But I do exist
I just “won” my first one cent auction on eBay. Now, nothing costs a penny; the shipping is for 700 percent of the amount, but not to quibble. The site had a very good explanation of what S&H stood for; I quote:
“Please be informed that S&H fee is not just postage, it includes include shipping, handling, packing materials, label fees, boxes, fuel charges and warehouse processing charges and staff wages etc., not just the actual stamp cost. If you don’t feel good about our S&H fee, please don’t bid.
Same day shipping: we ship every weekday ( Monday to Friday except holiday), the items will be sent out next weekday after fund is cleared and send email to buyer. Shipping & Handling charges are not negotiatible (sic). If you didn’t finish the full payment for shipping & handling , we won’t process your order. Don’t complain or leave negative feedback regarding shipping & handling fee during or after the auction. Don’t bid if you don’t agree with this shipping and handling policies.”
Very straightforward; we are not selling goods, we are selling a service. I appreciate the honesty.
Things Are Never Simple, Though… Like so many times before, I clicked on the pal that pays link and was hit with a red message saying that my ability to pay was exceeded, since I was “unverified”. I did the usual mental checklist:
Credit card – paid up
Site verifiable by IP and certificate as not spoofed – OK
Retry – same result.
The telephone was working (where is their Skype link, I wonder?) so time to talk to customer service. It turns out that my total, cumulative, from the beginning of time amount of transactions has hit some sort of limit that the company has set and not advertised. In lay terms, I’ve gone on long enough in my love/hate never date relationship with them, and unless I show a little more trust by identifying myself with a bank account number, we must stop seeing one another.
I am not disappointed by what we’ve gone through, and I guess that showing a touch more trust is not out of line, but this is proof that we live in a time of evolving business models. The company doesn’t really need access to my bank account, which hardly contains enough money to interest them at a corporate level. What they need is proof that I won’t jump ship for the next pretty micropayment scheme that comes along (Microsoft? Google?). I’m just establishing my bona fides in this new economy.
