As most of you know, I sold my camera on eBay. The auction ended on Monday, July 20th. The winner, brnetinho, did not ‘pay’ me until Wednesday and urged me to ship it ASAP because she was going on a trip to Brazil. Any by pay, I mean she sent the payment to PayPal, who put it on “hold” until the buyer either marks the item as received or leaves me positive feedback. So, without receiving a penny from anyone, I sent the camera, along with all of the accessories, to her address (in Arizona). I expected her to receive the package and leave me feedback, and then I can get my money. But noooooooooooo that wasn’t even close to the end of it.
The next thing I know, I got this message from Evelyn:
Hi there you will have to refund my money!!
this camera have a problem and you did not have note it on the item description, After you take a picture it will apear a black line flashing on the picture.
please contact me to resolve this problem, or I will open a claim on paypal to get my money back and leave a negative feedback.
The camera’s LCD does flash black and white, showing which parts of the photo has ‘pure’ white light (this is what I consider to be normal behavior). So I told her :
When you take a picture, if there are areas where it is really bright, that area will flash black when viewing the thumbnails on the camera. However, if you load them on your computer, it will come out just fine. The camera is in complete working order, here are some photos that I shot with that camera just last weekend: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremybunner/sets/72157621693970818/
Once you have done this and see that there are no problems with the camera, please leave feedback and/or release the payment from PayPal.
And she said:
have area that will flash black when viewing the thumbnails on the camera, the problem is that you did not say anything about that, I have a friend that have a camera just like that and he does not have that kind of problem.
Because of that,I want to return it to you.
I can keep it if you refund me $50.00 to my paypal account so I can Fix it (that’s how much my friend asked for fix it) if you do not want to refund that maney and would like to get the camera back please let me know so you can refund me the full price&shipping and I will return it back to you
Thank you
Evelyn
So I’m like heck no I’m not going to send her $50, she’s trying to scam me. Also, I am wondering what her friend is going to do to “fix” the problem. The camera has been doing that since I was playing with the settings and switched it to that somehow. Anyhow, I said:
I still do not see what is wrong here, the takes pictures just fine. Have you played around with the settings any? However, if you still want a refund, please send the camera back to me. Upon receiving the camera, I will decline the Paypal payment (as it is still on hold). Send to:
(censored – my home address)
I am sorry that you are not happy with the camera, but I hope that our communication on the issue encourages you to leave me positive feedback after everything is settled.
Regards,
Jeremy
This response seems perfect, right? I will get my camera back (which is unfortunate, but oh well), she will get her money back, and we’ll all live happily ever after. Keep in mind, she still hasn’t “marked item as received” and therefore I still haven’t received any money from PayPal. But noooooooo! I then got this message:
I have play with the settiing, but the camera need to be fixed,no however you do it still very bad when you take a picture on some places(light,sun..etc) so It is not normal and I thing you had to note it on the item description on ebay, that way I would not bid on it!
I know you been answer all the questions and we are having a good communication because of it I will Agree to keep the camera if you refund me $40.00(when it get clear for you,I thing it is by now clear)
If you do not agree to refund,I need you to sent me the $13.12 to my paypal account(that’s how much it will cost to shipp it back to you.
I can not pay for the shipping because this problem was not on description.
I will have to travel this friday so I need I answer from you ASAP.
Like I said after we finish everything I will leave you a positive feedback.
thank you
And I’m like WHOA!! Firstly, I hate when people cannot “speak” on the internet. People should be able to type with correct grammar, even if they don’t speak with correct grammar. So then I ask myself, why on earth would she expect me to give her an extra $13.12 for shipping? So I said:
Although I disagree with your opinion that the camera is broken, I will still give you a refund. I will refund you the full price that you paid me ($162.83). That price included shipping so I am not going to give you an extra $13.12. I essentially payed for the shipping to your address out of my pocket, and I am not going to pay to have it shipped back. If you send the camera back to me (everything in same condition as I sent it), I will call everything even.
After sending that message (was sent today, the 30th), I ate supper, went to the auto parts store and bought some oil for my car, and came back to my house. During my running around, I had an epiphany…what if she didn’t realize that this camera is a DSLR? Her message seemed to sound like she was expecting this to be a point-and-shoot camera so I sent her this message:
Judging from your previous message, I think you may not know that the Olympus E-300 is a DSLR camera. It is very different from a point-and-shoot camera. (see http://digital-photography-school.com/should-you-buy-a-dslr-or-point-and-shoot-digital-camera ) You cannot just point this camera at a target and take a picture. There isn’t a fully auto setting. For example, if an image is too bright, raise the shutter speed. If it is too dark, lower the shutter speed. For easiest shooting, move the knob to “scene” and pick the best one to match your scenario. The lens should already be set to AF (auto focus), meaning it focus on whatever is in the cross-heirs. If you are still confused as to why your pictures aren’t coming out, please look it up on the internet or at a bookstore. OR you can just send me the camera back, I’ll refund you the total you sent me, and we’ll call it even. If you bought the camera fully understanding that it is a DSLR, disregard this message.
At this point, I am kinda upset because I hate disagreement, argument, and confrontation. Apparently, this is part of my personality type. But at the same time, I have some hope because maybe she’ll realize her mistake and send me my camera back with no problem. Wouldn’t you know it, I got this message in response:
So you are saying that I will have to luse $13.00 because you did not have put on your description that the camera was broke!!
well will open a paypal claim and leave you a negative feedback!!
thank you
Again, I had to look up what “luse” means…kidding. So I says:
Well seeing as I’ve already lost $13 to ship it to you, I do not see why I should lose an additional $13 to have it shipped back to me. Again, the camera is NOT broken so of course I would not put that in the description! The auction for this camera ended on a Monday, the 20th. I have already sent you a URL to pictures that I took with this camera from Saturday the 18th, only 2 days previous, proving that the camera is in perfect working condition and takes wonderful pictures. Again, I do not see why I should lose $26 total because you decided that you no longer wanted this camera.
I figured that she didn’t really change her mind about the camera, but I figured I’d show her what it felt like to be wrongfully accused of doing something (like selling a “broken” camera) so that later I could bring it up and say “Look, this is how I felt.” Anyhow, Evelyn responds:
I did not dicide that I do not want the camera, because I do want the camera, if it get fix. The problem is that you are trying to tell me that is normal after you take a picture it appear alot of black spot flashing on the LCD! Please give me a break!!
I have tray to work with you with this problem, but I thing will no going to get in no where!
So if by tomorow I do not get the $13.00(to ship the camera back to you) or the $40.00( to keep it as is) I will leave a negative feedback and open a paypal claim.
At this point, I decided that I should get all of our messages down in thread format. I guess I am spoiled by Gmail, where my emails/correspondences are lined up chat style. eBay has an “inbox” and a “sent” folder. So I went through and copy/pasted what I said and what she said into a word document. Also, I decided to show this “debate” to my Dad, an awesome mediator. So I printed it out and asked the wise one what I should do. Together, we came to a decision and sent her this message:
Here’s the problem: PayPal has not released the funds that you sent to me because you have not marked the item as received. If you can mark it as received, PayPal will put that money in my account. If you are willing to split the shipping to return the camera back to me, I am willing to give you a full refund, plus half of the shipping. That means you will receive the entire $168 plus an additional $6.50 (my half of the shipping), totaling $174.50. I think this resolution is fair, and this is the absolute best I can do. If we cannot settle on this option, I will open my own claim with eBay and PayPal.
We are now caught up to the present time (9:42PM, July 30th). I will update this post as the events unfold, so please come back and check out how the cookie crumbles! Or as I heard today, how the mop flops!
**UPDATE**
So I was playing Team Fortress 2 (btw, steam id = way2pure) and I got a message back from Evelyn.
Dear imamusician16,
Ok I will give you my last offer before return the Item, You refund me $15.00 and I will keep it,(I have found someone that will fix it for me for $30.00, so $15.00 will on me) if agree I will kepp the camera if not I will accept you offer on the last message and shipp it back to you.
thank you
Evelyn
Ummmmmmm……my buddy Bryce (@myothernameisum) pointed out that the lady was probably trying to scam me because she went from asking $50 to “fix” the “problem” to $40. And now she’s going down to $30?! I think not…after all, it’s just a setting somewhere. I bet she has sorry friends who would charge her $30 to change a setting. I tried looking this up on the internet but my results have been useless. Anyway, here is what I said:
Dear brnetinho,
I respectfully decline. I would rather you send the camera (and the other stuff) back to me. I will give you a full refund plus half of the shipping. Just a reminder, you still need to mark the item as received on eBay (because you DID receive the package).
Thanks for all of the communication,
Jeremy
So yeah…I guess she’s going to send it to me now. This update seemed less dramatic than I thought it should be..
