A few days ago I dodged a bullet. It passed so close I heard it go speeding by. What kind of a bullet? The kind that gets aimed at you when you break your own rules.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a short list of rules that keep me in profit and out of liability. At Christmas last year, I got impatient and broke one of those rules.
I had an item that was slower to sell. Instead of waiting for it to sell by itself, I listed it on eBay. I’d found a way to create no-fee listings (a story for another time), and I listed on eBay. A great success, I thought at the time. My goods sold in a few days for acceptable profit *and* eBay collected none of their usual extortionate fee from me.
The buyer was an American, so I bundled the goods up and got them posted. Good and well, or so I thought. $490 back in my hand.
A month after I’d taken payment, PayPal emailed me. The buyer had lodged a credit card charge back against me! I gave them the information they asked for, showing that the buyer had indeed bought from me and that I in turn had posted his goods. There was nothing else I could do but trust that decency and righteousness would prevail.
Outraged, I contacted the buyer through eBay. What’s your game mate? What are you playing at? His replies made no sense. First he said the goods didn’t work properly. Then he said he hadn’t plugged it in to let it charge. Most confusing was that his credit card charge back seemed to have been placed before his goods even arrived, but weeks after he’d bought on eBay. None of it added up so I stopped communicating with him. All I could think was that the guy was trying to scam me.
This case hung over me for a month before PayPal put me out of my misery. They emailed a couple of days ago to let me know that the credit card charge back was settled in my buyer’s favor. For some reason though, PayPal took the damage for me. So it’s less that I dodged a bullet, and more that my best friend PayPal stepped in front of the gun for me. PayPal told me they didn’t want to upset me, because I’m a “good customer”.
I guess they noticed that I spend $10000 a month through them 🤣
Learn my secrets by downloading my free book – Garbitrage LITE: How To Make Money Out Of Nothing. People have told me it’s better than books they had to pay for! It’s short and easy to read. Click the link and begin your flipping journey today.