5 unpleasant and strange cases when selling gadgets at a Spanish flea market, Amazon and eBay
And here is the case. I was selling a video camera, an old one, I don’t remember, cassette or with a CD (miniature). A Frenchwoman bought it, the purchase amount was 80 euros, while sending it was about 30. She received it, checked it – everything works. But I wanted to return, because “there is no cable to connect to the TV.” At the same time, I separately wrote in the announcement that this cable is not available, and it is sold in any Chinese store for 5-6 euros.
I filed a complaint with Amazon, this complaint was immediately approved … And now, I pay for the return of this camera. For all my attempts to argue the refusal that “well, I indicated in the ad that there is no wire,” Amazon employees wrote lengthy letters with content like “we understand you, we are very, very sorry, but a buyer is a buyer.”
Returning a laptop sold for parts due to missing cover screws
And one more case that ruined my faith in the support of sites such as Amazon, eBay and others in terms of supporting sellers. I put up a gaming laptop on eBay, which did not turn on, did not charge. I couldn’t fix it – as far as I remember, someone dug the motherboard well before me, and all my attempts to bring the laptop back to life stumbled upon a harsh reality.
Well, okay, this is not the first time – I put it up as a “laptop for parts” on eBay. The price was much lower than what could be obtained by selling the display separately, the case separately, and other elements also separately. I wanted to sell quickly.
Almost immediately, it was purchased by a buyer from the UK. He received it and immediately dashed off a claim that the laptop lid was not screwed on. At the same time, it was clearly visible in the photo that there were no screws there. It’s my fault that I didn’t write it down in words, but usually on resources like eBay, and even more so, online flea markets, they sell devices for spare parts, indicating that the seller “does not know what works, what doesn’t, whether the device was repaired or not, was exposed to moisture, fire or meteorites or not.” In short, for spare parts and nothing more.
For some reason, I was sure that the eBay support would ignore this complaint, since this had happened before, and the support employee closed such requests. But no – this time the complaint was satisfied, they made me pay for the return of the laptop to Spain, where I live, and this is a considerable amount. When I asked how to sell things “for spare parts”, if you can make any claim and return the device, they answered me: “Well, you hang in there, we really, really sympathize with you.”
In short, after this incident, I refused to ship devices to other countries, I ship them only locally, with a minimum shipping cost.
By the way, I still have this laptop, I use it as a donor to repair other devices.
Deception with smart watches from Apple by the buyer
Another deception. This happened a few years ago, but the situation is remembered because of the deception. Then I fixed an Apple smart watch, it was like a Series 2. I just replaced the screen, and without moisture protection. The watch was put up for sale, warning that the watch had become waterproof, so the price was lower, but please do not put it under running water or swim in the pool.
The buyer was satisfied with everything, he bought them. And a couple of days later he wrote that the clock does not turn on and does not charge. I arrived (it was a hand-to-hand sale), gave the money, took the watch. The transmission took place in the evening, it was dark, and I did not particularly look at what I received.
Then I examined it at home, and the screen was slightly shifted and glued with superglue. It turned out that the new owner decided to take a dip in the clock in the pool, they, of course, were out of order. He decided to remove the screen and “dry” it himself. It is clear that nothing happened, and he did not have special glue for displays. So the buyer used superglue. Plus slipped a faulty charger that he had earlier.
The threat of contacting a lawyer and further filing a complaint with the police helped. In reality, this would hardly have worked, since I had no evidence. But, as I said, the Spaniards are afraid of denunciations (complaints to the police), so we managed to return the money.
I note again that I sold watches much lower than the cost of a used device at that time, precisely because of the lack of moisture protection. And warned about it.
On this, probably, everything, while I wrote about everything that I remembered. If you have had something similar – write in the comments, we will discuss.
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