to fib about my availability to an ebayer who says she has swine flu??

[zebramummy]

she bought a collection only swing from us via ebay last night, which requires dismantling - we stated in the ad that we were happy to help etc. Straight away she sent an email to say that her family is holed up with swine flu and not allowed out until saturday & please can she come and pick it up on saturday from our house. the thing is that i dont really want to risk being in contact with her so soon after it- i am not treating her as a leper - basically i have a lot happening atm in other areas of my life and i do not want to be knowingly exposed to swine flu at this point in time. i mulled over the following options:
own up to how i feel with the risk of igniting her fury and negative feedback?
say that i am going away that weekend for a week and arrange collection the following weekend to buy some time?
tell her that the swing is broken/ sold elsewhere?
i dont think that she would readily agree to postpone given that we are over half way through the school holidays
i feel really petty behaving in this way but honest i do have my reasons ....

[SpawnChorus]

Just tell her the truth re: swine flu and suggest that she can either pick it up the following weekend or that she can arrange another helper (who is definitely not infectious) to collect it this weekend.

TBH you'd have to be a bit of a tosser to disregard other people's cautions re: swine flu. There are umpteen very valid reasons why people may be taking extra precautions...asthma, young babies, pregnancy, due to go on holiday etc etc

[cjones2979]

YANBU !!

Personally, I wouldn't come clean for risk of offending (and negative feedback), I would actually say "I'm really sorry but we are away this weekend for a few days, back Wednesday, any chance you can collect after that?". TBH she probably won't be able to collect until the following weekend anyway.

[Stigaloid]

YABU - if she is holed up until Saturday i would say she is taking all the necessary precautions to be quarantined for the correct period of time.

If it still bothers you then say this weekend is no good can she do the following weekend?

Lying about it being sold elsewhere is completely unreasonable.

[stonethecrows]

How about leaving it out the front of the house to collect if you feel that strongly about it? Although if she is being honest about having SF, and also quarantining herself until Sat sounds like she's being very sensible and won't be contagious by then anyway.

[zebramummy]

i have thought about dropping it off round her house as she lives about 10 mins away from us - however, i expect she would open the door and come outside at some point during the drop-off (as one would, i suppose) - i have also made it clear to dh that i do not want her cash (even though we both preferred this at the outset) - swine flu is not contagious via paypal is it?