Have you ever had days (weeks, months or years) where you just want to throw in the towel? Today was that day for me. I was awakened at 6:00am by a toddler’s whining. All day, this demanding – albeit gorgeous – child, stood at my feet and demanded things that didn’t exist. Oh, it didn’t matter that they didn’t exist – I damn well better materialize them. The whining ceased not quite 15 minutes ago, for a grand total of 16 hours of nearly non-stop whining. My older children couldn’t resist the temptation to hit, pick, slap, trip or insult the other. My nine year old pulled a brand new set of wood blinds out of the wall.
I burned dinner – after nearly three decades of dinner preparation experience.
Even my eBay business wasn’t spared the wrath of this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
My sales have come to a screeching halt. I’ve sold three things in four days. I have a stack of things to list, but with my attention focused on appeasing diaper-clad house mates and referree’ing fights between school-agers, I have little to give towards earning a living.
The icing on the proverbial cake came this evening, when I received the dreaded email, with the heading, “Message from eBay member: item is not as described… ” My heart sank as I opened the email from a very rude and confrontational buyer. He claimed the item I sold him was a fake and that I had deliberately sold him a non-genuine article and he demanded that I refund his full purchase price or threat, threat, threat, blah blah blah… ”
Since opening a store and revising my return policy, I’ve offered my share of refunds to people whose clothing didn’t fit (and who didn’t bother to read the detailed measurements given), whose perfectly stain-free garment showed up at the door “covered in stains” and who just plain had a change of heart about their purchase. I’d had enough. I knew the item I sold this person wasn’t a fake. It was not a thrift store find, but an item I had purchased myself, new, therefore I knew of its authenticity. I told my customer that I would be happy to issue a refund, upon receipt of the merchandise, and that I would not be reimbursing him for return shipping, as I did not feel as though I misrepresented the item. I also made a second offer of allowing him to keep the item and refunding half of the purchase price. I felt I was being more than fair.
Several hours later (during which I stayed glued to my feedback profile for updates), he responded with more threats. In the end, I gave this buyer his full purchase price and allowed him to keep his “fake” item. I’m sure he’s laughing his ass off, as that ass sits in the free shorts he got from me today.
I love what I do. I don’t want to give it up and I won’t. But days like today make me want to load up the piles and piles and piles and piles of clothing that sits here next to me on the shelf, labeled neatly with SKUs, and drop them off at Goodwill, never to cause me an ounce of grief.
Have you had days like that?
She's Flippin' Crazy! 