Warning to those who are desperate enough, like me, to continue selling on ebay rather than calling the scrap man and junking parts: you'd be wise to add bobbie1943 to your blocked buyers list.
I don't sell for a living but to help fund my project and to stop from adding parts no longer produced to the scrap pile. I do my best to describe things honestly and price things reasonably compared to what they sell for. I sold him a complete 1969 Barracuda floor-shift manual steering column that really just needed cleaning and paint. Even the turn signal guts seemed to move/detent fine. He messaged me back and forth for a month wondering if it would fit his 1968 Valiant, if I would accept a return, etc. I was more than helpful answering all his stupid questions and eventually told him I would accept a return if it didn't fit his car but that he would be on the hook for both the shipping to him and the return shipping to me if he found it didn't fit his car since I could only guarantee it fits the 1969 Barracuda I personally took it from. He agreed and bought it, I packaged it like it was a ceramic vase, and shipped it the next day.
He received it and started messaging me for advice about cleaning it, which I told him I'd disassemble it and media blast it. Then he messaged me claiming it won't work because it's a power steering unit (it was definitely a manual steering unit) and wanted to know if I'd give him a partial refund. I told him that if it doesn't fit, return it on his dime as agreed and I'd refund him minus the $35 shipping to him. Then he messaged me that the shaft is badly bent and unusable. I asked him for photos of the damage, and he claimed he couldn't figure out how to upload them. He submitted a return request with ebay claiming the item was damaged upon arrival. Then he left me negative feedback, not saying anything about it being damaged, but that it was not a manual steering unit and that I was demanding he pay for shipping both ways. At this point, I was done and told him that much. I spoke to an ebay agent who had me report him as abusing the return system (like that will do any good) and told me to process the return and that ebay would comp me for the return shipping. I sent the buyer the shipping label, and for the next almost two weeks I watched the tracking go from his city to my city, then back to his city, then all the way across the opposite side of the country, then finally back to me. Once I received the package, I found that the moron put the return shipping label on one side of the box and left the original label on the other side, apparently confusing the hell out of the shipping process.
I opened the box, and what do you think I found? The POS started wire wheeling on the housing to remove the paint, so he thought the unit was in good enough condition to start working on it. Then he stole the steering-wheel nut, a couple small parts out of the turn signal guts, and one of the plastic bushings. Then he beat the living snot out of the bottom end of the steering shaft with a hammer or something, likely to justify his "item was damaged when arrived" story. I spoke with ebay again, and they had me submit photos of the wire wheeling "modification" and shaft damage and had me sign an attestation that the buyer purposefully modified and damaged the item. They denied his refund and compensated me for shipping both ways and for part of the item but not the full amount. They are going to remove his negative feedback as being dishonest. Great, so now I'm screwed out of both my time, the cost of packaging materials, and the value of a useable complete unit and will have to try and salvage what I can by selling the housing alone. I'm still working with ebay to get full compensation, so we'll see. I'll say that up until the partial refund part, ebay had treated me fairly in the deal.
I searched for bobbie1943 on here before posting hoping I could just private message him and found nothing, so I figured I'd warn others and vent. Since telling him what I really think about him through ebay's messaging would get me banned from ebay, if he reads this, he's the dumbest, most dishonest, conniving person I've come across in a while and is everything that is wrong with selling used parts online.
I don't sell for a living but to help fund my project and to stop from adding parts no longer produced to the scrap pile. I do my best to describe things honestly and price things reasonably compared to what they sell for. I sold him a complete 1969 Barracuda floor-shift manual steering column that really just needed cleaning and paint. Even the turn signal guts seemed to move/detent fine. He messaged me back and forth for a month wondering if it would fit his 1968 Valiant, if I would accept a return, etc. I was more than helpful answering all his stupid questions and eventually told him I would accept a return if it didn't fit his car but that he would be on the hook for both the shipping to him and the return shipping to me if he found it didn't fit his car since I could only guarantee it fits the 1969 Barracuda I personally took it from. He agreed and bought it, I packaged it like it was a ceramic vase, and shipped it the next day.
He received it and started messaging me for advice about cleaning it, which I told him I'd disassemble it and media blast it. Then he messaged me claiming it won't work because it's a power steering unit (it was definitely a manual steering unit) and wanted to know if I'd give him a partial refund. I told him that if it doesn't fit, return it on his dime as agreed and I'd refund him minus the $35 shipping to him. Then he messaged me that the shaft is badly bent and unusable. I asked him for photos of the damage, and he claimed he couldn't figure out how to upload them. He submitted a return request with ebay claiming the item was damaged upon arrival. Then he left me negative feedback, not saying anything about it being damaged, but that it was not a manual steering unit and that I was demanding he pay for shipping both ways. At this point, I was done and told him that much. I spoke to an ebay agent who had me report him as abusing the return system (like that will do any good) and told me to process the return and that ebay would comp me for the return shipping. I sent the buyer the shipping label, and for the next almost two weeks I watched the tracking go from his city to my city, then back to his city, then all the way across the opposite side of the country, then finally back to me. Once I received the package, I found that the moron put the return shipping label on one side of the box and left the original label on the other side, apparently confusing the hell out of the shipping process.
I opened the box, and what do you think I found? The POS started wire wheeling on the housing to remove the paint, so he thought the unit was in good enough condition to start working on it. Then he stole the steering-wheel nut, a couple small parts out of the turn signal guts, and one of the plastic bushings. Then he beat the living snot out of the bottom end of the steering shaft with a hammer or something, likely to justify his "item was damaged when arrived" story. I spoke with ebay again, and they had me submit photos of the wire wheeling "modification" and shaft damage and had me sign an attestation that the buyer purposefully modified and damaged the item. They denied his refund and compensated me for shipping both ways and for part of the item but not the full amount. They are going to remove his negative feedback as being dishonest. Great, so now I'm screwed out of both my time, the cost of packaging materials, and the value of a useable complete unit and will have to try and salvage what I can by selling the housing alone. I'm still working with ebay to get full compensation, so we'll see. I'll say that up until the partial refund part, ebay had treated me fairly in the deal.
I searched for bobbie1943 on here before posting hoping I could just private message him and found nothing, so I figured I'd warn others and vent. Since telling him what I really think about him through ebay's messaging would get me banned from ebay, if he reads this, he's the dumbest, most dishonest, conniving person I've come across in a while and is everything that is wrong with selling used parts online.
