Maybe it's just me, but I don't think so. I had this rather annoying and sneaky person send me numerous messages about a dress (yes, another one!) I was selling. She wanted me to answer a bunch of odd questions about the color of the dress. A la, "On a scale of one to ten how red is the dress?" As if I would even fall into that trap. So I block her and the other alias she was messaging me on. (I caught on to it because the messages were sent from the same state, within 5 minutes of one another with the same grammatical errors. Come on, I have a BA in English and I am FAR from dumb.) She just sent me the following message:

"look at my record. Look at all the money I have spent on items recently, look at the purse that I spent $139 on among other expensive items like the $85 dollar shiatsu machine. i have ALOT of money. I am going to spend alot more on other sellers who don't have a problem answering quesitons and stooping to a low level of insulting me calling me "bizarre" because I live in a place full of girls and my aunt was also interested in this dress as well and you blocked me. Maybe they asked questions too. I placed a bid of $85 on your dress and you blocked me. Your loss. You did me the favor. That would have been an extra $70 in your pocket. Peace."

1. People with real money don't talk about it. 
2. People with money AND class don't have to ever talk about it.
3. People who have a command on the English language know that "alot" is two words and that "Does this dress looks like it has been washed?" is just plain wrong. But I suppose being able to speak and write English properly is not a prerequisite to having "ALOT of money."
4. Furthermore, Do people with "ALOT" of money "looks" to eBay to buy used clothing? I think not.

Take this guy I sold a couple of items to. HE has money. He is wealthy, not just rich. As a matter of fact, he has yet to leave me feedback on the items I sold him, which is cool. Had it not been for my insane curiosity over his email address I would have never known the man was loaded. Good for him. He worked for everything he has and now he has more than he will ever be able to spend in a lifetime. Would I get a message from him like the one from the woman above? No because this guy is NOTHING like the Ellie Mae Clampett who composed the aforementioned message.

In conclusion, I would like to state that I am not a greedy seller. I do this to supplement my income during the summer months when school is out.

Furthermore, I would like to end this post by quoting the wise words of Mr. Purple aka The Artist Formerly Known As Prince...

I am in the midst of another BAD experience. This time at the hands of someone's granny.

I had this woman buy this dress from me before the holiday weekend. From what I can gather, the woman was too fat to fit in the dress or she simply did not want to spend as much as she did on it. Still, she accepted the dress, wore it, stained it to high heaven and then returned it and demanded a refund.

Now, as I have posted before I MAKE DAMN SURE THINGS LEAVE MY HOUSE IN THE MOST PRISTINE MANNER POSSIBLE. The dress was as advertized when it left my house. When it came back, the halter was STRETCHED OUT from the strain. The inside of the halter now has DISTINCT boob sweat marks complete with an outline of said boobs. The back elastic is now shot bc the purchaser was, again, too fat for the dress. No crime. I couldn't fit into it. But see, I wouldnt have even attempted to stuff myself into it.

When it was worn for a half hour the first and only time it was worn in NJ, the woman who wore it has class and not only wore a bra, but also a shaper AND she only has a B cup. Hmm. I could go on, but I won't.

So, as a compromise because I did get this now usless item back and because I am not out to rip anyone off, I give this woman a partial refund. The refund was for almost 3/4 of her purchase price. Lo and behold, she then opens a dispute on Pay Pal saying she will go to the ends of the earth to get all of her money back. She called me a poor seller, etc. But, the best part is this she said she should have gone with her instincts and not purchased from anyone with less than 99% feedback.

My feedback score is 98.9%.

In the event that Pay Pal decides that this disgruntled granny should get ALL of her money back, I will be thorougly disappointed but not surprised. This is the kind of thing eBay's policies support with their piss poor feedback system.

I will keep fighting the good fight and try to do a better job of monitioring my buyers. I should have known there was something suspect about a person who, until this item, only bought trouser socks.

UPDATE: Boob sweat granny left me negative feedback!

As you may know the powers that be at eBay have decided to make DRASTIC changes to the feedback policy. The long and the short of it is that sellers are no longer allowed to leave negative or neutral feedback for their buyers. In essence, eBay is telling their sellers "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

Since the change in feedback, I have noticed a few startling trends. They are as follows:

1. There are a large amount of people who simply do not pay because their are no reprocussions to thier actions or lack there of.

2. I now send out Unpaid Item Strikes like invoices due to number one.

3. My positive feedback has substantially slowed down. (I had 1144 mid May and now, June 6th, I have 1193 - and I sell about 50 items a week. You do the math.) 

4. Buyer have become increasingly irate. I had one buyer drive up the bidding on an item and not pay for it. I filed an UPI reminder and they proceeded to berate me and try to call into question my business practices. They then left me fradulent negative feedback about said auction. It and the user have since been removed. Another left me neutral feedback because the post office mishandled her package. She then sent me a chastizing e mail telling me to "watch my tone with my buyers" because "you never know how it will be received."

5. Other sellers have become increasingly lax, not to mention dishonest. I bought a phone off of one guy who "ships from a warehouse." Ok, the "warehouse" is Uncly Bubba's garage in rural TN. NOT in GA as he stated in his auctions. Furthermore, the item was listed as "*NEW*" so why did it arrive with nasty gunk all in the crevices of the handset? Also, why was it literally SHIPPED in the box it came in? I don't know about other states, but in NJ your ish has to be wrapped in brown paper or placed in a bag. Gross.

I really could go on, but for the sake of brevity, I will end there.

The honor system is dead. Not being able to leave negative feedback means sellers have no lines of defense against deadbeats. I mean, think about it. If you were thinking about going on a crime spree - say - shop lifting - wouldn't you be more inclined to do it if there were no clerks, security cameras, or anti-theft devices, security guards in the store or in the parking lot?  Just a thought.

Dishonest people make me very sad.
I have said it once and I will say it again:

As a seller. I am PAINFULLY HONEST. If there is something wrong with an item, I would rather tell you in GREAT DETAIL and lose money that actively deceive a buyer.

I very much live by the golden rule: Treat others the way you'd like to be treated. As a buyer on eBay - I expect things to be shipped quickly after I pay so I, in turn, Ship IMMEDIATELY.

As a buyer on eBay - I pay for my items immediately or with in 24 hours. It is hard to expect this from buyers, but I do allow for a three day grace period.

As a buyer on eBay I expect there to be open lines of communication. When my customers ask me a question - I pretty much bend over backwards to make sure it is answered. The exceptions to this are when I am in class or in bed. That's about it. Again, this is hard to expect of others, but I am reasonable.

Likewise, I expect buyers to be honest with me when they have an issue. I.e. I have (on only two occasions) listed things in the wrong size. My customers contacted me, they sent the items back and a refund was issued. I am only human.

Today I am about to have a problem. I sold an item to a woman and she deliberatly destroyed it to get her money back. As a seller - I don't think there is any way I can defend my integrity. I thoroughly scrutinize every item before I list it. And in the event that I don't - I do as I am backing it. I WOULD RATHER LOSE MONEY THAN LIE TO MY BUYERS. Honestly, I would. Why? Because as a buyer, I would want someone to tell me what's wrong with an item rather than me find out for myself.

Why is it okay for buyers to lie about items and get their money back? It is morally reprehensible and it, quite frankly, hurts my feelings.