I just had a customer who ordered a web script from me. Unfortunately, I had not anticipated these circumstances, so did not put in the appropriate provisions in the description and listing. A computer illiterate customer wanted a script for his website and bought mine. I sent him the disc since eBay does not recognize digital deliveries as tangible goods. He claimed it arrived broken, but before even contacting me and giving me a chance to reship, he left negative feed back in a very rude manner. I have appealed to eBay to remove it because it is erroneous but we will see what happens.
I reshipped the second copy at great expense to make sure it did not break on the way. His complaint was that there was no software on the disc. Ummm... PHP and MySQL scripts are not PC software. They are files designed for use on a web server and make up the site and functions that let your site do things like store data and process orders.
He asked me to let him download the files because for whatever reason the disc was unacceptable. So ok, I emailed them individually. I offered to install the files for him and get it working, but instead of replying and asking for help, he simply filed a claim with eBay. eBay refunded him. But as near as I can tell, they didn't charge me for it, since holds placed on my paypal account were removed, and no negative charges resulted anywhere.
But... If he didn't want a functioning site or to let me help him, it only tells me one thing. He simply wanted to get his hands on the product, perhaps to bootleg and resell it, who knows. Or maybe reverse engineer it. He has his money back, AND the files. All I have to show for it is the negative feedback left by an angry, rude, impatient buyer.
I am SO close to permanently moving to Amazon.com. The people at Amazon have integrity and are not interested in screwing over the sellers. I haven't heard of any bad treatment on the part of Amazon. Oh, authors might have a few complaints about royalties, but eh. It makes me sick to have to keep using eBay. The Government went after Microsoft because they were a monopoly... I think it is time they do something about eBay. There should be a "conflict of interest" suit with any company that forbids the use of any payment method other than through the company they own, in this case, PayPal. I guess it is because it gives them the freedom to extort sellers and hold their reputations hostage.
The problem is... You can't sell just anything you want to on Amazon, and they are very picky, in fact I believe you have to have a business license... Well... It is time to incorporate and make it happen I think. What a sad sad day this is. They took a great thing like eBay and screwed it up.
When you list ANYTHING, you HAVE to make sure EVERY contingency is addressed by your policies and disclaimers because by god, if it is not written, eBay will pretend it doesn't apply even if it is common sense. I mean, it's like someone buying a bag of peanuts, getting sick from allergies, and suing because the bag didn't say "Warning: Contains Peanuts".
My paypal account was hacked and fraudulent transactions were made, in british pounds no less. Well.. It took about a few weeks to resolve. When they reversed the transactions and all, I had lost about $10 because the value between the US dollar and the GB pound had changed. THEY STUCK ME WITH THE NEGATIVE BALANCE FOR IT. So, I point you to www.paypalsucks.com if it is still up on the web.
No comments:
Post a Comment