On doing business with eBay and Amazon

Both of which I have had pretty good luck with. It does make things easier for me and actually saves me money on things. 

I actually save money on many things because I don't have to go all over hell and hunt for something. I have only had one seller that was a jerk about something and I left him feedback that probably cost him a lot of business.

Yesterday I picked up a totally drop dead fedora to add to my collection off of eBay. It was perfect except that the brim wasn't quite as wide as it should have been. It was about a half-inch too narrow.

Now I am not a skinny jeans hipster. I don't like the current inch wide brims they make these days.

I am an old man Old School to boot. I like utile in my lids. A brim should be two and a half to two and three quarters of an inch wide. Not only does it have that Old School Indiana Jones/Humphrey Bogart look but it keeps my eyes shaded from the sun.

Anyway, it arrived and the brim was a touch too narrow. I really believe that was an honest mistake in advertising by the seller. Maybe one of his people looked and guesstimated the size wrong.

I suppose I could have returned the lid but I opted not to as everything other than that was just great. I decided to let it slide.

I generally have a gimlet eye for fraud and in that case I go after the cheater with a purple passion. I get downright vicious. On the other hand I tend to be pretty damned compassionate of someone that truly makes an honest mistake. We ALL screw up sometimes and I realize that.

What galls me is when someone comes charging in and tries to take advantage of someone else's honest mistakes. Like the jerk that raised all sorts of hell with some seller that mis-typed a decimal point. The ad offered to sell a $4,000 rifle for $40. It was an obvious error.

Lucky for the seller the website moderators stepped in and permitted the seller to fix his error. However, there were a couple of jerks that wanted him slain for it. Personally I would have gone after the jerks and taught them a few manners.

When I pointed the discrepancy out to the seller he charged right in there and offered to make things good. Another sign of basic integrity.

Now comes the feedback problem.

In the interest of integrity I can't really give this guy perfect feedback. After all, he did make a mistake. 

On the other hand, any feedback but 100% good is a pretty serious ding in an otherwise good record.

I think the gentleman's way of doing business in this case is to simply leave no feedback. Simply call this the Piccolo way of doing business. 

There is no point of putting a blemish on an otherwise unblemished record of an honest guy. Especially one that I would cheerfully do business with again. In fact it he could find the same hat with a wider brim I would probably buy it from him. 

Anyway, back to the title.

Amazon and eBay actually do save me a lot of time, money and effort. If you know exactly what you want it is the way to go.

Lately I have found a lot of libraries and charitable institutions have been selling a lot of books for a penny and $3.99 in shipping. When you get down to it even though I live near the library it is actually a whole lot easier and in the long run cheaper for me to buy a used book on Amazon.

Where else can you have a book delivered to your door for four bucks?

I also wanted a basic simple TV switch to be able to swap the TV from antenna to TV. Radio Shack wanted about $20 for one that was too big and complicated looking. I went straight to eBay and Bam! Five bucks, delivered. Can't get a whole lot better.

Incidentally, it is interesting to note who pioneered the ability to be able to shop on line. It was the pornography business. Someone explained this to me a while back.

They developed the secure technology that enabled a person to make secure financial transactions. Ain't that a hoot?







To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY