OMG - he's at it again!

[sdyates]

What I mean to say is that he is trying to function as a business.

However, image is everything and not taking pay pal makes life much more difficult.

I am having trouble understanding the 93.6% -- I strongly believe that the number could be much higher if he just accepted pay pal and shipped much quicker.

I aim to ship the next day and always provide a shipping number and updates, though I must admit, pay pal and ebay together does add up on the fees...

BGary335 wrote:
Its not a real store front. Search Ebay stores-he won't come up, because he's not an Ebay store. He just dresses his auction pages up to look like store fronts.

[sdyates]

In my first few ebay items, I padded the cost of shipping/handling a bit of help offset a poor bid session. I received some bad feedback. I have since stated that shipping is free over a certain value to help spur bidding.

I have never received anything lower than a positive, but getting great feedback is important so I changed the way I went about things.

I hope retrogeek is doing the same. There were periods that he received very good feedback.

[BGary335]

I absolutley agree with you 100%. I've personally complained to him about his non-acceptance of Paypal. Know what he told me? Paypal SUCKS! That is exactly what he told me. I tried to explain to him the convienence of Paypal (especially when your trying to run a store front), but I'm sure it all fell on deaf ears. That's one reason his so-called storefront is anyting but. Anyone really trying to run a succesful store front would accept any method of payment without thinking twice. Very rarely do you find regular Ebay sellers that don't accept Paypal nowadays, so you know your dealing with a schister (sp?) when your dealing with a store front that doesn't accept Paypal.

[lopos]

Why anybody would buy an item from retrogeek is beyond me.
Have a look at his feedback and his replies.--->
Linky
The reason he doesn't accept paypal is because he probably is banned from havening an account with them. :-D

[JaXanim]

For insights into the mind of the man visit Doomy's Forum.

[EDIT: 'So they built in a safeguard.'
.......'What's that?'
.......'Thirty-year lifespan.']

[sdyates]

I have been beat up on here before because of my shipping rates. In hindsight, I should have used reserves and other tools and realise that free shipping will help me get a better bid than higher shipping.

I read a lot of comments. The ones about long time to receive, well, if it was mentioned in the ad I see no issue here as it was stated. Is 7 weeks too long, sure I think so, but it's not an issue if it was stated between 2 to 8 weeks.

He has also received a lot of positive replies and there are many very good replies there too. So if I remove the ones about poor shipping, then I looked at the rest: there were a lot of relies that were worded in a way that had me wonder about the person complaining. Well worded negative replies set off far more alarm bells that those that appear to be written by an angry teenager that did not get his way.

I was interested in one item he has for sale. So I wrote a well worded responce asking for information. I will post the excerpt which addresses pay pal:

From retrogeek (Doomy)
"Not long ago, back when I was mainly selling vintage toys, I accepted all sorts of payments.  I accepted cash, money orders, personal checks, bank checks, just about any form of payment you can think of. Then two buyers ripped me of by issuing a stop payment after they received their item.  eBay did not do a thing about it.  One guy bid on and won a rare vintage black GI Joe for $428.00.  He mailed me a bank money order.  When I received the money order, I deposited it into my bank account and shipped the guy his black GI Joe.  After he received it, he issued a stop payment on the bank money order and kept the rare black GI Joe.  I did not find out about it until the following Friday.  I went in to deposit more checks and was told that my account was in the negative.  Another person bid on and won a rare Matchbox Model of Yesteryear for $331.00. The same thing happened.  After he received the item, he issued a stop payment and kept the car.  The two items were stolen from me and I lost all of that money, eBay did not do anything about it.  After that, I swore it would never happen again.  So, now I only accept forms of payment that can not be stopped (cash, Postal money order, or a check from either US Bank or Wells Fargo Bank, I can cash these without getting my bank involved).  I do not accept PayPal because the charges can be reversed or disputed after a person get the item."

I just don't like to see a person beat up too much on a weak case. I would say that his 93.6 is more like 97.6.

Just my two cents,
S

[BGary335]

After the attitude I've gotten from him, I think his feedback ought to be lower. I think that whole story is bunk to be quite honest. You can't stop a Paypal payment. Only a person who doesn't know better would believe that you can. If RetroGeek had any brains, he'd deposit the money order and make sure it clears BEFORE sending the item. Maybe I'm the one without brains, but that just seems to me to be the common sense way to do business on Ebay. If he's getting beat up, its because he's kicking himself in the butt by not operating the way he should.

[TheMagicM]

I dont fault him for not taking Paypal.  Paypal does suck.

I had TWO people defraud me of my item and my money through Paypal so now everbody suffers.  One person was allegedly a "Judge" from New York.. (but lives in a apartment?  guess they dont pay the judges enough up there)

[BGary335]

Paypal will refund your money in such situations. Just one of many reasons why it does not suck.

[TjLaZer]

@sdyates

I agree with you, some people will just complain and leave negative if everything is not perfect in their little world.  I also have had several negs for stupid reasons.  Oh well such is life...

[TheMagicM]

Paypal will refund your money in such situations. Just one of many reasons why it does not suck.

You dont have enough experience with Paypal then.

I sold a Amiga 4000 Toaster setup on ebay. He paid with credit card that was registered through Paypal.  He said that the system was never recieved and "may be damaged" because the box was beat up.  Well long story short the A4000 works (I did some research and found out he was a member of a Amiga club in NY which has a online message forum. lol.. so I registered as a Amiga user for NY and chatted with him via email, incognito. LOL)  But he told his CC company that it was never recieved/and/or broken.. but Paypal knew he had it and it worked because of his emails between he and I (I BCC'd them).  So his CC company refunded his money to his card and demanded the money from Paypal which they (paypal) had to pay back.  So now he has a A4000 Toaster system for free.  Luckily as soon as the funds were there I withdrew them.  Paypal tried to tell me to refund the money but I didnt and never heard from them again.

[sdyates]

@TheMagic

I am glad to hear these stories which helps us remember that there is a risk to transfering money online. I wonder if the toaster guy ever got charged? Did you ever tell him your true identity?

I recently discontinued my bank from Pay Pal because I did not like the idea of an organisation having unlimited access to my account: what if someone somehow stole my password?

At least credit cards offer better protection.

[Cyberus]

[lopos]

Why would you buy an item and wait 2 to 8 weeks for it to be delivered? :-? It's way to long IMO.
Maybe it's normal in the USA but not where I live.  

[sdyates]

@lopos

I don't wait that long for shipping. I always confirm shipping details and not just the cost. I will pay more to have it shipped faster. My cybervision would have taken two weeks. I asked for better shipping and got it in 4 days.

Seriously, a buyer must take some responsibility. If it says 2-8 weeks and it is too long, either negotiate for better or walk away. Where is the sense in complaining after it took so long?

I prefer the path of least resistance. Sometimes I will ask as many as four emails before bidding.

[BGary335]

The problem though is that no matter how fast you want it to be shipped, you can never guarantee that the seller is going to ship it out as quick as he says it is. In this case, Retrogeek sits on his business for that length of time. That's why it takes that long. If he were to move his packages out same day ornext day like most sellers do, it would take a wekk tops, not this 2-8 weeks crap.

As for Paypal, you were just unlucky. If you can furnish proof to Paypal thata sale was made, they will go after the buyer, and ifneed be shut his account down. apparently I'm not the one who lacks experience with Paypal (whoever said that).