34
INTRODUCTION: I was selling an old Palm Pilot on Ebay and apparently made an error in the listing, because I got this disgruntled memo from another Ebayer:
“Dear joyello2002, How can you claim this item is NEW? Your description indicates that it has been USED!!! - rmac_scinut”
Alarmed, I visited my listing to find that indeed, a tiny checkbox had slipped past my watchful eye when I posted the original listing. So I cancelled the listing, and re-posted in on Ebay with the correct information.
However, the nasty accusation of rmac_scinut prompted me to wonder why I was suddenly being thought of as either an idiot or a sneaky SOB trying to rip people off. After perusing several inspiring Ebay postings which morph into blogs that people actually enjoy reading, I decided to create my own, both as an explantion of what happened with the listing, and a way to appropriately vent my frustration with the accusing Ebayer, and to most importantly, bring a few people some laughs.
The content of my Ebay posting follows:
Palm Tungsten E - touch screen- mp3 player- palm OS software- BONUS free 256 MB SD card!
This palm functions perfectly.
It has been in the included (pictured) hard shell aluminum case, and has ALWAYS had a static screen protector on it. All the buttons, software, memory, mp3 player, photo player, etc. all work great.
I am upgrading to a Treo phone, so I don’t need this Palm anymore, otherwise I would keep it since it has been so good to me!
The only blemish on the Palm unit is where the stylus goes in/out, the silver finish is a bit worn. There is a photo of this. Also, the aluminum case has surface scratches, but is still in sturdy workable condition.
The case has a slot inside the front cover to hold an extra SD card. The SD card holds music, photos, programs, etc.
Included items:
- Palm Tungsten E- Aluminum Clamshell Hard Case- 256 MB SD card- USB cable to sync with your computer- CD of Palm software for your computer- wall charger- car charger Shipping cost includes required insurance.
——————————————————————————– On Jan-04-08 at 14:16:16 PST, seller added the following information:
DISCLAIMER BLOG
If the above description is adequate for you to make a decision to purchase (or not purchase) this Palm Tungsten E, you don’t have to bother reading the following epistle.
For any of you who were wondering, yes I did cancel the previous auction of this same item, when it had just more than 1 day remaining and had one bid, and yes I relisted it immediately. I am just a twenty-six year old woman who tries to find good deals on Ebay for stuff I need, and tries to sell items I no longer need on Ebay for a good deal to someone who can use them.
The REASON I ended the auction, and relisted it, is because another Ebayer pointed out that I had made a mistake in the listing. It was late at night when I posted the listing, and I just didn’t notice that something incorrect had been pre-selected for me. My exhaustion and lack of concentration while posting the listing may have been a combination of my preoccuaption with my full-time job at a brokerage firm, my home business producing wedding videos, helping my husband market his computer repair business, planning the agenda for our young couple’s Bible study this month, worrying about my dad’s health, or as always, racking my brain for ways to pay off tens of thousands of dollars in student loans. It most certainly wasn’t anything close to an intentional decision to mis-represent my item.
Now for a bit more detail regarding the condition of the item, since I hope not to be accused of further lack of transparency.
My husband and I purchased identical Palms new from Circuit City a few years ago. This one for sale is my husband’s; I am keeping mine.
Since this item has been used by my husband, that will explain the multiple scratches all over the aluminum hard case, as well as the necessity of such a case. He is an incredibly dear, loving, but absentminded computer geek, who has a tendency to lose more expensive gadgets than I can buy him, drop things from great distances due to his 6 foot height, set fragile items on precarious stacks of mail near the edges of counters, and arrive home with rips in his jeans and coffee spilled down the front of his shirt - clueless that such faults have occurred during the course of his day.
The sturdiness of the aluminum case is revealed by the operational condition of this Palm Tungsten E. However, please don’t bid if you intend to ask for a refund because the aluminum hard case is “scratched.” I said it was scratched, and yes, it is scratched in many places. None of the scratches damage its functionality however, so if you don’t like my husband’s loving scratches, you can purchase a new case somewhere else and add your own individual scratches to it.
The back of the case has a plastic button intended for sliding into a plastic waist clip. The original flimsy plastic waist clip did not meet the same happy fate as the aluminum case, and was replaced several times before I gave up buying more. I believe you can buy additional flimsy plastic clips on Ebay or at your local Radio Shack.
Since we stopped replacing the flimsy plastic clips, my husband resorted to carrying the Palm in its case by other means. It has survived being shoved into over-stuffed pants pockets, thumped against door frames as the pants pass them by, and thrown into a 30lb backpack bulging with assorted screwdrivers, pliers, ragged-edged broken CDs, frayed cables, and possibly unnamed items acquired during one of my husband’s dumpster diving episodes.
The color touch screen appears to my 20-20 vision to be without scratches, however you may want to replace the static plastic protector that is over the screen. I thought we had extra static plastic protectors laying around, but they appear to have disappeared into the black hole that floats through our apartment sucking up my husband’s other valuable possessions.
I will be cleaning the Palm and case as best I can with q-tips and toothpicks, but if you find specks of dirt or tiny crumbs clinging in a smaller-than-toothpick-sized slit in the case or somewhere, please give me a bit of grace. I am a thorough cleaner with an eye for detail, but it is possible that something will slide through the cracks (no pun intended).
If you really are distressed by the condition of the item when you receive it, despite my exhaustingly intricate description, please contact me immediately. I will refund the cost of the item after you return it, but I will not refund shipping because I have done my darndest to give you the best description I can, and the shipping cost is money spent I can’t recoup, which takes away from paying “down” my student loans (I don’t say paying “off” because I’m not convinced that will ever happen before I die of old age).
In the meantime, I hope the honest ones among us (which is most) can continue to make Ebay a better place to buy, sell, window shop, and keep the world economy going.