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Ok, she didn't exactly say I ruined her Christmas, but I did ruin her family traditions, and kept her from giving her neice a gift.. Oh, and my karma was threatened.
Sorry, this is rather long, somehow my education didn't include the real meaning of "to make a long story short"
Background - I had some items up on Craigs List, I've been downsizing and decluttering for the past year or two, have sold hundreds of items, have encoutered a few SCs, mainly no-shows and EWs who want something for a tenth of the price and delivered on a silver platter, but never had anyone buy something then call back later to bitch, ever. I sell on Craigs List rather than ebay just so that people can see the item, up close & personal, before they buy. So I don't get people bitching about stuff not being what they thought after mailing it to them.
So, the item in question was a child's set of Wedgwood dishes (cup, blowl and plate, plus I had an extra bowl). Woman called & wanted it. Hubby and I took it out of the box it had been in for a while, inspected all pieces again, set it on the counter, unwrapped, so she could see it. She came by, took a look, and bought it.
Called back a bit later, complaining I sold her a cup with a crack in it, she wanted her money back. Ok, never had that happen before, I'm very careful, and am truthful to a fault, I will point out flaws a buyer doesn't even see. I'm wondering if she cracked it herself on her way home. She keeps going on about how she can't give it to her neice now, on and on. I'm about to tell her to bring it back and I'll give her the money back (though I'm still sure it was fine when she left here) when she keeps on, more and more implying I did it on purpose, then says "it looked ok til I got it into better light, and easily saw the crack then".
Ok, hold on. Another bit of background. I don't like Craigs List people in my house, you hear of people looking for things to come back & steal, etc. So I keep everything I sell on Craigs List in what was at one time the original garage or carport (not sure, we didn't convert it). The previous owner used it as a workroom, for intricate woodworking and other projects. This room, smaller than your average modern one-car garage, has 4 huge long multi-bulb high watt florescent light fixtures in it. That room is about as bright as you get without installing stadium lights. You can see things better in there than on your average sunny day outside.
So she's trying to say we pulled one over on her by showing it in dim light? Unless she went and held the darn thing under a flood light, no way did she discover a problem by seeing it in "better" light. And no way she missed seeing a crack because the room we showed it to her in wasn't bright enough.
That changes things. She's not being up front on that matter, and has altered her story in other ways as well as she went on and on, so now I really can't take anything she says at face value, and figure the crack, if it exists, is definitely likely of her own doing, either by accident or because she changed her mind and wanted a reason to bring it back.
So I told her no, and that it was because of her attitude. She was pissed.
Either on the phone, or in a following email she sent, she told me (in great detail) all about the family tradition of giving sets like that, and how I ruined the tradition. How she was now out all that money (it wasn't much) and could not now give her neice a gift at all, how she could not possibly have cracked it after she left, because she was not a dishonest person, how I was abusive to her on the phone, and escalated from a crack in the cup to all pieces being all rough, being "imperfect" china, and having fingerprints on them (yep, you read that right) and ended with telling me my Craigs List karma would be terrible now
Sent her back an email telling her I was going to give her the money back til she copped an attitude & altered her story & accused me of cheating her. Even though legally & morally, I had no reason to, as Craigs List sales, like garage sales, are as-is. That she saw it as it was, in good light, looked at it, approved it, and chose to buy it, with no force involved. That it was funny she expected me to believe her when she said she was honest, but wouldn't believe I was. That she wasn't "out" all that money, because even with a cracked cup, the other three pieces of Wedgwood were worth much more than she'd paid, she could sell them on ebay. That, hey, those were Wedgwood, not Dollar Tree, they don't make "rough, imperfect" china, and china does not get that way from usage, either. As for fingerprints, what did she want me to do, wear gloves to unwrap them and hand them to her? good grief. And that her family traditions really weren't my problem. Also told her I'd sold hundreds of items with no complaints on anything I'd ever sold, so my karma was just fine. And again, she screwed herself out of a refund by telling me things that were obviuosly not true, and accusing me of cheating her.
Then told her she was blocked, and go away.
Sorry, this is rather long, somehow my education didn't include the real meaning of "to make a long story short"
Background - I had some items up on Craigs List, I've been downsizing and decluttering for the past year or two, have sold hundreds of items, have encoutered a few SCs, mainly no-shows and EWs who want something for a tenth of the price and delivered on a silver platter, but never had anyone buy something then call back later to bitch, ever. I sell on Craigs List rather than ebay just so that people can see the item, up close & personal, before they buy. So I don't get people bitching about stuff not being what they thought after mailing it to them.
So, the item in question was a child's set of Wedgwood dishes (cup, blowl and plate, plus I had an extra bowl). Woman called & wanted it. Hubby and I took it out of the box it had been in for a while, inspected all pieces again, set it on the counter, unwrapped, so she could see it. She came by, took a look, and bought it.
Called back a bit later, complaining I sold her a cup with a crack in it, she wanted her money back. Ok, never had that happen before, I'm very careful, and am truthful to a fault, I will point out flaws a buyer doesn't even see. I'm wondering if she cracked it herself on her way home. She keeps going on about how she can't give it to her neice now, on and on. I'm about to tell her to bring it back and I'll give her the money back (though I'm still sure it was fine when she left here) when she keeps on, more and more implying I did it on purpose, then says "it looked ok til I got it into better light, and easily saw the crack then".
Ok, hold on. Another bit of background. I don't like Craigs List people in my house, you hear of people looking for things to come back & steal, etc. So I keep everything I sell on Craigs List in what was at one time the original garage or carport (not sure, we didn't convert it). The previous owner used it as a workroom, for intricate woodworking and other projects. This room, smaller than your average modern one-car garage, has 4 huge long multi-bulb high watt florescent light fixtures in it. That room is about as bright as you get without installing stadium lights. You can see things better in there than on your average sunny day outside.
So she's trying to say we pulled one over on her by showing it in dim light? Unless she went and held the darn thing under a flood light, no way did she discover a problem by seeing it in "better" light. And no way she missed seeing a crack because the room we showed it to her in wasn't bright enough.
That changes things. She's not being up front on that matter, and has altered her story in other ways as well as she went on and on, so now I really can't take anything she says at face value, and figure the crack, if it exists, is definitely likely of her own doing, either by accident or because she changed her mind and wanted a reason to bring it back.
So I told her no, and that it was because of her attitude. She was pissed.
Either on the phone, or in a following email she sent, she told me (in great detail) all about the family tradition of giving sets like that, and how I ruined the tradition. How she was now out all that money (it wasn't much) and could not now give her neice a gift at all, how she could not possibly have cracked it after she left, because she was not a dishonest person, how I was abusive to her on the phone, and escalated from a crack in the cup to all pieces being all rough, being "imperfect" china, and having fingerprints on them (yep, you read that right) and ended with telling me my Craigs List karma would be terrible now
Sent her back an email telling her I was going to give her the money back til she copped an attitude & altered her story & accused me of cheating her. Even though legally & morally, I had no reason to, as Craigs List sales, like garage sales, are as-is. That she saw it as it was, in good light, looked at it, approved it, and chose to buy it, with no force involved. That it was funny she expected me to believe her when she said she was honest, but wouldn't believe I was. That she wasn't "out" all that money, because even with a cracked cup, the other three pieces of Wedgwood were worth much more than she'd paid, she could sell them on ebay. That, hey, those were Wedgwood, not Dollar Tree, they don't make "rough, imperfect" china, and china does not get that way from usage, either. As for fingerprints, what did she want me to do, wear gloves to unwrap them and hand them to her? good grief. And that her family traditions really weren't my problem. Also told her I'd sold hundreds of items with no complaints on anything I'd ever sold, so my karma was just fine. And again, she screwed herself out of a refund by telling me things that were obviuosly not true, and accusing me of cheating her.
Then told her she was blocked, and go away.
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