I started selling on eBay a few months ago. I got a bunch of computer stuff from cleaning out an office that was free and new. The first little VoIP card I looked up on eBay was $185. I was immediately hooked. That card sold pretty easily and so did a few other things. The office clean out turn out to be a pretty lucrative job. Then I sold a UPS system. I had two, they were older models but never used and still in the original box. The first one I sold, the buyer asked several questions and I was very honest about where I got and that I didn't know much about the machine besides it was still sealed in the box. After some correspondence and some negotiation, he purchased the item and sent it off never to hear a word again. Happy customer!

The next one I sold was not so good. My pictures showed that the box was beat up. That is the way I got it. But it was new and never used except for it being opened by the previous owner to find out it was the wrong kind of UPS. One person showed interested and made me and offer. After a few counter offers and negotiation, we decided on a price and it was shipped out right after payment was made. The day it arrived I got a message from the buyer that said "The box was in bad shape and things were not properly packed. The unit is not new" Like I said, my pictures showed the box. I taped it up really well and put extra packing material in it so that there would be no damage. If you looked up the unit online before purchasing it, you would know that it is an older model, so no, it isn't new. But it is unused.

So I very politely ask how I can fix the situation. There is no response. I send another message asking what I can do. They basically say, "I don't know, you tell me." I offer to refund the money and send a shipping label to have it returned to me. No response. I send another message saying that if they want to keep it I will give them back $40 for not living up to expectations. No response. It has been several days. The money has cleared paypal, but I feel like I am being held hostage because I don't want to get a bad review. I think I am going to forget about it now. He has the stuff, I have the money. I made an effort to fix it. If I get a bad review, I guess I can show eBay the lengths I went through to make the person happy and hopefully they will remove the bad review.

Has anyone else had this type of issue? Do I have any standing with eBay to dispute the bad rating? What steps do I have to go through to get the bad rating removed if it does happen? It sucks that one person can sour your whole eBay experience. Especially since it was going so well making more that scrap value for stuff. Now I feel like saying forget it and just go back to strictly scrapping even if the stuff is new.



Ugh