comedy!
backstory: i sold a used book to a woman on amazon more than a month ago. a week or so ago she surfaced in my inbox for the first time and said it never showed up. she called me "dishonest," and demanded a refund, but not before leaving negative feedback. (she hadn't even tried to resolve with me. luckily all my other feedback is perfect.) i was going to refund half her money, but after reading the policies and getting guidance from you out in lj-land, i refunded the total cost of the item + shipping, the same night, and asked her to please remove the negative feedback. she did not.
yesterday, d said we got a weird-looking package in the mail, with my handwriting on it. guess what? item returned in the mail! haha. i promptly took a picture of the item and dropped a note to the woman, saying, i thought you might be interested to know that the book did not make it to you due to "insufficient address." the photo shows about five different stickers on the package, including return to sender. i exptected that that would be that. the only reason i bothered is that i was miffed that she called me "dishonest." i wanted her to know for sure that i wasn't, and to think about that for awhile.
imagine my surprise when i got this response from her: "i need it by saturday. if you fedex the book to me tomorrow, i'll remove the negative feedback." she included her address, with more detail - clearly the missing information from the first attempt - info that had not been in her original, amazon-provided address.
HAHAHAHAHA!
this woman was going to hold my feedback hostage?
um... no.
did i mention that we're talking about an item priced at $2.99?
in the meantime, i'd successfully sold items to other buyers, so obviously it wasn't hurting me to have this black mark on my record. in any case... she wanted me to send it to her for free... after refunding her money... and pay for overnight mail on top of it? oh HELL no!!! i almost wondered why she'd bother to ask! ...but then i looked online at a few of the top bookselling venues, and i realized that this ~$13 book, which she had attempted to buy from me for $2.99, was now NOWHERE to be found for less than $49.99! (even the newer edition isn't available for less than that.)
i wrote back and told her that i was not interested in paying for the cost of a fedex, especially for an item which i'd already refunded, but that i hoped she'd consider removing my negative feedback regardless, since she knows that i was in good faith about sending the book in the first places. i didn't and don't expect her to do so, but my "dishonest" self needed to put that out there.
imagine my surprise when i got yet another email from her, stating simply "i never got the money."
for the refund?
that i gave her the day she asked?
after which she didn't remove the negative feedback?
*hand-staple-forehead*
i took a screenshot of the transaction showing her name, the item, and the phrase "refund applied." i sent a short note saying "here is the record of the transaction and refund. thank you." and hopefully that will be that.
in the meantime, i'm going to wait to sell the book... if i do so at all. god forbid she should try again to buy it from me! it's a travel book... i usually buy several for each location i visit then sell most of them back... but this was one i found very useful. perhaps the universe wants me to keep it.
i feel somewhat childish about this incident, but i don't enjoy being yanked around, and was glad to prove that i was in the right.
yesterday, d said we got a weird-looking package in the mail, with my handwriting on it. guess what? item returned in the mail! haha. i promptly took a picture of the item and dropped a note to the woman, saying, i thought you might be interested to know that the book did not make it to you due to "insufficient address." the photo shows about five different stickers on the package, including return to sender. i exptected that that would be that. the only reason i bothered is that i was miffed that she called me "dishonest." i wanted her to know for sure that i wasn't, and to think about that for awhile.
imagine my surprise when i got this response from her: "i need it by saturday. if you fedex the book to me tomorrow, i'll remove the negative feedback." she included her address, with more detail - clearly the missing information from the first attempt - info that had not been in her original, amazon-provided address.
HAHAHAHAHA!
this woman was going to hold my feedback hostage?
um... no.
did i mention that we're talking about an item priced at $2.99?
in the meantime, i'd successfully sold items to other buyers, so obviously it wasn't hurting me to have this black mark on my record. in any case... she wanted me to send it to her for free... after refunding her money... and pay for overnight mail on top of it? oh HELL no!!! i almost wondered why she'd bother to ask! ...but then i looked online at a few of the top bookselling venues, and i realized that this ~$13 book, which she had attempted to buy from me for $2.99, was now NOWHERE to be found for less than $49.99! (even the newer edition isn't available for less than that.)
i wrote back and told her that i was not interested in paying for the cost of a fedex, especially for an item which i'd already refunded, but that i hoped she'd consider removing my negative feedback regardless, since she knows that i was in good faith about sending the book in the first places. i didn't and don't expect her to do so, but my "dishonest" self needed to put that out there.
imagine my surprise when i got yet another email from her, stating simply "i never got the money."
for the refund?
that i gave her the day she asked?
after which she didn't remove the negative feedback?
*hand-staple-forehead*
i took a screenshot of the transaction showing her name, the item, and the phrase "refund applied." i sent a short note saying "here is the record of the transaction and refund. thank you." and hopefully that will be that.
in the meantime, i'm going to wait to sell the book... if i do so at all. god forbid she should try again to buy it from me! it's a travel book... i usually buy several for each location i visit then sell most of them back... but this was one i found very useful. perhaps the universe wants me to keep it.
i feel somewhat childish about this incident, but i don't enjoy being yanked around, and was glad to prove that i was in the right.