While I enjoy shopping yard sales, I’m not too keen on having my own. In spite of that, we had a yard sale this past weekend, primarily to find homes for my late mother-in-law’s belongings –items family members didn’t take and we couldn’t use. What’s left is being boxed up for donation at Hospice.

Going through a deceased parent’s belongings is a harsh reminder to “clean house” and take a fresh look at stuff we have shoved in boxes and in the back of closets. This led me to post a few things on eBay earlier this month. I did well on a couple items—way better than what the time consuming yard sale brought in—yet I still had my share of aggravation.

The first “aggravation” came after a buyer sent me this message two days after I shipped the item:

DID NOT ORDER DO NOT WANT HAVE NOT RECEIVED PLEASE CANCEL ORDER

My first question, if the buyer did not order the item, then why in the world did she pay for it within hours after the auction closed?

My second question, if the buyer decided she did not want said item, why didn’t she tell me that on Monday, when I emailed her saying I would be shipping the item Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning? I wouldn’t have had a problem cancelling and relisting at that point, providing eBay waived any fees. Yet the buyer contacted me AFTER she knew I had shipped the item.

I asked the buyer these questions and she sent me back this lengthily response:

As a 75yr old person I was trying to learn to shop on line and use eBay. I did not know what happened and yes the bids came from my computer. I could not figure out how I ended up with 65 hummels and $2,000.00 bill. One customer told me I was the only bidder and I raised my bid 4 times.

That very unkind and nasty person solved the confusion. I never used this before and did not realize clicking on highest bid to see what they were going for put it in a a bid. At 75 yr old and my social security is only about $1000.00 a month this “learning to use a computer and line buying has more than bankrupted my meager funds. Some people are also very rude and think it is funny. I can only ask people to accept the items back and I lose only the shipping so I am at the mercy of the customers. Hope those who wrote unkind things enjoy taking advantage of the elderly . I will never try to shop on line again and certainly will not use ebay since I obviously did not remember what was bid on or even know I was bidding. I would appreciate it very much if you would take it back and sell it again as I obviously cannot use this system properly.

I didn’t quite buy her story, considering she’d been an eBay member since 2007, and she had feedback from over a year ago. Me thinks it was a case of buyer’s remorse.

It taught me a lesson—never leave feedback on a buyer until AFTER they leave it on you. She hasn’t given me feedback yet, but I left her positive feedback immediately after she paid, and the comment section to amend the feedback only allows for a few words.

In her Feedback Profile she has 37 positive seller’s feedbacks for this past month—all indicating she was a fast payer. I just noticed one of her sellers recently left a comment stating she returned the item without the original box.

Two weeks ago another auction closed, and a buyer of one item never paid, forcing me to open an unpaid item case. I still haven’t heard anything.

Kudos to those eBay sellers who can weather the crazies and flakes while making a living. I think I will simply call Hospice and donate what we no longer want, and stick to what I do—writing books.

Speaking of that, I’m back to working on Haunting Danielle, Book 3. I mentioned in a prior post I was facing chemo, which might slow down the process. Yet now it looks like I may not have chemo! (Crossing fingers) I saw my chemo doc for the first time last week and he says I am borderline needing it. He is running another test on one of the lymph nodes they removed and when he gets that back, he will make his final decision. I find out in about a week.

As for me…back to Haunting Danielle…

(Photo: This is what some folks do with unwanted items…bad idea! Photo taken at Kodiak Alaska.)