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Sarcastic comment for supercilious customer

Katie and I have had a bad eBay experience recently. We bought a piece of furniture, I assembled, and only then (of course) realized that it wasn't what we had ordered. It's been quite an annoying ordeal getting it returned and our money refunded. Right now the seller says he refunded our money, but it hasn't appeared back in my account. Is PayPal holding on to it?

That experience reminded me of a fun exchange I had with a customer back when I was an eBay seller. (I used to run an annual "garage sale" type series of auctions every year before Christmas.)

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Dear Michael,

The $8 shipping charge is high considering Media Mail for this could be no higher than $4. Will you consider lowering this?

Thank you,
Mrs. Ives

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Too late to do that. Can you just bid $4 less than you would have if shipping were less?

Thanks!

Michael

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Actually you can agree to do this by just making the commitment with a buyer. The buyer can then change the shipping charge before paying for the item. Since you don't wish to do this, I will be unable to bid on the item since to do so would deprive eBay of their just profit since they make their money on the sale price.

Mrs. Ives

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It is true. I am just greedy enough to artificially inflate my shipping prices in order to deprive eBay of $0.11 on this auction (2.75% of $4). I salute you. You have made a truly impressive sacrifice to stand up for your ideals.

Michael

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