eBay Honorablilty

Let me go on record saying that I like eBay. Also, I like rock climbing. So, whenever I need to buy something for rock climbing I check out eBay first. Well, a couple weeks ago I won an auction for a new climbing rope on eBay. When I got the thing in this week, I found that it was nearly seventeen feet shorter than what was advertised on the listing. Seventeen feet may not sound like much, but that's 10% shorter than what I was told I was buying

I was quite annoyed. Nonetheless, I wanted to give the seller the benefit of the doubt, so I messaged him this: "I got the rope in today. It is as described except that it's 45 meters, not 50 meters. Did I get the wrong one?" I didn't really think he sent me the wrong rope. Truthfully, I thought he was trying to increase his profits by exaggerating the size of the rope. Obviously most all buyers would notice if something came in 50% shorter, but would they notice 10%? I felt like he was trying to scam me.

I got a response from the seller the next day. He said, "Sorry for the wrong description, it was not my intentions to mislead you or anyone else. As it was my fault, I will be glad to refund everything you paid for this plus your return postage. Or if you wish to keep it, I will gladly refund $10.00 to your PayPal account. Again it was an over-site of mine with no intentions to mislead you in any way! Let me know what you want to do." I have to admit, I was impressed by his offer. The fact that he was willing to refund me everything was pretty honorable. It's becoming more and more rare for capitalistic people do the right thing, and because he did... I wanted to thank him.

I responded to his message with this, "Thanks for the offer. I appreciate that you wanted to do the right thing. Even though the rope was a few meters short, I feel like I paid a fair price for what I received... so don't worry about any sort of refund." The truth is, I did pay a fair price. If I had gone to a retail store like REI, the same rope would have cost me over double. I could have bought a sweet new figure 8 with the $10 refund, but I ultimately decided that it was a better investment for me to use the $10 to build kindness. 

Here's a pic of my new rope.

PS: If you haven't ever tried climbing, you should! Its a great workout mental and physically. I used to be very afraid of heights, and rock climbing has nearly eradicated my phobia. If your local, I recommend Climb Nashville as a good place to start.