Intuition and Ebay

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Miss Sooky

Miss Sooky

Member
Oct 22, 2006
3,190
4
#1
I have wondered this for a while now. I often get a 'sense' of someone which isn't surprising when emails go back and forth, but occasionally I have also had a 'bad' feeling about a transaction even before the buyer has contacted me. This happened most recently yesterday when someone bought a watch using BIN with no previous contact. I can't explain it, but there was just 'something' that worried me and when I contacted the buyer to discuss shipping my concerns grew. Anyway, sure enough a few hours later I get an email from Ebay telling me the transaction is cancelled and void because the 'buyer's' account has been taken over by an unauthorised 3rd party. Phew, the watch is safely with me - although I've been lucky this time, there is still someone somewhere who has had the misery of her/his account being hacked.

Does anyone else know what I mean when I talk about intuition informing your Ebay experiences? Any examples where intuition turned out to be the right thing to follow or you regretted not following your intuition?
 
#2
Yes indeed...with close to 200 transactions (90% selling), the only two bad transactions I had-I knew they were going to end badly, and they did. Nothing changed with me, just something about the vibe-
 
#3
Sooky definately!

I have had that a few times, just that gut instinct that tells you this is no good. On some occassions I have cancelled bids due to it as previously I have just thought I was being stupid and went against my intuition and it all went wrong. I would say gut feeling in life helps keep us out of bad situations and this is no different.
 
#4
yes and no. there was someone who kept emailing me about a wallet i had. she was trying to negotiate the price then kept asking questions. i should have blocked her. she ended up buying it with a best offer (what was i thinking? i was trying to be nice). she got it and said her mom didn't like it (it was a gift). i told her tough, no returns for buyers remorse. but i told her she could use my pics. she said she couldn't resell it. she negged me and claimed it was not as described in the neg. which was NOT true. 2 days later i see someone with ALMOST the same name selling it using my description. and she was SHILL BIDDING on it. i guess she was selling it on her mom's account. um, how was it not as described if you used my description. anyway reported her to ebay and both accuonts got narued. but my neg still stood :sad:

i get those feelings all the time though. i sold a coat this week and the buyer was in NYC so she asked to come pick it up. she paid cash. she got it yesterday and kept saying how wrinkled it was. i honestly did not see how wrinkled it was and have no idea how it got that way because i had it HANGING alone in my closet for a week! anyway as she was leaving she was talking about how she was going to have to press it and she hoped it didn't fall apart when she did.... um, it's BRAND NEW frmo eileen fisher. why would it fall apart when you pressed it? so i had an AWFUL feeling about it. she ended up emailing me last night that it took LOADS of time but she finally got the wrinkles out and she was very happy :rolleyes: at least it's over.
 
#6
Yep - and I have learnt the hard way to follow my gut instinct - the few times I ignored it, something happened -
only recently I went for a too good to be true deal and - it was a fake. I was lucky to find out before I paid - so we agreed not to see it through.

By the way, the same is true of positive instinct - sometimes you need to trust the other person which is difficult when you don't know each other - but something about the communication with the seller/buyer tells you they are ok. And with that I have always been right so far! :yes:
 
#7
Lara

Thats a very interesting point you raised there. I feel exactly the same, I have just had a great feeling about people on here and when been asked to go and do them a favour without every having met this person I just knew it was right. It has always turned out well and as a result have some great new "Cyber" friends.
 
#8
I'd echo that completely, there are two people whom I've never met, but solely based on Ebay contact, I know to be lovely! I have done all sorts of things Ebay warns you not to do with them like end listings without a formal BIN process in the early days when Ebay wouldn't let me offer buyers a 'BIN' option because I am confident they will pay and are trustworthy.
 
#9
^ Ah, I have a seller like that! She is my fav seller ever - most of my bag collection is from her! Without ever having dealt with me she just agreed to so many arrangements (and I go back and back!)
 
#10
Absolutely. From the seller AND buyer end I rely on intuition... some things just don't seem right. Everything can be perfect but... something is just "off". Gotta say I've been wrong on this as well. I had a buyer who paid WAY over the odds for an item last holiday season and although everything was perfect I just knew something was going to go wrong. Luckily enough, nothing did.

IMO karma is a factor as well. Been several times now where I haven't been burned but someone ELSE was. The few times I've been burned on Ebay transactions, likewise I was somewhat certain it wasn't going to go well but rolled the dice. It's cost me $1,100 in 9 years, most of that in one transaction for an item I had been looking for for YEARS, hadn't seen anywhere else, and was willing to roll the dice on the chance the seller WAS real (a 'rare as hen's teeth' part that replacements exist for but don't work as well as the original). C'est la vie, we can but make our best effort and hope we are treated equally well.
 
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