Am I Evil? (eBay version)

More specifically, on half.com I attempted to make a purchase. A music CD that had some songs that I enjoyed on it. I ordered the CD. As far as I knew with half.com, you are only supposed to list items that you have and intend to sell, and you are supposed to respond and confirm the order that you as a seller receive rather quickly.

A few days later, I receive a half.com email stating that the transaction is cancelled. I was disappointed as I expected to have the CD in hand by now, so I went ahead and ordered elsewhere (it arrived without a hitch).

I see on my half.com account that my first attempted purchase is listed as an item that needs feedback from me. Since I did not want to say anything bad, I though clicking "neutral" with a comment that transaction was canceled would be the thing to do, since the sale was canceled.

A short while later, I received an email from the original person who listed the CD. She says: "I didn't cancel the transaction..I just didn't confirm it in time, therefore they list it as cancelled. I don't appreciate you leaving neutral feedback for a transaction that didn't even go through. So next time, don't leave feedback unless you actually buy something and pay for it."

Geeze, I thought according to the guidelines of half.com the seller was supposed to reply quickly. The seller admits in the email to not following through in time, but yet makes me out to be the back guy for leaving a neutral feedback rather than none. I thought I was being nice in not leaving negative feedback (she could have flagged "vacation" if she had no intention of getting the email on time) due to the fact that I saw that she stated the item was for sale, and had to wait and go through the ordering process a second time elsewhere.

Any way, I never replied to the email that she sent me as I don't want to start a flame war between the two of us. I guess her view is that since I never received or paid for the product, there should not have been any feedback given. I feel differently, because then a person who chronically never follows through in a timely enough basis would ever be identified for those checking feedback. I'm not by any means inferring that this person chronically never follows through, as I only knew what happened in my own personal transaction.


I did feel a small need to spout out about this whole thing when I received the quoted email, but then after a bit of time calmed down and realize that none of it matters. I'm only writing about this not to whine, but to share some of my life experiences.