I approached an established Ebay seller “crackerbleu” about a new Ebay listing that I was interested in and made him an offer for it, after few days he got back to me asking if I was a member here on OF as he was too. Here he is @Kwijibo. Well on the basis of our common membership of OF we continued our negotiations and communications here. To speed the deal I then made an improvement to my original offer which he accepted. I paid straight away for the watch. He received payment and we continued our good communications regarding which strap I would like, croc or shark, etc. Everything was going very smoothly up until this point. After I had paid him @Kwijibo told me he was going to close down the Ebay auction. As it turned out he didn't leave himself enough time to do that so he came with another plan. Unfortunately that plan also didn't work and so the Ebay auction continued to the end, closing at a higher price than I had paid. I received a PM a few hours after the Ebay auction had finished to inform me of this and to say that "we" had a problem, he hadn't managed to close down the auction and the auction price had ended higher than he had anticipated and as he had just started a new business and was short of money he now didn't know what to do…… He asked what I thought about that. I reminded him that we had negotiated, we had agreed a price, I had paid promptly and he had received the money straight away. My responsibilities as buyer were complete. His responsibilities as seller were now to get the watch to me, the fact that he had failed to end the auction and in the last seconds had received a higher bid than he had sold the watch to me for should not really be my concern. That was his risk in such a situation. I explained that had the auction ended at a price lower than I had paid then that would have been my risk and I would have accepted that. Had it ended at a lower price I certainly wouldn't have expected to get some money back as our financial transaction was already complete. Now the opposite was true and I don't expect a good seller to behave this way either. I also then offered that he could send me the watch head only and not include the crocodile strap we had agreed on, thus saving him some money and improving his margin further. The next morning I received a short message to say he had no choice and had decided to refund my money. No follow up to the comments in my last PM, no further discussions, but he did ask me if I was interested in some other Omega's he had in stock!! Better to keep my thoughts to myself regarding this "offer" I have twice messaged him since then explaining again my position and responsibilities as buyer and his as seller, asking him to reconsider his position. Unfortunately I have not received any kind of reply, complete radio silence, yet he has found the time to list new items on Ebay. A watch is a watch and there are always more out there, so no big deal really in the great scheme of things, but IMO once the negotiations are complete and the buyer has fulfilled his part of the deal it is then not acceptable practice for a seller to renegade on the transaction after the fact, and certainly not as it seems here, for an extra couple hundred of euros. For this reason, but also due to the complete lack of communication and disregard of my messages since he decided to pull the plug, I have decided to post this here. I would certainly not buy from this seller again.
I would like to share a policy change that eBay has made recently(?) (I'm not sure when). I've occasionally put a watch up for sale on eBay but gotten a reasonable offer from a person I know and ended the auction as a result. In the past it has been without any issues on eBay. However, I did that recently with an item with a few bids and eBay sent me a message that I might be changed charged a commission based on the last bid (it was Past the 4 digit point at that point). Not sure at all if that situation is relavant to your situation but it's also a heads up for individuals who do what I do. All that said, Communications, I agree is the key to a great / smooth transaction.
Sorry to hear about this. I suspect this will ultimately cost him more than if he paid whatever penalty to eBay. Offering you the chance to buy one of his other watches was in poor form in my opinion.
How much more did it go for on eBay than what you negotiated? Must be quite a bit 'cause eBay fees are cray cray.
Yes you'd think so to behave in such a way, but after fees it was probably less than a 200 euro difference!
Hello Cristos, I just see this thread. with a little surprise. I remember I put a constellation on ebay and on the OF. I sell several watches a year with a 100% satifaction on ebay and 100% less your comment here. I'm really sorry for what happened and realize you feel upset of not having this watch. HERE'S WHAT REALLY HAPPENED : Whe you made me a resaonable offer, I accepted it. I intended to cancel the auction on eaby unless I realisze that there was less thant 12 hours remaining and that I could not withdraw the watch on ebay in the meantime. Someone won the auction while we were discussing the sale. I had no other option but to sell the watch to the higher bidder as he paid me right away. Of course, I like to avoid these situation as ofter as I can. You'll probably say that it's normal, but I underlignend that I paid you back straight away. Which is totally normal. I didn't rob any money from you. This must be said I have no intention to scam anybody here. I also remember that I send you a message to make some apologies and try to help you find another vintage Omega : ...Hello Chris I'm so sorry but I had no other choice but to pay you back. I know it's not fair and a crappy situation. I promise to think of you as soon as I come across a nice connie. I hope you won't thrash me on the OF. Are you looking for some other Omegas? I have some in stock. kind regards... I must have been rather busy and actually missed you latest message here. I just red them, and admit I missed it and did not anwer. As MEME DWELLER says, I pay an 8% commission on ebay. I did not earn much more money selling it on ebay compared to the deal we found. All that to say i didn't sell it on ebay because it was financially better but because I had no option to cancel the auction. Anyway, the ebay buyer was not very honnest and said that the wathc was in poor condition though it was really not. I have several other feedback here, all positive. Once again, these kind of things happen.
As I had other vintage watches, I simply enquired about his interest in som other watches. That was a means of finding a faire solution an certainly not : well you wanted this constellation, I sold it for a better price but you just have to take another one.
Over a year ago and you now decide to comment? I tagged you when I posted this 13 months ago, so you will have received a notification then, you've certainly had plenty of time to put your spin on things... A couple things... Firstly, you don't need to shout This statement is false as we both know I'd already paid you way before the auction ended. Did I say that? No, I didn't think so. Maybe you are having some problems with sales elsewhere? You think offering another watch to me after renegading on a deal is the way to go? Sorry that's not the way I operate. Do they? IIRC the watch closed at a higher price that I'd paid you, that is the crux here and to now paint a different picture, well, I'll keep my opinion to myself regarding that!
I didn't mean to sound rude. I'm not a native speaker so its sometimes hard to find the right words. I can't remember exactly but i thought you had paid me in the meantime... I can have forgotten I admit. I never said you were saying I didn't pay you back. Just underlining for the others taht it was not a scam. I don't say another watch would replace the connie but you could have had a crush on another watch. Honnestly I don't remeber exaclty at what price I sold it on ebay. 1200 as far as I remember so 1050 maximum after ebay charges. So 50 euros for me is not a higher price. I mean it's not 300 euros. When I say it sometimes happen, I just mean that I can make mistakes that I don't see as mistakes when it happens.
What are you trying to prove here exactly? That what I said didn't happen and isn't true? That I was exaggerating? That you didn't sell the watch twice? All sounds to me like 13 months after the fact you've put on your rose tinted truth goggles and want to conjure up some different memories..... ...Anyway I'm done here, if you want the last word, then please be my guest and take it..
I'm not trying to prove anything! I just meant that I'm honnest generally. I don't want to have the last word. I was just explaining not to appear as an absolut bastard. I even say that i probably took the wrong decision selling it to the ebay buyer but that was not really a question of money. fot the 13 months it's just that I saw you rpost today. I'm not trying to change reality. I didn't evnen remember this event.