out the money (thinking that fans must be heavy). He sent me an email a while later thanking me for my fast payment and offering to "upgrade" my shipping to Priority for free. For those of you who ship with USPS regularly, you know that the price difference between Parcel Post and Priority is usually about a nickel unless you're within the first 3 zones (and I'm not). Plus, with Priority you get free packing materials... so I realized the free "upgrade" meant nothing.

Product arrived today... shipped fast, but not packed too well. They were in good shape nonetheless. But I noticed that the shipping cost was $9.30... for which I had paid $24.00. So I emailed the seller to let him know that the fans arrived in good condition and to address the shipping overcharge. I said exactly--

Fans received and they appear to be as described. Thanks.

I'm a little dismayed at the shipping discrepancy... what you charged versus what it cost... a $14.70 difference. I think you should consider refunding me the excess I paid. While I'm not sure it was your intention, Ebay rules do not allow excessive shipping costs as they consider them a fee avoidance tactic. I'll wait to give you feedback until I hear back from you on this.

Thanks again,

Kenneth

His response was about as long as this post is, and ranted on and on about how I screwed up and I didn't know what I was doing when I bid, and on and on. But... he offered to refund me $9 of the $14.70 overcharge. I emailed back that that would be fine. In the Paypal payment, he titled it "extortion money" and ranted on yet again about how this was all my fault and that I had ruined a perfectly good transaction by asking for the refund, and so on.

So... since I've rambled on for a while now about this guy, I just wanted to comment that the product seems to be good and fairly priced, and that he shipped promptly. And after all that, I was still fine with the transaction (even though I hoped he would see fit to fix the overcharge). And then he waylaid into me and it instantly soured an otherwise acceptable transaction. I described it to him in my response email as his "nice guy/jacka$$ trap" and let him know I'd be passing on my experience to the 8500+ board members here.

Kenneth