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Anti-gaijin buyer on Yahoo - rant on my failed groupset sale...

kubatyszko

Speeding Up
Jul 29, 2012
79
24
As some of you might know, I've had my Force groupset on classifieds since December.
Since there were no buyers I have put it on yahoo auctions to increase my audience, and eventually someone clicked "buy now".
We exchanged a couple messages, I provided him my account number and waited for the payment - the next day the buyer messages me asking to cancel his bid as there were "some issues".

From the beginning the story of message/comment exchange goes (summarised):

---

Me: Thank you for winning the auction, I accept yahoo payment or bank transfer to citibank, will post within 1 day after the payment is confirmed.

Buyer: Thank you blah blah, are there any issues with the groupset ? are cables supplied ?

Me: No issues, groupset is working and I replaced it with another groupset - hence selling this one, no cables but there is some used housing included (it wasn't in the description)

(next day) Buyer: Please cancel my bid as there were some issues in communication

Me: I have canceled your bid but this will result in negative comment (where I wrote that buyer canceled without giving any reason)

Buyer's comment: I dealt with foreign shipment in the past and with payment the goods took over 1 month to arrive due to out-of-stock, also the goods are fake...

My response: Buyer is incorrect - none of this is true - I ship from Tokyo, within 1 day and the goods are not fake ...

---

We debated on this with my other cyclo-friends and concluded the buyer most likely got scared by the facts that I'm a foreigner, payment was to citibank (shibuya branch), and that auction was mostly in english (he did click buy now though).

To me he was simply being xenophobic, I do understand some people have previous bad experience (I had some too with other sellers/buyers in the past, but that doesn't stop me from continuing to buy/sell stuff)...

Who knows, likely he didn't even pay attention to whatever I wrote and already had set his mind on a cancelation as soon as he figured out I'm not an autochthon...

What sucks the most is that now I have a neutral comment on my auction (and I've never had anything other than positive on 4 auction sites over >10 years).
 
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I feel you mate. That really sucks!
There are always A-holes in any side of the planet. This community is not exempted, there are some dumb ass in here too, but whats good is,, majority are great enough to cheer you up.!
 
Sorry you got the shift, give him bad rep and report the transaction in detail and ask if he is zenophobic in the feedback, it's not strictly racism as he doesn't know your race.. Hope you have plenty of good experiences on YahooAuc in the future. If your groupset was RED I would have taken the brifters (sorry FE, i know you hate the term but it works really well).
good luck on the sale
 
Sorry you got the shift, give him bad rep and report the transaction in detail and ask if he is zenophobic in the feedback, it's not strictly racism as he doesn't know your race.. Hope you have plenty of good experiences on YahooAuc in the future. If your groupset was RED I would have taken the brifters (sorry FE, i know you hate the term but it works really well).
good luck on the sale

Thx for the correction, you're right about racism vs. xenophobism.

I do have RED chain catcher if you're looking for one (but I think RED includes that as a standard anyway).
 
As some of you might know, I've had my Force groupset on classifieds since December.
Since there were no buyers I have put it on yahoo auctions to increase my audience, and eventually someone clicked "buy now".
We exchanged a couple messages, I provided him my account number and waited for the payment - the next day the buyer messages me asking to cancel his bid as there were "some issues".

From the beginning the story of message/comment exchange goes (summarised):

---

Me: Thank you for winning the auction, I accept yahoo payment or bank transfer to citibank, will post within 1 day after the payment is confirmed.

Buyer: Thank you blah blah, are there any issues with the groupset ? are cables supplied ?

Me: No issues, groupset is working and I replaced it with another groupset - hence selling this one, no cables but there is some used housing included (it wasn't in the description)

(next day) Buyer: Please cancel my bid as there were some issues in communication

Me: I have canceled your bid but this will result in negative comment (where I wrote that buyer canceled without giving any reason)

Buyer's comment: I dealt with foreign shipment in the past and with payment the goods took over 1 month to arrive due to out-of-stock, also the goods are fake...

My response: Buyer is incorrect - none of this is true - I ship from Tokyo, within 1 day and the goods are not fake ...

---

We debated on this with my other cyclo-friends and concluded the buyer most likely got scared by the facts that I'm a foreigner, payment was to citibank (shibuya branch), and that auction was mostly in english (he did click buy now though).

To me he was simply being xenophobic, I do understand some people have previous bad experience (I had some too with other sellers/buyers in the past, but that doesn't stop me from continuing to buy/sell stuff)...

Who knows, likely he didn't even pay attention to whatever I wrote and already had set his mind on a cancelation as soon as he figured out I'm not an autochthon...

What sucks the most is that now I have a neutral comment on my auction (and I've never had anything other than positive on 4 auction sites over >10 years).
 
Sometimes you can play the gaijin card and use ignorance to your own benefit and sometimes it procludes you from fully joining in the sewn up insular rule system that is Japan, eh.
Used to buy/sell untold amount of goods on Ebay and unfortunately you're dealing with the arse-end of society a lot of the time and there's nothing you can do.
Hope you move it on soon.
 
See - exactly as I mentioned sometime ago!! I don't even bother with Yahoo Auction as a seller. Nothing but trouble every time. The OCD mentality and scamphishers are rampant. And if you get just a single 'neutral' or 'negative' point you are tossed to the kerb.
 
Look this isn't just a Japanese thing.... its rampant on all online sales regardless. People that impulse buy or find the same cheaper a minute, hour, day later will do anything they can to pull out of the sale. It's happened to me Ebay and it's all par of the risk when selling online.
 
Kuba is lucky he didn't actually ship the product, THEN have to deal with endless 'teeth sucking wind'. I totally agree with FE on this matter. You have to have a thick skin , and /or , just play a harder game of ball.
 
There are some differences between yahoo and other online markets such as ebay, on yahoo you're expected to behave very precisely, if you look at most auctions' descriptions they contain everything (more often everything except the actual product details) - list of "condition categories", shipping prices, packing etc etc.
Same goes for messages - sellers often message you a kind of "form" with a bunch of bulletpoints to answer (which I always ignore).
This was my first issue with yahoo as a seller (I haven't sold too many items, maybe 5-10 total).
I also had one issue on ebay a few months ago, sold a computer item as junk, and shipped without tracking number (this was my mistake), then buyer filed a claim that his item has not arrived - which I could not disprove, not too much of a loss but I have a cousin who is big on ebay and he had to deal with much more serious scams quite a few times.
 
@Kuba, exactly - the difference is this, mainly:

1) On ebay and other primarily non-Japanese selling sites, the modus operandi is to claim and describe the FEATURES and BENEFITS of your item, while downplaying any negative aspects.

2) On Yahoo Japan, the modus operandi is to carefully describe ALL the negative aspects so that risk is reduced to near nil. With the understanding the buyer has already made their mind to buy the product. Once you understand that, then selling (and buying) makes sense. If you followed that approach on ebay, you'd sell nothing. But in Japan, if you don't, then you'll get bombed with complaints.

I sold a set of NEW chainrings and the buyer complained bitterly that the package had been OPENED, therefore, they technically weren't new - but USED. My definition of NEW was obviously quite different than his. So, from then on I NEVER use words that describe the product anywhere close to NEW or PERFECT, instead - use words like 'Unused on a daily basis' or 'Package has been damaged due to opening' . (Yes, only in Japan is the PACKAGE of the product equal to or worth more than the contents). So you need to be VERY careful about even describing the package and if it might have any stain, tear, marking, blemish or other sign of handling.
 
I have used Yahoo auction in the past, never had too many troubles. But had people cancel on a sale for no reason. I had a guy complain about the USED motorcycle racing tires I sold him!! ha ha ha! That was a pretty funny exchange in the end I realized that he just wanted to talk to someone about bikes and racing and as I had a decent profile amongst local racers he knew who I was and that seemed to work in my favour.

I think in winter months you get a lot more of this kind of impulse buying for sports that are primarily summer sports. People get bored and start shopping.
 
People get bored and start shopping.
Most of my bikes, yep bought in January and February. Unfortunately I have maxed out, no more for me. Now just wheels and components, single speeds however limit my choices.
 
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