eBay Horror Story #1 – Is it Beef Jerky or a Fossil?

Today’s guest post is provided by Lindsay, who writes the blog Writing for Your Wealth.

Hi Suzanne,

I saw your request for eBay horror stories, so here’s one of mine from a couple years ago. Generally I have good experiences with eBay, but the one time I ordered a food item… well, here ya go:

Beef Jerky, At Least It Started It’s Life That Way…

By the time it arrived, I’d forgotten I ordered it. Media mail – who sends beef jerky media mail? In particular, who sends beef jerky media mail after charging $17 for shipping?

Still, at least it had come. My family loves beef jerky, so I was looking forward to tearing into this 5-pound bulk bag of the chewy good stuff. Usually, you pay $15 for just a pound, and we’d gotten 5 pounds from a name brand for $30. The seller had a good feedback rating, and even after adding on shipping, it was a good deal, or so we thought…

Inside the plastic bag was something that vaguely reminded me of bacon bits. Sure, the product description had said “end pieces,” and I hadn’t expected great lengths of fillet mignon, but these were the ends of the ends of the ends. They looked like they had gone through a mulcher on a sugar high.

But okay, maybe I just hadn’t read the description closely enough. My fault–not the seller’s. And, hey, they could still be used on salads or something, right?

Wrong.

These beef jerky… bitlets were stale. Very staaaaaaale. I didn’t think it was possible for food that had been dehydrated to taste so stale. I mean, isn’t jerky the kind of fare you put in your natural disaster emergency kit along with salt-drenched canned goods that stay edible for decades?

Please, folks, if you’re going to sell a food item, especially if it’s from an outlet store where it might have been sent there because it was past its desirability date (or size), then break open a sample and try it yourself first. Don’t risk your feedback rating on sending out a bad product.

(And fellow eBay buyers, don’t order beef jerky from someone who primarily ships books!)

Thanks for reading, and happy selling!

Thanks, Lindsay! I couldn’t agree more – if you are selling anything perishable, please check the expiration date before listing it.

[Image Source: Flickr]