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Will Pennsylvania school officials forgive eBay error?
By Lauren | March 5, 2009
East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania school officials decided to sell used classroom trailers, purchased for about $49,000 apiece, in an effort to recoup funds for the school district. They offered one of the trailers for auction on eBay, hoping to sell the trailer for up to $10,000. Unfortunately, whoever posted the trailer neglected to set a minimum bid, and the sole bidder got the trailer for a grand total of one dollar. Under eBay rules the sale is final, so the school district lost a potentially hefty chunk of change on the deal.
Ouch.
Still, I hope that the person who failed to set the minimum bid is given an opportunity to apologize and be forgiven. This wasn’t an inexpensive mistake, but it was probably an honest one, and certainly an easy mistake to make for anyone who doesn’t know how eBay works. If the person who posted the trailer loses his or her job over this incident that’ll be a pretty harsh punishment, especially in these recessionary times.
Kids in East Stroudsburg will be watching to see how their elders handle the situation. If school officials demonstrate that even an expensive error can be managed without unfairly penalizing the person who made it, they’ll teach their students a valuable life lesson. In the long run, that might be worth far more than $10,000.
Topics: Apologies, Business Ethics, Social Ethics, ethics |