The Tease of Things I Don't Need

99.7%

Have you ever seen the movie Kind Hearts and Coronets? It's an entertaining film from 1949 in which a man, Louis Mazzini, whose mother was disinherited because she married outside her family's wishes, grows to have a simmering resentment for the wealthy and aristocratic D'Ascoyn family. His mother died far before her time under circumstances created in part by her being cut off from the family's resources.

His lowly status grates on him until he conceives of a plan to murder (in a series of actions cleverly executed to appear as accidents) every D'Ascoyn standing between him and a dukedom. Operating under his given name, he plans to clear the path and then allow the executors and legal process to discover and seemingly reveal to him that he is the heir. The always entertaining Alec Guiness played multiple roles in the film, specifically the succession of D'Ascoyns (male and female) who are creatively done away with.

The twist late in the film is that while all of Louis' murders go undetected as such, and his plan is unfurling brilliantly, a suicide by another character in an unrelated circumstance comes to appear as a murder, and Louis is the sole suspect with a convincingly strong set of cicumstancial evidence against him. He finds himself ironically on the eve of being executed for a murder he didn't commit, while all his own dark work went by unnoticed.

This morning's circumstances, though far, far less grave (and I suspect the link occurred to me in part to lend a needed sense of proportion) distantly reminded me of this.

I've been enrolled as an ebay user since March 13 of 1999. Over 7 years. I've operated sporadically as a buyer and a seller in that time, and have tried to deliver swift payments when I buy and properly attend to buyers when I sell.

I'm not running a day in/day out business on ebay. This is a much more casual, and as I've said, sporadic affair. I have certainly in some instances found days and even a week or more passing before I had a clear opportunity to get an item packaged and off to the post office. Keep in mind that the appropriate shipping box isn't always handy, and I pride myself on sending items in a way that all but ensures they'll arrive undamaged. Sometimes I have to fish around a little to find (or make from some larger box) an appropriate container. An unschooled commentor might suggest that all boxes be found/assembled during the week the auction's running, and while there's a grain of wisdom in that I must point out to the uninitiated that if one has a dozen or more items up for sale one doesn't know how many separate shipments that will entail. Two or three buyers might take all of it off one's hands, and so two or three larger boxes will be all that's needed. Or, a dozen or more different people could buy those items, and I'd need that many smaller, sturdy boxes.

And, again, this is a casual affair. This is not me running and operating an ongoing business where I would be maintaining an inventory of supplies. I've gone months, even years between specks and spates of selling.

It's important to note that I am not one of those ebay sellers who includes statements in the spirit of "You MUST pay within 10 DAYS or I WILL LEAVE NEGATIVE FEEDBACK" or in any way pressure buyers to get their payments to me immediately. If ten days or so passes with no payment I'll likely send them an email reminder, but that's as strong as it's ever gotten. Conversely, I never include in my auction any statements that I vow to ship the items within one, two, or three days. I generally don't get the time and opportunity to do any of that until Saturday, and if something goes awry a given Saturday might be lost to me, too, and the shipping then slips into the following week when I'll tend to give it more attention. The later things go, the more inclined I am to send things via Priority Mail to help make up for the delay. Much depends on the item and costs involved, of course.

It has generally gone well, this scattered commerce.

By this past Thursday afternoon I'd accumulated 496 positive feeback comments and points from 293 unique users (demonstrating that I've had people buy from me more than once), and so had maintained a 100% positive feedback rating. I've dealt with people as close as other parts of Pennsylvania, and as far away as South Africa, Australia, Belgium and Hong Kong.

Then came Thursday night.

This Thursday - though I didn't see it until I checked my account this (Saturday) morning as I was getting ready to head to the post office to send off the last of the recent lot as some payments had come this week via US mail - I received my first negative feedback. The very first red mark on my ebay record.

As you see the details you'll understand why the above mentioned movie wandered up from my memory.

This red mark was from someone for whom I was his first ebay transaction. He was a 0 bidder - completely new to ebay - so when he paid immediately after the auction I decided to give him his feedback immediately. His package was sent off the next day -- all a matter of USPS record because I use Delivery Confirmation on the domestic orders. It's there for all the world to see at USPS.com. Delivery Confirmation #03050830000119392633, then click for additional details and one will see:



That acceptance date, March 24th, is when I handed it to a clerk at the post office. The post office didn't deliver until April 6th. I don't know why it took so long, but in no way can that delay be construed as my fault. I didn't find some cheap, donkey cart postal rate so I could keep more of the shipping funds. I sent it First Class, just as noted in my auction.

The buyer'd contacted me early this past week, I looked into it and saw that the item hadn't been delivered as yet but noted that a few of the First Class shipping items in the past month had taken 10-12 days (again, for no apparent reason), so I asked him to wait a few more days. I also re-supplied him with the Delivery Confirmation number (I'd emailed it to him back when it was shipped, and confirmed that because I'd copied myself on that email) so he could see as much of the picture as I could. His item finally arrived on the 6th, he could see that it was sent out back on the 24th just by looking at the postmark on the package, and he had the Delivery Confirmation # to check, too.

So, what does he do? He gives me a negative feedback and the following comment:

"this guy is too slow on shiping , my fig was new and in the package as promised"

So, thanks to the rash, rude user my 100% positive feedback took its first hit with my 497th one. Currently only 99.7% pure, it irks me that I'll never be able to restore that to more than 99.9%

Hardly a major tragedy, but a boil on my butt at the end of a distressing, disheartening week. An ebayer's rating is key to his credibility, and while it would be bad enough to take a hit for one of my own missteps, it's very irritating to have it happen in an instance when I'm faultless.