Did pretty good with first essay about sellers. Got lots of replies. Then my second (about my crazy diet) only got one. Still pretty good, though. Then I've read (yesterday) just lots 'n' lots of all of you out there's blog entries, too. (And, as far as being interesting or boring, my own hangs in there with ya'alls. And they're LONG! Laughs!!) So OK, anyway...

I've followed some of my posters here's advice and have put up SECOND-CHANCE feedback reponses for these two sellers who'd dissed me!!

You know, that music supply vendor's response hadn't really hurt me 'cause it was in retaliation for my OWN neg of THEM! (That is, my putting their hidden-under-the-radar "Generally Sold As-Is" policy out there!) But the second vendor just seemed spooked by this vendor's neg of ME? 

Which hurt me.

        *       *       *

OK, the story goes like this.

After my IMMEDIATE payment, she'd written: "What's your correct address (which I need to get from you within the next three days!)?

So I write her: "My address the same as on your invoice [giving it again]; but if for any reason you wish to cancel transaction: no prob! [smiley face]." Which e-mail I sent her through eBay messages 'cause it wouldn't go through Yahoo, Yahoo's informing me that her e-mail correspondents have to preregister with her. 

Then she ships it to me WITHOUT sending me the usual coutesy notice it's been shipped.

Then when it arrives, it's not as described. Which happens a lot, no big deal. (But in this case, it was simply that these antique eyeglasses' frames were advertised as being able to take a presription being put in them but this seller simply hadn't noticed that they lacked the little screws needed to replace lenses - since they're solid, one-piece reading glasses.) So I immediately pop an "e" off to her, "Hey, I'm gonna return these spectacles cuz they're unable to take new lenses, OK?" But then I immediately reconsidered this, since I won them really for only $11 (first bid above minimum). So: What am I losing? Five dollars, after my repaying for shipping both ways? And so, only two minutes after I'd sent her this earlier "e," I send her one saying, "That's okay. No worries. I'll do SOMETHING with these glasses. Thanks anyway [smiley face]." And, finally, I immediatly leave her feedback, calling her a "1st-rate eBayer." 

I'm not even thinking about feedback response to me. Out of the going-on-twenty eBay feedbacks I'd gotten so far, eBayers ALWAYS say something nice. It's built into the system. Why would somebody want to start a feedback war with somebody over nothing? My third or so item ordered hadn't showed the pant legs. I'd assumed they were bells. (They were a gift for a woman friend.) I was no doubt rudely dissatisfied, "How come you guys didn't include a picture of the legs?" But I know. Basically it was my fault. Right? Shrugs.

But this eBayer: (1) Refunds five dollars off of my going on thirty-dollar purchase price; and (2) Leaves me feedback about what a swell, All-American No. 1 eBay-er I am! Laughs. And, let's face it, THAT'S how we're all used to things being done and what kind of feedback we pretty much automatically respect, just regardless of the actual circumstances, y'know? But what does she write? "OK transaction. Emails are upsetting."

Which hurt me.

Like, what in the hell, couln't she have told ME that she didn't like something about my emails - without her being so, I dunno...diffident, smug, haughty and curt in her dealings with me? Huh? No, she has to write me, "These eyeglasses were custom made many years ago. Thanks," and then PERMANENTLY labeling me as obnoxious. Great!

        *        *        *

I'm really sensitive anyway. So I don't need people who I've never met putting up snippy comments about me that'll stay with me throughout my next years and years of being an eBay buyer. ('Cause, YOU know...I LOVE eBay, actually! Smiles!)

Yeah, I'm sensitive - so what. I'm sitting here with what FEELS to be like a pile of bricks sitting on my lower abdomen. And this has nothing absolutely whatsoever to do with eBay at all, but just with some situations that are going on in my life.

Have you seen, for example, the episode of Curb Your Enthusiam (It's on HBO) where Larry David is in the menstore trying to refold a sweater? The owner says, "That's OK. I'll do that!"

And Larry says, "No, no, no! I can do it! It's not brain surgery. It's only a sweater!"

And the owner says, "No, actually, there's a certain way it has to be folded and you're not doing it the right way!" (At this point BOTH the haberdashery owner AND Larry have their hands on the sweater as the haberdasher is folding it while Larry still has his hands on the sweater's neck.)

The haberdasher says, "You're stretching the neck. Just let go..."

Et cetera, et cetera. (One supporting actor from this particular episode (It's called "Crazy Eyed Killer") actually won an Emmy. It's pretty funny.) Anyway, I feel like Larry sometimes. I'm trying my best to be accomodating and people are offended. At this point, though, I'll just try and lick my wounds and move on, right? What else can I do? Though I DO think I'll adopt a more business like tone in my emails to complete strangers. So at least I HAVE learned SOMETHING. I think.

(Did anyone read this?) 

Kimball Hunt

"the crazy, super small-time eBay-er in Teaneck, New Jersey" 

I got one item today. (A necktie. Single color, sort of olive green. Except with sort of a off-kilter checkerboard on it of darker-'n'-lighter near rectangle shapes going across it that catches light different ways. It's hard to explain. But  the pattern's apparently called

jac.quard

Which is a new word for me.

     *     *     *

More interesting than an ultra-subdued necktie is my diet!

This low carb biz's all the rage. So I'm lookin' in the mirror and deciding to lose weight. And sure enough, 'cause of what I've read, I'm now watchin' carbs! I've lost maybe five pounds in the last couple of weeks. (As of  this mornin', I'm 161 pounds. (At five-foot ten.))

Instead of carbs, I'm eating spicy food. For example, today I made myself a few low-carb sandwhiches:

- This nice low carb bread from some health food company you buy frozen -- it has basically wheat gluten, soy flour, and I think rye flour or something in it. Anyway, it's great!! Oh and it also comes sliced super thin. -With, on it: "Light" super-soft tofu (which has extra protein in it). Some crumbled super-sharp cheddar. A fried jumbo-egg. A fresh piece of horseradish root I grated up (Remember I like things especially s-s-picy! lol). Ditto fresh ginger root. A few sardines. Pickles. And this red hot chili sauce. (Which really isn't even that hot. Compared to the horse radish!)

It was delicious! I mean um THEY. These sandwhiches. (Eaten without bread tops to these sandwhiches, of course. To save on carbs!)

For dessert, I had super-SUPER dark chocolate. (The kind that's a crunchy bar that's really used only for baking. And that's 100% cocoa - with absolutely NO sugar.) Which is an acquired taste, I'll tell ya. (As ya can only stomach it when you're entirely offa sweets, y'know!) But I also mix pieces of this bar of pure, BITTER chocolate with handfulls of salted macadamia nuts and almonds. Probably a gazillion fatty acid grams, but hey: No carbs!! Oh, and by the way, this pure cocoa has more anti oxidants than anything. Twice as much as green tea, and four times that of cranberries or blueberries. Also cocoa makes you feel really filled up.

I can't believe I'm slowly losing weight this way. But it seems to be working. Of course, I really SHOULD incorporate more exercise into my regimen too. But one step at a time. I can pinch exactly 1 inch on my belly, still (and need that to go at least to only a half a one, y'know?)

Well, "ten-four" for today. (My second "blogging" day on eBay!)

Dear Um Hypothetical Blog Reader (That is, should anyone actually be out there for me! lol) -

Hooo! I've been going really strong on eBay everyday for about a week or so now! (Although I've bought an item or two in the past). So, like, I've accumulated about 20 feedbacks now. But anyway, I'm gonna catch you guys up on what's happened to me JUST REALLY RECENTLY, y'know? So...here goes!

OK, my 1st um "whacky" experience (out of the small number "normal, everyday type" ones I've been having right along, that is) was with this whacked-out vendor who sells music supplies. (Did I mention this vendor was whacky?)

They have, written all over their eBay store, how they "stand behind what they sell," "have a 45-day return policy," blah blah. But then I get this in-the-ear metronome I ordered from them. And the thing doesn't turn on!!! (OK: I need it 'cause I hope to start court reporting school soon and you can use a metronome to increase you speed learning to "type" on a shorthand machine.)

So I write em. And call em. They tell me, "Take it to a music store." So I do. No music store carries it. I go to drug store seeing if maybe it's the batter, but the battery is an unusual voltage. So I ask em to exchange it. They say, "Have you read our return policy?"

So they make me fill out a form on line regarding their return policy. This gist of which is this: You must have a return number to return anything, and if you just send em something without one, they'll return it. Then they tell you they can't accept the return. So, I've written em like three times now and called em half a dozen times. And no return's being authorized by em, DESPITE what their site says! 

So, yeah, I go back and look through their feedbacks - and sure enough, every once in awhile someone orders something that's no good from em and, nope, no return. But the thing is, their site says, "45-day returns" blah blah. Huh?!

So, thinking people should know about this, I state in MY feedback: "Won't exchange $20 item which arrived to me not working."

And, just like they did with the other people who'd negged em, basically word for word, they return negged me with "Sellers beware! Scarry bidder! Not welcome back here again!"
Which seems to violate the spirit of eBay's feedback policy, dealing as it does with characterization minus any actually detailed facts.

So, I file a complaint for an "item not as described" with PayPal. And this store files a complaint with eBay that I hadn't paid for the item (which I couldn't understand exactly, since I HAD paid for it, through PayPal).

Finally I contact the manufacturer of the item. This manufacturer says, "Well, if you just bought it, under these conditions most people simply return the item to the store they bought it from and..."

And I had to explain to them how this particular store has a hidden-under-the-radar "Basically Sold As-Is" policy. So, anyway, the maker of the item just goes and exchanges the item for me. Phew!! :-) So, I drop my "item not as described" complaint in PayPal.

But, get this. Now I start getting people I'm ordering things from acting funny 'cause of the feedback left me by this basically con artist vendor. I need glasses to see the blackboard when I start school. So, I've already got my eyesight prescription and have decided to get antique frames for em.

So, I see these sort of black framed round eyeglasses for $9.99 and I'm the second bid on em at $11. And I win them. Then the vendor refuses to send me an email telling me the glasses have been shipped (or even, if I remember right, one that tells me my PayPal payment's been received?) Which, now that I think about it, I noticed at the time but didn't pay it any mind. But now that I think about it, probably had to do with this "This is a scary bidder!" message this whacked out music put on my in retaliation for my putting out there their "only pretend to give customer service" policy.

So, I'm thinking the antique dealer has been too busy to get around to her shipping, but out of the blue this package arrives.

So what happens? I take em out of the box and show em to my optometrist and my optometrist tells me these glasses unfortunately lack the little screws on their frames that gotta be there in order to replace their lenses.

The thing is, this antique-dealer-on-eBay's listing had specifically mentioned these glasses could have your prescription put in em, y'know? So I write the woman: "Hey, your listing says returns are OK within so-and-so many days. Unfortunately I have to return these glasses 'cause I got em to put new lenses in and the eye doc says they won't take new lenses, that they are reading glasses made all of one piece." Then I think about it for a second and realize that, what with my paying it's shipping to me and then back to her, I'm only talking about something like $5 or something difference anyway. So I write her back again yet another time, "No, come to think about it, that's OK. It's only a little bit of difference for me just to keep em. So if you want to relist em I'll send em back, otherwise maybe I can sell them or find somebody to give em to or something."

As soon as I got the glasses I left a positive feedback for her (going by her listing's saying "We do returns no problem" and just the general vibe that she's not a three-card-monte operation like, for example, this music store is). And, finally I get around to checking my feedback from her (which I hadn't even thought about or worried about). And guess what it says! It says... Well, first a "plus" for a positive review, then the lady says,

"OK transaction. E-mails very upsetting."

And I didn't even return the item! Geez! (Shakes head.) I'm sort of an accomodatin person. (Probably, truth be told, generally an OVER accomodating person, y'know?) But maybe in this age of electronic communication I gotta work on my...just (Shrugs shoulders and shakes head in confusion) um my written TONE or something? I dunno.

So, anyway, I'm getting my frustration out over this through my composing this blog instead.

You know, like, I believe the e-Bay community should be built on, I dunno: trust, open dialogue, full communication, dealing with the facts, not lying...and yeah again I'll say TRUST.

They say that feedback, even (and perhaps ESPECIALLY!) NEGATIVE feedback is actually truly invaluable to one, y'know? So I'm basically trying to fathom what I'm supposed to be learning from this lady's negative (even though she marked it as a "positive") feedback.

I wasn't supposed to tell her she accidentally misadvertised the glasses as having exchangeable lenses? I was supposed to write my e-mails to her in business style prose instead of like I speak? I should have called her on the telephone and got past her (now that I look at in hindsight) pre-set prejudice against me 'cause of the music store's over-the-top character assassination of me? Or am I whacked out in my writing style?

Well, the saga continues, I guess. Today I'm blogging about this. (As this event happened just YESTERDAY.) And who knows, after a few more transactions, maybe I'll know for sure if I'm truly a misanthrope or am just occasionally misunderstood.

Noone may ever read this, my first ever eBay blog entry. But, in any case, I STILL feel much much better, ya'all!

Much thanx!

Kimball Hunt, Teaneck, New Jersey :-)