I Hate eBay

I have had a broken laptop in my possession for a while now. All it was doing was collecting dust until my friend suggested I sell it on eBay for parts. What a novel idea! I never thought such a thing possible.

She helps me set up the listing. Bidding starting at $25, buy it outright for $75, shipping $14. As soon as I listed it someone bought it for $75! I was psyched.

I waited for payment. And waited and waited. None came. I had to report the buyer. I planned on just relisting it, but since I am a new seller, I could only list one computer every 30 days. So I had to wait a little longer.

Finally my 30 days were up and I relisted it. I watched the bidding for a week. The final bid was $41 - and I was psyched. All I had to do was ship it. I tried going through UPS online, but they quoted a shipping price of $17. Well that could not be right. So I decided to go into a store. I checked the email I received from eBay and made the shipping label out to the PO Box they had listed.

Once inside the store, the clerk said that because it was a PO Box, it had to be shipped USPS priority shipping and would come to $26. I was so flustered that I just said okay. It was the only address I had, after all.

I went to my friend all upset that it had cost so much to ship. She told me to contact the buyer and tell them what happened. She said they would pay me, if only so I wouldn't give them a bad rating. So I did. I politely explained the situation and asked that she pay the difference.

I received a response today. The woman said that in the transaction details it not only says I shipped it UPS but it also gave me her house address. Furthermore, she told me that she does this all the time and if I did actually pay that much for shipping that I got ripped off. This really upset me. I didn't ship it UPS, I didn't have her home address, and I did not know if I did get ripped off. How could I have? Shipping prices don't change. Do they? So I double checked the email I was sent. Yup, PO Box. I checked the shipment tracking number, yup, USPS. Then I went online under transaction details. It does say that it was shipped UPS. I think this is what I was going to ship it. And sure enough, there was her home address. I had never seen this page, and why would I? I received an email with all the pertinent information. I blame eBay for not being user friendly, confusing, and sending me the wrong shipping address.

I am grateful that I have $30 more than I did before, but it was not worth the hassle.