The Blogger's Court

DUM DUM DUM!! (Imagine cheesy “People’s Court” music here) This is the Plaintiff, Dasi. She states that Mr. X purchased baseball tickets from her on E-bay, then never paid. She is suing for recognition that she is right and he is an asshole. DUM DUM DUM!! This is the Defendant, Mr. X. He states that he had every intention of paying for said tickets, but before he could do so, Dasi reniged on the deal and sold him cheaper seats instead. He is being charged with being an asshole and stringing Dasi along.

(Insert bongo drums here.) The participants in this case are not actors. They are real people who have a cyberspace case pending in an E-bay court. Both parties have agreed to dismiss this action and have their dispute settled here… in our forum… THE BLOGGER’S COURT!!!

Ok, so now that we have had the introduction... obviously, Mr. X is not present, so this will pretty much be my word against what I say his word was, however, this is my blog and I can do what I want. That said, let me set the scene:

Back in February, I purchased four Cubs tickets for the 7/29 Cub-Cardinal game. These were awesome seats, and VERY expensive. Thankfully, I had plenty of available credit and was able to cough up the $150 per ticket so I could bring my Dad as a Father's Day gift, and sell the other two on e-bay. Admittedly, I made my first mistake right there. I never should have bought the extra two tickets with the intention of selling them and hopefully making a buck or two. But you know what they say about hindsight...

Anyway, July finally rolls around, and I figure I ought to list the tickets before it's too late. So on July 2, I posted them for $325.00 - plus $14.40 overnight shipping. A week later, on July 9, the auction ended, and Mr. X was the sole bidder, winning the pair for the $325.00. I was happy they sold, despite the fact that I really only broke even (once you considered the handling fees I paid). So I send out the little e-bay invoice, and wait for an e-mail from Paypal saying "you have received a payment from Mr. X." Unfortunately, it never came. On July 12, three days after the auction ended, I sent a friendly reminder to Mr. X. Following are actual e-mails chronicling what happened from there. Mr. X's e-mails are in blue, mine are in red (just to stick with the Cubbie theme):

Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2006
Hi, I am going to pay for these ASAP. I'm taking my identical twin bro, so you know, I'm rock solid, I just need until next week. We're huge Cub fans, and these ticks are SO sweet. Thank you.

Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Hey - sorry to bother you... but it's been a week since our last e-mails... you DO still want the tickets, right? Because the auction ended ten days ago and the game is next Saturday... if there is a problem, let me know so I can re-list them in time. Thanks!

Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2006
No worries at all. Yes! I do still want the two tickets. I'll have the money to you on Saturday, Monday the latest. I promise I won't hang you out to dry on these tickets. Is this ok? If you're concerned about the transaction getting fulfilled, I understand. You don't know me from Adam. I don't want you to re-list the tickets, but I would understand. Just let me know. Thanks!

Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2006
Ok, against my better judgment - I'll trust you...! After all, you ARE a Cub fan, and besides, I have your name, e-mail and cell # and come from a family of Chicago cops. lol (Although I'm NOT kidding...!)
I'll overnight the tickets as soon as I get the $, so make sure you give me an address where there will be someone that can sign for them (it will be USPS express - and I'm not sure whether or not they require a signature).

Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2006
Hi Dasi, I appreciate your patience. Thank you! I won't let you down :) I'm going to include my address now, so you have that too ;) I work out of here, so I'm here all the time. Unfortunately :( Although, it's a nice view.
Thanks again

So by now, it has been ten days since the auction ended, and still no money. But I figure I’ll give the guy a break, and try to be a little more patient. After almost another full week goes by, and I still haven’t heard from him, I decide to relist the tickets. And file an Unpaid Item dispute, so I can get my final value fees back, which were about $12 - $15. Upon doing so, e-bay forwards the below to Mr. X:

Jul-25-06 at 11:32:41 PDT
An Unpaid Item dispute has been opened for the following item: **CUBS V. CARDINALS - BULLPEN BOX - SAT 7/29** (#120004230588) Reason given for Unpaid Item: The buyer has not paid for the item.
Buyer actions reported by seller: The buyer's payment has not been received.

I also decide to drop a more personal note to Mr. X, which set this little back-and-forth in motion:

Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2006
So, I'm assuming you no longer want the tickets... I really wish you would have told me sooner, since I may not be able to sell them at all at this late date... Oh, well - live and learn, I guess. Thanks anyway.

Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Hey Dasi! I do want the tickets!! Please don't get rid of them. I promised you. Nobody trusts anyone anymore. Damn!

Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Ok, ok… I'm not angry with you, in case my last e-mail came across bitchy - actually, I was very relieved to hear from you... I'm just stressing because I don't want to be out the $$.

Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Hi Dasi! You don't sound bitchy at all. I'm in Grad school right now, so I understand totally. In every way. Believe me. It's just that I would never screw you over. Not ever. It's not in me, I promise. I'm sorry I'm making you STRESSED!

Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Blah, blah, blah. JUST GET ME MY MONEY!! Oh, AND you owe me a beer now, too!

Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2006
I'm buying your Dad one too! And a dog. Cuz, well, for obvious reasons...

Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2006
See now, I am SO enjoying our repartee - I am hoping I don't have to hunt you down or anything after the game if I wind up with two empty seats next to me... remember - the game is S A T U R D A Y... tickets will have to be mailed by T H U R S D A Y... so you get them on F R I D A Y... capisci??

Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2006
I'm all in Dasi! Thank you for everything. I only take my bro (and myself) to one game every year, and this is the game I reverse the curse of that damn goat and black cat! Do you know where I can get their bones? Jk ;)(kind of)
And like a fool, I again put my trust in him and take down the relisting. Which brings us to our final e-mail reportoire:

Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Ok - all kidding aside - as much as I like you through e-mail, I have to point out that it is 3:00 pm on Wednesday and I still don't have payment... The mail leaves our office at 3:30 pm, and I don't leave until 5:30, which means I can't stop at the post office to drop off an overnight letter myself. Soooo, today is out for shipping, and if I don't have the tickets ready to ship by 3:00 tomorrow, they definitely won't get to you by game time. PLEASE. Let me rest easy tonight!!! I am putting it all on the line here, and trusting you are as nice and as honest as you seem by not relisting the tix. But for God's sake at least tell me WHEN exactly I can expect an e-mail from paypal saying "payment received!"

Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Rest easy D. Tomorrow afternoon. It's in the 11's for the Cubs right now. If they sweep their home stand (11 games), their record would be even. The way I see it, they have nine losses to go 92-70. That could get 'em in to the dance. I'm making pacts with the baseball g-ds.

Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2006
You said nobody trusts anyone anymore... this is why. The mail has gone out, and I haven't gotten paid for the tickets, so now I am out over $300, money I can’t afford to lose. I don’t understand why you couldn’t just tell me up front if there was a problem getting the money, or that it turned out the seats were too expensive for you. I could’ve relisted the seats and sold them to someone else. Now I am stuck with the tickets and out the money.
Thought you were one of the good guys – looks like I was a fool.

Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2006
Dasi! HI! Please call me. Xxx-xxx-xxxx c or xxx-xxx-xxxx (I'm actually out at my Mom's place in Naperville). I'm getting the $ in my account tomorrow AM. I am paying you for the tickets, even if you can't get them to me. That's the way I am. I'm an honest man. Good and decent. I'll pay you tomorrow AM, and I'll find a way to get the tickets from you. I AM one of the good guys. You'll see when you meet me. I think. I love people too much to ever mess with them. Maybe they ARE too expensive for me, but I take my bro to the best game I can each year. Last year was Sandberg's #23 retirement game against the Marlins. I'm sorry to be standing on your last nerve on this one. I am truly sorry to cause you STRESS!

After receiving that, I did call Mr. X. I finally got a hold of him on Friday, the DAY BEFORE the game. NINETEEN DAYS after the auction ended. He swore up and down he still wanted the tickets, he had just gotten the money, and I gave him the option of coming to my job with the money in exchange for the tickets. No, he suggested, how about I Paypal the money tonight, and meet you before the game tomorrow to get the tickets? I told him that would be fine, since I was already planning to meet my dad at a bar before the game, but the money had to be IN MY ACCOUNT by this evening, or no tickets. Period. He promised it would be done.

Guess what? I checked my e-mail AND paypal account when I got home Friday night around midnight, and nada. I went to bed frustrated and angry, out over $300.

At 7:00 am Saturday morning, game day, no less, my phone rang. It was him, apologizing up and down, telling me that his brother had a seizure because he had a head injury from a few months back and couldn’t make the game, but he STILL wanted the tickets and was going to bring his stepdad. He said he didn’t pay because… well, to be honest, I don’t remember what his excuse was this time. In any case, I felt caught between a rock and a hard place, and agreed to still meet him at the bar at 2:00 (the game was at 3:05) so he could buy the tickets.

I had a really bad feeling about the whole thing, but at this point, I felt stuck. Until my brother called. I told him what had transpired, and he told me that he and his buddy would take the extra two tickets, and I should call Mr. X, tell him I sold them to someone else, but that I had two upper deck box seats (my brother’s seaon ticket seats) that he could have for face value, $40 each. I kind of hesitated, and my brother stated that he didn’t trust this guy, that he could possibly show up with a check that would bounce or way less than what he was supposed to pay, and I would wind up being scammed. He made sense, my brother, and seriously, I didn’t know this guy from Adam. Besides, he had made promise after promise to pay and never had, so I swallowed my guilt and called him.

He was thrilled. He said he only wanted the other seats for his brother, and since he couldn’t go, he really couldn’t afford them. But he would meet us at the bar for the $40 tickets.

He DID meet us, although not at the bar, and not at 2:00. He kept calling and calling (“the Metra is late, sorry!” “now the red line is late!!” “I’m RUNNING! I’ll be at the front gate!”) and we eventually met him right at the moment the first pitch was thrown, at 3:05. He paid the $80, gave me a hug (ew) and told me to watch my e-mail because he was going to send me some rookie Cub baseball cards (he had mentioned Kerry Wood) for all my trouble. Yeah, whatever. I wouldn’t take money from my brother, I couldn’t, he always gives me his tickets to use free of charge. It hurt eating the $250 (I did keep the $80), but we had a great time anyway.

Seemed like all's well that ends well, except for me being out the money. But I still had to close the dispute with e-bay to get my final value fees back. So this is what happened (all sent through e-bay):

Jul-29-06 at 19:36:37 PDT
Although we've resolved the matter, you need to respond to this dispute so I can get a final value credit and you won't get a nonpayment strike against you. Please respond indicating that we have mutually agreed to cancel the transaction so I can close the dispute. Thanks!

Aug-01-06 at 05:14:18 PDT
PLEASE respond... for your sake. Otherwise, tomorrow I will be closing the dispute to get credit for the final value fee, and you will have an unpaid strike against you. With this, I CANNOT wait, because fees are paid monthly, and I can't afford to lose an additional ten or so bucks on top of the $300 when it can be prevented...

Aug-01-06 at 05:41:00 PDT
I have already paid for this item. Payment details are as follows:
Payment type: n/a
Amount: $325.00
Payee: Dasi
Payment date: Jul-29-2006
Additional comments: DONE!

Aug-01-06 at 06:41:25 PDT
DO NOT mess around with me. You know you never paid me the $325. I am not trying to screw you - the only way to resolve this amicably is to agree that we settled the transaction without you purchasing the seats THAT WERE UP FOR AUCTION. If you continue to insist you paid the $325 (which you didn't) I will have no choice but to pursue this as a contested dispute, where you will have to show proof of payment & get a nonpayment strike. Let me at least get my final value fee back.

He didn't respond, so I closed the dispute, thus issuing him a nonpayment strike. And since I was po'd, I left him this negative feedback, a bit cramped due to space constraints:

Wtd 3 wks for pmt,got screwed.Heboughtcheaper tix at game time- left me out $250

His response?

Sent: Tuesday, August 1, 2006
Nice writing skills! Wait until you see my response. I had the money for those tickets on Saturday AM. YOU gave me the option for the cheaper tickets, and that is all I'm going to say about it. On E-Bay anyway. I guess I don't have to send out those rookie cards to you for Lexie. It's so funny how people can be so, well, like you, and don't even see it in any way other than how you see it. hahahahaha sucks to be you

Well, I refuse to respond to him, but I submit it all to you, Blogger's Court. What do you think? Am I a total bitch? Or is Mr. X an asshole?? Do you believe that he was still planning to pay? Or do you think I was being scammed?? The comments section is wide open!!

(And as for my writing skills, Mr. X, just WAIT until I publish "TBOTE!!!")