Ebay bingo

I came across the idea of ebay bingo a while ago. You ask where a delayed item is and you get a long message detailing a tale of woe and disaster.

Yesterday I got a line, when I asked where something was. I got a holiday, a funeral and a member of the family in the hospital. You only get full house if the budgie died.

I feel a bit heartless, and I truly hope that these bad things have not happened. However it is such a cliche that I look sceptically at irate and badly spelled messages insisting I am wrong to want my item this month.

Also, I feel it is a bit unprofessional. Even if your house had a direct hit from a Triffid, the professional response to 'where is my item' is surely, 'I'm really sorry, I have had a few delays, it will be in the post today.' or 'I'm sorry that you haven't received it, please can you let me know if there is a glitch with your post at that end and I will check at this end. If all else fails I will refund/replace'.

And I am a bit grumpy because I have a cough that makes it hard to talk and I sent my usual, 'I'm really sorry to bother you but I haven't yet had...' message that is really polite and nice and I got shouted at. And the message that shouted at me wasn't even properly written - if they are going to tell me off, the least they could do is punctuate!

I won't leave a negative because I feel that unless it is a truly horrendous experience, if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. And I won't leave anything. However there is no way to block a seller. I don't want to buy from this seller again, and they are a business seller. I hope that a few months down the line I don't try and buy something from there again.

I am considering creating a 'bad seller' list and referring to it. It just seems a bit over dramatic. I haven't really had enough gruesome experiences to make it worth my while.

Two things in the last twelve hours have made me happy with my friend ebay. One item was a pair of new trainers for little bear. Almost immediately I got a polite email from the seller saying that they had mistaken the stock level, they gave a brief explanation that didn't involve drama and an instant refund. I have left positive feedback. And I bought a hat for little bear for some fancy dress coming up. I noticed that it came from a supplier of fishing hats and the note on the description said that they were being sold inexpensively as the supplier had sent the wrong size hats. The hat was inexpensive and arrived the next morning, well packed and without drama.

But I am going to try and stay away from my friend for the next few weeks BECAUSE I HAVE NO ROOM