What could i have done differently?

[smackapacca]

I had a travel cot for sale - auction. Collection only.

About 5mins prior to auction ending buyer1 emailed and asked if I could courier.

I emailed back (politely) and said no - collection only.

Buyer1 won the auction. Paid via paypal.

I thanked her for payment and asked when she'd like to collect.

48 hours passed and I emailed again with the same message.

She then emailed saying could I pack it in some cardboard or something so she could arrange courier.

I said I honestly didn't have any but I would see what I could do.

DH did a great job of black bagging it and marking it up.

She said courier on Monday.

I asked what time.

Heard nothing.

Item collected on Monday.

Yesterday she emailed asking me to call as she's having trouble assembling it. I said it wasn't convenient to call, but pull up the edges and push the base down.

I am really cross at how fricken demanding she's been.

I gave her good feedback as she did pay instantly.

I just want her to go away.

So - MN jury - how would I stop this happening again?

I would have refused her demands when she wanted to send her own courier. Without a tracking number she could now claim not received and claim back her payment.

Er... Said no? And meant it?

You would have a record of saying no to courier so you could have opened a dispute had she refused to pay.

No way would I have arsed about packing and sending without a tracking number if I had clearly said no couriers.

Well she has definitely got it.

I wondered whether i should have cancelled her bid?

Actually I think I made a first mistake accepting PayPal for a collection only item. I'm not going to do that again.

I have been a member of Ebay since 2004, 100% feedback of 226.

I thought I was no rookie, but this round of selling has been horrible.

What about finding a you tube vid of how to put the travel cot up, and mailing it to her - hopefully that will make her bog off :)

Then block her :p

Funnily enough I looked last night but there wasn't a very good one. I'm hoping we're done now though.

YEs I say Paypal or cash on collection

But buyers are very demanding at times and ignore all the info in the listings.

My heart is in my mouth everytime I sell anything on ebay

I had to cancel someone's bid as they hadn't noticed the colour of the camera I was selling and didn't like it.

It was SO clear.

Really annoying.

you should never take paypal on a collection item.

But regardless of the buyer telling you she has the item, if she claims item not received with eBay they will refund the money - unless you have the tracking number from the courier which proves she has received the item - but you won't normally have that if the buyer arranged the courier.

Yep. Lots of lessons learnt here.