I whined and mewled on this forum recently about being booted off Ebay due to
my seller's score being below average. The incident leading to my unwilling
divorce from the 500-pound gorilla of cyber-selling came about from my listing
a fairly hefty amount of items on the site and then being suddenly called over
to the UK for a month to fill in for someone on a musical tour. I contacted all
the people who won items, often on my iPhone from tiny pubs in the middle of
nowhere, explaining that their items would indeed be shipped but there would be
a delay due to my odd circumstances. I was unfailingly polite and, usually,
people respond well to decency. In this case, several customers complained to
Ebay that I was a flake.
Months later, when I went on Ebay to sell a collection of San Francisco
underground artist S. Clay Wilson's printer's proofs from a recording project,
it set the number of items I could sell on a monthly basis at Zero, as in Zed,
Naught, Zip-ah-dee-doo-dah. I called Ebay to find out what was going on and was
told by a smarmy, officious drone that "Ahhhhhhhh, it would seem to be best if
you found alternative cyber commerce sites to sell on. You are moving on from
Ebay." "OK....so you guys are...firing me? For this one incident?" The oily
little weenie said, "Ahhhhhh, I just go by the numbers. It's out of my hands."
I know Ebay is not much loved by many of us, but it was handy way for my to
make a few extra bucks, usually pimping other people's stuff for them for a
commission, to feed my poster jones. I was pretty upset. Other sites had a
fraction of the audience of Ebay and with specialized pieces like the S. Clay
Wilson stuff, I found no takers. Recently, I got a chummy note from Ebay asking
, "Hey, Mr. Wonderful Customer, why haven't you been selling?" Perplexed, I
called Ebay again and spoke with a lovely, understanding woman who looked at my
circumstances and asked, "Didn't they tell you about the review process?"
Apparently, Ebay is legally bound review each case on an individual basis,
something my pimply, sweaty initial contact neglected to tell me . Since it was
Christmas season, I waited a couple of weeks and called back. I got another
lovely human being, a fellow who was genuinely shocked that I would be given
the boot after over 15 years of a comfortable business relationship with The
Colossus of San Jose over one incident of carelessness (every customer involved
in the UKboo-boo eventually got their items, often with a bonus thrown in, or a
refund, if that was requested.
I am now back on Ebay and can make that extra dough to help make some of YOU
guys make extra dough when I continue to replenish my collection of horror,
exploitation, black cinema, and gorgeous old stone lithos. The point to this
long-winded little tale is that there are indeed Human Beings on Ebay. You have
to keep calling to find them sometimes, but if you have a legitimate, solvable
problem, some employees did NOT drink the Kool-Aid and will treat you with
respect and as an individual. The Wilson stuff goes up today. When I get my
money, "AIP" goes into the Entertainment memorabilia-Posters-1950s search
engine and the money trickles back into some of your fingers.
Sometimes Capitalism rocks.
Thanks for listening, my brother geeks.
Greg Douglass
Lake Hodges/Escondido, CA, USA
PS-The coolest part of all this was when Ebay sent me a Feedback Survey to rate
the quality of my business experience with that initial smarmy little
goat-fellating, gerbil-abusing weenie who gleefully sent me packing from our
favorite humungous flea market . I was even handed and non vulgar as I
gleefully lowered this drone's customer satisfaction score for the month of
December. Hey, I worked for guys like Steve Miller and Paul Butterfield and
took all the abuse they had to give and gave it right back. Corporate weasels
are a piece of cake!
--.
Greg Douglass
Guitarist-
Lessons, Live Shows, Touring,
& Studio Work
(760)212-3648
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