Grabbing Some Perspective

Wow, I’ve done enough griping about eBay – here’s another issue I had recently that has nothing to do with eBay…

I recently bought a new lawn tractor – there was nothing seriously wrong with my old lawn tractor, mind you – beside sit being old. I just wanted a newer model with shiny green and yellow paint and more cupholders.

So, I placed a classified ad in my local paper, the Suburban Gazette, listing my old lawnmower for sale. I didn’t need it anymore, and I had no place to keep it.. I explained that this was a 8 year old mower, and what minor issues it had (the blade needed sharpening, the hood was scratched, and the motor leaked oil and needed to be topped off after every run). I listed it for $200 – a real bargain as a new model of this machine costs over $1,500.00. Well, within a week, I had about a half dozen calls on this machine (it was a real bargain, as I said) and one fellow came by, looked it over, and purchased it on the spot.

All was well until about a month after the sale was completed. It was then that I got a phone call from the Editor of the Suburban Gazette. Apparently, the fellow who bought ny old mower decided that he wasn’t too happy with it. Seems that after using the mower twice a week for a month, he never bothered to check the oil in it and he ended up seizing the engine. The editor asked that I refund him his $200.00, even though the buyer admitted to ‘screwing up’ and that he never checked the oil level.

I told the editor that I was sorry, but the mower was sold as-is, and that too much time had gone by since he purchased the mower, Besides, the buyer admitted he screwed up and never checked the oil level.

Case closed, or so I thought. Another 2 weeks passed when the editor called me again. He said he felt sorry for the buyer, and he had the Suburban Gazette refund him the $200 directly. He then informed me that I now owed the newspaper $200, and that if I did not send over the money immediately, they would turn me over to collections. In addition, I wouldn’t be allowed to place any more ads in that papers’ classified section until I paid them the $200.00.

Can you believe this? No? Good, because the entire story is made up. A newspaper would never get involved with a private transaction like this. However, this is what eBay has started doing countless times, everyday. And eBay sellers are putting up with this behavior. For now, at least.

Ebay needs to realize what they are – an online classified section – before their customers, the eBay sellers, realize that the shouldn’t have to put up with this type of behavior from any company. As their customers, we pay these companies – from the Suburban Gazette all the way up to eBay - good money every month for their services.

Let’s not lose the proper perspective about who eBay really is…or isn’t:

They are not the Internet Police

They are not your conscience

They are not your parents

They are not a court of law

They are an online classified section.

Period.