help with dilema please

[Puzzled12]

My sister and I were given tickets to sell to raise money for a charity. I have listed the
tickets on e-bay and they have sold for $60 a ticket. My
sister told people where she worked that she had these tickets and that she was trying to raise money for this charity. Her co-workers were giving her $3 a ticket. When I saw how little she was getting for them, I took the rest of her tickets. One of her co-workers called me and said she told my sister she wanted 4 tickets and I told her I had put all of the tickets on e-bay and she could bid on them if she likes. She was extremely upset and said her daughter was looking forward to going and she cannot afford those tickets on e-bay. She believes she should get the tickets for the same price the other people where my sister worked got them for. I felt it was my duty to raise as much money as I could for the charity? Help, who’s right?

 

[woobadooba]

My sister and I were given tickets to sell to raise money for a charity. I have listed the
tickets on e-bay and they have sold for $60 a ticket. My
sister told people where she worked that she had these tickets and that she was trying to raise money for this charity. Her co-workers were giving her $3 a ticket. When I saw how little she was getting for them, I took the rest of her tickets. One of her co-workers called me and said she told my sister she wanted 4 tickets and I told her I had put all of the tickets on e-bay and she could bid on them if she likes. She was extremely upset and said her daughter was looking forward to going and she cannot afford those tickets on e-bay. She believes she should get the tickets for the same price the other people where my sister worked got them for. I felt it was my duty to raise as much money as I could for the charity? Help, who’s right?

First of all, she has no right to get angry at you because you decided to sell the tickets on ebay and she can't afford to purchase them on ebay, nor should she be angry with your sister.

Did she give you money for the tickets? Did she sign a contract to get the tickets at a certain price? Did your sister agree to hold the tickets for her?
If not, then she has no right to be angry.

I sell stuff too, and I've found that often people will say they want something and they never buy it, or people will tell you to hold onto something for them, and they will back out of the deal. Who is to say that this woman wouldn't do that?

She has no right to be angry. You have every right to do whatever you want with those tickets. You are the seller, therefore you make the rules!

If she wants to get all upset about it then that is just too bad. It's your right to ask whatever you want for those tickets.

And I know all about ebay. If ebayers are bidding on the tickets and paying more for them, then more power to you.

You can kindly tell her that your sister made a mistake because she wasn't aware of the true value of the tickets. And that you took the initiative to see to it that the tickets incurred their true worth. You can take full responsibility for the action, and say that it wasn't your sister's decision, but your reccommendation. That way, you protect your sister from this woman's bitter attitude. You can also tell her that the money is being raised for charity, and it is better to get more than it is to get less.

And if she still expresses her anger you can say, "What's more important here, cheap entertainment or the charity?"

Besides, if you take them off ebay now you will get others who placed their bids on them angry, and you could face problems with ebay.

Look, they are your tickets. You can sell them for whatever you want. Don't let someone bully you into selling them for less than what they are worth.

You know, if she was more polite about it perhaps you could have worked something out with her, but since she was nasty and got angry with you, she doesn't deserve such treatment.

Maybe I sound harsh, but I've dealt with this kind of people many times. In business you need to be nice, but you also need to be firm, otherwise your customers will take advantage of you. And they won't feel the least bit of guilt for doing so.

 

[LiberatedChick]

If she's already paid money for the four tickets she wanted (which from the sounds of things she hasn't) then refund her.

It sounds like she hasn't paid any money though...in which case it's not up to her where you sell them and to who. It's your choice. Plus since the money is for charity you're right in saying you should be aiming to make as much as possible. It's not like this money is just going to be lining your back pocket...I don't think she has a right to be angry that the price has gone up.

 

[fishstix]

Do the tickets have a value printed on them? Are you reselling them? In many places, it is illegal to scalp tickets for more than what they originally cost. I think that ebay may actually have a regulation against that itself. Technically, if this woman (or someone else) reported you to ebay, you could get all your auctions and your account shut down.

Personally, I would end 4 of the ticket auctions that don't have bids on them early and sell the tickets to the woman for the price that your sister quoted to her. Otherwise, regardless of who is right, you're giving the woman (and whatever friends she complains to) a really bad impression of whatever charity it is that you represent. And in the future, I would have *everybody* selling the tickets or whatever fundraising item is chosen for the same price as everybody else.

 

[PaladinValer]

It wasn't right to charge differently in the first place. You both should have agreed before you even got the tickets how to sell them and at what price.

However, since you split the tickets, you should have kept them split, and she should have sold all of her's at whatever price she deemed to be fair.

 

[bliz]

Your sister offered the tickets for 4 dollars - a price that I assume is acceptable to the charity. She still has tickets to sell. She should sell them at the price offered.

 

[Stacey]

If you didn't know that she wanted them before you put them on e-bay, you weren't doing wrong. And I guess whoever bids on them deserves them just as much as she does. If the main point was to raise money for charity, then selling a lot of them for only $4 doesn't make much sense. So I don't think you've done anything wrong... you told her about e-bay and made it an option for her to bid like everyone else. I do however think it could have been more organized in that you should have come up with a common price... or you should have put any you haden't sold on e-bay afterwards.

God bless,
-Stace

 

[Puzzled12]

First of all thank you so much to all who have offered me their points of view on my situation. What a wonderful opportunity to see unbiased opinions to help a person. Unfortunately, in trying to keep my original question as brief as possible, I left out some important details. The reason why the whole situation was so unorganized is because my sister was given the tickets on the day of one of the shows, (those are the ones she sold so cheap) and the other shows were within the next week. The tickets were donated to the charity they had a face value of $60. I made sure that I complied with the rules of e-bay and the state we live in as far as selling them. The charity did not give any instructions about how much to sell the tickets for. She did not say a specific price to her co-workers just that she was selling them for the charity. She actually thought people would give more than the face value because she had seen at charity events that people paid more for an item than it was actually worth. Some of her co-workers were very generous but others only paid a few dollars a ticket. My opinion was that we were given the tickets to make money for the charity, not for her co-workers to go to the show cheaply. I so much appreciate this thread because I thought for sure I was so right, and I see that maybe I was not so right in how I felt. I also see that there is no right or wrong answer because others in the thread agreed with me. Again thank you for your help on my problem. It is very kind of you all.

 

[woobadooba]

First of all thank you so much to all who have offered me their points of view on my situation. What a wonderful opportunity to see unbiased opinions to help a person. Unfortunately, in trying to keep my original question as brief as possible, I left out some important details. The reason why the whole situation was so unorganized is because my sister was given the tickets on the day of one of the shows, (those are the ones she sold so cheap) and the other shows were within the next week. The tickets were donated to the charity they had a face value of $60. I made sure that I complied with the rules of e-bay and the state we live in as far as selling them. The charity did not give any instructions about how much to sell the tickets for. She did not say a specific price to her co-workers just that she was selling them for the charity. She actually thought people would give more than the face value because she had seen at charity events that people paid more for an item than it was actually worth. Some of her co-workers were very generous but others only paid a few dollars a ticket. My opinion was that we were given the tickets to make money for the charity, not for her co-workers to go to the show cheaply. I so much appreciate this thread because I thought for sure I was so right, and I see that maybe I was not so right in how I felt. I also see that there is no right or wrong answer because others in the thread agreed with me. Again thank you for your help on my problem. It is very kind of you all.

I am glad you feel better now. I will say this however, if you are the seller, you have the right to dictate the price. If someone doesn't like that, well, that is just too bad. As a seller, you can change your prices whenever you wish. There is no law that states you can't do this unless you have a contractual agreement with someone.

I often give people special discounts on stuff I sell simply because they are repeat customers, and have been kind to me. But will I give someone a discount simply because they make some demand that I am being unfair for raising my price? Absolutely not! That isn't the way business works. And for someone to think that I should give a discount after being so rude to me, especially in terms of a charitable item, that tells me one thing, that that person isn't thinking about the charity, but about herself! Thus the purpose for which the tickets are being sold is defeated. And to allow her to have her way only feeds her self-centeredness. And that is why I wouldn't give her the discount.

But you will do what is best I'm sure. But whatever that is, don't let anyone put a guilt trip on you! They are your tickets to sell, and you have the right to sell them for the price that you want to sell them for. If someone doesn't like that, well that is just too bad.