At the end of last month, I had an auction on eBay for 6+ hatching eggs. The lady emailed me and wanted me to lower the price (this should have been my first warning that she was a nut job) and said she was concerned about the trip across the country. This was her email:
Really interested in these,But concerned about the long trip to NC.The
price is a little bit high for the risk.Any way you can do any better?Hope
you dont mind me asking.
I told her no and pointed out that $24.99 was nearly 50% less than I sell the same eggs for on my website. I told her I ship all over and have excellent fertility rates with shipped eggs. She bid and ended up winning. She paid right away and I shipped the eggs that same week.
When I shipped the eggs, I emailed her to let me know if there was issue with them because I have 100% positive feedback and I'd work with her to resolve an issue, should one arise.
Her response was:
Good luck keeping the perfect feedback.You will need to hand deliver and
hatch all the eggs for people.LOL. Ebay has the rules so messed up sellers
dont stand a chance.Thanks for the heads up and I will let you know how it
goes.
A couple days later, I got this email:
It got here.The carton opened during shipping and somehow crushed eggs
without crushing the box much.Box looks like it was stacked between heavy
boxes.Its a flat crush.Was able to wipe egg yoke off of 5 of them.Have not
candled them to see condition inside yet.You just have to love the PO!.LOL
I responded and told her I was sorry and to let me know how they looked at candling and that we'd figure something out if we needed to.
She responded with this:
I am excited now!!! One egg did not appear to have a broken air sack. So
are the hens still laying? I would like to at least get a few of
these.Please let me know what you can do.
I didn't get the above message until Friday night (I had have guests at my house all week and we had my daughter's 1st birthday party with 35 people on Saturday)--so I've been a little busy....
I responded and gave her two options:
#1 = Refund the price of the eggs, but not the shipping
#2 = Replacement eggs, she pays shipping (this is usually my course of action).
Next thing I know, she's opened a case against me in eBay--demanding a full refund and listed the reason as "item not as described." I responded again and pointed out what it says in my auction:
Additional Shipping Info:
Each egg will be individually wrapped to prevent breakage while they are in transit. I will send any/all extras just in case any of the eggs do crack or break. I will ship the eggs as close to the beginning of the week as possible (I ship on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays & sometimes, on Thursdays) so they will not sit at the post office over the weekend. If you have any questions please feel free to e-mail me, I will be more than happy to answer you! I ONLY SHIP WITHIN THE U.S., SORRY I CANNOT SHIP TO HAWAII OR PR.
Fine Print:
I guarantee fresh and fertile eggs of the breed auctioned. However, I cannot guarantee hatch-ability due to many variables out of my control after the eggs leave my farm--such as shipping & handling, incubation equipment, and incubation methods.
She then escalated the case to eBay for review.
I in turn, reported her for offering to make a purchase outside of eBay, for the feedback comment and I wrote another email to customer support about her not using the "buyer protection" correctly (I included all of the correspondence between us) and I pointed out what my auction states as far as eggs not hatching. I don't know of anyone who will issue refunds if the postal service breaks air sacs. That should not be my responsibility.
Just needed to vent. I think I'll stick with BYC auctions and my own website from now on. There are way too many idiots on eBay.
