Am I wrong? (need advice, too)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Background: My father, Bubba, is a beanie baby fanatic. He pretends he is buying them for my mother, but we all know better. Even though Bubba is a Data Base Administrator and more than competent on the computer, he does not feel able to do business on Ebay or Metaexchange, which is where I come in.

Last week, he had me buy a Sakura bear for almost $80 on the metaexchange. Since it was so expensive, I wrote the seller and stated I wanted insurance & to please send me the total amount due incl. ins. & postage. Which he did and I promptly paid via Paypal.

So far so good until I get the package and it’s completely empty! It looked like it had been opened and shut again, so I wasn’t thinking fraud, more like mail theft.

I write the seller, explain the situation and ask him if he’ll be giving me a cash refund or a replacement bear. Two days later I get a cryptic response that none of us can interpret. I write back, and restate what I want done in terms a 2nd grader could understand. Two days later he writes back and says that he’s sorry it has taken him so long to get back to me, he is busy with a divorce. He goes on to say that he will mail me the insurance receipt, so that I can make a claim.

Okay, fine, but he goes on to say the problem is he only insured it for $50. No mention of how he is going to refund me the extra $30 or anything.

Now, am I so wrong in thinking that when I asked for postal insurance it goes without saying that I wanted it insured for the whole amount? And since he didn’t bother to insure it, he should be liable for the extra $30? Or am I wrong for not being more specific?

And how long should I give him to rectify the situation before I ask Metaexchange to intervene? I wrote them in general terms about the incident and they wrote back that they would be happy to help me resolve the situation if I couldn’t do it myself. I’m thinking I should give him until Monday, is that fair?

BTW, I need to commend customer service at metaexchange, I got not one, but two replys to my question the same day I e-mailed them. It’s always great to get good customer service.

2

You’ve discovered one of the reasons I don’t like doing busines on line.

I fear you’re gonna have to write this 'un off, but get meta exchnge involved as soon as possible. They’ll want to know what happened. You get them involved early enough they may take some “ownership” of the problem and shoot ya a check or voucher for $30.

Hope yer feeling better.

Peace, out.

3

So, I should go ahead and give them the details and transaction # today? This really sucks, I’ve never had a problem like this before.

The good news is that losing $30 won’t hurt my Dad in the way it would hurt me.

And I’m feeling just about as fine as a girl who has a father named Bubba who collects Beanie Babies can feel. Oh well, it’s better than when he was in his dollhouse phase…

4

I’ve got a “my-dad-has-questionable-affectations” Barbie you can have for 80 bucks!

5

Wow, that’s a really thin reason for not doing business online. I’ve been purchasing online now for 2 years or more. In all that time, I think I might have lost about $20 in product total. I figure my monthly online purchases eclipse $1000 a month. I’ve purchased anything from Speakers to $800 receivers, home theater equipment, drugs(OTC, mind you), books, CD’s, DVDs, Computer equipment, Etc.

I think in all that time I’ve had 2 deals, maybe 3 go bad, and I usually got my money back anyways.

Now, there was a rant in the pit posted by DoctorJ a few days ago. Please read my recommendation on how to rectify the situation, it’s worked every time. If you need more help than that, please contact me via E-mail and I’ll see what I can do.

-Sam

6

My thoughts: Should the seller have gotten 80 worth of insurance? Probably. But the cheapo rate (which is what, .85) ends at $50. It’s possible that it seemed “close enough” and he didn’t feel like buying the extra bit. I have found that some sellers are notoriously cheap–They won’t pay a fricking dime towards the shipping costs or insurance, despite how much $$ they’re clearing on the sale. They refuse to shoulder any “cost of doing business” other than the listing fees. This was an $80 sale for an item that presumably cost him $6 when it first came out. The cheapskate can afford a few extra cents to insure it fully.

There are all kinds of things this guy could do or maybe should do: Apologize; Refund the $30 in addition to the $50 insurance claim; or find you another beanie baby of this type and buy it himself (whatever the cost) to replace this one. That’s what I would do. WILL he do any of these things? Probably not.

From an annoyance/moral outrage standpoint you could pursue it to the last letter. But I don’t think it would be worth it, and you probably wouldn’t get a full remedy. Yet I wouldn’t let it sour you on online deals. I was glad to see GaWd’s response on that issue. I’ve bought and sold a lot on ebay. I had one deal go awry, and a few times where I think sellers embellished their item’s description, but overall it’s been worthwhile.

Sorry this happened!