I euphemize when I write that this is way more than most of us want to know.
I had a story about a real Philadelphia lawyer. I told it to a Portland, OR ebay seller I had always promptly paid, and was happy with. After seeing my anecdote, the Portland seller blocked me from further bidding.
( The story? About a NOS late 1980's boxed Specialized clincher tire sold to me with a spare tubular rim on which to stretch it, for when it was needed on a Campagnolo tubular wheelset , the main part of the transaction. The story, if not obvious, is that seller blamed buyer for the false inference that a tire with that model designation was tubular.)
In time, I found a NOS period-mate for the Specialized clincher, and sold the pair on craigslist.
So, you see, Jerry, it can all work out in the end.
Harry Travis Washington, DC USA
On Sat, Nov 29, 2008 at 1:41 PM, Jerome & Elizabeth Moos
<jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Steven is being mysterious, but I sent him that message, and with, IMHO, to
> tal justification. To compare it to a death threat is ludicrous and para
> noid. Unless Steven is prepared to engage in a bald-faced lie, he will h
> ave to admit that he cannot point to a single transaction with me in the pa
> st where I did not pay promptly and in full. In fact there have been ins
> tances where he was delayed in shipping goods I had promptly paid for, but
> I did not complain, but waited patiently for the goods.
>
> So what rational person would block from bidding someone who has constisten
> tly not only performed his obligations, but also overlooked the other perso
> n's slow performance in delivering? Good question. The only thing I c
> an imagine is that Steve did make good on a threat - now that we are talkin
> g about threats - to block me that he made several years ago, when I was fo
> rced to file a PayPal complaint 1 day before the deadline for such complain
> ts, when eBay purchases I had made from Germany failed to arrive after 29 d
> ays, 30 days being the deadline for PayPal complaints. The German seller
> stated he had shipped the goods, but could not provide any sort of confirm
> ation, and I had never dealt with him before. So I was not in a position
> to simply trust that the goods would arrive as I have done more than once
> for CR members in Europe, and by the way, European CR members have always c
> ome through with the goods.
>
> So I reluctantly filed the complaint just before the deadline, as to fail t
> o do so would have forfeited all my rights to recovery through PayPal. T
> he goods did finally arrive after about 45 days, two weeks beyond the deadl
> ine, after I had received a not quite full refund through PayPal. I imme
> diately returned the refund to the seller, stating that I regretted that th
> e 30 day deadline imposed by PayPal had forced me to file the complaint whe
> n I did.
>
> Having discussed this matter on the list, it was at that point that Steven
> threatened to block me. Now there were other CR members who thought I sh
> ould have waited and forfeited my rights and trusted blindly in the word of
> a complete stranger. That's easy to say when you are not the one at ris
> k, but I respect their opinions. But only Steven felt the need to threat
> en retaliation against a fellow list member on behalf of someone he evide
> ntly did not know, and who any any case never asked for his involvement, al
> l in a matter which was clealrly and demonstrably none of Steven's damn bus
> iness.
>
> Now the bizzare thing is that I have since bought items offered direct to t
> he list by Steven, and those transactions went smoothly, with Steven making
> no mention of his earlier threats. So I assumed until last night that h
> is threat several years ago now had been nothing but that. Now what poss
> ible sense it makes to block someone from eBay purchases while at the same
> time doing transactions with that person off eBay I will leave it to Steven
> to explain, and I expect that such an explanation will be entertaining to
> say the least.
>
> Now after sending the message last night when I was blocked from bidding on
> items Steven had outed to the list, I thought better of bringing this matt
> er to the list, as I thought maybe it was not worth the contraversy it migh
> t cause. But now that Steven has brought it here, I will state that I be
> lieve it is offensive for a CR member to block another member who has alway
> s dealt fairly and honestly with him, and especially to do so hypocriticall
> y while continuing to do other transactions with that person. And I woul
> d indeed suggest that other members might be better served neither to buy f
> rom or sell to such a person, as dealing with persons who exhibit such illo
> gical behavior is perhaps not worth the hassle.
>
> Further, I think perhaps blocking other members should be made a violation
> of list rules, unless the blocker can demonstrate to Dale's satisfactio
> n that the blocked member has acted dishonestly toward the first member
> . If that is the case, It is quite possible that Dale would boot the dis
> honest member from the list. But I think it is highly questionable wheth
> er we should allow members to invite their fellow members to bid, but then
> block some of those fellow members for frivilous and hypocritical reasons w
> iith absolutely no foundation in any past nonperformance by the member so b
> locked.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jerry Moos
> Big Spring, Texas, USA
>
>
>
> --- On Fri, 11/28/08, Steven Maasland <themaaslands@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> From: Steven Maasland <themaaslands@comcast.net>
> Subject: [CR]Threats related to ebay by CR listmembers
> To: "CR" <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Date: Friday, November 28, 2008, 11:25 PM
>
> A short while ago, there was talk of death threats being voiced by
> certain ebay members against a CR list member. In a somewhat similar
> vein, I have also received a threatening message, however this time it
> is from a CR member and somebody who is threatening to take me to task
> through this list. I would like to share with you the message that I
> received through the ebay system a short while ago:
>
> "Steve, you have blocked me from bidding on your auctions. You will
> reverse this immdediately [sic] or I will tomorrow post to the list
> recommending that all CR members block you and boycott any bidding on
> your items. If you are goig [sic] to treat CR members like this then you
> need to get off the list."
>
> Let me state it plain and simple, I have about 50 ebay members who are
> on my blocked bidder list, including quite a few CR list members. I am
> not ashamed of this in the least. I do not "do" ebay professionally,
> nor
> do I attempt to wring every last dollar out of my auctions. Most of the
> items that I end up selling on ebay are first offered to the CR list (at
> prices that 9 times out of 10 are cheaper than what they end up selling
> for on ebay!) I am known to offer discounts to people when I believe
> that the final auction prices are too high, or offer shipping discounts
> or throw in extra items. The people that I put on my blocked bidder list
> are there for a reason. They are not put there to help me get higher
> prices, as in fact, the simple fact that their bids cannot register can
> only lead to me getting lower prices for the objects that these people
> are interested in. For the most part, I have either personally witnessed
> or been told of actions of these blocked bidders that I feel are
> intolerable. To deal with them is simply not worth the potential hassle.
> It is not a question of money or ,mistreating somebody for their
> membership on the CR list, but rather a question of peace of mind. It is
> quite evident to me that my judgment was spot on in the case of the CR
> list member concerned. This is not to say that I have not made some
> mistakes in the additions to my blocked bidder list, as can be attested
> by the fact that there are three instances of CR list members who were
> once blocked and are now unblocked after a civilized discussion of the
> concerns that led me to put them on the list to start with. If anybody
> feels that they have unfairly been added to my blocked bidder list,
> please feel free to let me know, perhaps it is due to misinterpreted or
> miscommunicated information.
>
> Steven Maasland
> Moorestown, NJ
> USA
>
> PS: For those that don't know my ebay id, it is my surname spelled out
> backwards: dnalsaam
> You can check out my feedback as a seller (100% positive with a 4.9 out
> of 5 in every rating category) here:
> http://ebay.com/
> &ftab=FeedbackAsSeller