Recently we received a negative feedback on eBay and the marketplace seems unwilling to remove it even though we fully explained our side of the story. The reason this buyer decided to leave a scathing remark was because he received a large Forces of Valor tank that he claimed was slightly damaged during transit. Apparently, he was able to repair the minor damage but in so doing sent us a message indicating his displeasure and, more importantly, that we didn’t respond quickly enough to his missive during the busy holiday season. He did not indicate that he wanted to return the model; nor did he ask for a partial refund as compensation. Instead, his note to us was vulgar, as if to say we had a hand in sending him a broken model. While we don’t open each model ahead of time to inspect a product for any number of reasons, we do shake it a bit to see if anything is rattling around prior to its packing and mailing.

We don’t often get negative feedback on eBay — in fact, if you read our overall feedback you’ll see most comments are quite positive. In some instances, models arrive damaged from a courier mishandling the parcel so we do our best to work with the buyer to resolve the issue. If the customer cannot repair the damage, then they are free to open a return, whereby we pay for the return shipping and promptly refund the customer the cost of the sale. What bothers me isn’t so much the negative feedback. What does strike a chord, however, is the recent trend of running into aggressive buyers on eBay and elsewhere, where they feel as if they can dictate terms, tell us what they are willing to pay for an item, and, if need be, tell the world that we didn’t buckle to their demands. Our policy is simple. This is what we sell and this is what we sell it for. I don’t go into a local fast food restaurant and attempt to barter or negotiate with the manager to get a burger or taco at a lower price, and this is the way we conduct our own business. If you do not like this approach to the running of our business, then I have only one thing to say — buy the item from someone else. We are not here to be talked down to as if we are some sort of misbehaving junk yard dog nor do we deserve the brunt of your misplaced anger if your day isn’t going well. In short, I will not cave to your demands under any circumstances and, if need be, will resort to legal action if you decide to take things to another level when our response is not to your liking.

A couple of years ago, we ran into a similar situation on our e-commerce web site where one buyer demanded we lower the price of an item and wouldn’t take no for answer even when we explained to him that the manufacturer increased the cost of the item well beyond its initial asking price. He did his utmost to destroy our reputation, but never once told the full story behind his anger. As if that weren’t enough, he then went on to attempt to break into our Amazon Seller account to do as much damage as possible to our operation. I know this because we received multiple notifications that someone was attempting to access our account. To make a long story short, he was unable to break into our account but to this day still attacks us online.

To sum up, if you do not like the fact that we stick to our guns when selling an item, then move on. From my standpoint, life is too short to worry about why you feel it necessary to take a piece of diecast memorabilia so seriously and whether or not you can deal with someone saying no to your demands. There are plenty of other dealers out there who I can only assume are more than willing to cave to your demands. I won’t.