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mrmopar
Member
- Jan 19, 2010
- 6,757
- 5,616
Work day winding down from home and I am a little bored, so thought I would rant a little.
I know that it is a common subject, talking about all the scamming that happens to sellers. To make matters worse, although it is almost meaningless anyways, there is no satisfaction of the feedback system for a good seller wronged by a crappy buyer. Ebay is definitely set up to favor the buyer and most sellers just have to protect themselves the best they can. It can make good sellers a little harder to work with though and I assume that the good buyers far outweigh the bad. Buyers can be on the same end of that transaction though.
I would consider myself fairly lucky, in that I have not had any significantly bad transactions as a buyer. I am talking about getting high dollar forgeries or similar where you are out big bucks. I have had a couple deals where I lost out on a small amount of money. One such case involved someone who sent me an item poorly packaged. I complained and asked for a refund. This was pre-PP days and I was told to return the item and I would get a refund. I was sent a personal check for my refund, which subsequently bounced. I was out my original purchase price, the cost of mailing the damaged item back AND a small service fee from my bank for the bounced check. If ever I would have had revenge on someone for something so petty, it would have been that POS! I was sooo pissed. In the end though, it was all still under around $30, but it is the principle.
However, I seem to have a decent amount of transaction history where items don't show up. A few select times, I get the "it was lost" or "can't find it" excuse, sometimes I am told the item was mailed to someone else by mistake (they never seem to have honest buyers willing to return the item), but often I get no reply at all. It almost always results in a refund and that is great, but the problem is, I rarely get any sort of satisfactory explanation, not that I believe most of them anyways. It also always seems to be a situation where I got a pretty good deal. A few weeks back, I bought and paid for a flat Hostess box (Yount Rookie) that never showed and I had to force a refund through a PP Case. This person never responded to any of it. They were a zero feedback seller, who is now (-1).
My most recent issue was with a large seller of sports card singles that many people are familiar with. First off, they do combine shipping at a cost per additional item, but there is no cap. if you win a dozen or two singles (from the 1000s they list), your shipping can top $15-20 easily. After waiting for my most recent order, I discovered that the key card, the one that drew me in to bid (the rest were literally window shopping after the first) was missing. Now this does happen from time to time with good sellers, but this seller has been notorious for it, at least when I have bought from them before. I kid you not, I bet 1/2 of my past orders had something missing from it! They have usually sent the missing item (mt prior order just a month ago was missing a card), but a few times I just got a refund and some excuse as to why the card was not available.
I let them know (and this time I held no punches on how I felt, referencing their poor packaging job and that this has happened to me numerous times) and the person responding says they'll make it right. I wait another 3-4 days and message today, asking to confirm the item was sent. A short time later, my case was closed with a full refund. Perfect you say, you got your money back. No harm, no foul. However, consider this. Just about every card you buy can be had from other sellers. If you buy a somewhat limited card, in this case fewer than 100 copies exist, you give up opportunity with other sellers once you secure your copy. A few weeks later, if the deal goes sour as mine did, you may not have a similar opportunity to replace the card.
They also previously screwed me last year on a signed card numbered to 5 copies that they claim was mailed to the wrong buyer, who in turn would not return it. I got a refund then too, but that is not what I wanted. I have had enough with this seller, so after my refund this time, they got an honest and descriptive negative for the mishandling of my order, the first I have ever left them. I doubt they will care much, they have several 100 in the last 12 months, but it felt good and was certainly deserved. To quote myself in my complaint to them, how does one fill an order of less than 20 cards and miss one of the items just about every time?
Turns out, I ended up finding the card cheaper anyway, so perhaps this was a blessing in disguise. A lot of people have spoken poorly about this seller and I have always been willing to admit that I buy from them and aside from the occasional bump, have had no issues. This is true no more. I am done with them moving forward.
I know that it is a common subject, talking about all the scamming that happens to sellers. To make matters worse, although it is almost meaningless anyways, there is no satisfaction of the feedback system for a good seller wronged by a crappy buyer. Ebay is definitely set up to favor the buyer and most sellers just have to protect themselves the best they can. It can make good sellers a little harder to work with though and I assume that the good buyers far outweigh the bad. Buyers can be on the same end of that transaction though.
I would consider myself fairly lucky, in that I have not had any significantly bad transactions as a buyer. I am talking about getting high dollar forgeries or similar where you are out big bucks. I have had a couple deals where I lost out on a small amount of money. One such case involved someone who sent me an item poorly packaged. I complained and asked for a refund. This was pre-PP days and I was told to return the item and I would get a refund. I was sent a personal check for my refund, which subsequently bounced. I was out my original purchase price, the cost of mailing the damaged item back AND a small service fee from my bank for the bounced check. If ever I would have had revenge on someone for something so petty, it would have been that POS! I was sooo pissed. In the end though, it was all still under around $30, but it is the principle.
However, I seem to have a decent amount of transaction history where items don't show up. A few select times, I get the "it was lost" or "can't find it" excuse, sometimes I am told the item was mailed to someone else by mistake (they never seem to have honest buyers willing to return the item), but often I get no reply at all. It almost always results in a refund and that is great, but the problem is, I rarely get any sort of satisfactory explanation, not that I believe most of them anyways. It also always seems to be a situation where I got a pretty good deal. A few weeks back, I bought and paid for a flat Hostess box (Yount Rookie) that never showed and I had to force a refund through a PP Case. This person never responded to any of it. They were a zero feedback seller, who is now (-1).
My most recent issue was with a large seller of sports card singles that many people are familiar with. First off, they do combine shipping at a cost per additional item, but there is no cap. if you win a dozen or two singles (from the 1000s they list), your shipping can top $15-20 easily. After waiting for my most recent order, I discovered that the key card, the one that drew me in to bid (the rest were literally window shopping after the first) was missing. Now this does happen from time to time with good sellers, but this seller has been notorious for it, at least when I have bought from them before. I kid you not, I bet 1/2 of my past orders had something missing from it! They have usually sent the missing item (mt prior order just a month ago was missing a card), but a few times I just got a refund and some excuse as to why the card was not available.
I let them know (and this time I held no punches on how I felt, referencing their poor packaging job and that this has happened to me numerous times) and the person responding says they'll make it right. I wait another 3-4 days and message today, asking to confirm the item was sent. A short time later, my case was closed with a full refund. Perfect you say, you got your money back. No harm, no foul. However, consider this. Just about every card you buy can be had from other sellers. If you buy a somewhat limited card, in this case fewer than 100 copies exist, you give up opportunity with other sellers once you secure your copy. A few weeks later, if the deal goes sour as mine did, you may not have a similar opportunity to replace the card.
They also previously screwed me last year on a signed card numbered to 5 copies that they claim was mailed to the wrong buyer, who in turn would not return it. I got a refund then too, but that is not what I wanted. I have had enough with this seller, so after my refund this time, they got an honest and descriptive negative for the mishandling of my order, the first I have ever left them. I doubt they will care much, they have several 100 in the last 12 months, but it felt good and was certainly deserved. To quote myself in my complaint to them, how does one fill an order of less than 20 cards and miss one of the items just about every time?
Turns out, I ended up finding the card cheaper anyway, so perhaps this was a blessing in disguise. A lot of people have spoken poorly about this seller and I have always been willing to admit that I buy from them and aside from the occasional bump, have had no issues. This is true no more. I am done with them moving forward.
