Over a year passed since the trouble with mobile-1. I started selling on Half, and was doing very well, especially with feedback. I didn’t have any problems with ignorant boobs coming in and ruining everything, at least not until dwmport decided to buy from me.

The thing I hate about Half and Amazon is if they have inaccurate information (or a complete lack of information altogether) in their catalog, you’re pretty much out of luck. They have forms for sending fixes for this information, but I’ve never seen anything rectified. You can try to sell similar items under different item listings, but that's just asking for trouble, mostly because people don’t look at the description when they buy something.

So was this case. I bought this computer book for my girlfriend for class, but it turned out she needed a different package, so I posted the purchased one. Problem was, the version of the book didn’t match exactly to the listing, so I posted it in the lisiting for the second volume of the series (this one was the first), but made sure to put a picture of it up to avoid any confusion. Unfortunately, I forgot to mention anything in the description about the volume number.

It didn’t help matters that Half throws items in limbo for a little while after they sell to clear up all of the red tape. I discovered one day that my book was suddenly not listed, so I listed it again (this time with a better description). Soon after, I found out a sold the book. Later, I was told I sold it again…

So now I had two orders for one book. The logical thing to do would be to sell the book to the first person who bought it, but that’s when it dawned on me that my description for the first time sucked, so I contacted the buyer to confirm that the book I was selling was the one she wanted.

Keep in mind this was a time when Half had sellers confirm that they actually had the products in stock after they sold them. If an order went unconfirmed for so many days, it would be canceled. I didn’t want to confirm the order for the second person when I wasn’t sure if I had any stock or not. My message to the first buyer remained unanswered, and the second sale was canceled. I decided I had better mal the book out soon, so after a week and a few more e-mails, I sent the book.

And just like some bad comedic skit, the buyer contacted me immediately after I mailed the book stating she didn’t want the book. At that point, I was so frustrated with the situation that I informed her, politely, that she was an idiot and could return the book, but I would have to think about the refund. I ended up giving her half of a refund, mostly because I had already lost a sale and the item was clearly pictured.

Of course I got negative feedback, but I did sell the book again, and the money from this transaction covered the difference.