Stiffed on Ebay

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:GDDCc.100322$Sw.66446@attbi_s51...
I've only sold two items on Ebay (I've bought a lot, though), so I'm
really
surprised (and saddened) to report that I've run into an avionics
buyer who
simply won't pay for the item he won.

I listed our old Narco AT 50 transponder (which, BTW, we replaced with
a
Garmin GTX-327 -- a truly great unit), and my winner bid $285 for it.

That was over three weeks ago, and when pressed about the status of
his
payment, the guy only responded with one sentence emails promising to
"look
into it."

I finally gave him a 24 hour deadline, which he missed, and have
re-listed
the transponder for sale.

This is a first for me -- all of my other transactions have been easy
and
painless.

Have I just been lucky? Anyone else run into this on Ebay?

I must be missing something about the "advantages" of using Ebay, based
on it's tremendous popularity, but it just doesn't make any sense to me.
The entire thing is set up so that the middle man (Ebay) can make money
on a transaction. That's all well and good, for Ebay, and I'm sure this
procedure attracts a whole bunch of people based on Ebay's financial
position, but I just don't get the attraction.
As a buyer, I want cancellation privilege not only before the sale, but
AFTER the sale as well. If I'm thinking of buying something I don't need
anyone telling me I can't change my mind, even up to the point of sale.
Even AFTER buying something, if I have a problem with it, I want the
option to return it to where I bought it for full credit. I've been
buying this way for many years and have never had a problem.
Suppose this guy who won the bid on the transponder suffered a problem
that prevented his going through with the purchase.....hell, it could be
anything? On EBay, he doesn't have the option to cancel? Hell, that's no
way to buy something....at least as far as I'm concerned anyway. I've
obviously never used Ebay and never will. I guess it's ok for some, but
it's definitely NOT my cup of tea :-)
Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship
Commercial Pilot/ CFI Retired
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