From The Mud Puddle

You know, sometimes eBay is a bear.

That said, this week, I have one customer that said she mailed a check but will mail another one if the other is returned. Huh? I mean, come on now...it should be rather obvious whether I got her check or not. (check with your bank, they can easily tell you if the money has cleared) She hasn't answered me in the dispute after the first comment about having mailed the check. It's been five weeks now since the auction ended. If she had come back to me saying that she did mail the check and given me more details about a check number, date sent, copy of canceled check or something, I would gladly mail the book to her. Instead, silence. I am at an impasse as I need to close the dispute (which could give her a strike) so that I can be rightfully credited by eBay. I have considered just letting the whole thing go and walking away. If the check ever materializes I can mail her book. What I dont understand though is if she really did send payment, then why isnt she complaining to me about her book not arriving yet?

I also have one customer that informed me today that a book I sold (textbook) had answers written in ink. I have no proof to the contrary, and honestly I cannot remember looking at it real well to know either way, so I offered her a complete refund. (it was not a book that we used in our homeschooling, it was a book I found for cheap and bought to sell on eBay since I knew what it was) If it was me, I would want a refund if I was in her shoes. My word taken, money returned. I dont even want the book back. I didn't have that much money in it in the first place.

I also have another customer that says her book never came. When she first contacted me a week or so ago, I sent her a copy of the mail receipt showing the date it shipped. She then opened a dispute against me. So after a week or two, rather than come back to me and talk, she opens a dispute. Hmm. I am not happy about this, but I did offer to give her a full refund. I mailed the book to her and have proof, but likewise I also noticed that I didn't insure it as she asked me to. (my mistake-though it would be nice if they would point it out somehow that they are insuring the book when they do)

I have a no refund policy. I am just a mom who sells a few things here and there as I clean house or we finish the school year. Generally, I would not refund money, but since the mistakes may be my own, I will refund the money they paid to do what is right. I go back and forth at how much I like doing business on eBay. Sometimes it has been great. I have made a good amount of money on things that I was done with. Other times I have had to deal with difficulties there and have had to make hard decisions. I have only had to refund money once though in all my years there. I did so because I made a mistake in a description. I let her keep the item and did not ask for it to be returned. (likewise, there wasnt a lot of money in that item either)

I have no idea how any of these situations will go. I have a very good rating at eBay (445 at the time of this post), and would like to keep it that way. I cannot however, change a thing about what has happened here with these three buyers. If I make a mistake, then it is my responsibility to make it right. What I cannot control though is how, even though I have offered refunds and even though I have given the one lady that says she paid though I never received the check lots of time to communicate with me, I cannot control how they respond.

I've spent a large bit of my afternoon today checking my email to see if there were any responses to the above situations. I've prayed through the situations and I've hoped that they would be resolved. If the two people want refunds, I want to go ahead and get them their money so that I can move on. I cannot control the feedback they may give me thereafter.

So I've fretted over something I cannot do anything about today, and tried to work on something I need to get done that is within my control. As much as I'd like to, I cannot do both well.

I also have a "to do" list in the back of my head of things that are not pressing at the moment, but do need to be worked on soon. It's like a dream that keeps replaying itself in my mind again and again.

I then went to check one of our family's email boxes and there sitting for me was this verse,
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Psalm 139:23

If today was a test, I failed, at least where an anxious heart is concerned.

I've been tied up in things I could not control and while I've prayed over them, I also held on to them. All I can do is to do the right thing and then hope that God works out the rest. Pray I let go as I hand over all these troubles to God.

posted by Muddy at 9:18 PM