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Ebay the Hard Way

Posted by Michelle K Booth on Jan 21 2015

We recently received an inquiry from a potential customer who was hoping to sell BME their used M11 autoclave. It was a physicians office who had just recently purchased a brand new machine and they were looking for an outlet for their used autoclave. After evaluating the age and condition we gave them our standard offer of $250.00 for parts and offered to ship out a pallet, box and inner packaging all at our expense and pay the return shipping at a value of more than $300.00. The customer politely declined and took it upon themselves to post the used autoclave on EBay instead.

I later had a conversation with the office manager about the transaction. The experience was a calamity. They had listed the M11 and stated it was an excellent unit for parts. Even though the control board was fried the autoclave still sold for $650.00 plus $100.00 for shipping. The buyer located in Rhode Island quickly paid for the unit through PayPal. The seller collected their money which came to approximately $650.00 after EBay and PayPal deducted their fees. It was now time to ship the unit. They had no pallet, no factory box, no inner packing and no idea what is involved in getting an M11 autoclave to Rhode Island in one piece, especially for $100.00. But that was the agreement. so, they packed it the best they could and off it went on UPS. The box arrived in Rhode Island 5 days later smashed to smithereens.

The unhappy buyer then contacted the frustrated seller and demanded his money back. The seller is out the shipping cost, the packing cost, the time and energy of posting the unit on EBay and now dealing with a damage claim to UPS which was denied due to improper packing. Also, the buyer posted negative feedback that will stay on the sellers account for a year?

The clinic apologized for declining our offer.