Don’t Talk Bad Behind My Back!

A few weeks ago I sold some unused items on eBay. Usually things run smoothly for me, and 95% of my items this time sold without any problems. One item in particular has me puzzled.

I sold a book for $0.01, with shipping charges of $10. Now these shipping charges were clearly stated in the auction, so anyone looking at the listing would have seen this. I checked my feedback rating this week, and while the buyer gave me a positive rating, he gave me a backhanded slight that I thought was rather funny. Buddy wrote “book perfect, shipping charge borders on fraud.”

Let me get this straight: someone who was trolling for a cheap book was upset at the shipping charge that was clearly stated on the auction?? Give me a break.

It’s one thing if I did not state the shipping charge on there, and suddenly tell him it’s gonna costs $20 or something. Except the charges were clearly stated, and were actually rather cheap, considering I was shipping it from the East Coast of the continent to the West Coast.

But what had me even more puzzled was that he left me positive feedback. I mean, if he objected that much to the charge, why didn’t he: 1-complain to me directly about the charge, and 2-leave me negative feedback instead? I’ve had people question the shipping charge in the past, but after I explain it they usually understand (or at least give up trying to get the already cheap item for even cheaper.) But this guy did the passive-aggressive thing by not even saying anything to me. I dislike it when buyers do this, because then it makes me feel like I’m charging absurd shipping rates, when I’m actually not. In my opinion these people are just trolling for a super-cheap deal, and then get mad when they actually have to pay something for the item. If they want a 50 cent book or dining room table, then they should be trolling the local garage sales, not looking on eBay. I’ve often discounted auctions on there that had shipping rates I didn’t want to pay.

To each his/her own I suppose, but I just think it’s strange that people behave this way. Don’t you?