General Discussion (Garden Railways)

Hey Guys,

This posting is about LS trains and specifically about their purchase on eBay.  I believe that it's an appropriate subject for this forum ..... so here goes. I recently had a really bad experience on eBay with a retailer from Texas, The Favorite Spot. He's got a good feedback record, mostly positives; the only negatives are about his rude and abusive messages when a sale goes bad. That's pretty much what happened to me.

 I made a bid on an item and while I was the high bidder I realized the item wasn't what I thought it was.  It's not easy to cancel a bid on eBay so I chose the closest cancellation option available. 

 As soon as the bid was cancelled I sent an e-mail to the seller explaining why I had cancelled my bid and I accepted responsibility for the mix-up. The response I received from him really surprised and p----d me off.  All he wrote was "Why did you say that I changed the description? That's a blatant lie".  I replied immediately and explained, again, why I was forced to handle the cancellation the way I did.  And now I insisted on an apology for the "lie" comment.  I sent several more e-mails demanding an apology but all he sent back was his original e-mail. 

In my final e-mail to him I stated that I was going to post to the LS forums the details of this transaction as a warning to others. I also told him that I was contacting eBay management to ask that they censure him for his lousy customer service.  He replied with a smart-aleck e-mail that in essence said, "go ahead, I'm not worried about public opinion".  That kind of arrogance drives me nuts.

I guess I'm writing this mainly to vent but also to make a point; civility is important. If you deal with the public you need to be courteous, if you can't be, you need to be called out.  I also want to alert anyone who reads this that there is a really good chance that you too will have problems with this guy if your deal goes sour.  It probably won't, but if it does, be prepared to be insulted ..... you've been warned.

Walt

 That's unfortunate. I have made more than 10 purchases from that seller without an issue.

They do sell hundreds of model railroad items a week on eBay and have a retail store to run on top of that. I'm sure they get a bit wary of the many who abuse eBay auctions. eBay has never been user friendly for cancelling a bid and it sounds like your explanation of your cancellation got lost in translation.

I do not think airing out grievances here unless in the case of fraud is a particularly good idea either .

-Brian

 i think that this media is one of the only places we have to warn people of problems with products or venders as long as we are respectful and truthful and try to look at both sides of the situation. just wait when you want to vent. i think we are all grown up enoff to give a product or sevice a chance even though someone might have said something negative about them or it unless more than one person has said something and the only way we might find out from more than one is right here!

 Brian,

Thanks for your input. I'm glad you've had good luck with this seller so far. Apparently they run a good business and most transactions go smoothly. But, if a problem does occur, it seems that this seller resorts to name calling and other unacceptable behavior rather than try to resolve the dispute.

I respectfully disagree that a forum like this is not a suitable place to discuss a dispute like mine. I expect to find information here about dishonest merchants,  defective or unsafe products and misleading or false advertising, so why not expose a potentially abusive retailer. Conversely, I also expect to find good news here. News about good or new products or new or better ways to do things and about good merchants with whom to do business.   A forum is a place for likeminded people to come together to exchange news and ideas, good and bad.

Walt

 Hmmm - I wonder if this is the same e-Bay seller that is the subject of several derogatory comments over on the Model Railroader magazine forums that were started by a buyer in Canada.

The Canadian has been called several dirty names via e-mail from the seller over a dispute of shipping charges..

Could this be EVEL-BAY at it's worst

Just one more reson to shop at your LHS

Dave

I'm trying to think of a good experience I've had with ebay and I just can't come up with anything.....

Dave is quite correct, patronize your LHS and be done with it.

Not everyone is concerned about making this countrys number one god though, the all mighty dollar bill, doesn't it say right on the bills "in our god we trust."

I have personally had many really good transactions on the ol "EVIL BAY."  However, yes, you can run into the bad ones, at or on any venue. Granted the folks who do run that venue TOO, do seem to only be interested in that same god.  

But that is just the way things seem to be going in these "HARD" times now, it's a shame, but a truism, about life and many people, now-a-days. 

Let's just not allow ourselves to become the same way.......

Byron

It's called "Greed Incorporated"!   We're all guilty of it!

Odd I don't see the seller at fault at all.

You told Ebay that the seller changed the description.

He did not.

The bidder change his mind not the seller.

A bid is a contract.

Only bid on an item when your sure about it.

PS,

I think I would have personally contacted the seller a told them that I made a mistake and asked that they cancel or reject my bid.

Hope this helps.

 I agree, and I would have done just that, but there were only minutes before the end of bidding so I didn't have time to email the seller asking to cancel.    

I readily accepted responsibility for the foul up in an email to the seller less than a minute after the cancellation. BTW, I believe the item finally sold for more than my max bid so the seller wasn't financially hurt by all this.

The issue is not about who's fault the disagreement is, it's about the way this seller handled it. In the course of doing business either on-line or in-store, rudeness should not be tolerated regardless which side of the counter it comes from.

Walt

Walt, I disagree (to some extent) about rudeness.   3 times I paid off a store credit card and asked to have the account closed (my ex was still charging things on it); and the store told me it would but really would not close the account.   Once I started hollering that I did not want thier F______ account and they could put it where the sun don't shine, (and people started gathering and appaluding) they very quickly terminated the account.    Only cost me a thousand dollars between the first time I asked and the scene!   If I knew that being rude and loud was what it took, I'd have saved that grand and done it the first time!

I have learned that I ratchet rudeness to the way people treat me.

You want my money , you do buisiness my way!

All goes back to what I had said earlier, the god of corporate thinking is all they see, get it however you can and DON"T give it back.

Yes sometimes the consuming publics only way of getting them to let go is get a little loud with them at times.....Or at least let others know how they had treated you....I see no problem in that, Walt and Bob....

Byron 

 Bob,

Fair enough. You have your opinion and I have mine.

Walt

Walt,

Sorry you had a bad eBay experience. I had a bad eBay experience this month as well only on the other side of the spectrum....my wife got the Paypal bill. Ooops!!

Joe