Hi everyone,
We all love ebay, but it can be a strange and fearsome place at times. I thought it might be fun to share some of the more memorable transactions each of us has had with the scam artists, the opportunists, or even nice stories with the good samaritans that lurk among the ebay community. I'll start with one..
In 2004 my boyfriend and I had four tickets to a concert that we bought on ticketmaster. The first two tickets we bought were ok, but then when we checked again, we lucked out with MUCH better seats. We decided to buy the second (better) pair also and try to sell the first pair. We put the tickets up on craigslist and also ebay. I don't think they sold the first time, but they did sell the second time and it was quite near the concert date. They were e-tickets so they were to be sent by email. Well, the day the auction ended, my computer fritzed out and we had to go to the local library to send the tickets. My boyfriend did the transaction. The people who bought the tickets confirmed that they recieved them and I thought all was well...
Well, the concert day arrived and my boyfriend and I set off with our tickets in hand ready to enjoy the concert. When we got there and tried to get in, we were declined! We went up to the ticket counter and found out that our tickets had already been used!!! We were totally shocked!
Finally we figured out that in the confusion of having to go to the library and send the tickets from there, my boyfriend that sent the wrong ones! He had sent them ours instead of the ones we sold them! (and the seats were clearly marked in the auction so when they bid they knew exactly what they were getting!) And those scoundrels, instead of alerting us to the mistake, took full advantage and got to the ticket venue early, and sat their fat butts in our seats thinking we wouldn't be able to get into their section (because the better seats were prime floor tickets in the 10th row or something and the ones we sold them were on the balcony)
I was NOT pleased (to put it mildly) with my boyfriend for making that mistake and thought we were going to be relegated to the inferior seats. But he got this determined look on his face and said "Don't worry, I'll take care of this!" He went up to the counter, showed his id and the tickets we had and explained the mixup and was able to prove that he had bought all four tickets (his name was on them) and that he had to go to the floor to exchange the tickets. Somehow my BF has the gift of the gab and they let him through. When he got the "our" seats, he saw two approx 18 year olds in our seats chowing down on some fries and having a great old time. They were stunned and not thrilled to see him and sputtered out "How did you get in???" before my boyfriend made them hand over our tickets. They started whining "but these seats are better....." to which my BF replied "Yeah, but they are NOT the ones you bought!" They tried to argue but my BF said if they didn't hand them over he'd get security involved. They finally did but pleaded with BF to let them stay in the section. He said "I don't care what you do but you're not sitting in these seats and I think it was really rude to take advantage of a mistake" They didn't have anything to say to that.
Well we sat in our seats and they hovered in the same section a few rows back for a while. My BF and i were so irritated with the whole experience that he went and told security (I know, petty, but I didn't want to look at them any more) and they were eventually asked to show their tickets and then sent up to the balc. Then we forgot about them and enjoyed the concert.
I was pretty new to ebay then, but after that I've been way more careful with my dealings there. It was a stupid mistake on our part, but come on, who takes advantage like that! Needless to say, neither of us left feedback for that transaction, and I have not sold any more tickets on ebay!
Any other weird ebay stories???? Do tell!
We all love ebay, but it can be a strange and fearsome place at times. I thought it might be fun to share some of the more memorable transactions each of us has had with the scam artists, the opportunists, or even nice stories with the good samaritans that lurk among the ebay community. I'll start with one..
In 2004 my boyfriend and I had four tickets to a concert that we bought on ticketmaster. The first two tickets we bought were ok, but then when we checked again, we lucked out with MUCH better seats. We decided to buy the second (better) pair also and try to sell the first pair. We put the tickets up on craigslist and also ebay. I don't think they sold the first time, but they did sell the second time and it was quite near the concert date. They were e-tickets so they were to be sent by email. Well, the day the auction ended, my computer fritzed out and we had to go to the local library to send the tickets. My boyfriend did the transaction. The people who bought the tickets confirmed that they recieved them and I thought all was well...
Well, the concert day arrived and my boyfriend and I set off with our tickets in hand ready to enjoy the concert. When we got there and tried to get in, we were declined! We went up to the ticket counter and found out that our tickets had already been used!!! We were totally shocked!
Finally we figured out that in the confusion of having to go to the library and send the tickets from there, my boyfriend that sent the wrong ones! He had sent them ours instead of the ones we sold them! (and the seats were clearly marked in the auction so when they bid they knew exactly what they were getting!) And those scoundrels, instead of alerting us to the mistake, took full advantage and got to the ticket venue early, and sat their fat butts in our seats thinking we wouldn't be able to get into their section (because the better seats were prime floor tickets in the 10th row or something and the ones we sold them were on the balcony)
I was NOT pleased (to put it mildly) with my boyfriend for making that mistake and thought we were going to be relegated to the inferior seats. But he got this determined look on his face and said "Don't worry, I'll take care of this!" He went up to the counter, showed his id and the tickets we had and explained the mixup and was able to prove that he had bought all four tickets (his name was on them) and that he had to go to the floor to exchange the tickets. Somehow my BF has the gift of the gab and they let him through. When he got the "our" seats, he saw two approx 18 year olds in our seats chowing down on some fries and having a great old time. They were stunned and not thrilled to see him and sputtered out "How did you get in???" before my boyfriend made them hand over our tickets. They started whining "but these seats are better....." to which my BF replied "Yeah, but they are NOT the ones you bought!" They tried to argue but my BF said if they didn't hand them over he'd get security involved. They finally did but pleaded with BF to let them stay in the section. He said "I don't care what you do but you're not sitting in these seats and I think it was really rude to take advantage of a mistake" They didn't have anything to say to that.
Well we sat in our seats and they hovered in the same section a few rows back for a while. My BF and i were so irritated with the whole experience that he went and told security (I know, petty, but I didn't want to look at them any more) and they were eventually asked to show their tickets and then sent up to the balc. Then we forgot about them and enjoyed the concert.
I was pretty new to ebay then, but after that I've been way more careful with my dealings there. It was a stupid mistake on our part, but come on, who takes advantage like that! Needless to say, neither of us left feedback for that transaction, and I have not sold any more tickets on ebay!
Any other weird ebay stories???? Do tell!