My inexpensive iron I've had for almost 20 years finally konked out a couple weeks ago and I've had a terrible time finding a replacement for it. I actually bought 3 different irons at different stores trying to find something that would suit me. I'm not picky...I just want an iron that I don't have to spend a fortune on that will not drag on the fabric or the holes aren't too big so they don't catch on the fabric. How hard can that be right??

Well, these 3 irons I bought were terrible and I ended up taking them back. They were not $100 irons, but they weren't $7 either. I figured one of them would be good. Wrong!

I was on Ebay the other day looking for my iron that konked out and thought I'd never find one like it because it's so old, but I did!! I couldn't believe it!! It was a "Buy Now" NIB item and they wanted a reasonable price for the iron but the shipping was very high. This is not a heavy iron and not very big so I emailed the seller and asked if they would take a little less for the iron since the shipping was high. They emailed back with a counter price and I accepted. Then I didn't hear anything back for a couple days. I was getting ready to contact them again because I wanted to pay for it when I got an email from them saying they had sold it to someone else :(

I was ticked!! They could have contacted me and said they had another offer and ask me if I was still interested. To me, that's a poor way to do business. I'm even very careful what the sellers rating is when I consider something to buy. I look at their rating and how much they've sold. This particular seller was rated at 100% and had sold several thousands of items!!!

In the end I went to Walmart and bought a $7 iron that I like very much...go figure.

Thanks for letting me vent :)

iT'S OK TO VENT,WE ALL HAVE THESE DAYS.GOOD LUCK WITH THE NEW IRON PAB

I think I might have to give that seller a neg feedback. I am with you 100% on that $7 dollar iron from walmart! I have it too although not for very long but it seems fine
David

It's all about the money for Ebay sellers. And most any seller anywhere these days.

Did you just 'accept' in the email?

OR

Did you actually 'purchase' 'pay' 'buy it now' on the ebay site?

If you only 'accepted', the item was still available for purchase.

If you 'purchased' you can take action with paypal or ebay.

I'd be ticked too but if you didn't purchase through ebay you don't have any recourse.

Hope you find something you like or the same iron

You are probably better off not buying from that seller. Offering something for a low price and charging high shipping for it is (IMO) a form of scam because shipping costs are not refundable. This means if you had bought the iron and wanted to return it for refund, you would have been refunded only the price of the iron -- not the shipping costs for it you had paid.

I would not leave negative feedback unless the seller has already left good feedback for you; otherwise they can retaliate and give you bad feedback.

Also, search for your iron again and then save that search (there is an option on the page you can click) so you are emailed whenever an iron like that is listed again on eBay.

I responded to his email and accepted the price and asked him what I needed to do next to purchase it. That's when I didn't hear anything back.

I understand that the item was still up for grabs, but what upset me was, to my way of thinking, and the way I would have handled it, would have been to contact me and tell me he had another offer and ask if I was still interested in it at the original price since I was the first one to make a bid on it. Just seems like that would have been only common courtesy.

I don't think you understand how a BIN works on eBay. It didn't have a Best Offer option, did it? You and the seller exchanged emails. Even though you agreed on the price, in that time frame, someone else obviously BIN-ed it. End of story. That BIN represents a legal contract between the the seller and that buyer. The seller couldn't go the buyer and to say he was in prior negotiations with you.

Could the seller maybe have sent you an email out of courtesy to say it had been sold? Yeah. But maybe he thought you had it on your watch list, and would have easily seen that it was bought.

If you're knowledgeable about eBay, you can go see what time that BIN happened.

As for leaving negative feedback, as was suggested upthread, that shows even less understanding of the workings how that site operates.

Also, the comment about sellers just wanting to make money....geez, imagine that!

Sellers only make as much money as buyers are willing to pay. Fin.

I don't think you need to be so sarcastic, either. And furthermore...I didn't make the comment about sellers just wanting to make money!!

All I was saying was the seller should have been more considerate. Is that too much to ask? Obviously you think so. They shouldn't have agreed to sell at a lower price if it wasn't possible to do so and they should have told me that. So, excuse me for being so ignorant about all the little rules (like BIN!!!). We can't all be as smart as some people on here.

I definitely see where you're coming from. Having contacted them as you did, it sounds as though you had committed and all they needed to do at that point was invoice you so you could pay them. Sounds to me as though someone else came along and gave them the original price plus shipping and that left you out of the loop. If the seller agreed to sell to you at XXX price then, they should have done so. At the very least, they should have sent you a message and informed you that the item was no longer available. JMHO

This is not how ebay works. There is no "commitment" except through hitting the "Buy/Bid" button. Unless there is a "Best offer" option the BIN is firm. The only way for the the OP poster to receive the price negotiated is to click "BIN" and then wait for the seller to send an invoice with the adjusted price. If the OP did not attempt to purchase the item OFFICIALLY through the ebay buttons, then the item is fair game for anyone else. Some sellers list hundreds of items, and sellers receive questions and special requests all day long. It is not reasonable or expected to email back everyone who asked a question.


It is very simple to monitor an item on ebay.

Ebay operates on a very simple premise, "Put your money where your mouth is." THe person that does it first and best will get the item.

Perhaps the point that I missed is that she should have clicked on the buy it now button. I understand well how ebay works. I've done a considerable amount of purchasing from ebay. However, in the past I have contacted a particular seller regarding an item, told them what I wanted and they've sent me an invoice accordingly. So it can be done. It just depends on the seller.

I have done this too! It is totally possible! (My favorite is to negotiate a discounted price for lots of yardage.) And I have never had a seller not send an adjusted invoice who agreed to it.

I just wanted to point outSince the OP never actually hit the buy button, she never had any agreement, is not owed anything, AND has no reason to be angry at the seller.

My comments were not meant to be sarcastic. I was just trying to better inform you as to the workings of eBay.

And, not p!ss anyone else off, but just because you've bought hundreds of items on eBay, doesn't mean you have the slightest clue about SELLING on eBay.

Some of these sellers have thousands of listings at a time, and are not personally invested in each listing. It's just an inventory item number to them. As was already mentioned, they might get hundreds of ASQ (Ask Seller Question) inquiries. (Although less the in the past, as eBay tries their best to hide that button. They are not too fond of off-site deals being made.)

Anyway, sold is sold.

And maybe the listing had less than 12 hours to go. Did you know that NO changes could be made to the BIN price (or other details) in that time period? If the BIN price wasn't changed officially, then the seller would have to pay FVF (Final Value Fee) to eBay on the listed ending price, regardless of what you negotiated.

Now, if you had agreed on reducing the SHIPPING charge - which is really where your original problem was, you could have hit the BIN button, and the invoice could have easily been adjusted for the shipping, regardless of how much time was left on the listing. Plus, you would have the emails as back-up should there be any seller's remorse after.

For a BIN.

However, for an auction, I prefer the last second, with a snipe. :D

Agreed. No one can leave feedback that didn't actually buy the product off of ebay.

I actually think you aren't supposed to be buying things from the sellers "outside of the normal realms" of the auction. IOW, unless he would set up another auction that you could bid on, you are taking a big risk even buying it "off the normal path". And you aren't supposed to because EBay doesn't get their percentage.

So, lesson learned. I probably would have bought it and asked them to lower their shipping costs...(if I had really really wanted it).

But in the end, you are much better off if you love your $7 iron.

Ah, this is a huge issue among sellers.

If you're a smart Seller, you love those kinds of deals.

If I had something listed, and you contacted me because you wanted to know if I had more of a product, or another color, I'd have you buy the one item as a BIN (let's say it was a yard), and then I'd sent you an adjusted invoice for the additional yardage/items/addl shipping we agreed via email.

Now, obviously, eBay hates this, which is why they hide the ASQ button, no longer provide email addresses with the questions, and otherwise try to keep a seller as far removed from the buyers as possible.

However, once we've completed a sale on eBay, we can certainly move our business off eBay, if we're both comfortable with the change. eBay would prefer it not to be. But I've got buyers that now just email to see if I have Itemxx in stock, and I'll just send them a PayPal invoice (so the BUYER is still protected for the transaction). It can be anywhere from 10-15% savings for the seller on the transaction.

I'll just add - if you're personally uncomfortable with taking things off eBay, then you can always ask the Seller to set up a separate listing.

I used to do this all the time years ago. I would set up the BIN so only your ID could bid on the listing, and eBay would get their percentage. However, for reasons I can't understand, eBay took away that feature. So no more private listings for individuals.

Now, if were to set up a BIN with items specifically for you, anyone else could come along and BIN it. And maybe they aren't serious. So now I've got a deadbeat buyer, and an interested buyer who can't bid on the item.

So I just began taking those transactions off eBay. There are ways. But they took away a pretty helpful feature which was allowing them to get their cut. :roll:

Not to add flames to the fire here - but, you cannot leave any feedback for a seller unless you have committed to buy an item from them by pressing the BIN button (or are the winning bidder for an item). Also, the seller cannot leave negative feedback for ANY buyer - no matter the circumstances.

Another "enhancement" by TPTB at eBay. :roll:

"I probably would have bought it and asked them to lower their shipping costs.."
Speaking as a sometime ebay seller, nothing ticks me off more than a buyer who attempts to negotiate shipping costs AFTER a purchase. The terms of sale, including shipping, are right there for you to see. If you buy, you agree to those terms. To try to change the terms, with the unspoken threat that you might leave negative feedback if the seller does not cave in, is not fair. If you really need a shipping discount, get a firm commitment BEFORE you bid.

The main reason I no longer sell on eBay - I don't want to be held hostage by a bidder.

I suppose the hostage thing can be a huge problem, but I hate feeling afraid to leave honest to goodness negative feedback, because of fear of retaliation.

Case in point-- I ordered an item from a seller. The seller's description says
"Will ship within three days." The seller shipped a week later.

The seller actually emailed me and asked me to leave feedback for her, When I explained that I wasn't planning to leave ANY feedback, because I was unhappy with her shipping timeframe, The seller told me that I those things happen on ebay, and for me to expect shipping in three days was unreasonable. SO I left NEUTRAL feedback, that just says seller shipped a week later.

Seller left me "neutral feedback" saying that I was impatient and not to do business with.

I am sure the seller has plenty of recourse with ebay if the buyer is trying to extort, but aside from that very small exception, what else could possibly go wrong for a seller that they would need to leave negative feedback? If the seller gets paid within three days then the buyer has completed their end of the deal. If the buyer does not complete, then they get a strike. Easy as that.

Ah, you'd be surprised how little recourse sellers have with eBay these days. Most of the changes in the last few years have been to "protect" the buyers. Well,sometimes the sellers need to be protected from them.

However, in your situation if the buyer thought it was unreasonable for you to expect shipping within 3 days, then he shouldn't have put that he would ship within 3 days in his damn listing. And that was a stupid explanation on his part too. Better to tell you the dog died and he couldn't get to the post office. Sheesh. I hope you dinged his stars, too. He's an idiot.

These days, eBay puts a lot of pressure on sellers to maintain a good star rating - you know, those annoying stars you have to click on when you leave feedback.
Based on those ratings, eBay will allow sellers to get better placement in the "best match" listing display, reduced fees for insertion and final value(?), get that snazzy "top seller' Logo on all the listings, and other goodies. And there are corresponding penalties for not performing well, as well.

Personally, I think most of the problems arise because there are sellers and buyers (new and not-new) who NEVER read the instructions or any how-to tutorials provided. They think - heck, I know whoe to order from Amazon, I'll just sign up on eBay and start bidding.

And then they make a best offer, but don't actually execute the BIN, and are pissed off at the seller because he didn't send an I'm sorry note. Well, if they would have read how the best offer feature works, they wouldn't have had that problem.
(And I'm not trying to beat up on the OP about this, just using it as an example.)

What about the newbie buyer who hits the BIN, and then decides he doesn't want the item? eBay is not Nordstroms, with a 3 year return policy. So the seller is out the time the item was already listed because he has to list it again. And now he has to get the buyer to agree - by going to a certain screen - to get the sale canceled so he can recoup his fees that he'll be billed for as eBay recognizes it as a valid sale, if he wants to be nice and let the buyer out of a binding contract. It's a time consuming PITA.

Or the buyer who didn't read the "fine print" in the listing and now wants to contest some of the terms AFTER they've already won the auction. Or asks, after they've won, is the blue more of a teal blue than purple blue because they really want a teal blue.

And I'm not letting all the sellers off the hook. They throw up listings (sometimes without ever having even BOUGHT an item). Let's say it's listed as an auction with a starting price of $.99 (because the insertion rate is cheaper). And people bid it up to a $30 final price at the end of the auction. But the widget is actually worth $300, and that's around what the seller thought he'd get. So he goes into the eBay forums crying because he doesn't want to sell it at that price. And gets eviscerated (it ain't pretty).

Well, idiot (the seller), if you had read the seller's tutorial, or asked BEFORE you listed the item, this would have been clear to you. :wink: You might have gotten some insight into certain strategies to use to make sure you don't end up giving your precious items away for bupkus.

And not to mention all the scam artists and trouble makers out there, although there does seem to be a lot less these days.

When you have a knowledgeable buyer AND seller, the transaction is a beautiful thing.

And my experience has been that fabric buyers are among the best because they generally know what they're getting - in terms of value, size and condition. In over 11 years, I really haven't had any problems (as a buyer or seller) in the fabric market.

Sorry about my incoherent rant. I'm cranky. :lol:

I guess what I'm trying to say (nicely) is that if you're going to play in that sandbox, it pays to learn the rules.

Ditto. There are just as many bad bidders as sellers. If anyone wants examples, I have lots. (not personally but people I know).

I wouldn't give neg feedback but I'd be narked. Good luck with the new iron. You did a good vent!
Annie

Do not buy on e-bay, of course know of others who just love it for the convenience.
This has been an eye-opener, was not aware that there are so many ins & outs of buying. Miss not having a Nordstroms, etc. nearby. Browsing & shopping was some sort of physical exercise.