Forum vs. Ebay

mortivan · Post by **mortivan** » Sat Jul 02, 2005 12:34 pm

I think the technical term is 'w**k*rs'.

Heh!

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Sat Jul 02, 2005 12:39 pm

Howard, that was a good price, considering what they cost here and the cost of shipping, insurance, etc. to Oz.

ozover50 · Post by **ozover50** » Sat Jul 02, 2005 12:43 pm

I thought so too, Paul. eBay's become my second internet home!

gregga41 · Post by **gregga41** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 1:20 am

Hi Guys,i bought my burgundy 320 through e-bay,U.S.A to Australia,the seller did everything he could to make this deal work; turned out that he is a forum member here,...one of the reasons i joined this forum,apart from finally owning a rickenbacker.
UNFORTUNATELY!!!!...i am finding it extremely difficult to play the short-scale 320,and with my fourth child due in 4 weeks , have decided to part with it...via ebay at present.BUT, will be replacing it with another Ric A.S.A.P...full scale!

ozover50 · Post by **ozover50** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 9:31 am

Hi Greg. I've seen your 320 on eBay. Good luck with it. I have enough trouble with full scale let alone short.

A lovely cute, soft Fireglo baby will keep you going until you get your next Rick! Hope the birth goes well.

Cheers

jps · Post by **jps** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 4:46 pm

I wonder why Lawton did not give me any feedback. Sure I gave him an honest assesment in my feedback to him with a + rating to keep him happy, but he has not given me anything in return. Actually I am not surprised, after all, I was nice to him, paid him promtly with PayPal as he prefers, got a damaged and misrepresented item from him, and still gave him a + feedback rating. Why the dirty little...

Lawton, if you read this, a lot of us on the forum really would like a response from you.

lawton · Post by **lawton** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 5:26 pm

Hey. Well. I guess this entire thread is an excellent example of why I responded like I did with my feedback.

1) I responded to emails. I don't do alot of phone stuff with ebay, but I did talk with Scott on the phone once and I did phone him once and leave a message. I prefer emails with this stuff because there's a "paper trail." The only way to get the same thing with the telephone is to record the conversations, and I don't have the equipment for that (har har). I told this to Scott (about prefering emails over telephone conversations) when he first contacted me about the problem. I emailed him back promptly and responded to every email after that. I have no problem saying that my responsiveness overall was vastly better than he would have gotten with most Ebay sellers. I just don't have time for chit-chat and that's apparently a problem (??).

2) I did not mispresent the Celestion. It has a Celestion date code stamp. It was purchased from Dave at Avatarspeakers.com, where it was advertised as a UK made NOS Celestion. It died in transport (something that happens from time to time), but not because of my packing. Scott complimented me on my packing in one of the emails, as I recall.

3) Let's hear from Bob Belloff (ebay user name "munna") about me as an Ebay seller and a person with whom one can or cannot feel comfortable dealing. If I'm going to be dragged through the mud by someone with a feeback rating of under 10 let's hear from someone with over 150 feeback ratings, someone who's apparently quite pleased with what I sold him and had no issues whatsoever with how the guitar (a Rickenbacker--isn't this a Rickenbacker forum?) was represented.

4) Why is there any discusson here about me being somehow held responsible for Scott's failure to understand how to use Paypal? How does that have anything to do with me (it doesn't)?

Scott, I appreciate that you did not give me bad feedback, because I did not deserve bad feedback. I didn't respond like you might have wanted I guess, but perhaps you might want to look at your expectations and examine those in light of reality. You got a bad speaker in 1x15 cab. I refunded you money in the amount that we agreed upon, and I pretty much let you say how much that should have been. I sent you that money immediately. Your scrupples about Paypal are the reason for any delay you experienced in receiving the money; I have nothing to do with those choices. To the rest of you that took it upon yourself to run me down in this thread: You should be ashamed. You should also go and read my feedback.

I hope those of you that wanted a response are please to have received it.

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 5:55 pm

Not being close to this whole thing, I can't comment beyond the fact that I'm glad to finally see you in print in this thread, Lawton! It's been a couple of weeks and we've seen you pop up elsewhere on this Forum in that time, repeatedly.

Re: "idle chit-chat", a lot of people would also call this Forum exactly that, so I guess it depends where your chitchat meter pegs out.

jps · Post by **jps** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 6:00 pm

Thank you for your response, that is all we wanted, for you to have a chance to respond to this.

You did resolve this matter fine which is why I gave you the + feedback rating, that is the bottom line, a + instead of a -, I feel I treated you fairly, honestly and was forthcoming in my end of the deal.

Yes, you did pay me fairly what I asked with no complaints, thank you very much; I did end up spending considerably more for the speaker I did finally put in the cabinet, that was my decision. I wish the speaker hadn't come damaged as I was looking forward to enjoying it as described; I do like Celestions, the ones in my SWR Baby Blue II combo sound great.

The phone calls were to talk Ricks, sorry you don't feel the same; I have had many pleasant conversations with various forum members, I guess you won't be one of them, I am sorry to hear that.

jps · Post by **jps** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 6:02 pm

BTW, just because I only have 8 feedback responses should not be a judgement on my character, I just don't do much Ebaying.

lawton · Post by **lawton** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 7:44 pm

So how much more should I sent you to cover the cost of the replacement speaker? LMK.

jps · Post by **jps** » Fri Jul 08, 2005 1:43 am

I am not asking for any more! What you sent was just right to get an equivalent replacement, I decided to get something even better as it has been a long time since I've had top notch drivers in my cabinets. That mean't replacing the stamped frame driver in my other cabinet also, a decision I made to have matching drivers in the two cabinets.

If the speaker didn't get damaged in shipping, which as I have e-mailed you about as not being your fault (you were very honorable in taking care of that issue) I would have used it along with what was in the other cabinet. As it was, I elected to upgrade the speakers.

Regarding the quantity of feedback ratings, didn't you at one time have fewer than 10? Were you not to be trusted at that time, either? At what number of feedback ratings does one finally earn the right to be trusted and make comments about another ebayer?

admin · Post by **admin** » Fri Jul 08, 2005 3:19 am

Daunting Digital Dysphasia - An almost editorial

The problems in communicating through the digital media has been illustrated beautifully in this thread.

This morning I was awakened by a radio channel (somehow the station was changed from our usual) referred to as the Fredericton Information Channel. This broadcast had digitally inserted date and time information with a telegraphic tonality and phaser effect second only to Darth Vader perhaps. Bits and pieces of actual voices cut and pasted into a template. I was expecting to hear "Your Rang?" I must have missed the part at the beginning in which I was welcomed "Centrino inside" technology.

It saddens me to see situations in which caring, decent and honest people with common sincere interests can be thrown to the digital dog pound of marketing at the speed of a mouse-click. Fill in all the blanks, in the interest of saving a few moments, and it is easy to appear as if you have a personality that is tougher than George Hamilton IV's tan.

Our primary concern becomes the debits and credits associated with the quantity of our transactions, with the quality of our relationships with others being secondary. Why expect a personal relationship, just get your stuff and run. I am reminded of a note I sent to someone recently in which I said ... "Thank you for your interest in this matter and for taking the time to provide me with this valuable feedback. I am grateful for your time." The reponse ... "I don't understand why you have to be sarcastic about this."

My point is that we are talking less and less to one another and rely on templates to guide us through transactions rather than our own creative thought. Sometimes we expect confrontation as we get transferred to menus deeper and deeper within the "communication system." Push 1 if you want ..., 2 if you want ... and 3, hey I'm out of here, can't I do this online?

I am not blaming eBay for its system, but I do blame myself for allowing my day to day actions to be punctuated by digital language bots.

But there is a happy ending here. Jeffrey and Lawton have pointed out that, for those who take the time to communicate, there is a key factor in the resolution to conflict that transcends feedback ratings. It is, the respect for one another. Keep up the good work guys.

tony_carey · Post by **tony_carey** » Fri Jul 08, 2005 4:10 am

I must admit that I do expect a certain level of relationship in my ebay dealings & by & large I get it. I would expect this if I went into a store to buy something, after all, you are spending hard earned money...a short & unfriendly email from an ebay seller would put me off just as much as the same atitude from a shop sales assistant. I have made decisions not to bid or buy based on the general tone of an email from the seller. With so much fraud, you have to protect yourself as best you can & you don't HAVE to buy or bid from a seller that you don't think you like.

My ebay experiences to date have been VERY positive, with very high levels of friendly comms. I suppose that as my ebaying is normally Ric related, I am coming across like minds. I have dealt with several people that have remained in contact for many months now (only yesterday, I received some postcards from a US ebay friend that I bought a gtr from a while ago) & one has actualy become a firm friend & has invited me over to Chicago to spend some time with him & his family. We have spoken on the phone several times & exchange emails 2 or 3 times a week.....all because I bought a Ric catalogue from him!

BTW, none of this is with relevence to Jeffrey & Lawton...I am speaking generally.

admin · Post by **admin** » Fri Jul 08, 2005 4:21 am

Excellent general comments and a reminder that the current system can work. I would also have to say that the very good Karma you send out is bound to come back to you Tony.

I also notice comments in your post that bode well for those who relate to you.

"I do expect a certain level of relationship"
"We have spoken on the phone several times & exchange emails 2 or 3 times a week"

If I am buying a guitar from the UK, I know who my first contact will be.