I Hate ebay for this reason...

[kx250rider]

I agree with Wajobu about trying to keep the Neg feedback out. It isn't worth the risk of getting a Negative on your record in return. People will overlook 2000 positives in your file and just seek out and read the Negatives! Sadly, that's human nature. I sell 10 or 20 items a week on eBay as part of my living, and I have seen it all. When the problem you are experiencing happens to me, I do a quick search of closed auctions for similar items and forward an eMail to the accusing buyer with the item numbers. This shows that the buyer is paying the going price, based on what his/her peers recently paid. If that doesn't satisfy, I offer to cancel in return for exchanging a POSITIVE feedback. Further, I would tell that winning bidder that you were simply trying to find a new home for that TV, and you weren't trying to get the maximum bid.

I was accused of that by several underbidders on a Toyota '85 turbo-Diesel truck I sold last April on eBay for $9,200, which is a lot for one of those. But the proof was in the pudding when the #2 bidder started badgering the winning bidder to buy the truck off him shortly after he got home with it! He apologized to me, and sold the truck to the #2 bidder a few months later.

One footnote, I have never had success with 2nd chance offers. There is a lot of fraud from fake eBayers sending those offers out, so people are afraid of them. Just relist it new if you have to.

Charles

[Debassige]

it's not ebay, just a few bad buyers and sellers.

[Phil Nelson]

Originally Posted by Debassige

it's not ebay, just a few bad buyers and sellers.

A few years ago, my wife bought me a Hallicrafters 505 TV as a Christmas surprise. This was from a prominent dealer on the Internet, not eBay.

The TV was shipped in a very flimsy cardboard box with about 12 foam peanuts, and of course it arrived with a broken cabinet and other damage. The dealer reluctantly agreed to pay to fix the cabinet, but welshed on that promise, as well.

I won't buy anything to be shipped any more, unless I have communicated with the seller beforehand, and gotten a firm agreement to pack and ship it exactly as I want. My way (double-boxing, etc.) may cost more, but I don't waste money on boxes full of broken junk.