All the eBay items I posted on Monday after the auctions ended over the weekend obviously started to arrive today. As such, I've had a pretty busy day.
One item, a mug, has somewhat of a saga.
A gift that had never made it from the box, I put up the self proclaimed 'World's Biggest Mug' on eBay. A few days later, person A messaged me asking how much it held, and how he would be in the bidding. He never bid, and the mug went at a price of 99p to person B. Less than an hour later, person A messaged me saying he missed the bidding, but would happily pay £6 plus P&P if the sale didn't go through, and told me he couldn't find a mug like this anywhere. I googled. He was right.
The sale did go through.
My mum packaged up the mug in multiple layers of bubble wrap and cardboard, and we took it to the Post Office. I had charged £2 for P&P, making the £3.50 postage mean I was effectively paying person B 50p to have this mug, but as I made money on the postage of other items, I just put it down to bad estimation.
Today, I got a message from person B, telling me the mug had broken in transit. Obviously, I apologised and offered a refund or trying to claim compensation from Royal Mail. He suggested trying for compensation, but by that time, I had discovered that I wouldn't be covered. I issued a refund, explaining how it was a shame that this had happened as person A had struggled to find a similar item, so the mug was rare.
This was when it got a little strange. Person B was touched that I had refunded him, putting myself out of pocket, and was so lovely about it that I got the warm and fuzzies. He then said, to stop him from feeling guilty, he would happily post the broken mug to person A as a little glue should fix it. I thought 'ah, why not' and emailed A to see if he wanted a free broken mug. He did not.
Thus, I imagine the mug ended up in the bin, and that is the end of it's tragic tale.
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