Tales From Ebay – The Possibly Vintage, But Definitely Not Patchwork, Quilt

So the last two articles in this series were from a seller's vantage point. In the quest to be fair and spread the complaints around, let me share a doozy from being a buyer. This took place probably around 2001-2002 sometime.

I really admire and like handmade patchwork quilts. Of course I cannot sew to save my life nor do I have $500+ to drop on someone's masterpiece. As a result, finding gently used cast-offs on eBay was a real bargain hunter's paradise. There were always lots of listings to browse and it was quite common to see selling prices of $30 to $100 for decent condition, double size patchwork quilts.

I had been shopping for a nicely used and large quilt that I could curl up on the couch with while watching weekend NFL games. So while browsing an eBay search one day I came across a really nice listing. I still remember the title vividly. It was Multi-Color Blue Vintage Patchwork Quilt. The photos in the listing were really good and this piece seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. The description said everything right too. The seller also had a fair amount of feedback. So I made a bid of $40.

I ended up winning the quilt for $38 plus $10 shipping. I was thrilled and immediately made my payment through PayPal.

About a week later I received a nice sized box in the mail and I was sure it was the beautiful quilt I had purchased. Imagine my surprise when I pulled out a large, very worn blanket that had a quilt pattern silk screened onto the nappy fabric. It reminded me of those kiddy pajamas, that had little things inked onto the fluffy fabric, after about 100 washings. I was so disappointed.

I went into eBay and looked at the listing again, rereading it over and over. Nowhere in the copy or in any of the photos was anything like the item I received. Before going nuts on the seller, I sent the listing to 5 online friends. I told them nothing, but asked them to describe what type of item they thought they would receive if they had won this item. All 5 expected pretty much what I thought I was purchasing.

I emailed the seller and complained about the item. I asked for a refund stating that the item was largely misrepresented in the listing. I waited about 4 days and got no reply. So I resent the same message saying that this was my second attempt to contact the seller. Still after several more days, I got no response to either email. So I left the seller a negative rating stating that the item was not as listed and seller was unresponsive.

This was back in the day when a lot of sellers wouldn't leave a buyer feedback until you posted feedback for the seller. As a result I got a retaliatory negative the same day from the seller.

I found it ironic that the seller couldn't be bothered to reply to my emails, yet he could sure post a negative rating for me in little to no time flat. I also wasn't aware that I could have filed a claim with PayPal and gotten my money refunded automatically. So I ate the $48 and marched the rotten, beat-up blanket off to the dumpster at my apartment complex.

About a week later, my good friend Leslie called to tell me she had found a nice patchwork quilt at an estate sale for $5 for me. It was nicely worn and in an assortment of blue colors too. So it basically all worked out ok in the end, even if the experience on eBay was a bad one. Oh, and I still have that quilt too.