What was your worst experience of selling something online?

[IfInDoubtDIY]

Here are two to get you started:

First was many years ago, selling an unwanted wedding gift - a cast iron skillet thing. I posted it, and to be fair I didn’t package it very well, so it arrived broken. What made the experience so unpleasant for me was the fact that the buyer waited for ME to contact him instead of contacting me about the damage as soon as the item arrived - once I DID contact him he started accusing me of deliberately and fraudulently sending him something that was already damaged just to scam him - all I could do was apologise and send him a refund (which I was going to do anyway!)

Second was a few years after that, selling an old vented tumble dryer on Gumtree. Got a message on a Saturday morning from a lady who said she wanted to come and buy it but wouldn’t be able to until Tuesday. I told her she could come on Tuesday if it was still available. Sunday evening someone ELSE contacted me and said he was 10 minutes away and could he come and have a look. I said yes, he turned up with his mate who spoke very little English (they were both Eastern European), asked me to demo the tumble dryer then handed me the money and said “I take now?” We shook hands on the deal, he loaded the thing into the trailer and away he went. I contacted the other lady and told her it had been sold - she became VERY abusive and started threatening to report me to Gumtree because we had agreed she would buy it - even though I’d made no such agreement!

 

[johnny2007]

Yes, some people are very needy and demanding.
I always make clear that I cannot hold anything unless a deposit is paid.
My worst experience was with what I then found to be a "professional" (not so good) scammer.
My friend collects cameras, binoculars and old watches, nothing super expensive, but in very good conditions.
Occasionally he gets rid of some stuff to buy other and as he doesn't use ebay, I sell for him.
This time it was a pocket binocular from the 70s, german made in mint conditions.
Sold for £150, it was packaged with half a roll of wrap paper.
Even if the courier had played football with the box nothing could've happened to the binoculars.
But, somehow the arrived totally smashed.
What the wannabe scammer didn't realise is that there was a serial number embossed on the binoculars, also visible in my ebay ad.
He had another binocular, same model and thought he could exchange it for a mint one for free.
I contacted ebay and reported the fraud.
They took the hit and refunded.
But, as the scammer had also been abusive, I started looking at his other feedbacks and found other 3 people scammed in a similar fashion.
I reported him to the police and a couple of weeks later he contacted me with another abusive email.
That was passed to the police and ebay.
His account was blocked.
Police contacted me and said they'd recovered the binoculars.
I paid for them to be sent to me.
Ebay didn't want the money back.
A lot of hassles.