criggie.org.nz

Click here for the original auction deals...

The text of the auction was this:

Junky old motorola phone and charger.

Unit works if it had a sim in it, but only gives a couple hours life on its
battery. It would be perfect to use for a trade in.

Start is Reserve

The start and reserve prices were $3.

Now remember the auction had this photo attached too

The bidding went like this:

Bid history - 10 bids, showing latest 10
The reserve price was: $3.00 
 amount   date    time    bidder
 $10.50   25 Mar  4:38 pm lesman (0)   (nickXXXXXXXXXX@domain.com)
 $10.00   25 Mar  4:16 pm clark26 (new) 
 $7.50	  25 Mar  4:15 pm clark26 (new)
 $7.00	  25 Mar  4:15 pm dragonnz (360)
 $5.50	  25 Mar  3:43 pm clark26 (new)
 $5.00	  25 Mar  3:43 pm dragonnz (360)
 $4.50    25 Mar  3:43 pm dragonnz (360)
 $4.00    25 Mar  3:43 pm clark26 (new)
 $3.50    25 Mar  3:50 am dragonnz (360)
 $3.00	  23 Mar  9:53 pm lesman (0) 

Now I see that the top bidder was also the first bidder. and he had ample time (54 hours) between bids to ask any questions.

Anyway - he emails me first, with the question shown below. So I email him my standard info for payment and answer his questions. Of course details are obscured.

Subject: Re: Trade Me Auction: 24181803 -- Junky old Motorola phone and charger - to Trade In
From:  criggie@criggie.org.nz
Date:  Fri, March 25, 2005 8:46 pm
To:    "nicholas XXXXXXXX" 
Priority:  Normal
Options:   View Full Header | View Printable Version

> hi is it a voterfone and how long will it take to get to get to me

Gidday there - I see you've won my auction for the old Motorola phone
My bank account details are:

Bank    XXXXXXXXXXXXX Bank
Branch  XXXXXXXXXXXXX, Christchurch
Name    Craig Falconer
Acct    XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Please deposit $10.50  +$5 for freight = $15.50
Or if you want to pick up in person then give me a call on XXX XXXX
(Christchurch)

If you could, please put a note on the deposit saying what its for (helps
with the sorting out afterwards) and provide your physical address (not
a PO Box number.)

Yes, its a vodafone.  If you have questions on an item you should really
ask before it closes!  I will courier the phone as soon as your bank
deposit shows up in my account.  The couriers take between one and five
working days to get a package delivered... depends on destination city and
workload.

Now I get this as feedback...

lesman (0)      26 Mar 2005       criggie was the seller           (#24181803) 

this phone look like it 10yrold in that case i say no but i needs some more info
on it so ill have to give you a sad face . i chary to put the money in your acct
it came back this a acct is not acttive so you cant pull the wall over my eyes mate 

Please note - none of his spelling has been changed for better or worse.

Subject:	Re: Trade Me Auction: 24181803 -- Junky old Motorola phone and charger - to Trade In	
From:  criggie AT criggie.org.nz
Date:  Sat, March 26, 2005 2:57 pm
To:    "nicholas XXXXXX" 


> hi is it a voterfone and how long will it take to get to get to me

Sir - I am disappointed in you.

You submit the top bid of $10.50 for my auction.  Good - thats what
auctions are for.

Then you ask me a question after the auction has finished.  Not good -
that is what the question and answer function is for... before the auction
closes.

Then you express a desire to back out of the sale process.  Bad. You chose
to enter into a binding agreement to purchase the item by making the bid. 
However thats not too bad...  I can deal with this bit.

The most amazing part is that you, sir, have the gall to submit bad
feedback on me!  The first person in 118 auctions to do so!

Now - I am politely requesting that you edit your feedback and make it
either a happy one, or at least a neutral one, and I will do the same for
you.

Or there are alternative paths that could be followed.   Your choice.

The ball is in your court.  A response is expected.

Nice and polite, with a veiled threat of... something else unspecified.... I'll update this as more happens....

Monday night and no response. Wait till Tuesday, then I'll start a trademe complaint on him.

Tuesday night I did a complaint to trademe about the guy.

Well thats interesting... Trademe have refused my refund request, because...

The buyer has notified us that you pulled out of the sale.

Lying bastard! I then respond to trademe with this:

Message sent to trademe on Wednesday 30 March at 07:25

Re: Reference number XXXXXX

Lesman is lying to you.  I have not pulled out of this auction at all.  Here is the thread of events in order to prove what has happened so far.

Bid placed  $3.00    23 Mar  9:53 pm lesman
Other bids placed...
Winning bid placed $10.50  25 Mar  4:38 pm lesman
So there were 54 hours between his bids.  You can verify these details by looking at the auction page.

The next thing that happened was lesman sent me an email at 16:45 on Friday 25 March, after the close of the auction.  The contents of this email were
"hi is it a voterfone and how long will it take to get to get to me"

I responded on Friday night at 20:46 with my standard banking details, and added this paragraph to the end to answer his questions:
"Yes, its a vodafone.  If you have questions on an item you should really ask before it closes!  I will courier the phone as soon as your bank deposit shows up in my account.  The couriers take between one and five working days to get a package delivered... depends on destination city and workload."

You can see my standard info in my buyer's email template.

All well and good so far.  No indication at all that lesman wanted to not buy the item.  THEN on Saturday 26 march at 02:58 he posts this feedback:
"this phone look like it 10yrold in that case i say no but i needs some more info on it so ill have to give you a sad face . i chary to put the money in your acct it came back this a acct is not acttive so you cant pull the wall over my eyes mate"

So, he accuses me of misrepresenting the item, despite the fact that there was an accurate description and a photo on the auction.    He also accuses me of pulling the wall over his eyes, and that my banking account is not active!  I have had two deposits this morning from other trademe users for auctions completed.

If you would look at lesman's feedback, he has won three auctions under his current username, and has not followed through with any of them.  Also, his wins have all been in the "auction extended" time...  which makes me wonder if he's trolling through the "closing soon" categories.

Again - I must stress that its not the amount of money that worries me - its the behaviour of Les / Nicholas.

I want lesman suspended from trading, and his feedback on me removed.  Any further documentation can be supplied on request.

A response is expected.

Well that's wonderful! The user gets suspended from trademe, and I get my bad feedback removed.

This file last modified Friday July 14, 2017

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