First Possible Return from Ebay

Last 3 days have been great on ebay. I have sold a little over $100 worth of single stick/double sticks of ram on ebay.

I did them all for 3 day listings, fixed price, with free shipping, and no returns (granted though if they don't work, I would take it back and refund the monies less shipping and other fees.)

Well, today I got a message from a client who bought a single stick of ram for $20 from me. He/she stated that they plugged it into their PC running Windows 8 x64

He/she said the first day it worked good...then wouldn't work anymore, so they swapped it out with a different stick of ram, and that one worked, so they are thinking my stick of ram is no longer good. Then they go on to say that they will try again to see if they can get it to work. Their message to me below.

i put the ram in my pc the first day it worked good, now it doesn't seem to work i have windows 8 64. so i put different stick in the same ram dim and the ram slot works but the ram itself still doesnt work. ill keep trying to see if it will work.

Here is a few things that came to my mind when I read this..



1. All the ram that I have in stock all came from Windows XP or older systems. Nothing from Vista or newer that I am aware of, but could be wrong. Perhaps, running it on Windows 8, isn't compatible?

2. If he/she put it in the first day and it worked good, but now stopped, then it could be possible that it isn't compatible and the PC burnt out the stick of ram, or am I thinking incorrectly on that?

3. Since they are keep trying to make it work, how can I be sure that it really is defective or they broke it some how?


My testing measures for all this stuff, is to simply plug it in, and see if they will boot to windows..if so, great, resell...if not, scrap pile.

As I said, my reputation off and on ebay means a lot, and even though I put "No Refunds/Returns Accepted", my reputation means more, and I would refund, minus shipping, and ebay/paypal fees.

What I would require though, is that the stick of ram be returned and payment be issued once it is delivered back to me. They get their money, and the ram gets put into the scrap pile.

Lets here some opinions.

Might also be a bad DIMM slot. I've got a bad DIMM slot on one of my computers myself.

Originally Posted by billygoat

Might also be a bad DIMM slot. I've got a bad DIMM slot on one of my computers myself.

That is a possibility, but according to them, they inserted a different stick of ram, and that one worked.

It's 50/50 on how this could go.

Originally Posted by AuburnEwaste

Booting to Windows is a good test, but not 100% fool proof. Keep in mind that the system may not recognize all of the RAM on XP machines, and a bad stick might pass the "boot test".


"It doesn't seem to work" is pretty vague. I would ask them to be more specific.

I intend to. I have heard of others running into situations like this and just refunding the money and moving on...but if I do that, I loose 100%, so at least, I want the stick of ram back so I can make $ off it.

Refund the money and tell em to keep it or throw it in the trash......As u refund the money tell them thanks and that you look forward to the positive feedback........Then block them from your bidders list and be done with it.........For small dollar items like this that is what I do........If it was a 300 laptop of course I would expect a return but the feedback is worth more than the headache of arguing with them....Remember the customer is always right......I'd say 95% of my ebay transactions are good with no problem....The other 5% I try to first offer partial refund and if that does not work full refund

Originally Posted by GeorgeB

I intend to. I have heard of others running into situations like this and just refunding the money and moving on...but if I do that, I loose 100%, so at least, I want the stick of ram back so I can make $ off it.

If u need a stick of ram that bad george i'll send u one (LOL)

sold 2 quad core cpus today for $120, not bad return considering i found them in scrap lots

Originally Posted by mikeinreco

Refund the money and tell em to keep it or throw it in the trash......As u refund the money tell them thanks and that you look forward to the positive feedback........Then block them from your bidders list and be done with it.........For small dollar items like this that is what I do........If it was a 300 laptop of course I would expect a return but the feedback is worth more than the headache of arguing with them....Remember the customer is always right......I'd say 95% of my ebay transactions are good with no problem....The other 5% I try to first offer partial refund and if that does not work full refund

I am not worried about the feedback, as they already left that, the day they got it and it was "working" (forgot to mention that).

I would agree that is probably the best bet, but to me that is a rip off. They get the working product, claims it doesn't work, and then they also get their funds back. That is BS. If you went to a retail store, they tell you to cough up the merchandise or no refunds.

Originally Posted by mikeinreco

If u need a stick of ram that bad george i'll send u one (LOL)

I'm good. Got more right now than I care to think of.

I have 2 pairs of ram being returned to me, one went thru the sorting machine and got crushed. The other made it there fine but the buyer sold the computer, or so they claim. Ive been getting about 70% successful sales on ram.

Like others have said, pretty much part of the turf with eBay. Chalk it up and move on.

Try having the "inop" item be a bench tested $400 navigation radio. That one hurts. I had 3 in a row that I took in the shorts on before I stopped selling them. Best that I could figure, they were taking my good units, swapping out the parts, and then sending the unit back junk. Painful.

Originally Posted by AuburnEwaste

I don't get why the quoted text never shows up as quoted. Ah well.

You have to highlight the text you want quoted, and then hit the quote cloud above.

See

I appreciate the information guys. Depending on what can be worked out, I will definitely require that the ram be returned back to me. If they refuse, then no refund period.

Originally Posted by AuburnEwaste

I specify that returns are accepted only if the product arrives defective

I dont agree with that because it violates the customer is always right adage. Thats gonna come back to bite you, its only a matter of time.

RAM is the most finicky component I know of, especially if hasn't been handled well. My techs catch hell all the time because they'll put RAM in the bad pile, then someone else will come behind them, throw it in a slot, and it works. It's when we start throwing them back into the good pile that we start having problems. My policy is, if it tests bad once (unless slot has had it) throw it in with the scrap. I would take the customer at their word on this one, and even if it comes back "working" I would assume it did not work for them. Besides, as long as they pay to send it back, there's no need to call anyone a lier.