I’ll never understand why some people bid on auction items…and then refuse to pay up.
Was it a spur-of-the-moment thing?
Or maybe they just wanted to act like jerks?
I guess each person is different…and this person had quite a story to tell on Reddit.
Check out what they had to say.
Win my auction and not pay? Oh trust me, you’re going to pay!
“I make art as a hobby. Metal sculptures. I only sell them when I need a bit of money for something.
I had a holiday coming up so listed one here on TradeMe (an auction site) for a $1 reserve. The auction lasted 10 days and the piece got quite a bit of interest in that time with lots of people adding it to their watchlist and bidding on it.
They were about to get stiffed.
It ended up selling for a bit over $500. Perfect.
I contacted the winner with my bank details and ask for their delivery address.
No reply. Email again. Nothing.
I look into his profile a bit and sure enough he doesn’t follow through on half things he buys. Fair few grumpy feedbacks from other sellers. He’s a complete Time Waster (TW). Hmmm I’m a bit annoyed. I’ve already had to pay a listing fee, advertising fees and $40 success fee (I’ll eventually get this back but still annoying) and being in limbo on a deal sucks.
You kind of expect the money and kind of don’t at the same time. Got me raging. I google his email, nothing. I check if he has any listings for sale, he doesn’t. Besides give him bad feedback there’s not really much I can else I can do right now. I add him as a favorite seller. This way next time he lists something I’ll get emailed about it but he never does.
Then they got an alert.
About a year later, after I’d forgotten all about it, I get a bunch of emails from Trademe telling me TW has new listings. Seems TW is packing up shop and moving to Australia. Seems everything has got to go, mate.
Ironically, his listing states that everything must be picked up by end of August as I’m moving to Australia, NO TIME WASTERS. He’s got listings for a car, motorcycle, tools, a welder, some furniture, rims and a bunch of other stuff. I give his feedback another quick look to see if he’s changed his ways. He hasn’t.
The plan was coming together.
Over the following week I research what a good price would be for everything he lists. I share all his listings with my friends and get them to add his listing to their watchlist so he thinks they are popular.
Instruct them to go into a bidding war with me on each item up to a certain amount but no further. I win all of his auctions using a bunch of false accounts. Lucky guy gets top dollar for everything. I reply all the auction winning email confirmations from the various accounts arranging different pick up times for the goods agreeing to paying cash on pickup for everything.
As the week goes on I cancel, reschedule, rain check and delay every pick up. Bearing in mind I’m pretending to be a different person for each item from different SIM cards.
This was gonna be a good time!
On the day I arrange to pick up the car (it had been agreed previously that he could continue to use his car up until two days before leaving for Australia because I’m a nice guy like that) I text him that I’m on my way, see you at 1.
I was late of course.
‘Nearly there mate see you soon’ half an hour later ‘ 5 minutes away’ 20 minutes later ‘I’m here where are ya?’
Ignore the text messages and waited for the call.
TW: Where are ya
Me: Annoying isn’t it
TW: What?
Me: Annoying isn’t it
Tw: What do you mean.
Me: You know. Having someone bid on your auction with no intention of buying it.
TW: Are you kidding?!!!
Me: No, I remember being quite annoyed when you did it to me.
TW: Who?when?
ME: I’ll let you figure that one out.
Click.
Over the next few hours I called him as the welder buyer ‘Annoying isn’t it’, the motorbike buyer ‘Annoying isn’t it’, outdoor furniture buyer ‘Annoying isn’t it’ …
All of them.
And the cherry on top!
To top it off I gave him positive feedback on everything I bought saying he was a ‘Top Trader A+++, easy pick up, good communication”.
In the coming weeks I was contacted by Trademe regarding his dispute. He was wanting to get the success fees back, over $500 altogether I’d guess.
I responded to each of those with the fact that I had already paid and picked it up and was happy with the item.
Not sure if he got all those success fees back but I very much doubt it.”
Check out what folks said about this on Reddit.
This person was impressed!
Another person shared how they do online selling.
This Reddit user saluted them!
This reader was a big fan of how this transpired.
And one Reddit user thought this was just PERFECT.
Go ahead and admit it…
This story made you chuckle!
Want to read another story where somebody got satisfying revenge? Check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.