Selling Toys - Horror Stories & "Happy" Customers

TheRealSmallville said:
I just had another happy customer lol Sorry in advance, a bit of a long one.

I was selling the Chaos Studio Darknight Vigilante (Dark Knight Returns Batman) and the matching Superman in a separate listing. Batman was $225 and Superman was $300-something. Both listed as like-new, but open and I even had provided the link to my youtube reviews so buyers could get a good look at these.

Anyway, after taxes and shipping, this guy who bought them both spent over $600. My cut, which ebay held for some reason until delivery, was $495. He sent me a message about how excited he was because I was the only USA seller he could find, the rest were all from China and "I don't trust ordering anything from China." His words.

Keep in mind, I refunded him $10 immediately for combined shipping. He had paid $15/ea for shipping and it only cost me $15 total to ship both together, so I gave him a small refund and pocketed a couple bucks.

The figures arrive at his house, so I send him a message following up stating "hey, I see they arrived safely. Thanks again for the purchase and enjoy!" I get a message back later saying "thanks...but unfortunately, Batman is missing parts."

This was odd to me, because everything was complete when I sent it. So I inquired.

"Parts? What parts is he missing?"

"A batarang."

(I immediately notice that "A batarang" is not the same as "partS", but ok)

Before I can reply, I get another message:

"He only has 7 batarangs, so I don't know what happened there."

After pulling my eyes back downward from seeing the back of my skull, I reply.

"Ok, looking at pics I see he's supposed to have 8. Those batarangs do not stay in the little plastic molding for them, so did you check all around the box? Make sure it's not hiding under a flap in the cardboard, or stuck inside one of the other accessories."

"Yeah, I looked. I just don't know what I'm supposed to do now. I was going to pose him holding 4 batarangs in each hand, and now I can't."

(my eyes roll back again, but I manage to maintain composure)

"That's a bummer. I didn't specifically count them, but they should all be there. I can send you a refund of $10 for the missing batarang, what do you think?"

2 hours pass. Eventually, a message.

"Sorry, how do I return this? I've never returned on ebay before."

I was shocked. Absolutely shocked lol

"Um...ok. So you want to return the Batman figure because he's missing one batarang? The listing states I do not offer refunds or returns. I can send you the small refund right now for the batarang if you like."

"No, this just needs to be returned. It's supposed to be complete and it's not."

[I double check my listing, it does not say anything about the figure being complete]

"Let me look around my work area and see if maybe it's hiding around here. Maybe it fell out when I was packing him up."

"Well let me know immediately because I don't want this if it's missing stuff."

"Well, it sounds like it's missing one piece of molded plastic about 4mm wide, but I'll take a look before we get crazy and you have to resort from ordering from China."


I got home from work and looked around. Sure enough, hiding under a camera strap on my youtube table, was the missing batarang. I took a picture of it, put it in a padded envelope and messaged him back.

"Good news! I found it! I'll get this mailed out to you tomorrow if you still want the figure. And if you don't, then it's going to be a lot of back and forth because I don't accept returns. Your call."

Another hour goes by. He eventually says "please wrap it carefully. I don't want any more missing parts."

I gave it a bit and replied "Good news is, it's only 1 part. So there won't be multiples of anything."

"Great. Please ship it immediately."

"You bet."

I went to Pirate Ship and got the absolute slowest shipping label I could find. I added 21+ Signature confirmation to it. Cost me a few extra bucks, but motherfucker will need to make sure someone is home now to get it. It's the only inconvenience I could impose on this guy.

Cancelling a huge order over 1 missing batarang...fuck outta here. The figures were immaculate, by the way. Gorgeous pieces. Multiple head sculpts, capes, accessories, the works. 1 fuckin batarang...
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I haaaaaate people like that. Dealt with a few over the years, and it's just maddening. Half the time it's their own incompetence from not fully reading the listing. I get we all want a complete figure, and we all have it in our heads how we want to pose the thing, but be open-minded, for God's sake. You can easily buy a fodder batarang anywhere these days. Chances are, at least one will probably fall out of the figure's hands without him realizing and he'll lose it anyway- happens to me almost any time I pose with a smaller batarang.

Sorry you had to go through that, but kudos to you for going about it your way. I swear, the whole "the customer is always right" mindset has ruined us as a culture. It's not even the correct quote! But I digress....

You'll have to let us know if you hear back from him after he gets it.
 
Today, I am the Buyer of a limited Sailor Moon Primitive skateboard.

It doesn't say shipping is an option, but I don't get to that side of the city easily, so I ask if he's even open to shipping. If not, I can figure something out, either way I'm interested.

He isn't. But he's happy to deliver for $10 more. More than fair given the distance and time.

Then he mentions my 5.0 rating. "Holy Crap, your rating."

This incentivizes him to come ASAP. He tries to upsell me to other board listings. We banter a bit about what decks I'm into, why, and history as a skater.

He throws in some wall hangers for this and an extra board I own I hadn't hung yet. Negates that delivery fee, really.

All because of my rating and politeness.

Funny how that works.
 
Good on ya, Alt! It always pays to be nice (unless they're a stupid poopybutt idiot). I haven't checked my seller rating, to be honest. What other people think of me is none of my business. I think the only time I ever stumbled upon my own reviews was by accident, and the only one I saw rated me 4 stars, but admitted that it was because he misread the listing and was under the impression he was getting something else. Was shocked (but quite grateful) he didn't even inquire about a return.

I did one time accidentally look at my Uber rating, and it was like 4.96, and it felt like I'd been punched in the chest. I'm always as nice as can be and can't think of a single time I was ever rude to anyone. But then I remember that one time I overheard someone who worked as an Uber driver talking with their friend, and he mentioned he rates people lower if they close his car door a little too hard. Just goes to show that how people rate you is often out of your control.
 
Yeah, my Uber rating is 4.3 based on two years of heavy use for school.

I have no idea why, I'm always the one waiting at that exact spot. One guy made it known he was annoyed once because I had found a cool big stick in the campus woods and kept it (Kate called it my wizard staff). It fit in the back of his SUV, but he kept chiding me at every light that I should have gotten an XL.
 
Alt said:
Haha, no. My end is Derek.
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Ru1977 said:
I quote movies in real life as well but usually have to explain what it's from... And people rarely care. But yeah, everything is filed in my head according to movies.
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Oof, same. The way my weird neurodiverse brain works, maybe about 90% of what people say to me brings up either a quote from something or a song. Most of the time I can keep it in my head, but there's been times when I'm on one of my mindless ADHD kicks, and singing to myself, and I'll just switch mid sentence if I hear something that reminds me of another song.

The worst is when it's someone you think will understand the reference, but they just look at you like you're an idiot. Happens with me and the Boyo all the time. We have very similar nerdy interests and are both neurodiverse, but his brain works somewhat normally and just prioritizes the important stuff, whereas mine just retains useless information. He's always amazed at how I seem to remember like every song lyric to everything I've ever heard. If only there was some way to monetize it!
 
Heh, I've gotten over the "look at me like I'm an idiot" because I'm having too much fun remembering a quote. I laugh at myself more than anyone else does.

But I also have dumb stuff like... I know I moved to Poway in May of 2002 because I remember dropping off the last of the boxes before I went to see Attack of the Clones.
 
joshsquash729 said:
Oof, same. The way my weird neurodiverse brain works, maybe about 90% of what people say to me brings up either a quote from something or a song. Most of the time I can keep it in my head, but there's been times when I'm on one of my mindless ADHD kicks, and singing to myself, and I'll just switch mid sentence if I hear something that reminds me of another song.

The worst is when it's someone you think will understand the reference, but they just look at you like you're an idiot. Happens with me and the Boyo all the time. We have very similar nerdy interests and are both neurodiverse, but his brain works somewhat normally and just prioritizes the important stuff, whereas mine just retains useless information. He's always amazed at how I seem to remember like every song lyric to everything I've ever heard. If only there was some way to monetize it!
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The secret is they are the idiot and uncultured one because they don't know it. Dumbasses.
 
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